OSC ORDERS Congress TO INVESTIGATE HHS, CDC and FDA Wrongdoing regarding mercury in Children’s Vaccines, SAYS National Autism Association

Whistleblower needed for separate Office of Special Counsel investigation to move forward

Washington, DC – National Autism Association announced today that Scott Bloch, Office of Special Counsel (OSC), is calling for further investigation into the link between neurological disorders and Thimerosal, a mercury preservative found in childhood vaccines. In an OSC press release, Bloch states that the allegations of wrongdoing towards Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “…raise serious continuing concerns about the administration of the nation’s vaccine program…”

Bloch also stated, “…it appears there may be sufficient evidence to find a substantial likelihood of a substantial and specific danger to public health caused by the use of Thimerosal/mercury in vaccines because of its inherent toxicity.”

Specifically, the OSC has asked Sen. Judd Gregg and Cong. Joe Barton, Committee Chairmen with HHS Oversight, to investigate these allegations:

• Ethylmercury Thimerosal is still present in childhood vaccines and flu shots, contrary to statements made by government health agencies;
   
• The heightened concern that CDC datasets from the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) once showing a relationship between Thimerosal and neurological disorders may have been destroyed and independent researchers have been arbitrarily denied access to CDC vaccine databases. 
   
• The CDC and the FDA colluded with pharmaceutical companies at a June 2000 meeting to prevent the release of a VSD study showing a link between Thimerosal exposure and neurological disorders including Autism, ADD/ADHD, Stuttering, Tics and Speech and Language Delays.  The study’s author, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, and other CDC employees published a different version in the Nov. 2003 issue of Pediatrics, showing no link. 
   
• That increasing clinical evidence showing a connection is being ignored by government health agencies.

The OSC’s order for Congress to investigate wrongdoing underscores the inadequacy of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) May 18^th report stating “no link” between autism and Thimerosal. The IOM meeting was sponsored by the CDC, and the IOM panel used epidemiological studies, including the highly questioned CDC’s Verstraeten Study mentioned above, to reach their conclusion while ignoring clinical and biological evidence showing a connection. 

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