SafeMinds Current Press Releases
October 21, 2011 SafeMinds Applauds Proposed Global Treaty Ban on Mercury in Vaccines
No amount of mercury is insignificant when directly injected into the body of an infant, young child or pregnant woman
(Atlanta, GA ) SafeMinds applauds UNEP’s draft treaty language which does not exempt the use of mercury in pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, from the global ban. Governmental regulators, public health officials and pharmaceutical companies have recognized that the toxicity of mercury in pharmaceutical and personal care products, to which people are directly exposed, justifies a preventive approach to minimize all exposures. Read full release.
August 25, 2011 New IOM Report on Vaccine Adverse Effects Shows Alarming Lack of Good Science. SafeMinds notes: Parents should still be concerned. Download full release.
August 9, 2011 Familial Susceptibility to Mercury Is a Risk Factor for Autism. New research shows six-fold risk of ASD in grandchildren of acrodynia survivors
SafeMinds calls on the pharmaceutical industry to remove mercury from all products, including vaccines. Download full release.
July 12, 2011 New Research Suggests Stronger Environmental Link to Autism.
SafeMinds applauds the findings of the study looking at genetic and environmental factors for autism by sixteen California researchers just published in the American Medical Association's journal Archives of General Psychiatry. The researchers, including many gene scientists, found that environmental exposures play a significant role in triggering Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Download full release.
MAY 10, 2011 83 Cases of Autism Associated with Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensated in Federal Vaccine Court
Government program has been quietly paying awards to vaccine-injured children with autism for two decades but continues to deny vaccine-autism link. SafeMinds calls for immediate Congressional investigations. Read more.
APRIL 19, 2011 Daughter of Journalist Robert MacNeil States that Son Regressed Into Autism After Vaccines
SafeMinds and Alison MacNeil call for immediate, properly-designed and independently-conducted vaccine safety studies in an effort to identify infants at risk for vaccine injury. Download release.
APRIL 14, 2011 Thorsen Indicted
Poul Thorsen, the principal coordinator of multiple studies funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used to deny a vaccine/autism link was indicted on April 13th on 13 counts of fraud and 9 counts of money laundering. The charges relate to funding for work he conducted for the CDC, which claimed to disprove associations between the mercury-based vaccine preservative, thimerosal, and increased rates of autism. Download release.
FEBRUARY 23, 2011 Supreme Court Ruling Completely Shields Pharmaceutical Companies from Vaccine Safety Liability. SafeMinds Asks Congress to Revisit Vaccine Safety. Read more.
JANAURY 12, 2011 Autism Advocacy Organizations and Parent Groups Support Dr. Andrew Wakefield Urging Both Scientists and Journalists to Do More Thorough Research Into Vaccines and Autism. Read full release.
SafeMinds Recommends Mercury-Free Flu Vaccines for Seniors.
Mercury implicated in Alzheimer’s Disease in a review of the scientific literature published today.
November 15, 2010 safeminds press release
SafeMinds has developed a new campaign to educate the public about the continued use of a mercury preservative, known as thimerosal, in the majority of influenza vaccines, including those given annually to seniors. “We intend to empower the public to make informed decisions about flu vaccines. There is a tremendous amount of misinformation being circulated about mercury having been removed from vaccines,” says Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN, Executive Director of SafeMinds. “While there are mercury-free flu shots available, consumers are often unaware that they need to ask for them and insist on not being exposed to mercury.” Download full release. Read more about mercury and Alzheimers.
New Scientific Evidence Links Autism to Vaccines and Mercury
Ending the Autism Epidemic Starts with Removal of Harmful Exposures, Says SafeMinds
July 19, 2010 SAFEMINDS PRESS RELEASE
Two papers in this week's neuroscience journal Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis point to vaccines and heavy metals including mercury as causes of the alarming rise in autism. The Centers for Disease Control now estimate autism to affect one in 110 children, up 40% from just a few years ago. Download release. Read full statement and view additional resources.
Tragic Suppression of Science
SafeMinds protests the GMC sanctioning of Dr. Andrew Wakefield for exposing MMR vaccine injuries and calls for independent vaccine safety agency and Congressional hearings on government's lax record on safety issues
may 24, 2010 SafeMinds Press Release
Today, it was confirmed that Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his colleague, Dr. John Walker-Smith, will lose their licenses to practice medicine in the UK. This concludes the longest medical hearings ever held by the UK’s General Medical Council. SafeMinds, as an advocate for vaccine safety and evidence-based medicine deplores this travesty of “justice”. Revoking Dr. Wakefield’s medical license does nothing to address the fact that children continue to be injured by vaccines as documented by the 1,000 plus awards issued by the Federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the paucity of science aimed at understanding and preventing such injury. Download full release.
Numerous independent researchers have also confirmed the behavioral-bowel disease association, autistic enterocolitis. Click here to view study citations.
Click here to view Dr. Wakefield's interview on The Today Show.
Federal Vaccine Court Rules Against Autism Families
Government's Refusal to Fund Sound Science Stacks Deck Against Vaccine-Injured Children and Casts Doubt on the Integrity of the National Immunization Program says SafeMinds.
March 12, 2010 SafeMinds Press Release
Washington, D.C. - March 12, 2010 - Autism and mercury advocacy organization SafeMinds regrets today's ruling by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims against three families who argued that vaccines which contained the mercury based preservative thimerosal contributed to their child's autism. The denial of reasonable compensation to families was based on inadequate vaccine safety science and poorly designed and highly controversial epidemiology studies supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Download full release. Click here to read TACA's statement and explanation of the Omnibus Autism Proceedings.
GMC Rules Against Wakefield et al., Yet Medical Establishment Agrees
Further Study of GI Disease in Children with Autism Is Top Priority
JANUARY 27, 2010 SafeMinds Press Release
Today the General Medical Council (GMC), the regulatory body for doctors in the UK, made findings of fact in connection to a complaint filed by journalist Brian Deer. The complaint alleged conflicts of interest and unethical research against Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Dr. John Walker-Smith and Dr. Simon Murch relating to their 1998 case series published in the Lancet. As a result of these findings, the GMC will now determine the severity and appropriate sanctions, which could go so far as the loss of their licenses to practice medicine. Download full release.
Autism - CDC Avoids the Elephant in the Room
A study released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that autism prevalence has increased a staggering 57% from the 1994 rate of 1 in 150 to 1 in 110 for children born in 1998. SafeMinds is extremely dissatisfied with CDC’s lack of commitment to researching environmental causes and the timing of their announcement. Download full release.
CDC Brings Bad Tidings: Autism Prevalence Reaches 1 in 110
SafeMinds calls for immediate action from public health officials and implores journalists to ask
the tough questions listed here
December 17, 2009 SafeMinds Press Release
Atlanta, GA – A study to be released Friday by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring
(ADDM) Network of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is expected to report that autism prevalence
has reached the epidemic rate of 1 in 110 children. The new estimate is for children born in 1996 and
represents. A 2007 CDC calculation reported 1 in 150 for children born in 1994. Based on this new
report, roughly 36, 000 children are diagnosed yearly. SafeMinds calls for cutting edge research now! Download full release.
CDC Study Expected to Announce 1 in 100 Autism Rate—A Startling 50% Jump in Just Two Years. Evidence Points to an Environmental Trigger.
SafeMinds calls for more targeted environmental research and vaccine safety studies to begin immediately.
DECEMBER 16, 2009 SAFEMINDS PRESS RELEASE
Atlanta, GA – Researchers report that autism has risen to an epidemic rate of 1 in 100 children in a study to be released on Friday by the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network office of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), This rate represents a 50% increase between the two birth cohort years of 1994 and 1996 and mirrors a recent study released by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which found a rate of 1 in 91 children, 1 in 58 boys. Read more.
New California Study on Children’s Blood Mercury Levels Leaves
Unanswered Questions About Mercury’s Role in Autism.
SafeMinds Calls for Studies on Early Exposures and Altered Mercury Susceptibility, End to Mercury in Influenza Vaccines.
October 19, 2009 SafeMinds Press Release
The science journal Environmental Health Perspectives released findings from the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) Study comparing blood mercury levels in children with and without an autism spectrum disorder. The study assessed blood mercury concentrations from recent exposures and did not assess or compare effects of earlier exposures in typical children or children with autism. Read more.
What Causes Autism & Has Science Really Ruled Out Vaccines?
CDC and AAP Says Science Answers the Question But Many Others In Government Don’t Agree
october 6, 2009 safeminds press release
Monday, Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, published an Autism Prevalence Survey conducted in 2007 finding that autism has reached 1 in 91 children; 1 in 58 boys. When will the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics begin to treat the epidemic with the three-alarm emergency status it deserves? Read more.
Autism Prevalence Now At 1 in 91 Children, 1 in 58 Boys
SafeMinds Calls For A Ban on Thimerosal from Seasonal and H1N1 Flu Vaccines
In Pregnant Women and Young Children
October 5, 2009 SafeMinds Press Release
Today the Maternal & Child Health Bureau of Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), US Department of Health and Human Services released a study evaluating the number of children in the U.S. who currently have a Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis, The Prevalence of Parent-Reported Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder among Children in the United States, 2007. The Study evaluated data from a national Survey of Children’s Health and found that 1 in 91 children between the ages of 3 and 17 currently carry an ASD diagnosis -1 in 58 boys. Read more.
Ground-Breaking Monkey Study: Mercury-Containing Hepatitis B Vaccine Causes Brain Damage
SafeMinds calls for moratorium on use of mercury-containing H1N1and seasonal influenza vaccine
September 30, 2009 SafeMinds Press Release
September 30, 2009 - A study published today in Neurotoxicology, the leading scientific journal in its field, discovered brain damage in newborn monkeys given the Hepatitis B vaccine containing the mercury preservative thimerosal. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) added this vaccine to the recommended immunization schedule for newborn babies in 1991. The vaccine caused a significant delay in the acquisition of key primate survival reflexes essential for life in the wild. Mercury is especially toxic to the developing brain and immune system. Read more.
Critical Safety Questions Remain Unanswered as CDC Embarks on Final Public Meeting on Swine Flu Vaccine
Septembr 9, 2009 SafeMinds Press Release
Washington D.C., Tuesday, September 8 - The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will host an H1N1 stakeholder’s meeting at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the 10th and finishing 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the 11th. Results from the previous 10 citizen/public engagements and from online dialogues will be reported at this meeting and discussion will focus on how pandemic swine flu vaccine will be made available to the public.
This is the last in a series of public engagements sponsored by the CDC in advance of the current H1N1 vaccine efforts. SafeMinds hopes the CDC will answer safety questions that remain and that have been put forth by many vaccine safety advocacy groups, as well as from the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) own scientific advisory panel, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC).
Government officials have represented to media that the H1N1 vaccine is formulated in the same manner as regular seasonal flu vaccine and is therefore safe. However, very little completed safety data will be available prior to the beginning of vaccine administration and assumptions related to safety are inconsistent with clearly stated concerns from HHS’s NVAC, in their July 24 draft recommendations;
“The need to actively monitor vaccine recipients for vaccine adverse events is critical given that the vaccine candidates will all contain a new antigen and may be combined with adjuvants that are not part of licensed vaccines in the US.”
Federal Vaccine Court Rules Against Autism Families.
Government’s Refusal to Fund Sound Science Stacks Deck Against Vaccine-Injured Children.
February 12, 2009 SafeMinds Press Release
One more reason to distrust the government’s vaccine program, says SafeMinds
Autism advocacy organization SafeMinds regrets today’s ruling by the U.S Court of Federal Claims against three families who argued that vaccination contributed to their child’s autism. The denial of reasonable compensation to families was based on inadequate vaccine safety science available to the court. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the defendant in vaccine injury cases and is also responsible for carrying out the very vaccine safety research that should be integral to court decisions. This conflict of interest means the deck is stacked against families when they enter “vaccine court” and is yet one more reason for parents to doubt the integrity of the National Immunization Program. Read more.
Links to more information:
Background on Court Rulings from TACA
Information on Cochrane vaccine research reviews
Cochrane Review of MMR Studies
Transcript from IACC meeting of Insel revealing conflict of interest
More information on the federal members of IACC's deceitful reversal on Vaccine-Autism Research
Vaccine Injury Compensation: A Failed Experiment in Tort Reform? from National Vaccine Information Center.
The List Keeps Growing: David Kirby on the Autism Vaccine Connection
National Autism Association (NAA) Statement
SafeMinds Withdraws Support of Autism Research Strategic Plan, Asks Daschle to Investigate
January 16, 2009 SafeMinds Press Release
In a highly unusual departure from procedure, government representatives to the Federal Interagency Autism Advisory Committee (IACC) voted this week against conducting studies on vaccine-autism research despite approval of the same studies at their prior meeting. The research was supported by numerous autism organizations and requested by IACC's scientific work groups and Congress. The maneuver to re-vote on the vaccine-autism studies was initiated by the IACC's representative from the CDC and pushed through by the IACC Chair, Dr. Tom Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health of NIH. Read more.
Read SafeMinds press releases from: