Mercury And Autism-Part Two

About the recent controversy concerning the use of Mercury in childhood vaccinations, there is another aspect that is equally troubling, though as of yet it hasn't been addressed. This might, incidentally, explain why a good many liberal advocates have been wary of jumping on the bandwagon. What happens if this results in a massive lawsuit, on the scale of the tobacco industry controversy, or worse. A class action lawsuit, especially, could easily result in a settlement in the area of hundreds of billions of dollars, closing in on a trillion dollars or more. The question to be considered in this case is, who will pay for it?

Obviously, the price will be passed on to the consumer, especially the American consumer. What happens then? This could definitely put a damper on health care initiatives. It could, in fact, make them all but dead in the water, for a great amount of time, way into the foreseeable future, and beyond. The way the current health care initiative recently passed by the Bush administration is going, it is all ready expected to cost more than 700 billion dollars, far more than the roughly 200 billion it was initially estimated that it would cost.

Nevertheless, something will have to be done to address this. Especially since it looks as though this is not just an American problem, but a worldwide one, as American pharmaceutical companies have exacerbated the situation by deluging Third World nations with these vaccines, the populations of which are for the most part ill-equipped, if at all, of coping with the expense and inherent other problems of a widespread autism epidemic. And that is what it could amount to, in a sense, an epidemic. This is serious, as it could easily undermine our foreign policy efforts in all areas. It would be hard to explain the benefits of democracy and capitalism to nations who have suffered the adverse effects of a capitalistic system that has poisoned generations of Third World citizens, and of a political system that has allowed it to continue unchecked.

It could be that the pharmaceutical industry to a large degree might become bankrupted, and be forced to sell out in order to meet any potential judgments accrued in a class action or other type lawsuits. It is unlikely that the industry would be nationalized, though that might be the best and most efficient way of solving the health care crisis that could occur in the wake of this. One thing is certain, something will have to be done, something that will not condemn the American people to suffer from increased prescription drug costs. Something that will still make it possible to initiate broad based and comprehensive health care reforms. And finally, something that will insure that something like this will never happen again.

Mercury And Autism

It has just recently come out that the CDC may have possibly been involved in helping certain pharmaceutical companies hide the effect of mercury in childhood vaccines. There has recently been a stir caused by rumors that the effects of Mercury may in fact be a contributing factor, possibly the chief if not the only one, in the sudden increase of autism among children, by some estimates as many as one out of every one hundred sixty six children born in the U.S. Also scrambling to protect the pharmaceuticals from any future potential lawsuits is U.S. Senator Bill Frist (R-Tennessee).

Environmental Attorney Robert F.Kennedy Jr. has been advocating research into this potential, and encouraging further investigations, and has given interviews to Rolling Stone and to Salon.com, which are now available on the Internet. He has run into a string of bad luck, however, in getting any air time on the major media outlets. Appearances by him to discuss this subject have been canceled, by The Today Show, Good Morning America, and others. Equally disturbing is the lack of attention shown to David Kirby, author of the book Evidence Of Harm, which chronicles the use of mercury in vaccines and aerosols, and points to the potential that this may indeed be a contributing factor to a problem that is approaching epidemic proportions. It is as though Kirby and Kennedy both are persona non-gratis. But perhaps the scariest episode involves radio talk show host Don Imus, of Imus In The Morning (WFAN).

He has been pushing this issue, and an investigation of it, whereupon he himself recently became the subject of an investigation by The Wall Street Journal for allegedly misuse of donor funds to The Imus Ranch, a charitable endeavor run by him and his wife Deirdre for the purpose of providing a positive experience for children afflicted with cancer. There proved to be no substance to the allegations, and the investigation was therefore terminated, but the Wall Street Journal refused to print a retraction on it's front pages, where it first ran the story. Imus has intimated, in fact insisted, the entire episode was a sham, and was meant to be a warning to him. Don't mess with the pharmaceutical industry, or else.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a paranoid rant, if it were not for the cancellations of Kennedy's appearances, and the shunning of author David Kirby. Then, there is Chris Matthews who, on an appearance on Imus's show this morning, which is simulcast on MSNBC from 6 a.m. to 9: a.m.,brushed aside any suggestion that he himself might want to cover the promising scandal. And it is easy to see why, when you consider the amount of advertising money invested by the pharmaceutical companies in the television media, that a member of that media might be wary of tackling the issue, fearful of displeasing his corporate bosses. In fact, one wonders if perhaps the word might have all ready been put out. Don't touch this issue.

And, of course, we all know how close the pharmaceutical industry is to the Bush administration. But have they gone so far as to turn the CDC from watch dog to lap dog? It's a scary thought.