Dr. Poul Thorsen, a central figure behind the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) claims disputing the link between vaccines and autism and other neurological disorders has disappeared after officials discovered massive fraud involving the theft of millions in taxpayer dollars.
Thorsen was a leading member of a Danish research group that wrote several key studies supporting the CDC's claims that the MMR vaccine and mercury-laden vaccines were safe for children.
One of his studies has long been criticized as fraudulent, since it failed to disclose that the increase was an artifact of new mandates requiring, for the first time, that autism cases be reported on the national registry.
Despite this obvious chicanery, the CDC has long touted the study as the principal proof that mercury-laced vaccines are safe for infants and young children. The mainstream media has relied on this study as the basis for its public assurances that it is safe to inject young children with mercury -- a potent neurotoxin -- at concentrations hundreds of times over the U.S. safety limits.
February 16, 2009 - Voting Himself Rich: CDC Vaccine Adviser Made $29 Million Or More After Using Role to Create Market - Dr. Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) took home a fortune of at least $29 million as part of a $182 million sale by CHOP of its worldwide royalty interest in the Merck Rotateq vaccine to Royalty Pharma in April of last year, according to an investigation by Age of Autism. Based on an analysis of current CHOP administrative policies, the amount of income distributed to Offit could be as high as $46 million.
In August 1999, the Committee on Government Reform initiated an investigation into Federal vaccine policy.1 This investigation focused on possible conflicts of interest on the part of federal policy-makers. The Committee conducted an extensive review of financial disclosure forms and related documents, and interviewed key officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the course of the investigation, the committee discovered that many individuals serving on two key advisory committees had financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines. Often, these individuals were granted waivers to fully participate in the discussions that led to recommendations on vaccine licensing and adding vaccines to the Childhood Immunization Schedule. Under federal law, members of advisory committees are required to disclose any financial conflicts of interest and excuse themselves from participating in decisions in which they have an interest. The Committee's investigation determined that conflict of interest rules employed by the FDA and the CDC were weak, enforcement was lax, and committee members with substantial ties to pharmaceutical companies had been given waivers to participate in committee proceedings. The Committee noted several specific problems, including: The CDC routinely granted waivers from conflict of interest rules to every member of its advisory committee. CDC advisory committee members who were not allowed to vote on certain recommendations due to financial conflicts of interest were allowed to actively participate in committee deliberations and advocate specific positions. The Chairman of the CDC's advisory committee until recently owned 600 shares of stock in Merck, a pharmaceutical company with an active vaccine division. Members of the CDC's advisory committee often left key details out of their financial disclosure statements, and were not required to provide the missing information by CDC ethics officials. Regarding the FDA and CDC approval of the controversial rotavirus vaccine in 1998 and 1999: 3 out of the 5 FDA advisory committee members who voted to approve the rotavirus vaccine in December 1997 had financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies that were developing different versions of the vaccine. 4 out of the 8 CDC advisory committee members who voted to approve guidelines for the rotavirus vaccine in June 1998 had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies that were developing different versions of the vaccine. The rotavirus vaccine was pulled from the market one year after approval, after it was found to cause severe bowel obstructions.
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/vaccines/vaccines-conflict.htm
In a shocking article from a mainstream media source, CBS News, it is reported that some of the biggest vaccine promoters and defenders have very strong financial ties to the vaccine industry, to put it mildly.
Just who is involved? According to CBS News Investigative Correspondent, Sharyl Attkisson, three of the "players" include the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Every Child By Two (a group whose main agenda is to promote vaccination), and a pediatrician named Dr. Paul Offit.
The AAP, recently in the news for recommending statin drugs for certain groups of children as young as eight and cholesterol screening for infants, accepted a $342,000 payment from Wyeth, the maker of the pneumococcal vaccine, which is worth about 2 billion dollars a year in sales. The AAP also took $433,000 from Merck the year they endorsed the controversial HPV vaccine (which is expected to bring in billions of dollars in profits) and is currently being pushed on little girls as young as nine. Sanofi Aventis, a pharmaceutical company that makes 17 vaccines and the new 5-in-1 combo shot that was recently added to the childhood vaccination schedule, is also one of the AAP's top donors, purports CBS News.
What about Every Child By Two? The group flatly refused to tell CBS News just how much money they received from the vaccine industry. While they claim no conflicts of interest exist, take a look at their list of officers. Their "treasurers" include "officials from Wyeth and a paid advisor to big pharmaceutical clients," according to the CBS report.
Then there's Dr. Paul Offit, who holds a $1.5 million dollar research chair at Children's Hospital, funded by none other than Merck. Some may remember that he and Merck hold a patent on Rotateq, an anti-diarrhea vaccine for which the future royalties were just sold for a whopping 182 million bucks. According to CBS, this doctor claims that babies can tolerate 10,000 vaccines at once. Unbelievable. Dr. Douglass, who has long expressed concerns about the vaccination industry, wrote in his newsletter: "...no wonder Dr. Offit loves vaccines so much -- he's apparently fully immunized himself against poverty." Indeed. While Dr. Douglass may not see eye-to-eye with natural health advocates on every issue, he's right on the mark here.
Attkisson states, in a Couric & Co. blog post, that none of the parties involved were willing to provide a full accounting of their financial relationships. Amazingly enough, even though the two groups (AAP, Every Child By Two) both received tax benefits for their non-profit status, there is no law requiring them to provide those details to anyone, including the IRS. When the vaccine companies themselves were approached, they said they "would not, or could not give such information as: financial support they give to educational institutions, physicians and research projects; a list of outside physicians who are on the payroll as researchers, speakers, advisors or consultants; and an accounting of funding provided to non-profits, medical organizations and government entities such as IOM, NIH, CDC and FDA," reports Attkisson. The bottom line is that parents need to research the safety and efficacy of each vaccine and weigh the possible benefits and absolute risks of giving each vaccine to their children for themselves. The CBS report provides some compelling evidence that people responsible for recommending vaccines may not necessarily be objective. Clearly, the report probably only scratched the surface of all that's really happening in the industry.
Even doctors who have no financial ties to the industry often rely on the advice and opinions of the AAP. How often does one find a doctor who dares to go against the recommendations of the AAP? The truth is that most doctors are sheep, and Big Pharma is the shepherd. Doctors often use scare tactics to try to push parents into giving children vaccinations, but remember that vaccinations are easy money for doctors. Every time a new vaccine is added to the schedule, doctors make a boatload of money for giving another quick jab. (Compare this to the many computer companies that provide anti-virus software for computers than can be downloaded for free.) Make no mistake about it: the whole vaccine industry is motivated by obscene profits. Parents need to seek out unbiased information sources when making decisions about the health of their children.
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/vaccines/vaccines-conflict.htm
Vaccine recommendations and other important healthcare decisions that
affect our nation’s children are frequently based on ulterior motives.
Safety and protection are NOT always top priorities. Instead, authorities
may be influenced by monetary considerations or the urge to manipulate
undesirable study results. For example, in June of 2000, two separate yet
highly significant events rocked the vaccine industry:
Event #1: Congress held a hearing to determine if “the entire process [of
licensing and recommending vaccines] has been polluted and the public trust
has been violated.” Two years earlier, vaccine authorities had evidence that
a new vaccine under consideration was dangerous, yet that didn’t stop them
from licensing and recommending it for every child in the USA. This vaccine
was linked to numerous cases of a life-threatening intestinal blockage and
baby deaths. After this vaccine was withdrawn from the market, Congress
discovered that 60% of the FDA advisory committee members who voted to
license this defective vaccine, and 50% of the CDC advisory committee
members who voted to recommend it for every child in the country, had
financial ties to the drug company that produced the vaccine or to two other
companies developing their own potentially lucrative competing vaccines.
For
example, an FDA committee member who voted to license the defective vaccine
had received more than $250,000 per year in research funds from the drug
company that made the vaccine. A CDC committee member who voted to recommend
the defective vaccine for every child was paid by the industry to travel
around the country teaching doctors that vaccines are safe. In addition, he
held a potentially lucrative patent on a similar vaccine under development!
Despite this important Congressional exposé, no one at the FDA, CDC, or U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services admitted a problem, and claimed that
it’s perfectly acceptable for committee members with obvious conflicts of
interest to make healthcare recommendations for every child in this
country—even when they stand to benefit financially from their own
decisions!
Event #2: Just one week prior to the Congressional investigation into
conflicts of interest within the vaccine industry, a top-secret meeting of
high-level officials from the CDC, FDA, World Health Organization (WHO),
and
representatives from every major vaccine manufacturer, was held at the
secluded Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. They had
gathered to discuss an alarming new study that
confirmed a link between
thimerosal (mercury) in childhood vaccines and neurological damage,
including recent dramatic increases in autistic spectrum disorders.
According to the lead researcher, “We have found statistically significant
relationships between the exposures and outcomes.” Since 1991, when the CDC
and FDA started requiring babies to receive multiple doses of thimerosal-laced
hepatitis B, Hib, and the already mandated diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis
shots (via DPT and DTaP), cases of autism skyrocketed. Dr. Robert Chen, head
of vaccine safety for the CDC, congratulated the group for their apparent
success thus far at being able to keep the incriminating data out of “less
responsible hands.” Dr. John Clements, WHO vaccine advisor, was more blunt,
declaring that perhaps the CDC study “should not have been done at all.”
Instead of warning the public and recalling the dangerous vaccines, this
small group of federal health officials and vaccine industry executives
spent the weekend calculating how to cover up the truth—and followed through
on their plot over the next few years. First, the CDC’s vast database on
childhood vaccines was removed from public access so that unbiased
researchers could not confirm the study results. Next, the incriminating
data from the original study was reworked, and the new version was published
in a peer-reviewed journal. However, this time “no consistent significant
associations were found between thimerosal-containing vaccines and
neurodevelopmental outcomes.” Finally, to complete the deception, the CDC
would need additional “proof” that thimerosal-laced vaccines are safe.
According to Dr. Gordon Douglas, the director of strategic planning at the
National Institutes of Health (and former president of vaccinations for
Merck, a major vaccine manufacturer), four new studies were currently taking
place “to rule out the
proposed link between autism and thimerosal.”
These two events—the Congressional hearing on conflicts of interest within
the vaccine licensing and recommendation process, and the secret Simpsonwood
conference—confirm that U.S. health authorities have lost their ethical
bearings and have NOT made our children’s safety a top priority.
Requiring
vaccines for school entry when they may have been added to the childhood
immunization schedule simply to line the pockets of powerful authorities is
dangerous and corrupt. Withholding a child’s education for refusing vaccines
when crucial studies purporting to prove their safety are bogus, is both
reprehensible and indefensible. Thus, every family must remain free
to accept or reject vaccines.
http://www.opposingviews.com/arguments/conflicts-of-interest-permeate-the-vaccine-industry
How does Homeland Security play into this unfolding tragedy for untold numbers of children and their parents?
The Homeland Security Bill contained two paragraphs in the 475-page document that immunizes vaccine manufacturers against the threat of lawsuits. Specifically, pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly & Company benefits from such immunity because prior to President Bush signing the bill into law, they were the target of a massive class action lawsuit on behalf of autistic children. The parents of these children believe that the mercury (thimerosol) added to vaccines as a preservative caused their children’s brain damage. President Bush signed the Homeland Security Bill into law, effectively snuffing out parent’s ability to sue the pharmaceutical companies individually and leaving them with brain damaged children and financial hardship.
Supporters of this new law maintain that it was necessary because all these lawsuits could have driven vaccine makers out of business. Opponents point out that by shifting the lawsuits from state courts to the Federal Court of Claims, it represents a financial boon for pharmaceutical companies because dollar awards will come from the government and widespread industry fees than from individual companies. It is unclear how this lawsuit immunity bonanza for the pharmaceutical industry has anything to do with homeland security, bio-terror attacks or keeping America safe from terrorists.
Last summer, President Bush appointed Sidney Taurel, Chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. Since 1989, Eli Lilly alone has given a whopping $5.9 million to congressional campaigns with 3/4ths of the money going to GOP candidates. In the last election cycle, eighty percent of Republican candidates got the lion’s share of the $1.6 million contributed by Eli Lilly who developed thimerosal and has profited handsomely from sales over the past 40 years.
Thimerosal isn’t the only drug linked to other adverse effects on children. Back in February 2001, News 8 Investigates (Dallas-Ft. Worth area) covered questionable science at the root of getting vaccines approved in this country. One of the newer vaccines scrutinized was RotoShield which was given to the newborn son of Melynda Shay. This particular vaccine promised in its advertisements that RotoShield would help prevent childhood diarrhea. Within days after inoculation, Ms. Shay’s newborn's bowels were dangerously obstructed to the point of possibly rupturing. Federal regulators from the CDC finally discovered more than 100 other infants like Ms. Shay’s son had all suffered the same problem and RotoShield was pulled off the market.
On the very same day RotoShield was pulled, the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee drafted a recommendation for another new vaccine called Prevnar. Clinical trials of Prevnar tested in 38,000 California children produced the following results according to the drug company’s own documentation: children receiving Prevnar with other vaccines had more seizures, more rashes, higher fevers and other side effects than children who received the control vaccine. Some wonder how these vaccines ever get approval and into the marketplace? Congressman Dan Burton’s congressional hearings last summer provided some disturbing information that could provide at least some insight on the matter: at least half the members of vaccine committees at both the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the CDC had financial ties to drug companies that are developing different versions of the Rotavirus vaccine. More hearings are scheduled for this spring.
This, and related articles can be found at: http://www.newswithviews.com/NWVexclusive/exclusive6.htm.
...More careful investigation into the Osterhaus Affair suggests that the world-renowned Dutch Virologist may be at the very center of a multi-billion Euro pandemic fraud which has used human beings in effect as human guinea pigs with untested vaccines and in cases now emerging resulting in deaths or severe bodily paralysis or injury....
“Don't you think there's something noteworthy about the fact that the WHO has changed its definition of pandemic? The old definition was a new virus, which went around quickly, for which you didn't have immunity, and which created a high morbidity and mortality rate. Now the last two have been dropped, and that's how swine flu has been categorized as a pandemic.”19...
...Russian Parliamentarian and chairman of the Duma Health Committee, Igor Barinow has called on the Russian Representative to WHO in Geneva to order an official investigation into the growing evidence of massive corruption of the WHO by the pharmaceutical industry.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article15655.html