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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.
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