The Shameful Treatment of the Autism Epidemic by the NIH, CDC, FDA and IOM---Letter to the President and Congress

February 9, 2004

Parents: Please email or fax your Congressman and two Senators as well
as the President (http://www.whitehouse.gov) and the members of Congress
(http://www.house.gov/ and http://www.senate.gov) below and include this
letter. Thank you.

Dear President George Bush, Senator Susan Collins, Senator Joseph
Lieberman, Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Robert Byrd, Senator Ted
Stevens, Senator Judd Gregg, Congressman Bill Young, Congressman David
Obey, Congressman Ralph Regula, Congressman Tom Davis, Congressman Henry
Waxman, Congressman Dan Burton, Senator Arlen Spector, Senator Tom
Harkin,  and Congressman Dave Weldon:

Over the past several years parents like myself have brought up the
vaccine link to autism, in particular, the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR)
vaccine and thimerosal in the vaccines. I started The Autism
Autoimmunity Project (http://autismautoimmunityproject.org) in 1998
because we saw in the research from Vijendra Singh, PhD. and Andrew
Wakefield, MD that children with autism had tested positive for myelin
basic protein antibodies, had elevated measles antibody titers in the
blood and measles in the gut indicating that autism had an
immune/gastrointestinal dysfunction.  I had gone to the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1995, 1997 and 2001 and asked that the NIH
would fund research that would look into the independent research of Dr.
Singh and Dr. Wakefield. To date, nothing has been done.

In April 1999, I attended an autism conference in Atlantic City, New
Jersey where Dr. Jacqueline Bertrand of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) spoke. I mentioned this in my letter to The Lancet
in the Correspondence section of the July 2000 edition, titled "The MMR
Question" (http://www.whale.to/v/gallop.html). The CDC would not do
immune blood panel tests for the children with autism involved in their
Brick, NJ study. The CDC is supposed to prevent and control diseases but
so far they have failed totally in controlling the autism epidemic that
increases exponentially year to year.

Our organization, The Autism Autoimmunity Project, has documented the
autism epidemic using the US Department of Education figures which use
the same diagnostic criterion year to year. 
(http://autismautoimmunityproject.org/shame.html)

 From the US Department of Education figures on autism:
 
2000-2001
http://www.ideadata.org/tables24th/ar_aa3.htm

2001-2002
http://www.ideadata.org/tables25th/ar_aa3.htm

2002-2003
http://www.ideadata.org/tables26th/ar_aa3.htm

Dr. F. Edward Yazbak, MD a pediatrician and a scientific advisory board
member of The Autism Autoimmunity Project has written several articles
documenting the autism epidemic in the the British Medical Journal
(http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7433/226-c)
and in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
(http://www.jpands.org/vol8no4/yazbak.pdf)
and online at Red Flags Daily:
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/conferences/autism/2004_jan25.html
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/conferences/autism/2004_jan25_2.html)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is supposed to insure that drugs
such as vaccines are safe but to date the FDA has never funded one
independent, long-term safety study on any of the vaccines. At the same
time, Congressman Dan Burton had a conflict of interest and vaccine
development hearing on June 15, 2000 that found that members of the FDA
and CDC had ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
 (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/rally/openstmntconint.htm)
David Willman wrote an article in the LA Times on December 7, 2003 about
the conflict of interest among NIH employees with outside companies
which Senator Arlen Spector and Senator Tom Harkin held a hearing on
January 22, 2004.  Robert Stacey McCain of the Washington Times wrote an
article in 2003 about the NIH funding a sex arousal study at
Northwestern University for $147,000.00. Congressman Dave Weldon said
the following in the article:
(http://washingtontimes.com/national/20030623-102147-8935r.htm)

 "While the NIH can find money to pay women to watch pornography and
fund a conference to tell everyone the obvious, funding for autism,
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research continues to lag," said Rep. Dave
Weldon, Florida Republican, who is also a physician. "Clearly, the NIH
grant-review process is broken, and I'm going to work to fix it."

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) along with the CDC, NIH, and FDA
continue to deny a link between vaccines and autism and even that there
is an autism epidemic. The NIH will not replicate the clinical science
of Dr. Vijendra Singh and Dr. Andrew Wakefield. None of the agencies can
explain why children with autism have high levels of mercury in their
hair samples, or why they have elevated measles antibody titers, measles
in the gut, measles in the spinal fluid or test positive for myelin
basic protein antibodies.

As time goes on the epidemic of autism will continue and The Autism
Autoimmunity Project will document the year to year increases that come
from the US Department of Education figures on autism. It is shameful
that the IOM, CDC, NIH and FDA are not taking a pro-active stance in
stopping this epidemic and helping to find treatments/cures for
children/adults with autism. By denying a connection they will not stop
the epidemic, only research and treatment will do that. The financial
costs to the Federal government and the states will go in the millions
if not billions to take care of all these children when they reach
adulthood.  The human costs are beyond calculation and will be a bitter
harvest, indeed, that our country will inherit. The time is NOW to do
something about this horrible and shameful epidemic.

Sincerely,

Raymond Gallup, Founder
The Autism Autoimmunity Project