[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 8, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2913-H2914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AUTISM AND VACCINATIONS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, on a regular basis I come down
here and talk about children who are autistic and the reasons for it.
We have been receiving letters from across the country from literally
hundreds and probably thousands of parents who have autistic children,
and they do not know what to do about it, and all of them believe their
children were damaged by the mercury that is in vaccines. It has been
in children's vaccines for a long, long time.
Children get between 25 and 30 vaccinations before they go to school,
and up until just recently almost all of them contained thimerosal
which was 50 percent mercury. We all know mercury is toxic to the
brain, and yet they had it as a preservative in vaccines. And our
children, in my opinion, and scientists and doctors from across the
globe and here in the States believe that mercury in the vaccines was
one of the major causes.
Here on this easel I have pictures of probably 50 or 60 or 70 kids
who were damaged by the mercury in the vaccines, and I have letters
that I read every night. We have a system here called the Vaccine
Injury Compensation Fund that is supposed to take care of these
children if they are damaged by vaccines. It has $1.8 billion in it. It
is supposed to protect the pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, and
yet these parents of these kids have had a very difficult time getting
satisfaction and restitution from that fund, and many of them, because
there was a 3-year statute of limitations, could not even get in the
fund.
The reason I bring this up right now is because we are in the process
of working on legislation that would deal with this problem, that would
help these kids who missed the opportunity by getting in that 3-year
window of opportunity to be put in the program so that their case could
be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the special master. These
families are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, they are going
bankrupt, selling their homes, borrowing money, doing everything to
help their children, and there is nowhere for them to turn. We need to
[[Page H2914]]
make sure that they have access to this fund for which it was created
and not have to go to courts to have class action lawsuits. And that is
what we are working on with the other body and the majority leader in
the other body to get done.
I want to read just a couple of letters that come from these people
who have no place to turn. Here is a letter that came from a Marcy
Kelly from Mullica Hill, New Jersey, and she writes:
``My son turned 4 in October, 2002, and was diagnosed with autism
after a long history of medical problems that began at 2 months, within
1 week of his first series of thimerosal-containing vaccines. His
immune system, weakened to where he couldn't handle viruses (resulting
in recurring ear infections and RSV), he had reflux, terrible allergies
and eczema, and a reaction to his MMR shot that is documented to have
caused vomiting nightly for 6 months post vaccination and 2 years of
diarrhea. Medical tests show toxic levels of metals, reduced
glutathione, malabsorption, maldigestion, severe allergies, and liver
problems, all common in those poisoned by mercury. He regressed into
autism between 18 and 24 months.'' As a father and grandfather, you
understand the heartbreak that I felt.
This is a picture of him.
``We have spent well over $100,000 in the last 2 years, mostly on
medical visits, tests, and therapies. Our insurance company, Aetna US
Healthcare, stopped paying for these funds.'' So they have noplace to
go.
And she ends up by saying, ``I understand that you intend to take our
stories before Congress, not individually but as a group. If you could
take a single child (or family with more than one child on the
spectrum) and pile up all of the medical and therapy bills, ADA drill
books and materials, and supplements used to help them heal from the
effects of vaccines, it would be quite mountainous and tell a story as
well. God be with you and with other politicians as they vote on
matters relating to autism. In the quiet of night, if politicians would
ask themselves the question `what is right?' the answer in their hearts
would be to help their children and their families.''
We have the ability to do that, and we must do something and we must
do it very soon, because these families are suffering; and we have to
be very diligent to make sure the other body does not put some language
in the bill that would be like what was in the homeland security bill
which protected pharmaceutical companies but not the children.
I yield to the gentlewoman from California.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman so very much. I caught
his presentation on the screen as I was going through the cloakroom,
and I cannot tell him how proud I am of him for dealing with this issue
of autism and children. I commend him for his interest. I commend him
for the work that he is doing on it.
I came in close contact with children who were autistic when I
started in the Head Start program.
{time} 1815
Prior to the Head Start program, we had children who were autistic
and had other kinds of deficiencies that never got discovered, and that
is one reason I love the Head Start program so very, very much. But the
most interesting and the most challenging and the most undertold story
was the story of children with autism.
I join the gentleman in his efforts and will do everything that I can
to bring attention and resources to help these families of children who
have autism.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, we will
contact the gentlewoman on that legislation. We will be down here every
night that is available to talk about this issue. I thank the
gentlewoman.
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