Dear Family & Friends,
Click on the link below to see my op ed on the “Likely” Vaccine-Autism Connection. This appeared in today’s Pensacola News Journal.
http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080413/OPINION/804130314
I am sure I will be criticized by some of our area pediatricians. However, I will start listening to them when 1) they actually read the studies—most have not, and 2) they can answer the legitimate criticisms raised in contrarian research and in peer reviews of the CDC-sponsored research they claim demonstrates no causality.
For those who may be unaware, I am the father of a 15-year old, autistic son. He was developing normally, talking and playing appropriately. However, after a battery of childhood vaccinations, he regressed into autism.
Our follow-up research showed he had received enough mercury in his vaccinations to exceed the EPA mercury exposure limits by several hundred times. We also had his hair tested for mercury. (Hair elements testing is a standard procedure for determining heavy metal exposure.) This testing revealed our son, like many autistics, is not excreting mercury like a normal child. In fact, his level of excretion is about one-fifth of normal—again a common trait with many autistics.
Many researchers believe that a certain portion of the population has a genetic predisposition making them unable to ward off heavy metals like most people. Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines, is 50% ethyl mercury. And, mercury is one of the worst neurotoxins known to man.
I am not a doctor, although I have two advanced degrees. On the other hand, I have read every study and peer review on the autism-vaccine controversy that I have been able to find over the past decade. Contrary to the mainstream medical and media myth, the jury is still out on this subject. It is my opinion that there is likely a Vaccine-Autism connection. However, only with time and additional research will we truly know one way or the other.
Julian Irby
Pensacola , FL
June 19th, 2008 by forniss | 2008 Election, Politics