Autism United Welcomes Nassau County Hearing on Autism and Vaccines

David Mejias, Chair of the Nassau County Health Committee will host a public hearing and press conference today along with New York State Assemblymember Harvey Weisenberg on the the connections between vaccines and autism. This will be the first hearing by a local government in the US directly considering this issue.

A press conference will be held Monday April 28, 2008 at noon prior hearing to follow at 1:30 pm at 1550 Franklin Avenue in Garden City, New York in the chambers of the Nassau County Legislature. The public is invited to attend and testify.

Autism United welcomes the oppourtunity to discuss these issues with our legislators and we look forward to an ongoing discussion, and action, on these crucial public health issues. We have three main concerns:


New York Ban on Mercury in Vaccines Must be Enforced The New York ban on the use of mercury in vaccines injected into pregnant women and children under three must be enforced. Assemblymember Weisenberg was the primary sponsor along with State Senator Dean Skelos this legislation passed in 2005. The legislation is now Section 2112 of the New York State Public Health Law and will come into effect on July 1 of this year. To date the New York State Department of Health has not taken any steps to inform health care providers that they will need to abide by the law in 8 weeks. Orders for flu shots for the 2008-9 season are already being made and the vast majority of flu shots still contain levels or mercury illegal under New York law. Autism United is concerned that the failure to inform healthcare providers will rresult in New York's children being needlessly exposed to levels of mercury many times in excess of the maximum levels for adults set by the food and Drug Administration.

Mercury is a known neurotoxin and the United States Public Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics recomended back in 1999 that it be removerd from vaccines "as soon as possible." Ten years later though small children and fetuses are being exposed to this viciously dangerous substance.

What Now that the Fedral Government Conceded that Vaccines Can Cause Autism?
A second issue that governments at all levels must come to terms with are the consequences of the Hannah Poling case. Recently, the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (the "Vaccine Court") conceded that Hannah Poling's autism was indeed caused by vaccines. This concession comes after years of assertions by public health authorities that vaccines have no role in causing autism, despite the growing body of evidence linking the two.

The circumstances of Hannah Poling's situation raise many troubling questions. Hannah was a healthy 18 month old reaching her developmental milestones ahead of schedule when she received 9 vaccines containing a total of 100 micrograms of mercury in one day. She immediately became ill with fever, inconsolably crying, neurological symptoms and began losing language, skills and social connection-- the regression into autism familar to hundreds of thousands of families. Shortly thereafter she was diagnosed with autism.

Many troubling issues are raised. The first is that federal regulations do not require any safety testing of the simulataneous adminsitration of any two vaccines, much less nine. Further, federal regulations do not require any analysis of the health affect of administering dozens of vaccines in the first two years of a child's life, and while in utero. What proof do we have, as is required by federal law, that injecting 100 micrograms of mercury into a child is safe? How many other children contracted autism through this same mechanism? How many other currently healthy child will contract autism just like Hannah?

New York Parents Must have a Choice, Pass A 5468/S 3031
With so many unanswered questions about the basic safety of the current vaccine program New Yorkers need the right to chose which vaccines are adminsitered to their children and themselves, just like the citizens of 20 other states including California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas and Minnesota. New Yorkers need a statutory right to object to state mandated vaccines on the bassis of secular safety and efficacy concerns, as well as religious reasons. Assembly Bill A5468 introduced by Assemblymember Marc Alessi and Senate Bill S 3031 introduced by Senator Frank Padavan would give New Yorkers this right.

Lowe's Pulls Ads from Big Brother in Response to "Retards" Comments

An outpouring of calls and emails from parents, families and friends of people with autism in response to a broadcast last week that referred to people with autism as "retards" has persuaded the Lowe's Companies to stop advertising with the CBS program Big Brother.

Karen Cobb, a spokesperson for Lowe's, said in a statement: "Lowe's has strict guidelines that govern the placement of our advertising. Our company advertises primarily in national, network prime-time television programs and on a variety of cable outlets. Lowe's constantly reviews advertising buys to make certain they are consistent with its policy guidelines. Lowe's doesn't routinely advertise on the show "Big Brother" and has taken steps to ensure that our advertising isn't appearing on future shows."

Lowe's is the second largest home improvement retailer in the US.

CBS has not apologized for the incident nor have they taken responsibility for the content of their own broadcast. Autism United applauds Lowe's for doing the right thing and choosing to disassociate itself from this demeaning program. Autism United and a nationwide coalition of autism and developmental disability groups will be mobilizing families affected by autism to call upon advertisers with Big Brother, including Taco Bell, McDonald's, Campbell Soup, Saturn, and Geico, to follow the leadership shown by Lowe's Companies and withdraw their support for Big Brother.

 

CBS owes an apology.

People with autism are not "retards."

Last week on an episode of the CBS program "Big Brother" cast member Adam Jasinski referred to people with autism as "retards." This dehumanizing language is unacceptable. When Don Imus used racially callous language on his program CBS executives Leslie Moonves and Sumner Redstone issued an apology, fired Imus and cancelled his show. We call up Mr. Moonves and Mr. Redstone to issue an apology to people with autism and other developmental disabilities, fire Adam Jasinski, and cancel Big Brother.

Please forward this message to friends and family.

If you would like to write to Mr. Moonves and Sumner here is their contact information

Mr. Leslie Moonves
Chief Executive Officer
CBS Corporation
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019-6188
Phone: 212-975-4321

Mr. Sumner Redstone
Executive Chairman
CBS Corporation
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY
10019-6188
Phone: 212-975-4321

The text of Autism United's letters to Mr. Moonves and Mr. Sumner is below.

We are writing to express our dismay and disgust at comments that were made by Adam Jasinski during the broadcast of "Big Brother" program. In episode 2, Jasinsiki describes his plans to open a hair styling business catering to people with autism who he refers to as "retards."

Just as we are confident that CBS would not tolerate the use derogatory epithets regarding race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation we hope that the use of derogatory terms for people with disabilities in also unacceptable in your programming.

We believe Jasinski should be terminated immediately, and we believe that the show should be cancelled. Further, we expect an apology to people with autism, developmental disabilities and their families from Jasinski, Big Brother, CBS and National Amusements. While Jasinski displayed gross ignorance, the producers of the show chose to use his comments to forward the show's storyline. This displays a conscious choice on their part to demean and hurt a large group of people to further their own commercial goals.

While a large number of people with autism do have mental retardation, a very large portion do not and they are perfectly capable of understanding that they have been denigrated in an extremely demeaning way by a program broadcast for profit by CBS.

Family members of people with autism, especially parents, are constantly challenged by the great deal of misinformation surrounding autism. Broadcasts such as Big Brother makes caring for a family member with autism all that more difficult.

It is appropriate I believe to note that the Holocaust began with the extermination of developmental disabled children in a secret program called Aktion T-4. The techniques, organization and personnel for Aktion T-4 went directly to run the extermination camps at Treblinka, Sobibor and others. All extermination campaigns begin with the de-humanization of the target group. And referring to developmental disabled people and people with autism as "retards" indeed fails to recognize the humanity of people with these disorders.

We have also contacted advertisers on Big Brother, including Saturn, Pfizer, Geico, Bertoli, Lowe's, Theraflu, and Taco Bell and have asked them if they want their products associated with language that demeans people with autism and other disabilities.

Thank you for your time and consideration and we look forward to your response.