Re: Dan Burton on flu vaccine (and autism)

I had always thought Dan Burton was a moron. This ignorant 
anti-vaccination piffle of his is only more evidence of it, particularly 
when added to his reenacting the Vince Foster "murder" with a pumpkin, 
his aggressive moralizing and strident defense of "family values" 
despite his history of marital infidelity and fathering a child out of 
wedlock. Yeah, Burton's just the guy to go to for his "informed" view of 
the benefits and risks of vaccination.

  

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (john) wrote:

> What Dan Burton said to the House Members:
>  
> http://www.house.gov/burton/autism.htm
> 
> Mr. Burton: Madam speaker, as we approach the flu season, many of my
> colleagues will visit the doctor's office here on Capitol Hill and receive
> a flu shot. Before they go, I think all of my colleagues ought to know that
> the flu shot contains mercury, which is a substance that's toxic to the
> human brain. Now, that's not to say that you shouldn't get your flu shot if
> you want to, but there are a lot of neurological disorders that have been
> caused by mercury and I think everybody ought to know that there is mercury
> in that vaccine. Now, that's not the only vaccine that contains thimerosal.
> >From anthrax to hepatitis to dtap, which is given to infants to protect
> them, numerous vaccines exist that contain mercury, a harmful preservative.
> Parents around this country I am sure would be very upset if they knew
> that. Scientific evidence continues to accumulate regarding the
> biologically plausible connection between mercury and thimerosal, autism
> and other neurological, developmental disorders.
> 
>  Yet several well-known and firmly established pharmaceutical companies
> continue to put mercury into vaccines as a preservative, and it's never
> been tested. That's very interesting. Although the U.S. Food and Drug
> Administration asked vaccine manufacturers to begin removing the
> mercury-laden preservative from vaccines in 1999, they didn't order them to
> do it, and so the pharmaceutical companies continue to put that in our
> vaccines. 
> 
> During my tenure as chairman of the house government reform committee, a
> myriad of scientists testified at a series of hearings before the Committee
> that mercury in vaccines is a contributing factor to developing
> neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and autism in
> children. 15 years ago, one out of every 10,000 children were autistic. Now
> it's one out of 150 and many scientists believe that's because of the
> mercury in vaccines. In May of this year, the California department of
> developmental services released a report entitled "autistic  spectrum
> disorders, changes in California and the caseload," 1999 to 2002. The
> findings are very alarming. California's autistic population has nearly
> doubled in four years, from 10,360 cases in 1968 to over 20,000 cases in
> 2002. This growth rate represents a 97% increase in just four years and
> nearly 100% increase in California's caseload since 1999. And they're not
> alone. The rate of growth in the population of persons with autism across
> this country is really horrible. It's very bad in states such as Georgia,
> Minnesota, and Massachusetts. We have an absolute epidemic on our hands,
> and if this trend is allowed to continue at a constant rate, we could have
> as many as four million autistic children in America in the next 10 years. 
> 
> Despite a growing body of science linking autism to mercury and thimerosal,
> the protests of hundreds of thousands of concerned parents across the
> country, the pharmaceutical industry continues to put mercury into vaccines
> for both children and adults even  though they know mercury is toxic to the
> human brain. Pharmaceutical caps are concerned they may be held liable for
> brain damage caused by the mercury-based preservative which is still found
> in childhood vaccines, diphtheria, hepatitis b, and the flu shots. Because
> of these liability concerns, language was inserted at the last minute in
> the homeland security bill to protect the pharmaceutical industry from
> class-action lawsuits. However, because we caught it, we were able to get
> it out of there because a lot of members of the House and Senate thought it
> was terrible what they did. But numerous scientists have testified that
> there is a simple way to prevent this and that's to go to single shot
> vials, those little glass containers. You wouldn't have to put thimerosal
> or any preservative in you -- preservative in if you did that. This could
> have a positive impact in helping to minimize and perhaps eliminate some of
> the cases of Alzheimer's and autism and other neurological disorders
> linked to mercury. This is something that the pharmaceutical companies must
> address and our food and drug administration and our health agencies are
> asleep at the switch, and they're letting children and adults be damaged
> day after day after day by allowing mercury to continue to be put into
> vaccines for adults and children. We have a growing number of people who
> are becoming Alzheimer's patients, a dramatically growing number. We have
> one in 10,000 children 10 years ago that were autistic. Now it's one in 150
> and scientists before my committee say it's because in large part of the
> mercury in the vaccines. We have to get the FDA on the stick. They have to
> demand that pharmaceutical products have mercury taken out of them very,
> very quickly. If not we will continue to have an epidemic on our hands that
> America doesn't need and shouldn't tolerate.

-- 
Orac        |"A statement of fact cannot be insolent."
            |
            |"If you cannot listen to the answers, why do you
            | inconvenience me with questions?"