Thimerosal: Coverup for a Cause of Autism?
Scarborough and RFK Jr. discuss how an ingredient in vaccines may
have contributed to thousands of cases
TRANSCRIPT
Updated: 11:32 a.m. ET June 22, 2005
Joe Scarborough Host, `Scarborough Country'
Six out of every 1,000 kids has autism, and nobody knows exactly
why. But guest Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in an interview on
the 'Scarborough Country' program on Tuesday that part of the blame
needs to fall on the government. It has to do with a drug called
Thimerosal.
Kennedy Jr., a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense
Counsel, and author of "Deadly Immunity," an article about the
investigation into a possible connection between Thimerosal and
Autism in the current issue of "Rolling Stone," talked with Joe
about his findings.
SCARBOROUGH: Let's talk about Thimerosal. ... There are a lot of people, a
lot of Americans very concerned about the impact of this drug, which
is found in vaccines, and how it causes autism. Talk about that.
KENNEDY: That's right. Thimerosal is a preservative that was put in
vaccines back in the 1930s. Almost immediately after it was put in,
autism cases began to appear. Autism had never been known before.
It was unknown to science. Then the vaccines were increased in 1989
by the CDC and by a couple of other government agencies.
SCARBOROUGH: OK, let me stop you there. That's an important date.
And I will tell you why.
My son, born in 1991, has a slight form of autism called
Asperger`s. And it seems -- but, again, when I was practicing law
and also when I was in Congress, parents would constantly come to me
and they would bring me videotapes of their children, and they were
all around the age of my son or younger. So, something happened in
1989.
KENNEDY: Exactly. What happened was the vaccine schedule was
increased. We went up from receiving about 10 vaccines in our
generation to these kids receive 24 vaccines. And they all had this
Thimerosal in them, this mercury. And nobody bothered to do an
analysis of what the cumulative impact of all that mercury was doing
to kids.
As it turns out, we are injecting our children with 400 times the
amount of mercury that FDA or EPA considers safe. A child on his
first day that he is born is injected with a Hepatitis B shot.
Under EPA guidelines, he would have to be 275 pounds to safely
absorb that shot.
SCARBOROUGH: And yet, we are just constantly pumping our kids with
these vaccines. Where is the federal government in all of this?
KENNEDY: What happened was that, in 1988, one in every 2,500
American children had autism. Today, one in every 166 children has
autism. And, plus, one in six have other kinds of learning
disorders, other kinds of neurological disorders, speech delay,
language disorders, ADD, hyperactivity, that all seem to be
connected, that are all connected, the science shows are all
connected to autism -- to Thimerosal.
SCARBOROUGH: You know, Bobby, what we've always found, you and
could debate 1,000 different issues, whether it's Terri Schiavo or
the environment. I think we would agree on the environment. But,
in this case, you have got the federal government coming in saying,
well, there's no really -- there's no good science. And, of course,
in politics, science always gets diluted. Why hasn't the federal
government stepped up and worked more, because listen, Bobby, I
can't prove it tonight. You can't prove it, but, intuitively, you
look at the spike. You look at what happened with Thimerosal.
There's no doubt in my mind -- maybe it's two years from now. Maybe
it's five years from now. Maybe it's 10 years from now. We are
going to find out Thimerosal causes, in my opinion, autism.
KENNEDY: You know what? The science is out there today for anybody
who bothers to read it. And I have read it. Actually, on my Web
site this week, RobertFKennedyJr.com, I am publishing an article
that goes through all of the science.
But the science is clear. And what happens is, I read the science
at first. And there's literally hundreds and hundreds of studies
that connect Thimerosal to these disastrous neurological disorders.
Then I went, I talked to the scientists. Then I went and I talked
to the federal bureaucrats who are defending Thimerosal. And I said,
what are you relying on? And I looked at the science they are
relying on. And I can tell you, Joe, it is so weak. And you and I
have seen, in the legal practice, junk science. And we know what
these phony scientists are who create this stuff.
SCARBOROUGH: It happened in big tobacco.
KENNEDY: Right. Tobacco.
SCARBOROUGH: It happens in big oil. It's happening in global
warming. And now it's happening in a way that is impacting our
kids` lives.
KENNEDY: This is classic tobacco science. It is junk science. And
I was looking at these reports and saying, this is the best? This
is what you are relying on? They know it's fraudulent. And now we
have the transcripts.
SCARBOROUGH: Explain. Explain it to me, Bobby, OK? Explain it to
me. If that's the case -- I mean, you and I both know about
politics, obviously.
Politicians like to get reelected. Why are they sitting back and --
if our children are being poisoned, if the science is there, why are
they sitting back and letting our children be poisoned?
KENNEDY: Because the same regulatory bureaucrats that green-lighted
Thimerosal originally are now trying to cover their tracks.
SCARBOROUGH: It's a CYA operation.
KENNEDY: Right. Are they are working with the pharmaceutical
industry. And we now have the transcripts of the secret meeting
that they did in Simpsonwood, Georgia, in the year 2000.
And it's the most horrifying thing that you can read, Joe. There
are scientists there from the government who are saying -- who are
reading the reports and saying, this is undeniable. There's no way
we can ever deny this. I am not going to give this to my children,
but now let's hide this from the American people. And it's that
clear.
And this is what I write about. It's this language that I write
about in the "Rolling Stone" and the "Salon" piece that
is so
shocking, where we have the guys who are supposed to be protecting
Americans` health who are actually conspiring to keep this stuff in
the vaccines.
SCARBOROUGH: You know, and I can't say what lawsuit we were both
involved in. I don't want to say it. But it reminds me of a
lawsuit we were involved in a couple years ago regarding water
quality, where you know the people that polluted in our community
and then left our community would have never drank the water that
our children grew up drinking. And it's a disaster. It's a
disgrace.
So, hey, Bobby, thanks for being here tonight. If you can come
back, we need to talk more about this. And I also want to talk
about -- and I am going to hold up the book now. We actually lured
Bobby in to say that we were going to talk to him about this book.
But, actually, he said he wanted to talk about this instead. I
appreciate you being here, Bobby, as always. And let's get you
back.
KENNEDY: Thanks a lot, Joe.
SCARBOROUGH: And let's get you running for a public office. I will
defend your honor whenever any Republican says anything nasty.
(LAUGHTER)
KENNEDY: Well, that counts for a lot. Thanks a lot, Joe.
(LAUGHTER)
SCARBOROUGH: Yes, that and a quarter, right, will get you a cup of
coffee.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8243264/
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