Robert F. Kennedy Jr., well-known for his environmental activism, is also known for his staunch belief that the government has conspired to cover up the connection between vaccines and autism (as well as other neurological disorders). In his June 2005 article, Deadly Immunity, which was published on Salon.com and Rolling Stone.com, Kennedy reveals that leaders from the CDC, the FDA, the World Health Organization, and major pharmaceutical companies met in 2000 to discuss the correlation between the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal and the overwhelming rise in autism, a fifteen fold increase from one child in every 2500 to one in every 166.
Kennedy writes, “But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry’s bottom line.”
The original data from the study that sparked the meeting was, of course, lost and could not be replicated. And though the study was said to be slated for immediate publication, it was not released for three years. By then, the author had begun work for a pharmaceutical company. His published article no longer linked thimerosal and autism.
Kennedy’s article shows more than a cover-up; it reveals the on-going disregard for human life and health. Though American pharmaceutical companies began to phase out thimerosal, they continued to sell off their backlog of dangerous vaccines. In addition, the CDC and FDA bought vaccines, which included thimerosal, for export to developing countries and allowed the preservative to remain in some pediatric flu shots and tetanus shots.
Click here for Kennedy’s full article, which also explores other avenues of political corruption regarding this issue. or listen to an audio version
In February of 2009, three rulings against parents seeking damages for vaccination injury were touted in the press as being the definitive answer to the vaccination and autism link. Kennedy and David Kirby wrote an article published in the Huffington Post refuting that claim. In their article they stated, “…an explosive investigation by CBS News has found that since 1988, the vaccine court has awarded money judgments, often in the millions of dollars, to thirteen hundred and twenty two families whose children suffered brain damage from vaccines. In many of these cases, the government paid out awards following a judicial finding that vaccine injury <sic> lead to the child’s autism spectrum disorder.”Click here for the full article.
In addition, Kennedy wrote a June 19, 2007 blog: Attack on Mothers regarding efforts by the government and the media to vilify mothers of autistic children who are fighting for vaccine awareness.
Also, be sure to these articles on vaccines.