It's enough to make you sick

Remember a couple of years back, a provision protecting Eli Lilly from potential damages in a class action suit resulting from its manufacture of thirmesol (a vaccine preservative) was mysteriously inserted in the 2002 Eli Lilly (Homeland) Security Bill?

Did you hear today that the autism rate in the U.S. is now 1 in 150? Do you know the connection?

The National Autism Agency reports that there is a causal link between mercury (in thirmesol) exposure and autism, and that because the HHS wasn't aggressive enough in removing thirmesol, children are exposed to more thimerosal today than ever before.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr wrote in Salon in 2005 that in a June 2000 meeting of every major vaccine manufacturer, the CDC and FDA , evidence showed that "since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children."

Someone in the family values party slipped this lovely provision into a national security bill, and we never found out who that was. Though Dick Armey took responsibility for writing the provision, no one took responsibility for including it in the bill. White House budget director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., a former Lilly executive, has denied any part. So has Bill Frist, the original author of the bill.

Anyone out there know how to get Henry Waxman's attention!