NAA Statement at Vaccine Safety Meeting

My name is Nadia Karimi.  I am here on behalf of my 12-year old brother Kyle, who has autism, and my mother, who is Treasurer of the National Autism Association.  As my mother was not able to attend, I am giving this statement for the National Autism Association.

In 1986, the National Vaccine Compensation Program was created and took effect for children born after October 1988.  Free from potential lawsuits, pharmaceutical companies made numerous vaccines and had access to decision-making bodies, such as the ACIP, to guarantee these vaccines were given to every child in America.

Consequently, the number of vaccines has grown at an alarming rate, along with the rates of childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, ADD, ADHD, Bi-Polar Disorder, autism, and others.  As a nation, we have substituted acute illness with chronic disease and have produced the sickest generation of children ever in America.

While the childhood vaccination program grew from 10 vaccines by age 5 in 1986 to 37 in 2008, the safety of giving multiple vaccines at the same time was never studied.  With the exception of a few flawed epidemiological studies conducted to soothe parental fears and deflect questions about Thimerosal, not one study has been done on any of the myriad toxic ingredients found in vaccines.  It appears the accelerated schedule of the 1990s became the great American immune system experiment, with our nation's children used as guinea pigs. 

A CDC study published in JAMA in September 2007 attempted to reassure parents that Thimerosal didn’t cause neurological problems.  Finding statistically significant relationships to 7 of the 42 listed deficits meant that no one should worry about Thimerosal.  If reporters had read more than the CDC press releases and Study abstract they would have found that Thimerosal was indeed linked to phonic and motor tics, and deficits in attention, behavioral control and verbal IQ, all of which are consistent with autism.  In other words, the public is being asked to believe that Thimerosal causes the symptoms of autism but not autism itself.

Today, thousands of parents are convinced that their normally developing children regressed into autism after receiving vaccinations. Unaware of the Vaccine Injury Program until the three-year window had passed, their injured children were left with no redress. Born into the world with full expectations for great health, their futures were shattered by illness, yet justice was denied to them. The Vaccine Injury Compensation law, written to protect the pharmaceutical industry, provided drug companies with unprecedented and complete immunity. These families, often ridiculed by the media, have spent their life-savings trying to treat their children.

 In February 2008, HHS conceded that vaccines did cause a normally developing toddler, Hanna Poling, to regress into autism.  The doctors at Johns Hopkins say she isn’t alone, finding that a large percentage of regressive autism cases follow the exact same medical testing and developmental patterns as Hanna.  In fact, Kelley, Zimmerman, et al, said that the majority of children of the regressive autism phenotype they have tested also have mitochondrial dysfunction.

 And, the defect was found to be in the non-inherited nuclear DNA.  With so many red flags appearing, this is our wake-up call.

As everyone on this committee knows, mitochondrial disorders are caused by stressors such as toxins and viruses.  For years, parents have told the ACIP, CDC and FDA that a large number of children regressed after receiving vaccines, but no one listened.  It is now time to investigate our concerns, study our children and treat their illnesses.

The National Autism Association is committed to helping families find out what happened to their children and to find successful treatments to restore their children to full health.  We believe that thousands of children have suffered needlessly because of the failure of our Government to act.

We are requesting a comprehensive study of all health outcomes in the vaccinated vs. unvaccinated populations and immediate action to change policy if relative risks are discovered.

We insist that you conduct all vaccine studies free from conflicts of interest. Therefore, investigators should have no ties to the vaccine industry, nor should their livelihoods depend on vaccine promotion.

Vaccines must be tested for safety in terms of multiple vaccines given during one visit, and the overall number of vaccines for long-term adverse affects.

Phenol, formaldehyde, mercury, aluminum and other vaccines additives should be tested individually and for their combines effects, as many of these toxins compete for the same detox pathways in the body.  Toxins are never good, but together in one vaccine and cumulatively over time, they can have devastating effects to developing neurological and immune systems.

We also recommend greater consumer representation with the work group, and that specific representation of autism vaccine concerns is given priority.

Finally, the National Autism Association requests that HHS declare autism an epidemic and treat it with extreme urgency.

Thank you.