On page 253, we again see these scientists have a double standard when it comes to their children and grandchildren. Dr. Rapin raises the point about a loss of an IQ point caused by thimerosal exposure. She asks, "Can we measure the IQ that accurately, that this one little point is relevant?" Then she answers her own question by saying, "Even in my grandchildren, one IQ point I am going to fight about." Yet, they are saying in unison, in essence -- "To Hell With Your Children!" -- to the rest of America.

It is also interesting they bring up the history of lead as a neurobehavioral toxin. Dr. Weil noted that neurotoxicologists and regulatory agencies have lowered the acceptable level from 10 to 5 ug. In fact, some feel that even lower levels are neurotoxic to the developing brain. Before toxicologists began to look at lead as a brain toxin in children, most "experts" assumed it was not toxic, even at very high levels. Again, it shows that "experts" can be wrong and it is the public who pays the price.

Highly Protected Information

Dr. Chen, on page 256, expresses his concern about this information reaching the public. He remarks, "We have been privileged so far that given the sensitivity of information, we have been able to manage to keep it out of, lets say, less responsible hands ... ". Dr. Bernier agrees and notes, "This information has been held fairly tightly." Later, he calls it "embargoed information" and "very highly protected information."

That they knew the implications of what they had discovered was illustrated by Dr. Chen's statement on page 258. He says, "I think overall there was this aura that we were engaged in something as important as anything else we have ever done. So I think that this was another element to this that made this a special meeting."

You may remember, Dr. Weil emphasized the data analysis left no doubt that there was a strong correlation between neurodevelopmental problems and exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines. So if they understood the importance of this finding and this was the most important thing they have ever dealt with, why was this being kept from the public?

In fact, it gets even worse.

Just so you will not doubt my statement that this audience of experts was not objective, I give you the words of Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the National Immunization Program at the CDC, on page 259. He tells the group, "I have seen him [Verstraeten] in audience after audience deal with exceedingly skeptical individuals ... ."

Does that sound like objective scientists who wanted to look at the data with a clear mind or were they scientists who were convinced before the meeting was held that there was no danger to children from thimerosal or any other vaccine component?

In one of his closing remarks, Dr. Bernier (page 257) says, "The other thing I was struck by was the science," meaning the science expressed by the attendees of the meeting. Then Dr, Orenstein adds, "I would also like to thank Roger Bernier who pulled off this meeting in rather short notice." Here is a meeting that has been called one of the most important they have ever dealt with and we learn that it was pulled off on short notice. In addition, we were told that the results of this meeting would lead to an eventual vaccine policy.

He then has the nerve to add, "In a sense this meeting addresses some of the concerns we had last summer when we were trying to make policy in the absence of a careful scientific review. I think this time we have gotten it straight."

Well, I hate to be the one to break the news, but they didn't get it straight.

There was little or no science in this meeting. Rather it was composed of a lot of haggling and nitpicking over epidemiological methodology and statistical minutia in an effort to discredit the data without success. In fact, the so-called mercury experts admitted they had to do some quick homework to refresh their memories and learn something about the subject.

Conclusions

This top secret meeting was held to discuss a study done by Dr. Thomas Verstraeten and his co-workers using Vaccine Safety Datalink data as a project collaboration between the CDC's National Immunization Program (NIP) and four HMOs. The study examined the records of 110,000 children. Within the limits of the data, they did a very thorough study and found the following:

• Exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines at one month was associated significantly with the misery and unhappiness disorder that was dose-related. That is, the higher the child's exposure to thimerosal the higher the incidence of the disorder. This disorder is characterized by a baby that cries uncontrollably and is fretful more so than is seen in normal babies.

• Found a nearly significant increased risk of ADD with 12.5ug exposure at one month.

• With exposure at 3 months, they found an increasing risk of neurodevelopmental disorder with increasing exposure to thimerosal. This was statistically significant. This included speech disorders.

It is important to remember that the control group was not children without thimerosal exposure, but rather those at 12.5ug exposure. This means that there is a significant likelihood that even more neurodevelopmental problems would have been seen had they used a real control population. No one disagreed that these findings were significant and troubling.

Yet when the final study was published in the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Verstraeten and co-workers reported no consistent associations were found between thimerosal-containing vaccine exposure and neurodevelopmental problems. In addition, he listed himself as an employee of the CDC, not disclosing the fact that at the time the article was accepted, he worked for GlaxoSmithKline, a vaccine manufacturing company.

So how did they do this bit of prestidigitation? They simply added another HMO to the data, the Harvard Pilgrimage. Rep. Weldon noted in his letter to the CDC director that this HMO had been in receivership by the state of Massachusetts because its records were in shambles. Yet, this study was able to make the embarrassing data from his previous study disappear.

Attempts by Weldon to force the CDC to release the data to an independent researcher, Dr. Mark Geier, a researcher with impeccable credentials and widely published in peer-reviewed journals, have failed repeatedly.

It is obvious that a massive cover-up is in progress, as we have seen with so many other scandals:

• Fluoride
• Food-based excitotoxins
• Pesticides
• Aluminum

I would caution those critical of the present vaccine policy not to put all their eggs in one basket, that is, with thimerosal as being the main culprit. There is no question that it plays a major role, but there are other factors that are also critical, including aluminum, fluoroaluminum complexes and chronic immune activation of brain microglia.

In fact, excessive, chronic microglial activation can explain many of the effects of excessive vaccine exposure as I point out in two recently published articles. One property of both aluminum and mercury is microglial activation. With chronic microglial activation, large concentrations of excitotoxins are released as well as neurotoxic cytokines. These have been shown to destroy synaptic connections, dendrites and cause abnormal pathway development in the developing brain as well as adult brain.

In essence, too many vaccines are being given to children during the brain's most rapid growth period. Known toxic metals are beings used in the vaccines that interfere with brain metabolism, antioxidant enzymes, damage DNA and DNA repair enzymes and trigger excitotoxicity.

Removing the mercury will help but will not solve the problem because overactivation of the brain's immune system will cause varying degrees of neurological damage to the highly-vulnerable developing brain.