Issue
Number 554
September 30, 2005
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
- The Cutter Incident, by Paul A. Offit, MD, traces the
enduring effects of a 1955 vaccine manufacturing accident
- Editorial urges media, scientific community, and parents
to strongly counter the myth that thimerosal causes autism
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September 30, 2005
THE CUTTER INCIDENT, BY PAUL A. OFFIT, MD, TRACES THE ENDURING EFFECTS OF A
1955 VACCINE MANUFACTURING ACCIDENT
A book recently released by Yale University Press gives readers an
understanding of the connection between a tragic manufacturing accident of
fifty years ago and today's challenging vaccine development and
manufacturing environment. The book, The Cutter Incident: How America's
First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis, was written by Paul
A. Offit, MD. Dr. Offit is chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and
Henle Professor of Immunologic and Infectious Diseases at the Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia. He is also professor of pediatrics at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
The following description is excerpted from the website of Yale University
Press. The book is available from the website and at bookstores nationwide.
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Vaccines have saved more lives than any other single medical advance. Yet
today only four companies make vaccines, and there is a growing crisis in
vaccine availability. Why has this happened? This remarkable book recounts
for the first time a devastating episode in 1955 at Cutter Laboratories in
Berkeley, California, that has led many pharmaceutical companies to abandon
vaccine manufacture.
Drawing on interviews with public health officials, pharmaceutical company
executives, attorneys, Cutter employees, and victims of the vaccine, as well
as on previously unavailable archives, Dr. Paul Offit offers a full account
of the Cutter disaster. He describes the nation's relief when the polio
vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk in 1955, the production of the vaccine
at industrial facilities such as the one operated by Cutter, and the tragedy
that occurred when 200,000 people were inadvertently injected with live
virulent polio virus: 70,000 became ill, 200 were permanently paralyzed, and
10 died. Dr. Offit also explores how, as a consequence of the tragedy, one
jury's verdict set in motion events that eventually suppressed the
production of vaccines already licensed and deterred the development of new
vaccines that hold the promise of preventing other fatal diseases.
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For further information about the book, including reviews written by the
late Maurice Hilleman and other vaccine experts, go to the website of Yale
University Press at
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300108648
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September 30, 2005
EDITORIAL URGES MEDIA, SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY, AND PARENTS TO STRONGLY COUNTER
THE MYTH THAT THIMEROSAL CAUSES AUTISM
Excerpts from an editorial by Paul A. Offit, MD, were recently published in
several U.S. newspapers. Following is the complete text of Dr. Offit's
editorial, reprinted with his kind permission.
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On the morning of August 23, 2005, Marwa Nadama brought her five-year-old
son, Abubakar, to the Advanced Integrative Medicine Center in Portersville,
Pennsylvania. There she met Dr. Roy Eugene Kerry, a board-certified
physician and surgeon. Abubakar was autistic. Dr. Kerry was certain that he
could help.
For years Marwa had struggled to help her son. But to no avail: Abubakar
remained distant and uncommunicative, unable to return her affection.
Then--a ray of hope. Parent testimonials on the Internet claimed that
thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative in some vaccines, had caused
autism. Although thimerosal had been taken out of most vaccines by 2001,
Marwa believed that its toxic effects hadn't been taken out of her son's
body.
At around 10:00AM, under the direction of Dr. Kerry, Abubakar's arm was
cleaned with alcohol and EDTA [ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid] was
injected directly into his bloodstream. At 10:50AM, Abubakar Nadama was
dead--of a heart attack.
At the time that Dr. Kerry injected Abubakar with EDTA, epidemiologic
studies performed on three continents by four separate research groups found
that mercury in vaccines didn't cause autism. The findings were clear,
consistent, and reproducible. Also, the signs and symptoms of mercury
poisoning are different from those of autism. And, most importantly, the
toxic effects of heavy metal poisoning are irreversible; even if mercury
were to blame, ridding Abubakar of mercury in his body couldn't possibly
have lessened his symptoms of autism.
So, if mercury in vaccines doesn't cause autism, why did more than 10,000
autistic children in the United States this year receive medication to rid
them of mercury?
THE MEDIA. The notion that vaccines might cause autism contains all of the
elements of a great story: greedy pharmaceutical companies, government
cover-up, uncaring doctors, and parents fighting against all odds for their
children. It isn't easy to promote this story. On the one hand, you have
every major medical organization including the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the
Institute of Medicine (IOM) stating that mercury doesn't cause autism. On
the other, you have a few marginal scientists and clinicians who, in the
absence of any solid, reproducible data, say that it does. The media solved
the problem by giving equal time to both sides. This is called "balanced"
reporting. And it makes for great radio, television, newspaper, and magazine
stories. Bad information--but great stories.
SCIENTISTS, DOCTORS, AND PUBLIC-HEALTH AGENCIES. Although scientific studies
have answered the question of whether vaccines cause autism, scientists have
done little to explain these studies to the public. On July 19, 2005, Dr.
Julie Gerberding, the director of the CDC, called a press conference to
explain the science that refutes the notion that vaccines cause autism. Dr.
Gerberding is an excellent communicator. And her message was clear and
compelling. But that was it. One conference, one day. A tiny bell ringing
against the constant, deafening drumbeat of weekly stories in the media that
suggested otherwise.
PARENTS. Parents of autistic children desperately want to find
something--anything--that works. So they're susceptible to fad therapies.
Several years ago it was the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine that caused
autism. Before that, secretin, a small protein secreted by the intestine,
was proposed as a cure; many parents traveled hundreds of miles and spent
thousands of dollars for secretin injections. Parents felt just as strongly
about secretin and MMR then as they do about mercury today.
DR. ROY EUGENE KERRY. The phenomenon of Dr. Kerry isn't new. During the
polio epidemic in New York City in 1916, Dr. George Retan ignored warnings
from his colleagues and drained large quantities of spinal fluid from the
backs of polio victims at the same time that he infused a salt solution into
their veins. The procedure killed more people than it saved. But like autism
today, in 1916 no one knew what caused polio or how to treat it. And George
Retan offered hope. He cared.
Because we are all responsible for the death of Abubakar Nadama, none of us
will be held accountable. We're off the hook. But, if we are to effectively
prevent the next tragedy, then we must equal the passion of those who firmly
believe that mercury in vaccines caused autism. We must show that we are not
just doctors and researchers standing behind the one-way mirror of science,
but that we are also parents who don't want to see another child sacrificed
at the altar of bad information. Otherwise, the death of Abubakar Nadama
won't be the end of this.
Paul A. Offit, MD, is the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at
the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and professor of pediatrics at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
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