7/30/2019 Congressman Bill Posey Coming to the AutismOne & Generation Rescue 2013 Conference Introduces a Vax-Unvax

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April is Autism Awareness Month Moving from Awareness to Action

HON. Bill PoseyOf Florida

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESFriday, April 26, 2013

I rise today to draw the attention ofthe Congress and the Americanpeople to the Autism epidemic thatis tragically ravaging too many ofAmericas children.

April is Autism Awareness Month,and I am pleased to join withparents, siblings, grandparents,special education school teachers,medical care providers, andinterventionists to draw attention tothe rapidly expanding autismcommunity.

When I was young, autism wasvirtually unheard of. In the 1980srarely did you meet someone whoknew someone with autism. Yet,in the 1990s there was anexplosion of autism. Indeed, in thecourse of just my lifetime, AutismSpectrum Disorder has grown froma very rare condition toaccording to the Centers forDisease Control a developmentaldisorder affecting 1-in-50 schoolaged children. And, tragically, the

rate for school aged boys is adisturbing 1-in-33.

On December 19, 2006, the effortto address this epidemic took amajor step forward as PresidentBush signed into law the bipartisanCombating Autism Act. I lookforward to working with mycolleagues and the Autismcommunity to reauthorize thisprogram next year. Though theInteragency Autism Coordinating

Committee each year produces astrategic plan to address Autism,the billion-dollar allocation ofresources to autism has not beenevenly invested among genetic,epigenetic, and environmentalfactors. I must concur with theexperts who have been willing tospeak out, that the epidemicincrease in the rates of autism arenot a genetic epidemic. Indeed,you dont have genetic epidemics.While there is likely a geneticcomponent to many who havebeen diagnosed with Autism, we

must seriously consider that thereare likely several key factors inautism.

Also, so some who havesuggested that the increase inAutism is due to better diagnosis,you dont go from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in80 in three decades due to betterdiagnosis alone. And, if that werethe case, where are the tens ofthousands of autistic adults in their40s, 50s and 60s. While better

diagnosis may be a factor,common sense says there is a realincrease and something is causingit.

While some may be borne withAutism, there are many parentswho testify to the fact and presentcases where their children wereprogressing normally butsomething triggered a regressionwhere they lost speech, abilities,and regressed from developmental

milestones that they had earliermet. Was that regression due toexternal factors such as medicalinjury, exposure to environmentaltoxins such as lead or mercury, orwas it adverse reactions tomedications that lead to highfevers, brain inflammation orseizures? We must get answers tothese questions.

I was pleased to participate in aNovember 2012 House Oversightand Government Reform hearingon the Federal Response to

Autism. That was one of the mostattended hearings I haveparticipated in since coming toWashington in 2009. Indeed atthis hearing it was standing roomonly, and overflow rooms had to beused to accommodate the public.This was a much anticipatedhearing from many parents ofchildren suffering from Autism whowant clear and unbiased answersto questions surrounding theepidemic.

I, like many in Congress, werefrustrated with the lacklusterresponse from the federalwitnesses, particularly the CDCwitness that was evasive and tookmore than five months to respondto the Committees questions. Theresponses that finally arrived thismonth were incomplete, oftenevasive, and showed a completelack of urgency on the part of theCDC. I was also disappointed that

7/30/2019 Congressman Bill Posey Coming to the AutismOne & Generation Rescue 2013 Conference Introduces a Vax-Unvax

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the federal government witnessesdid not have the courtesy toremain at the hearing to listen tothe testimony of the public panelrepresenting non-profitorganizations and academicinstitutions focused on Autism andAspergers Syndrome.

Parents, grandparents, educators,health professionals, and highlyfunctional adults on the autismspectrum are frustrated at thefederal response to this epidemic.There is much more that we couldand should be doing.

Some believe that toxins likethimerosal, which is 50%ethylmercury, have played a role inthe rise in autism andneurodevelopmental disabilities.In 2000 there was near universal

agreement that mercury should beremoved as a preservative forvaccines. Yet, today, nearly half ofall annual flu vaccines, which arerecommended for children andpregnant women, still containmercury as a preservative notsimply trace amounts of mercury.Its 2013! Why are we still injectingethylmercury into babies andpregnant women?

I have been deeply disappointed in

the failure of the CDC and theDepartment of Justice to see thatDr. Poul Thorsen is extradited tothe United States to stand trial fororchestrating an elaborate schemestealing more than $1 million fromthe CDC-Denmark grant. Thatmoney was supposed to be usedto investigate the causes of autismand developmental disabilities.Instead it was diverted to personaluse by Dr. Thorsen. Thorsen wasa key author on 22 of the CDCskey studies related to autism anddevelopmental disabilities.

Before coming to Congress in2009, I heard from some in theautism community who haveadvocated for a retrospective studyto examine whether there aredifferent health outcomes whencomparing vaccinated children andunvaccinated children, includingautism and chronic conditions. Ihave continued to hear these

requests over the past four years.At the hearing I asked CDC if theyhad conducted such a study andthey said theyve done dozens ofstudies related to autism but neverhave looked at a comparison ofvaccinated versus unvaccinated.In fact, a recent study theypublished compared fullyvaccinated children to those whowere not fully vaccinated, but forsome reason it did not include dataon completely unvaccinatedchildren. Seems like commonsense to do a study comparingvaccinated children vsunvaccinated and this week I waspleased to be joined by mycolleague Rep. Carolyn Maloney(D-NY) in introducing H.R. 1757,The Vaccine Safety Study Act.This would direct the NationalInstitutes of Health to conduct a

retrospective study of healthoutcomes, including autism, ofvaccinated versus unvaccinatedchildren. That should bring ananswer to this decades longquestion.

Whether the number is 1-in-88twelve-year-olds, or 1-in-50school-aged children, or 1-in-33young boys, we can all agree thatthe number is devastatingly high.We must overturn every stone to

get to the bottom of this epidemic.We cannot afford to see thisepidemic grow. We must examineevery possible risk factor to protectthe worlds greatest resource: ourchildren. And, we must invest todevelop the best interventions tohelp those who are autistic.