Defending the Indefensible – Injecting Mercury in Babies

Currently being negotiated at the World Health Organization (WHO) is whether to ban the use of mercury in medicines and vaccines. Scientists have been testifying to WHO about the dangers of mercury so many of the member nations of WHO have called for a ban on medications containing mercury and that was moving forward until very recently. What has happened in the past few weeks is that former American health officials, vaccine developers, American pediatricians, and others connected to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have come out lobbying to exempt vaccines and other medical products from the mercury treaty. Interestingly, there have been several opinion pieces penned by these folks in recent weeks, all which garnered much good media coverage.

Although most folks would probably find it confusing that American pediatricians would DEFEND the use of mercury in any vaccine or medication, that is exactly what is happening. Former health officials and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are suggesting that the use of thimerosal (50% mercury by weight) is OK in vaccines and medications. They claim that the research shows it is not harmful and that they never should have taken it out of most childhood vaccines in America. Perhaps they need to look again as Dr. DeSoto did a review of all the research investigating the link between mercury and autism and found that the research favored a link between mercury exposure and autism by a factor of 3:1. Read Dr. DeSoto’s study Sorting out the spinning of autism: heavy metals and the question of incidence and check out our recent blog on flu vaccines to learn more about the dangers of mercury.

So if it is generally accepted that mercury is a potent neurotoxin and the science FAVORS a link, why are American health officials and pediatricians defending its use in vaccines? Well all the folks calling for an exemption for vaccines are connected to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or to a vaccine maker or to the AAP.

While this is so absurd it should make us all laugh, it is not a joke. So what gives? If vaccines are reformulated to eliminate mercury, they get more expensive. It costs a few dollars more per dose to make single dose vials that don’t need a preservative like mercury. Clearly, that doesn’t help Merck or GlaxoSmithkline or sanofi pasteur sell more vaccines, and it makes the purchasing cost of vaccines more expensive for the Gates Foundation. But what about the AAP? Well, while the AAP is widely respected as a medical organization, it is important to remember that it is just a trade group like any trade group. And this trade group gets funding from industry, in this instance, the pharmaceutical industry that make these vaccines. It was discovered that the pharmaceutical industry gave large sums of money to the AAP when they were constructing premises. But perhaps an even more important explanation to consider is this: if the WHO bans the use of mercury in all medical products including vaccines, what does this say about those in positions of power in the US? Doesn’t it reflect poorly on American health officials and pediatricians who claim it is perfectly safe to inject pregnant women and young children with mercury-containing flu vaccines? And what does it say about the AAP’s insistence that it only called for the removal of mercury from childhood vaccines as a precautionary  measure as there was really never anything to worry about?? I don’t know who said it, but “image is everything”, comes to mind.

Please sign the petition calling for mercury to be banned and spread it far and wide.