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Published: July 28, 2006 at 2:20 PM
By DAN OLMSTED
UPI Senior Editor
WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- For the second time this week, legislation aimed at
determining whether vaccines are linked to an epidemic of unrecognized side
effects has been introduced in Congress -- this time as a direct result of
reporting by Age of Autism.
The new legislation, titled the Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated
and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2006, would order the National Institutes of
Health to study "health outcomes, including autism," in those two groups.
In essence, the bill proposes the simplest way to exonerate vaccines as a cause
of autism: If the autism rate is about the same in never-vaccinated children,
vaccines are unlikely to play any role.
Yet such a straightforward and potentially decisive study has never been done on
American children. In the past, public-health officials have said such an
approach would be impractical due to low numbers of never-vaccinated children,
but this column found tens of thousands of such children -- beginning with the
Amish -- in various locations in the United States.
In our anecdotal and unscientific reporting, the rate of autism seemed
strikingly lower in never-vaccinated children, although those findings cannot be
considered conclusive or convincing. For that, a scientific study would be
needed, as proposed in the new legislation.
The bill is being co-sponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Tom
Osborne, R-Neb. It seeks to determine whether there is any correlation between
the increasing number of immunizations in recent years and the rise in "chronic,
unexplained diseases such as autism, learning disabilities, and other
neurological disorders" over the same time period.
"Childhood immunizations greatly reduce human suffering from infectious disease,
and I think it would be in the best interest of everyone if we definitively
resolve parents' questions about vaccines," Maloney said in a statement.
Maloney cited particular concern about the mercury-based vaccine preservative
thimerosal, to which children were increasingly exposed beginning in the late
1980s. It was phased out starting in 1999 at the recommendation of public-health
officials and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Subsequent studies have found no association between thimerosal and autism, but
critics say those studies have been inadequate and beset by conflicts of
interest. Nor have they compared vaccinated vs. unvaccinated populations, in
part because officials say such groups are hard to find in a society where
childhood immunizations are routine -- and mostly mandatory for school
attendance.
"In this country we have very high levels of vaccination," CDC Director Dr.
Julie Gerberding told Age of Autism at a news conference last year. While "such
studies could be done and should be done," she suggested, the obstacles might be
overwhelming.
But this column identified several groups that might fit the bill -- from the
Amish in Pennsylvania Dutch country to homeschooled children to patients of a
Chicago family practice.
"I have not seen autism with the Amish," said Dr. Frank Noonan, a family
practitioner in Lancaster County, Pa., who has treated thousands of Amish for a
quarter-century.
"You'll find all the other stuff, but we don't find the autism. We're right in
the heart of Amish country and seeing none, and that's just the way it is."
In Chicago, Homefirst Medical Services treats thousands of never-vaccinated
children whose parents received exemptions through Illinois' relatively
permissive immunization policy. Homefirst's medical director, Dr. Mayer
Eisenstein, told us he is not aware of any cases of autism in never-vaccinated
children; the national rate is 1 in 175, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
"We have a fairly large practice," Eisenstein told us. "We have about 30,000 or
35,000 children that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we
have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received
vaccines.
"We do have enough of a sample," Eisenstein said. "The numbers are too large to
not see it. We would absolutely know. We're all family doctors. If I have a
child with autism come in, there's no communication. It's frightening. You can't
touch them. It's not something that anyone would miss."
Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, a Florida family practitioner with ties to families who
homeschool their children for religious reasons, told Age of Autism he has
proposed such a study in that group.
"I said I know I can tap into this community and find you large numbers of
unvaccinated homeschooled," said Bradstreet, "and we can do simple prevalence
and incidence studies in them, and my gut reaction is that you're going to see
no autism in this group."
Osborne and Maloney said such examples undercut claims "there was not a big
enough population to which we could compare the general vaccinated population.
... The Maloney-Osborne legislation proposes comparing vaccinated populations
with unvaccinated populations such as these."
Clearly, there are children with autism who have never been vaccinated.
Moreover, even a much-lower rate of autism in never-vaccinated groups would not
directly implicate vaccines as a cause -- other factors could be at work. For
instance, the Amish might have a genetic resistance to the disorder; children
receiving alternative schooling or healthcare might have less exposure to other
conceivable medical, environmental or lifestyle triggers.
But just as clearly, such a study could be done, and the Maloney-Osborne bill
proposes to do it.
Maloney was co-sponsor of another bill introduced Wednesday with Rep. David
Weldon, R-Fla. That bill would give responsibility for the nation's vaccine
safety to an independent agency outside the CDC. Weldon was harshly critical of
the government's monitoring of vaccines.
The National Autism Association called the two bills "good news from Washington.
NAA applauds Congresswoman Maloney in her continuing efforts to support families
affected by autism with this new legislation and co-sponsorship of Congressman
Weldon's Vaccine Safety bill."
The group urged its members to ask their local representatives to support the
legislation when they are back in their districts during the August
congressional recess.
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