NIH Agency Head: Vaccine-Autism Research is "Legitimate"

A major health official within the United States Government today endorsed more research into possible links between vaccination and autism, saying that such studies are "legitimate."

The official, Dr. Duane Alexander, Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), an NIH agency, said scientists must investigate susceptible subpopulations of children, including kids with mitochondrial disorders and those who have trouble metabolizing mercury.

Even as the mainstream media, most pediatricians, and vaccine inventors like Dr. Paul Offit try to shut down the vaccine-autism discussion (and its attendant research), thoughtful scientists who are actually in real positions of power are speaking up to support the important work that still remains to be done.

"One question (is) whether there is a subgroup in the population that, on a genetic basis, is more susceptible to some vaccine characteristic or component than most of the population, and may develop an ASD in response to something about vaccination. We know that genetic variations exist that cause adverse reactions to specific foods, medications, or anesthetic agents. It is legitimate to ask whether a similar situation may exist for vaccines," Dr. Alexander said in a remarkable Q&A with Autism Speaks Scientific Director, Geraldine Dawson, PhD, posted today at the group's website.

"No clear evidence yet exists to implicate a specific relationship, but questions persist about whether there may be subpopulations unable to remove mercury from the body as fast as others, some adverse or cross-reacting response to a vaccine component, a mitochondrial disorder increasing the adverse response to vaccine-associated fever, or other as-yet-unknown responses," he added.

The point about mitochondrial disorders and vaccine-associated fever was a clear reference to Hannah Poling, the little girl with full-blown autism who won her Vaccine Court case last year when HHS conceded that a "vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation that exceeded metabolic reserves" had triggered her descent into autism.

At a January meeting of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), a staff representative from NICHD was the only federal panel member to abstain from removing previously approved vaccine-related studies from the Strategic Plan for Autism Research.

As it turns out, research into environmental triggers of developmental disorders like autism "is a major component of our research program," Dr. Alexander said of the NICHD. This includes studying "gene-environment factor interactions," he added.

And, he suggested that epidemiological studies conducted to date (and showing no link to vaccines) may have missed small, vulnerable subgroups of children. "These are difficult to detect," he said, "especially if only a few people have this genetic variant that makes them susceptible. [Instead], large numbers of individuals need to be studied to find enough people with the rare variant."

Fortunately, the Federal government has embarked on the massive National Children's Study (NCS), which is currently recruiting some 100,000 children. Alexander said that researchers expect to find that 600 to 700 of these kids will be diagnosed with ASD by age three.

"We will be able to study the genetic constitution of the children with autism in relation to many environmental exposures (illness, home chemicals, medications, vaccines, and many others)," he said, "and compare them to a control group in the sample without ASD on this whole range of exposures. If there are genetic variations linked to autism related to any of these exposures, this study should identify them if they are not too rare."

Dr. Alexander's words are sure to be warmly received within many quarters of the autism community. He said that vaccine and environmental studies into autism may help science break down subgroups of ASD children into categories that are, "based on cause or response to different treatment approaches." Diagnosis, therefore, could become a wonderful tool in determining "different prevention/intervention/ treatment approaches that could personalize care and markedly improve outcomes."

Dr. Alexander also seems quite determined that conflicts of interest and barriers to full transparency in the research process should not be tolerated, (as they are today, in my opinion), but instead be eliminated. He said that parents, (and pesky, inquisitive journalists) play a critical role as autism research watchdogs.

"The research process at its best is open and constantly questioning. It even reevaluates things that have been accepted for a long time, and is honest enough to be self-correcting when new information develops," Dr. Alexander said. "What is important is that the scientific inquiry moves ahead unfettered but free of conflict of interest so that the public can have confidence in the results. When there is evidence that research may not be free of bias, it is the role of the research community and the public to raise questions and concerns, assure that corrective measures are taken to be sure that results are valid and untainted, and provide assurance to the public that their trust is earned and deserved."

"It is important that there be agreement on the message that no clear causative link has yet been established (between vaccines and autism), although research continues on the question, just as it does for other questions related to vaccines," Dr. Alexander concluded. "There are still legitimate questions to ask about possible vaccine-associated events, and such questions need to be pursued in the interest of both public safety and maintaining public trust."

It all sounds reasonable to me.

But I still predict we will hear howls of protests from people who think they know better than the chief of an NIH agency.

Comments

[kuastar]

Forget autism for a minute--there's been an 'accidental' distribution of live bird flu mixed within a vaccine for the same infection to 18 countries and apparently this is so far blacked out in US media. There is nothing in either LA Times or NY Times about Baxter. The story: http://www.naturalnews.com/025760.html

And at http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2220
"Baxter [Baxter International Inc., a pharmaceutical company] mixed a virus which has a hard time infecting people (H5N1 Avian Flu) with one that infects them easily (”Seasonal Flu”) in a medium which can promote mutations of the H5N1 virus into a type which can infect us easily. "

there are 2 international articles at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Still-Think-They-re-Not-Tr-by-Mr-M-090305-202.html

and
http://www.smartbrief.com/news/aabb/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=DD9CEA62-02A4-4C75-9DEE-32CF39188BB3&copyid=24D56EE1-ED34-479D-9A06-E23E30DAD898

one alternative site:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-alex-jones-show-l-i-v-e-march-5-the-baxter-bird-flu-scandal.html

An old 1993 Baxter case:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1DE173FF935A15750C0A965958260&fta=y&scp=5&sq=baxter&st=cse

[thing12mom]

"Fortunately, the Federal government has embarked on the massive National Children's Study (NCS), which is currently recruiting some 100,000 children. Alexander said that researchers expect to find that 600 to 700 of these kids will be diagnosed with ASD by age three."

Won't they be shocked when they find at least 1,500 children in the study have autism? That would equal 1 in 67 which is beginning to look like the actual rate.

[Oblique]

What about studies of vaccines themselves. Compare different lot numbers. I remember a pharmaceutical company that made a vaccine that was killing children and they found out that it was due to a certain manufacturing lot number. Ever since that time the pharmaceutical companies send out different lot numbers to the same client instead of sending one manufacturing lot number. No hot spots = no problem for the pharmaceutical companies.

Multidose vaccine bottles lend themselves to more problems than single dose vaccine bottles. How long can the bottles be left in a refrigerator? Does the nurse or doctor shake the bottle prior to injection? Does the last person injected from the bottle get a higher dose of mercury? Even if the mercury is soluble in the vaccine mixture that does not mean that there is no layering of the contents.

If it is the vaccines it is harder to hit a moving target.

[Gatogorra]

Thank you for this report.

I'm afraid that some of the loudest screams of protest to investigating susceptibility to vaccine-induced autism will come from within Dr. Alexander's own agency, whose directors, researchers and other employees have long enjoyed what Bruce Cohen called the "revolving door" of employment between government agencies and lucrative pharma careers. In other words, if you work for a government health regulatory agency and you advance pharmaceutical interests from this post, there's a nice paycheck waiting for you in the private sector. It's nothing new that some initially take government positions as an audition for industry careers. When these people revolve the door again and go back to work in government health posts, they do so as moles, coming out to get even more powerful positions with industry.

One of the answers may be to jam a wedge in that door. Dr. Alexander must be extraordinary to speak up under the current circumstances in any case.

[recoveringchloe]

I am so happy to see this, especially after they pulled the funding for the chelation studies. At least there are some people in positions of power who will try to do the right thing by our kids.

[tonylurker]

Heaven forbid someone pull funding for an unethical research protocol! How dare they protect kids like that!

[ObjectiveAutismDad]

Is it unethical to treat children with lead poisoning with chelation? No, of course not. Then why is it unethical to treat children with mercury and aluminum poisoning with chelation???

My own son is being treated with chelation. It has improved his disposition significantly.

[maggiemom]

Look- I was told to never look up any info to help my son biologicly because none of it was "scientificly" tested- Then no scientific body will test the stuff hundreds and thousands say work for their kids! WE AS PARENTS ARE TOLD TO GIVE UP!
I have never done chelation but I have foundmany other untested treatments that are working. I was willing to try any thing without unreasonable risk. I would love for science to help me but they don't want to bother.

[Elier]

This is the triumph of science, real science, which is the objective pursuit of knowledge to better understand nature. The Vaccine Court verdicts meant to exonerate vaccines two weeks ago were rough generalizations based on the opinion of a judge with limited scientific knowledge and no interest in getting at the root of the issue at hand. Even as such, they were widely publized as "a triumph of science" by those having the largest interest in keeping the status quo (vaccine manufacturers and everyone that stands to lose if they are found to be negligent in the practising of their profession: CDC, AAP, etc). I would love to see the interview to Dr. Duane Alexander noted or published in the NY Times "All the news that fit the views of our corporate sponsors". I guess it doesn't fit their profile.

[recoveringwade]

LOL. No, I would assume that wouldn't be "newsworthy enough" and wouldn't fly with Newsweek either...

[bluevalentine]

Thanks as usual, David, for your continued effort for our children. You give me the ability to see the truth might actually prevail.

[all4ben]

Thank you for your courageous statements Dr Alexander. I look forward to seeing how you implement this concern into your agencies research agenda.

John Ruch

[ObjectiveAutismDad]

Wow! This is good news indeed! Add Dr. Alexander to list of heroes -- those people just doing the right thing despite popular opposition.

[rolandcassard]

If this is about small "subpopulations," where does this fit into the autism "epidemic"?

[ObjectiveAutismDad]

A very good question... I think this is one of the things that further research will help uncover. Also, as David Kirby and others have said repeatedly, there are very likely many different causes of autism. The fact that Hannah Poling and Bailey Banks' cases are as different as they are is a clue to this. Also, we, those of us who have spent many years on this, have discovered that these kids are very different in many regards; some therapies work really well for some kids and have no, or very negative affects, on others; another therapy works well for a different subset of the children. Of course some would claim that we're just moving the goalposts :(

[Olerist]

"But I still predict we will hear howls of protests from people who think they know better than the chief of an NIH agency. "

The best that pharma money can buy.

[tiredmom]

"The history of vaccine use holds numerous examples of risk reductions made when research demonstrated vaccine-associated adverse events, even if they were uncommon or only hypothetical. These include stopping smallpox vaccination not long after the disease was eliminated, switching from live polio vaccine to the killed vaccine, shifting to purified antigen rather than whole organism pertussis vaccine, and many others, including removal of Thimerosal as a preservative from children's vaccines. All these changes came from continued research and the desire to maximize public safety even when the adverse events were rare (polio) or hypothetical (Thimerosal). There are still legitimate questions to ask about possible vaccine-associated events, and such questions need to be pursued in the interest of both public safety and maintaining public trust."

It is incredibly sad to realize that this avenue of research is already screwed if any health official sincerely believes or continues to state that Thimerosal has been removed from childhood vaccines. Because of the recommedations regarding the flu vaccine, children today can actually get more mercury in their vaccines than the children in the early 1990's did.

[lmarkssmith]

Please remember that all tetanus shots for anyone over 7 still have 25 micrograms of thimerosal as well as the meningitis vaccine and some hep b. it is not gone just moved around

[CamJam]

Thank you. I only recently found out about this bit and of course in our case, too late :

"Another source of mercury is thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative) in some vaccines. Many states (e.g., Iowa, Illinois, California, Delaware, New York, and Missouri) have banned the use of thimerosal in vaccines; HOWEVER, legislation signed into law by the Bush administration in 2005 allowed federal preemption of the use of thimerosal, such that thimerosal could be used in vaccines even if it is banned in the state. In addition, in 2007, Bush vetoed a bill that banned the use of childhood flu vaccines that contain thimerosal."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-kern/autism-and-this-election_b_111037.html

[autismnostrum]

Seven year olds are suddenly catching regressive autism now, are they?