Autism, Mercury and the Coming Storm

by David Kirby, Huffington Post, 06/25/05

Summary

Finally, the mercury-autism controversy is burning up the airwaves and keeping the bloggers busy. We have just witnessed the biggest week ever in the history of reporting on this high-stakes debate and, naturally, I could not be happier. A nationwide discussion about thimerosal and autism was my primary goal in writing "Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic," and at long last the conversation has begun.

Many people dismiss this theory as pure bunk -- as alarmist, fabricated and foolhardy as, say, insisting that Saddam had WMD's. These naysayers desperately want the issue to just go away, and they want people like me to shut up.

But this conflict, folks, is just getting started.

In the past week, we have watched Robert Kennedy, Jr. ignite a mass-media bonfire that will smolder for a considerable time, as witnessed in the passionate contentions emerging from both sides, many of them posted on this site.

Don Imus, meanwhile, continued to move the story forward each morning, challenging "wimpy" newscasters to finally cover the damn subject, and bludgeoning top politicos for their hitherto deafening silence.

Imus got NBC's Brian Williams and Tim Russert both to concede that this is, indeed, a topic worthy of valuable airtime. He extracted an announcement from Senator Chris Dodd that the Connecticut Democrat and his Republican counterpart, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, were looking into hearings on the issue in the subcommittee they head. And he earned a surprising revelation from Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) that a full-scale investigation of the matter was already underway by Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman of the powerful Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (H.E.L.P.) Committee.

Imus also issued a challenge to any and all opponents of the mercury-autism theory to come forward and debate the subject, live on his show, with RFK Jr and/or myself. People from the CDC, FDA, IOM and the American Academy of Pediatrics all said "no thanks." But on Thursday, Imus got a taker: A leading executive from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) accepted the Imus challenge, and details are being arranged now.

Imus also interviewed Mr. Kennedy, who in turn appeared on Scarborough Country in a historical segment in which the conservative host told the liberal guest that his own son has Asperger's Syndrome (a milder form of autism). And, of course, Kennedy was interviewed -- some would say ambushed -- on ABC News. But the network, in its haste to dismiss the thimerosal theory as the dangerous lunacy of mercury moms and trial lawyers, may one day live to regret its unyielding certainty, in a Dewey-Defeats-Truman sort of way.

As for myself, I went on Imus last Friday, talking about why no one was talking about this story (expect for Imus). On Tuesday, I appeared on the Montel Williams Show with Lyn Redwood, the main character in "Evidence of Harm," along with theory proponent Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), and others. And on Thursday, Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley invited me onto MSNBC's "Connected," along with Dr. Louis Cooper, former head of the AAP. Dr. Paul Offit, a leading pediatrician who dismisses the thimerosal theory, refused to appear live with me. Instead, at his request, he was interviewed separately.

Recently, I posted an essay on this site called "Bring it On," in which I offered to discuss the evidence of harm from thimerosal with anyone, anywhere, at any time. Dr. Cooper graciously accepted the offer, and soon there will be that "debate" with the PhRMA rep on Imus in the Morning.

Also this week, I spent two days in Washington briefing powerful people on the many unanswered questions of this spiraling contretemps. I was there at the request of parents of autistic children who, more than Kennedy, Kirby or Imus, are responsible for keeping this story alive.

It was not my first visit to DC. In the past few weeks, several parents, researchers and I have met with Chairman Enzi and his staff, with the staff of Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), who pledged his own support to look into this issue on (where else?) Imus in the Morning. We met Senators Obama and Durbin (D-IL) and briefed their staffs, who are likewise committed to examining these complicated and disturbing questions. We met for hours with top investigative attorneys of a leading Senate committee, and with a very high ranking and respectful official at HHS, who clearly recognizes that this story is about to explode.

All over Capitol Hill, we encountered thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate people -- Republicans and Democrats -- who seem truly committed to getting the difficult answers that the American people deserve. Call me naive, but I have great confidence in their integrity and resolve.

Of course, it's possible that this army of congressional investigators will determine that injecting organic mercury directly into newborn babies was a perfectly harmless thing to do, and did not trigger adverse reactions in a subset of children with a genetic predisposition to mercury sensitivity. They may declare that the synchronization of the autism epidemic and rising thimerosal exposures in the 1990s was merely an uncanny coincidence. They may find that a thorough review of a federal vaccine database, currently under lock-and-key, reveals zero evidence of an association. They may discover that removing mercury from autistic children yields absolutely no clinical benefits whatsoever. And, contrary to Mr. Kennedy's assertions, they may conclude that everyone in the government and drug industry acted with nothing but the utmost forthrightness, untainted by malfeasance and conflicts of interest, openly sharing all that they knew about thimerosal's toxicity with the American public.

If that happens, then maybe we can put this whole sordid tale behind us forever. But I don't think that will happen. What will certainly happen is a much-needed airing of our nation's public health laundry.

To the detractors who are incensed that these questions are even being asked, to those who decline to answer the questions in a face-to-face forum, and especially to all those unlucky people potentially implicated in this brewing summertime scandal, I have the following advice:

Don't complain to me, complain to the United States Senate
-- preferably under oath.