Regarding your story "Girls, Boys and Autism" by Geoffrey Cowley and the theory that autism is a mysterious and sometimes devastating condition that is just an extreme version of normal male intelligence?  That is one
provocative new theory behind autism's gender gap.  

I would first like to say that this article, although it gives autism media coverage, will cause a great deal of damage
in regards to holding the manufactures of thimerosal responsible for the damage that their product has caused our
children's minds.   The thimerosal issue has earned its day in court.  Thimerosal, which is made by pharmaceutical
manufacturer Eli Lilly and Co., is 50 percent mercury and may be responsible for exposing some children to mercury levels significantly higher than Federal guidelines recommend.  In the spring of 2001 the Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Review Committee, concluded its analysis by suggesting that thimerosal involvement in autism was a plausible hypothesis.

I would agree that one of the conundrums of autism is why there is an approximate ratio of four boys to every girl
who gets this disease.  I believe that this extreme maleness that Simon Baron-Cohen speaks of comes from
bio-chemical reactions in the body.   One theory published in Mothering Magazine, Issue 115,  November/December 2002 by Boyd Haley, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Chemistry Department, University of Kentucky, Toxic Overload: Assessing the Role of Mercury in Autism, tested the possibility that this could be hormone related. The results were quite marked in their effects. Neurons that were pre-incubated with estrogen demonstrated substantial protection against thimerosal-induced neuron death. In contrast, the addition of testosterone caused a very large increase in thimerosal-induced neuron death. A low nanomolar level of thimerosal that gave less than 5 percent neuron death in three hours could be increased to 100 percent cell death by the addition of one micromolar level of testosterone. Testosterone alone at this level also showed less than 5 percent cell death. The opposing effects of estrogen and testosterone may explain the gender-based four-to-one ratio. Most important, the tremendous enhancement of thimerosal toxicity by testosterone points out the impact of synergistic effects when addressing mercury toxicity.

Beginning in 1999, as states revealed skyrocketing rates of autism spectrum disorder among children along with
rising unexplained Gulf War Syndrome cases being reported by military forces, the media began to explore the
medical controversy in print and broadcast reports.  These debilitating neurological illnesses prompted a series of
Government Reform Hearings into a wide range of vaccine issues by Congressman Dan Burton, then Chairman of
the House Government Reform Committee.  Congressman Burton is grandfather of an autistic child and he believes his grandson's condition was vaccine induced. The investigations included the problems in the involuntary military vaccine immunization program as well as the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP.)  From the Reform Hearings a number of key issues were identified.  One of biggest issues expressed was the possibility that the mercury-containing compound thimerosal in vaccines may cause autism. 

As to liability, the Homeland Security Bill, passed by the US House of Representatives on 11/13/02 and in the US
Senate 11/19/02, and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on 11/25/02 removed pharmaceutical industry liability for mercury induced vaccine injuries and deaths caused by thimerosal (ethyl-mercury).  A vaccine injury liability rider tacked on to the Homeland Security Bill would have effectively ended lawsuits for damages caused to children after multiple mercury exposures from thimerosal in infant vaccines. (Sec. 1714-1717)  The last four sections of the bill, (sec.1714-1717) shielded the pharmaceutical industry, specifically Eli Lilly, from lawsuits for injuries caused by FDA-approved vaccines, such as mercury containing pediatric vaccines associated with the development of autism.  In the first session of the new 108th Congress, Senator Stabenow (D-MI) took the lead on repealing sections 1714-1717 of the Homeland Security Act.  Senator Stabenow's (S105) one page bill had two parts.  The first section repealed all of the vaccine related sections of the Homeland Defense Bill and the second states that all laws and claims should be treated as if the law was never passed.

Eli Lilly and Co., the Indianapolis drug-maker faces at least 45 lawsuits over its role in developing and selling for
more than 40 years a mercury-based preservative used in childhood vaccines and now suspected of causing autism.
Autism affects 500,000 to 1.5 million Americans and has grown at an annual rate of 10 percent to 17 percent since
the late 1980s.  That span coincides with the addition of new government-required childhood vaccinations that
increased the levels of mercury that children were exposed to, according to lawsuits.  In Indiana, where vaccinations are now required against up to eight diseases before a child may start school, the number of autistic children registered in schools has grown from 116 in 1989 to 3,789 last year.

In its apparent eagerness to promote and market the product, in September, 1930, Eli Lilly secretly sponsored a
"human toxicity" study on patients already known to be dying of meningococcal meningitis. Senior partner Andrew
Waters, of Waters and Kraus law firm, stated that, "Lilly then cited this study repeatedly for decades as proof that
thimerosal was of low toxicity and harmless to humans.  They never revealed to the scientific community or the
public the highly questionable nature of the original research."  While Eli Lilly made every effort to corrupt the
medical and scientific literature, the process of arranging to publish the results of its questionable secret study, other  researchers have provided Lilly with numerous articles since the 1930's indicating concerns about thimerosal and its potential hazard to humans who might be exposed or injected with the substance.  The evidence clearly demonstrates that Eli Lilly was advised repeatedly that their conclusions of low toxicity were not warranted and that they failed to pass the information on to appropriate federal and public health authorities.

In the 1940s, Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals oversaw MKUltra experiments for the CIA using mescaline and
LSD. MKUltra was now the umbrella operation involving mind control, behavior modification, and political
interrogations.  Its methods were a blending of psychosurgery, electroshock therapy, various powerful mind altering drugs, and hypnosis. George H.W. Bush, after stepping aside as Director of Central Intelligence in 1977, was made director of the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company by the father and family of current US Vice-president Dan Quayle, who owned the controlling interest in the company. The Bush family have also been major shareholders in other pharmaceutical companies, including Abbott, Bristol and Pfizer (whom they are thought to still hold shares in). George H.W. Bush was a director of Eli Lilly as well as director of the CIA at a time when much paperwork concerning MKUltra surfaced.

It is my opinion that this should have been the cover of Newsweek as it pertains to autism.  Perhaps it will be worthy to print prior to the November 2004 election.

Sincerely,

Diana Cregar
Clinton, Michigan  

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Mr. Cowley:

Please investigate elevated mercury causing the alleged "personality variant" labeled as "autism."  "Autism" is itself a misnomer... for VACCINE-INJURY.  Regressive autism is the most prevalent form today.  What would you expect to happen from injecting the second most toxic substance into tiny, vulnerable infants and children?  Mercury is toxic in and of itself, damaging multiple physiological systems... including the neurological and immunological systems.  Mercury is not even the only toxin in vaccines, and synergistic effects should also be considered.  Add on top of a weakened immune system the virus-containing MMR shot and stealth viruses, and what do you expect to get?  The only "variant" operating here, Mr. Cowley, is how much variance there is in how various children were affected / manifested symptoms.  Some got just allergies and asthma, some got seizures, some got ADD or ADHD, some got Asperger's, some became severely autistic, etc.  There are other manifestations of vaccine-injury, not all of which are apparent immediately or as obviously, such as SV-40 from contaminated polio vaccines showing up in cancer tumors, or stealth viruses having negative effects years later or in an even more insidious form.  Please refer to the attached mercury chart.  This child did not end up with a "personality variant."  This previously attentive and chubby child - who had been a great learner - ended up with severe autism, mercury toxicity, an elevated measles titer, significant gastrointestinal problems, and an autoimmune reaction against brain tissue.  Even if your magazine were, perhaps, controlled by drug companies, your conscience should not be.... especially when it comes to misleading the public - parents, educators, health practitioners, etc. - to the detriment of children.  Mr. Cowley, once you sell your conscience, it is non-refundable.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Teri Small

(302) 633-4313

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The actual experience of having a child with autism does not sync with ideas expressed in your latest article in Newsweek.  It is bizarre to apply the "extreme maleness" concept to a sudden loss of language, social and play skills at around 18 months of age.  Are you suggesting that a child suddenly discovers and expresses his/her maleness then?  And to ignore that fact that many children with this diagnosis have a history of severe problems with their immune, gastrointestinal and detoxification systems, among other biomedical issues, is an extraordinary oversight of your report.  As we have applied extensive (and expensive) medical and behavioral therapies with our own son, he has made tremendous progress.  Do these therapies succeed because they make him "less male?"  This theory doesn't make any sense.

Marcy Kelly