Mercury in Vaccines
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Interview with Author David Kirby |
HMN was honored to have the opportunity to interview David Kirby, author of “Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy” in March 2005 before the release of his book.
HMN:
What was the impetus for writing Evidence of Harm?
What was that moment that sparked your book?
Kirby:
November 17, 2002: the day of the Homeland Security Bill, when it passed
– that was really it for me. I
had been doing some preliminary research for women’s magazines looking
into some autism stories and some parents in Los Angeles told me that they
suspected it was the mercury in vaccines that was causing autism.
I was astounded to hear that and I didn’t even know there was
mercury in vaccines. And,
frankly, I thought it sounded a little far-fetched.
I thought that if there really was mercury in vaccines that it had
to be at a level so low that the government would never allow it to reach
toxic levels. About a week
later I heard about the Homeland security bill – and that was the first
time in my life I had ever heard of thimerosal.
It was all over the news, it was right after the election and I was
really intrigued by it. I was
pretty disgusted that in a democracy legislators could vote on a bill that
they weren’t even aware of its entire contents.
That something could be slipped in the middle of the night without
any procedure and I think that’s why it was so scandalous. What it
really told me was that they’re hiding something, there’s a story here
– they wouldn’t act like this in the middle of the night if they
weren’t scared and if they didn’t want people to know what they were
doing. So that’s what
really got me started. This
was originally a very political story.
I was interested in Homeland bill and was very interested the
connections between Eli Lilly and the Bush Administration, and the whole
idea of vaccines being used as a homeland security issue, but my first
reaction was what did autism have to do with Usama Bin Laden?
Then, when I found out that the Bush administration lawyers went
into vaccine court to seal the records of the government discovery
materials permanently, then I really said there is a scandal brewing here.
I
tried to pitch it to several magazines as an article and was unsuccessful.
And then one day it occurred to me that this was the book I always
wanted to write. It is told
not just from the political view, but as a human story of parents fighting
to discover what happened to their children.
I was extremely lucky to make contact with the parents of Safe
Minds and others, who really deserve the credit for providing me with
their time and their documents.
HMN:
So you started off as a skeptic, but was there a moment where you because
convinced about the dangers of mercury?
Kirby:
I didn’t realize how harmful mercury is and it is truly harmful.
I think public awareness, outcry, and science are all coming
together to point the finger at mercury for causing lots of problems in
our society. There was no
real epiphany moment for me and it may still turn out that thimerosal had
no contribution to autism whatsoever.
But if it turns out that way, I will be extremely surprised, but I
would also be surprised if it was the ONLY cause.
I think it’s a contributing factor, maybe a major contributing
factor, but that still remains to be proven.
We
actually have the closest thing to a smoking gun as we have seen in a
recent study in Pediatrics using researchers at Johns Hopkins University
using US Department of Education data which broke down the prevalence of
autism by birth cohort and found that starting in 1987 the incidence of
autism went up. It’s
important that there was no diagnostic substitution or reclassification
from mental retardation to autism. These
were new cases, appearing more and more every year.
What really struck me was that the rate of increase began to peak
in 1987 and then leveled out in 1992.
What happened in 1987 was the introduction of the HiB, which
doubled mercury exposure for infants.
Prior to that the only mercury was from DTP or DTaP.
When they added HiB on, which had mercury in it, they doubled
exposure to 200 mcg. In 1992
they added the Hepatitis B, with gradual uptake and compliance over the
next few years, so that added another 37.5 mcg – now over 2 ½ times the
amount of mercury than in 1987. I
think it’s incredibly interesting and that’s why I say I would be
extremely surprised if there was no direct connection between mercury and
rising autism rates.
HMN:
If the authorities were to remove thimerosal from the vaccines, would you
expect an immediate drop in the autism rates?
Kirby:
Yes. Yes, you would but not a
complete elimination because I believe there are other causes – and some
of those, such as environmental mercury, will remain.
We are literally swimming in the stuff – our lakes and rivers are
filled with mercury, the fish is contaminated, they’re finding it in
wildlife, small birds, the level has reached such crisis proportions.
We seem to have crossed a threshold of mercury poisoning – in the
air, the water, and in our food.
HMN:
So why do we hear about the warnings on food, such as fish, but not in
vaccines?
Kirby:
The experts argue that there is a difference and feel that methyl mercury
is much more dangerous. Ethyl
mercury and methyl mercury are two forms of organic mercury.
Methyl gets into the air through air pollution, into the water, and
food chain. Ethyl mercury is
what is used in vaccines. Ethyl
reconverts into inorganic much more quickly than methyl
– but may be more damaging because it is not as likely to be
expelled and there is evidence that it concentrates in certain areas of
the brain that link to signs and symptoms of autism.
HMN:
What about other vaccine ingredients, such as aluminum and formaldehyde?
Do you think your research will open a can of worms about what is
in vaccines?
Kirby:
That was not the purpose of my book – to look into other components of
vaccines that might be dangerous. I
focus on mercury. I think
vaccine safety in general should become a great topic of discussion and
concern in this country. I
think mercury absolutely does not belong in that mix.
I think people should look at the total burden kids are being
exposed to. And yes, aluminum
and mercury are more dangerous combined than alone.
But it is not my intent to scare people away from vaccines.
I don’t think we should be afraid of the technology of vaccines,
but we should question their safety and the number and frequency of
vaccines. For example, it’s
hard to understand why a newborn baby needs a Hepatitis B vaccine.
With MMR, 95% of kids get an immune response on the first shot but
instead of taking titers and testing for immunity, they do a second shot
to get that 5% that may not take the first time.
Titers would be much more expensive, and I do wonder about that.
I think we are moving toward a new age of medicine where one size
does not fit all.
HMN:
Have you seen cases of autism among children who were not vaccinated? If
so, what do they think are the causes of their children’s autism?
Kirby:
Yes, but only two or three (cases). In
every case the mother’s ate massive amounts of fish while pregnant –
sushi, tuna, mackerel, swordfish. The
mothers thought they were doing the right thing – this was before the
FDA warnings. There may be
some kids who are just born with autism.
HMN:
So do you think there a generational effect?
If thimerosal was created in 1930 are mothers carrying mercury from
their own vaccines or the environment?
Kirby:
Absolutely. This has been
studied quite a bit in the Faroe and Sechyelles islands – where
populations eat a lot of whale meat and fish.
They studied mercury levels in mothers who were pregnant and were
eating fish. They took hair
samples to measure the mercury and then studied the hair of their
children. The higher the
mercury level in mothers, more likely the children would be damaged by
mercury. We now know that
630,000 children are born each year with mercury levels high enough to
cause damage later in life [this is mercury in their system before
vaccines or foods are introduced] – that’s one in six children and
that corresponds to the number of children in the public school systems
with learning disabilities. The
thimerosal is actually the final insult – kids are exposed prenatally,
then when they’re born they get slammed with ethyl mercury being
injected into their bodies. You
see this when they measure cord blood -- it has 70% higher levels of
mercury in cord blood for infants than the levels of mercury found in the
mother’s blood. That would
suggest that the fetus almost acts as a filter for the mother, soaking up
the heavy metals in her blood. My
understanding is that most of the mercury gets lodged in the liver of the
children. These kids are
almost born like time bombs.
HMN:
Is there a connection between less dramatic health
issues, such as allergies, and mercury?
Kirby:
That is another theory that needs to be looked into.
Mercury causes autoimmune disorders and hypersensitivity.
Pharmacologist Richard
Deth of Northeastern University argues that asthma, juvenile diabetes, and
MS are all linked to mercury exposure.
My friends say you can blame everything on mercury and they’re
probably right – but mercury can cause autoimmune disorders and these
are all autoimmune disorders.
HMN:
What treatments are there for mercury removal and/or for autism?
Kirby:
First let me say that I am not recommending or endorsing any treatment.
Parents need to speak to their doctors about treatment and
diagnosis. But I am in a
position to report what I have found.
Chelation is the most common treatment.
There are others being developed.
Chelation is approved for lead poisoning and is standard procedure
for mercury poisoning in adults. It
is new as a treatment of autism and is still controversial and needs to be
tested. Speaking to parents,
I have heard remarkable stories of recovery using chelation.
Over the course of writing my book, I have known some of these kids
for three years and can actually attest to the changes in these kids.
However, there are questions about the side effects and dosage.
You can chelate orally or through IVs in adults.
Oral chelation with children has to be done under strict doctor’s
supervision, as it can upset the GI tract and you really need to monitor
side effects, since it can deplete other minerals from the body, which can
be dangerous. The topical
chelation can be available in patch form, but here you can have problems
such as rashes at contact site. But
topical use does not have the GI problems because you bypass that.
Parents find it very helpful with their children, or so I’m told.
HMN:
So how can government or health authorities turn the other way or even
justify their failure to act, if there is evidence of harm?
Kirby:
I can’t justify their actions or speak for them.
And most of them would not speak to me.
The FDA, CDC, HHS. . . I have a lot of questions for them and would
love to know what they are thinking.
Are they afraid, are they in denial, are they convinced there is no
harm being done?
HMN:
What one part of the book would you really like your readers to take from
it?
Kirby:
Actually, there are three. First
is that mercury is bad and how bad it really is.
That we need to look into this issue and really investigate it.
Second, is that these families with autistic children need and
deserve help. Someone has to
pay for this and we need to prepare for the budgetary crisis we are facing
when these kids need a lifetime of care.
Finally, we need to consider that we are exporting these vaccines
overseas, almost all of which contain mercury.
In developing countries, they need to use multi-use vials, it’s
too burdensome for them to separate vaccines.
We need to develop a better preservative.
I worry that if this theory pans out, and if thimerosal causes
autism and we are exporting this all over the world, that this is a
geo-political disaster for the United States.