CDC Still Hiding, Still trying to cover up the Truth:

From the : SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT "Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet"


CDC Condemned by Parents Group for Hiding Vaccine Safety Data
Safe Minds asks for immediate release of CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink data
to independent researchers and criticizes CDC's attempts to shield damaging
findings from public scrutiny

[From a Safe Minds press release.]

Safe Minds issued a statement condemning the Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) stance on release of the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) data in
light of testimony given during the House Government Reform Committee
hearing on "The Status of Research Evaluating the Possible Vaccine-Autism
Connection" held yesterday in Washington, DC. Testimony from CDC officials
concerning their mishandling of vaccine-related epidemiological studies
confirm Safe Minds' own investigations that the CDC is producing biased
analyses using the VSD. Safe Minds has formally requested the CDC to open
the VSD data to all qualified, university-based researchers, but the CDC has
refused to do so.
Instead, the CDC's National Immunization Program division has offered
to provide limited access only to selected portions of the data which CDC
personnel themselves will both choose and manually extract. Only researchers
whom the CDC approves are allowed access, and researchers must come to the
CDC's Center for Health Statistics to conduct their work. Before leaving,
researchers must submit their analyses for review by CDC personnel, who are
allowed to edit the findings.
"These requirements by the CDC effectively preclude any independent
researcher from utilizing this database," stated Liz Birt, Chief Counsel for
Safe Minds. "The CDC uses the VSD to assess the safety of vaccines which
are given to virtually every infant in this country. The public deserves to
know whether these assessments are accurate. All scientific research must be
validated by other scientists. The CDC is preventing this basic foundation
of good science to happen. American taxpayers, who fund the VSD, can only
speculate why the CDC would do this."
Members of Safe Minds have tried for the last fifteen (15) months to
obtain the release of the raw data used by the CDC to conduct vaccine safety
epidemiological studies also referred to as the Vaccine Safety Datalink
System "VSDS". CDC has rebuffed all requests by falsely citing "patient
confidentiality" as a reason. This objection is disingenuous at best for
the following reasons:
1) Patient confidentiality issues are handled with appropriate
safeguards on a DAILY basis in epidemiological research.
2) The data in the VSDS is coded by a number not a name. It would be
virtually impossible for an independent researcher to be able to ascertain
the identity of a patient from this number. CDC internal documents, obtained
by Safe Minds under the Freedom of Information Act, clearly state that the
patient information is protected and cannot be known by CDC researchers
themselves.
3) Proposed regulations written by Health and Human Services (HHS)
under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) would
allow HMOs and insurance companies to sell patient data with identifiers to
any party (including a pharmaceutical company) who has a responsibility for:
1) monitoring the quality, safety and effectiveness of an FDA regulated
product; 2) to track FDA regulated products; 3) to enable product recalls,
repairs or replacement or look back; and 4) to conduct post marketing
surveillance. Therefore, all Americans under the HIPPA regulations will
have their private medical records open to both the pharmaceutical companies
without any patient privacy safeguards. These regulations also apply to the
CDC.
Safe Minds believes that the full release of this database is
essential to ensure continued parent confidence in the safety of pediatric
vaccines. If confidence erodes, immunization levels may decline and the
incidence and therefore morbidity and mortality from childhood infections
may increase.
"Safe Minds encourages members of the public including the media to
examine the facts and not take as a given the CDC 'spin' on this issue,"
said Ms. Birt. "We support a plan which would allow the VSDS to be stored
at an independent research center with appropriate patient privacy
safeguards."
Safe Minds (Sensible Action for Elimination of Mercury Induced
Neurological Disorders) is a non-profit parents organization founded to
investigate the continuing risks to infants and children of exposure to
mercury from medical products, including Thimerosal in vaccines. Its Web
site is www.safeminds.com