President Bush: GET THE MERCUCRY OUT OF VACCINES.

An Open Letter from Unlocking Autism

April 27, 2005

In September of 2004, President George W. Bush stated while on the campaign trail that he would "support the removal of thimerosal from vaccines on the childhood national vaccine schedule." 

Today, April 27, 2005,  in several conversations with White House Counsel on Health Policy, Unlocking Autism got more clarification on what that means. 

The semantics mean that The White House stated that President Bush thinks that mercury should absolutely be removed from vaccines, inherently indicating that his administration does find it to be a harmful substance, and while he has the full authority to remove it from the shelves today, he refuses to act. He wants to continue to allow the pharmaceutical companies the opportunity to continue to voluntarily phase it out of vaccines.  The White House counsel further suggested that we be patient and give the pharmaceutical companies the time to accomplish this on their own.

So how long does that take? How long exactly did it take for Firestone to recall their tires?  How long did it take for Tylenol to pull their products off the shelves and present safer packaging? Six years...at a minimum that the government has known of the mercury  problem...and it is still out there being "voluntarily" injected into kids because not all of it has been "voluntarily" removed.

In February of 2005, Unlocking Autism addressed a letter to President Bush requesting that he issue an Executive Order banning the use of mercury in vaccines for all children under the age of 18 and pregnant women.  The only shots with more than a trace amount of mercury in them are some of the Flu vaccines and a version of the DT vaccine but both of those contain 25 mcg of mercury, which far exceed EPA safety limits for small children. 

Based on several conversations with White House legal counsel today, the President does have the authority to issue such a ban and immediately recall the mercury based vaccines on the shelves and in production, but he refuses to do so. The White House counsel also stated that while Bush supports the removal of mercury from vaccines in the childhood national vaccine schedule, he does not think that any immediate action is necessary even though it may take 3 to 4 more years to phase mercury out of those shots remaining on the schedule today.  Nor does the President find it necessary to ban the use of mercury based vaccines for pregnant women because, after all, they are adults, not children and therefore, fall outside of his statement that he supports the removal of mercury from the childhood vaccine schedule. 

The White House asked us to consider all that they have accomplished in reducing mercury in vaccines (yes...they said this.) They referred me to the following three documents as proof of what they have done thus far for those of you concerned about this issue:

NIH - http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t041005d.html

CDC - http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t041005c.html

FDA - http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t041005e.html

I told them that credit doesn't go to anyone who sits by and allows bolus doses of mercury to be knowingly injected into children until the pharmaceutical companies "voluntarily" take it out. 

Credit goes to the person with the intestinal fortitude to put a stop to it.

It was made clear to us that the removal of mercury from flu vaccine and the DT  vaccine  would cause undue hardships on the pharmaceutical companies who do not have the facilities in place to manufacture mercury free vaccines.  It takes 3-4 years to build these new facilities. (Who is doing math with us here?  1999+4=2003? Is this..oh..it is...2005?) They would have to really step up the process (even though they haven't even started manufacturing flu vaccine for this flu season.)

Undue Hardships? That is an interesting choice of words to tell the mother of a vaccine injured child.

I asked for the White House counsel to put in writing that President Bush does not support the immediate removal of mercury from childhood vaccines and that while they realize that millions of children will be needlessly exposed to it over the next several years, they are willing to allow that to happen.  They said that they would not put it in writing.  Without a ban, it is our opinion that President Bush is passively making that statement regardless of whether or not he officially puts it in writing.

We asked that President Bush publicly support legislation proposed by Congressman Dave Weldon and make a statement to that effect on the House floor to encourage the expediency of the bill.  This request is under review and we did not receive a final answer on their position today. 

The White House did indicate that President Bush may reconsider the immediate removal of mercury from all vaccines in the future.  We were told that it was not his final answer but that those concerned with the removal of mercury should just be patient and wait.

We don't really feel like sitting and being patient.  We don't think that you should either.  If you feel strongly about this and think maybe President Bush should reconsider, we recommend that you not only call the White House comment line, but that you contact Chief of Staff Andrew Card's office directly at 202-456-6798.  We think that you should call on Thursday, April 28th and every day after that if you feel like it. 

Or better yet, call, then fax President Bush via Andrew Card's office at 202-456-1907.

Regardless of the plausibility of an autism/mercury connection, we believe knowingly and purposefully exposing children, and fetuses, to mercury is stupid.  There really isn't another word.  It is stupid.  Mercury is toxic in every other capacity on the face of the earth and yet, the US Government would have you believe that as soon as it slips beyond the epidermis of a child, it becomes harmless. 

We told them at 3pm today to start hiring temps to help answer the phones. 

Lynn Notgrass sounded the alarm, gave all of us a time and a date and inadvertently gave them a deadline.  We think she is right.

Pick up the phone.  Write that fax and show the White House what millions of people can do when their patience runs out after six years.

Shelley H. Reynolds
President, Unlocking Autism

www.unlockingautism.org

P.S.  If you are a George Bush fan or a staunch republican and think that this letter has intonations of a "liberal, left wing" slant, let me clear this up for you before you send me an email. My personal party preference has no bearing on the way this notice was written. If a democrat was in the White House and the same thing had happened as happened today, I would have sent the exact same letter with someone else's name.  The only reason it is directed at George Bush is because, well, he is wearing the shoes of the Executive Office at this point in time.

Neither party is in the clear.  The Clinton Administration was, to use their own terminology, "asleep at the switch."  The Bush Administration was on notice before they set foot in the White House and they have been awake and driving the bus.  I don't personally know which legacy is worse.