Below is a press release from the Johnson Center (formerly Thoughtful House). It is about a recent follow-up study they performed (discussed here). I’ll give the press release below with no further comment except to highlight this statement by the lead researcher: “Despite these limitations, the data in this primate study overwhelmingly provides support for the safety of pediatric vaccines.”
(Austin, Texas) – February 18, 2015 – A research study published today in Environmental Health Perspectivesreported that vaccination of infant macaques with thimerosal-containing vaccines did not negatively impact neurodevelopment, cognition, or behavior. In this study animals received several pediatric vaccines containing thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative) in a schedule similar to that given to infants in the 1990s. Other animals received just the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which does not contain thimerosal, or an expanded vaccine schedule similar to that recommended for US infants today. Control animals received a saline injection. Regardless of vaccination status, all animals developed normally.
“This comprehensive study of infant primate development, including analyses of learning, cognition, and social development, indicated that vaccinated primates were not negatively affected by thimerosal or the MMR vaccine; the same was true for animals receiving an expanded vaccine schedule” explained Dr. Laura Hewitson of The Johnson Center for Child Health and Development, the principle investigator of the study.
Hewitson worked with a team of researchers at the Center on Human Development and Disability Infant Primate Research Laboratory and the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) at the University of Washington, Seattle WA. According to Hewitson, the study was designed to compare the safety of different vaccination schedules, including the schedule from the 1990s, when thimerosal was still used as a preservative in multi-dose vaccine preparations. Although in 1999 the FDA and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that thimerosal be removed from vaccines in the US, it is still used as a preservative in multi-dose flu shots, which are recommended for pregnant women and children 6 months of age and older.
“This is the first time the safety of the entire pediatric vaccine schedule has been investigated in a relevant animal model,” said Dr. Judy Van de Water from the UC-Davis MIND Institute, who was not involved in this study.
Hewitson also noted, “As with any animal study, assessments were implemented under controlled laboratory conditions. We did not test all of the interacting variables that could contribute to an adverse outcome, such as birth weight, gestational age, genetic vulnerability, or in utero and post-natal chemical exposures. The interaction between multiple environmental exposures or genetic factors that may impact vaccine response, which is an important aspect of the vaccine debate, was not addressed in this study. Despite these limitations, the data in this primate study overwhelmingly provides support for the safety of pediatric vaccines.”
Citation
Examination of the Safety of Pediatric Vaccine Schedules in a Non-Human Primate Model: Assessments of Neurodevelopment, Learning, and Social Behavior. Britni Curtis, Noelle Liberato, Megan Rulien, Kelly Morrisroe, Caroline Kenney, Vernon Yutuc, Clayton Ferrier, C. Nathan Marti, Dorothy Mandell, Thomas M. Burbacher, Gene P. Sackett and Laura Hewitson. Environmental Health Perspectives, Feb 18, 2015; doi:10.1289/ehp.1408257.
Once the embargo lifts, this article can be downloaded for free at http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1408257.This study was supported by The Ted Lindsay Foundation, SafeMinds, National Autism Association, the Vernick family, and the Johnson family. This work was also supported by WaNPRC Core Grant RR00166 and CHDD Core Grant HD02274.
About The Johnson Center
The mission of The Johnson Center for Child Health and Development is to advance the understanding of childhood development through clinical care, research, and education.
—
By Matt Carey
Left Brain Right Brain 
Never thought I’d see the day when this kind of statement would come out of that organization. Points for scientific integrity. But I do notice they saved themselves a little wiggle room with that “did not test all the interacting variables” business.
So we are to accept that collective ethyl mercury among multi-dosed vaccines which far exceeds the minimum level of toxicity – is not damaging to a young developing brain? This study’s findings seem to contradict another one from 2010: http://www.ane.pl/pdf/7020.pdf?hc_location=ufi
Additionally, vaccines from which the thimerosal was removed @2000 – were replaced with aluminum preservatives/adjuvants. They are nearly as damaging as the mercury. Where is the logic in recommended 50+ doses of these neuro-toxic metals before children are even six years of age? None whatsoever. God must be so grieved!
That 2010 study was a poorly done, which is why Hewitson had to do it over:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/07/16/too-much-vaccineautism-monkey-business-f/
@tru- actually, that’s a pretty bad lie there….Thimerosal wasn’t “replaced” with anything. Instead, manufacturers went with more expensive single-dose vials, which did not require a preservative.
Aluminum Salts adjuvants weren’t added – they have been in a small number of vaccines for quite some time.
So, basically, you fail at every single attempt at “science” that you’ve tried thus far….do you want to try again, with actual facts, instead of lies?
Assuming the first study (complete with brain images illustrating the points) was poorly done is not acceptable simply given the strong contradictions between the two – and likely conflicting interests in this latter one.
It is certainly not a LIE that thimerosal vaccines were replaced by alumimum ones. Yes, some were exchanged with single-dose vials as NEW aluminum laced shots were added. BOTH of these preservatives are also still present in many multi-dose vaccines – rendering them collectively very TOXIC. Here is one of several links to clarify this TRUTH: http://thinktwice.com/aluminum.pdf Some day you will accept the LOAD THEORY as clearly causal for autism – and admit that VACCINATIONS are the primary tipping point.
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“It is certainly not a LIE that thimerosal vaccines were replaced by alumimum ones. ”
Really? Show me the vaccines from the 1990’s which were replaced with vaccines containing more aluminum than their thimerosal containing counterparts.
You can’t so you won’t.
Wow – you are completely clueless, aren’t you?
First of all, all pediatric vaccines & the ones recommended for pregnant women are “thimerosal-free.”
Also, explain how “aluminum salts” and thimerosal could have the exact same biological effect (which is claimed results in autism)?
About the guy behind Think Twice:
http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2014/03/950-neil-z-miller-gary-s-goldman.html
“Additionally, vaccines from which the thimerosal was removed @2000 – were replaced with aluminum preservatives/adjuvants. ”
Show me a list of the vaccines and the aluminum content–the vaccines with thimerosal and the ones that replaced them. Do that and compare the aluminum content. Otherwise you are just making empty claims.
There is no guideline for ethyl mercury. So that is wrong. No, thimerosal was not replaced by aluminum adjuvants. That doesn’t even make any sense. They are used for two very different purposes and aluminum adjuvants have been used in vaccines since the 1940s. Anything else you want to get wrong today?
That was my thought — how can an adjuvant replace a preservative? I’m not a chemist, but even I know they don’t do the same thing. That’s like saying I’m replacing my coffeemaker with a shotgun.
Then again, the way I am about coffee….
Thimerosal has only been completely banned in the UK. In the U.S., young children are still given DTap and Hib vaccines which do currently contain thimerosal – as do the flu vaccines which are heavily pushed each fall in public schools. Anyone, including pregnant women – can specially request ones without this neurotoxin, but most people are uneducated about its dangers. Mercury is more damaging than aluminum – being a heavier, more toxic metal – but both are very dangerous – particularly in some who have less capable metallothionein proteins to remove them. This is very tragic – and so unnecessary!
@tru – that is a flat-out lie….
http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228#t3
Neither of those vaccines you mention contain it.
Flu vaccines for children & pregnant women also don’t contain it.
Seriously, do you even have any clue what you are talking about?
Oh no! It is the aluminatti! One of their more glaring characteristic, other than their chemical ignorance, is they do not know the difference between an adjuvant and a preservative.
“Thimerosal has only been completely banned in the UK. In the U.S., young children are still given DTap and Hib vaccines which do currently contain thimerosal…”
Not in California. Here no vaccines given to infants or to pregnant women contain thimerosal. And it has had no affect on autism rates.
Oh, so more completely wrong things by antivaxxers. Why am I surprised. Only multidose flu vaccines contain ethyl mercury in the US and they are never given to children or pregnant women.
I wouldn’t say never. In California they are not, but elsewhere they may be.
“Thimerosal has only been completely banned in the UK.”
Perhaps you might be interested to learn that there are, in fact, other countries besides the UK and the US.
In some of those other countries, where they don’t even speak English as their first language (!) exposure to thimerosal containing vaccines was eliminated years ago. In some of those countries (which are, yes, even shown on world maps, even though the first language in such countries isn’t even English!) children and pregnant women are not vaccinated against influenza with either thimerosal-containing or thimerosal-free vaccines. In some of those countries, the prevalence of ASD has been studied for years, and–surprise!–the prevalence of ASD in such countries has continued to increase many years after exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines was eliminated. Of course, you’d only know that that totally reams the failed hypothesis that thimersosal-containing vaccines caused an “epidemic” of autism if you actually made even the slightest effort to understand the scientific literature, which, even from many such countries, is commonly available in English.
I should ‘illuminate’ that the CDC was my source regarding current thimerosal usage in the U.S. Please review the section therein. Of course, aluminum and mercury in their various forms can both be used as preservatives. The former is utilized as an adjuvant for vaccines – supposedly to help stimulate an immune response – though only an antibody one. As I mentioned earlier, the most important type of immunity is cellular, which is dangerously repressed through vaccinations. Only natural exposure to viruses will produce a balanced reaction – bringing true permanent immunity to the body (no boosters needed with more destructive contaminants). Employing God’s design for our complex human system is always the wisest route. Good nutrition and clean living generally produce healthy people. Have a very blessed week!
“Of course, aluminum and mercury in their various forms can both be used as preservatives.”
Lack of citation noted.
“As I mentioned earlier, the most important type of immunity is cellular, which is dangerously repressed through vaccinations.”
I sincerely believe you have no clue what “immunity” and “cellular” mean. You grasp of biology is miniscule.
“Employing God’s design…”
By the hammer of Thor, which god?
“Good nutrition and clean living generally produce healthy people.”
Except when they encounter certain pathogens. So how do you blame mothers who ate well and breastfed their child after it dies before the babes are were two months old? What guilt trip are you going to lay on me because my oldest had neonatal seizures when he was two days old (before HepB vaccine was around).
Do you just make up stuff to fit your fancy?
As a parent of several children who have had multiple issues from toxic overload – I extend my sympathy to you. There are of course many sources other than vaccines that lead to mental and physical diagnoses. Nevertheless, I have concluded from both experience and research that vaccines are the primary contributor Blessings to you and your family!
“I have concluded from both experience and research that vaccines are the primary contributor ”
Yet, you have been bamboozled by quacks. A homeopath? A list where many have an entry in http://americanloons.blogspot.com.au/ ? Critical thinking, science and basic math are not your strong suits.
I see no reason to give your “opinions” any credence. Your “references” have caused more harm than healing.
@tru
Whatever “god” you deign to worship, which allows you to lie and speak falsehoods about others while taking advantage of those who needs help, I would not want to worship.
“Good nutrition and clean living generally produce healthy people.” You mean, like the American Indian nations who were decimated by diseases introduced by European explorers and settlers?
Are you certain that those who died from such diseases existed in healthy conditions? You could never prove that point.
“Are you certain that those who died from such diseases existed in healthy conditions?”
So you think that over 95% of the native peoples of both American continents deserved to die because they were not has “advanced” as the Europeans who came with measles, smallpox, etc? Your racist xenophobia is a sign of pure ignorance.
There is quite of bit of archeological evidence that their were several quite advanced civilizations in the Americas before Chris Columbus stumbled on them. From the Incas up to the governments of the Iroquois. Much of what you buy in the grocery stores from squashes, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, etc were developed on the American continents.
Try reading up on it. I suggest 1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann.
Or better yet, the Hawaiian Measles epidemic, which devastated the native population…..seems to me that the native Hawaiians were healthy, hearty, and certainly ate better than the Europeans who brought the disease to the islands.
So Thoughtful House, the people who gave Wakefield a job (and fired him), have now completely turned their backs on the MMR Autism Causation hypothesis.
That is MAJOR.
It certainly is a good sign……
What GOD? The Creator of heaven and earth – to whom we will all give an account. He is truly grieved for the many refuse to acknowledge that his precious little ones are being injected (50+ by age six in the U.S.) with poisons which damage their wonderfully designed systems. May you all seek the truth found in Him and in the growing weight of facts which support the points I have made. Peace and hope to you!
“What GOD? The Creator of heaven and earth – to whom we will all give an account.”
Do you mean Raven or Väinämöinen or some other fictional deity?
If your particular deity prefers children get measles, pertussis, chicken pox, rotavirus, mumps, etc instead of preventing them with safe I don’t like it. Especially if that deity likes your silly list of quacks like Buttar, Haley, Buttram, etc. That would be a very naughty deity. More like Loki than Thor.
truluv4u, I’m moderately religious. And Here’s what I think.
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use” – Galileo.
The diseases that those vaccines prevent are dangerous and can kill. I do not believe that God would give us the ability to do something about them and then intend us to forgo their use.
I also find your attitude execrable. A loving God would want us to prevent suffering.
““I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” Susan B. Anthony
I WILL RESTATE my greatest point: “Employing God’s design for our complex human system is always the wisest route. Good nutrition and clean living generally produce healthy people.” Vaccines are unnecessary and harmful. Enough said!
“Vaccines are unnecessary and harmful.”
Citations needed in the form of PubMed indexed studies by reputable qualified researchers. Appeals to random deities do not count,
“God’s design” which allowed over 400 million people to die of Smallpox, just in the 20th Century, before the disease was eradicated.
Also, this same “God’s design” which saw over 1 million Americans die of the Spanish Flu – the majority of them young and healthy.
Seriously, you have no idea what you are talking about.
I definitely prefer the deity that endowed us the free will and intelligence to reduce disease and suffering. Many religious charities have had vaccination programs that saved millions of children: http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2014-10/christians-long-support-vaccines
Any deity that declares children should suffer unnecessary illness and disability is a bad deity. It is sad that there is actually a website giving testament to the harms from those who worship that bad deity:
Did you miss the part about good nutrition and clean living?
So what? Those are two things that absolutely have no effect on airborne pathogens. Plus they are subject to nebulous definitions based on the whims of the true believer.
It is especially pernicious when a mother of a child who dies from pertussis is blamed for not eating “right” and other nonsense. See:
One guy once told me son’s neonatal seizures were because I drank milk.
People who claim that all you need is sanitation and good nutrition are causing harm. Plain and simple. People in the developed world die from vaccine preventable diseases. Measles, for example, kills about 1 in 1000 to 1 in 2000 based on recent outbreaks in France.
So, yeah, we didn’t miss the part about nutrition and clean living. We just know it’s nonsense.
God created our immune systems – antibody and humoral. He intended for nutrition and other good health practices to sustain our bodies and enable us to resist pathogens in the environment. Thankfully, even more physicians are practicing functional and nutritional medicine – especially coming to understand how toxic chemicals and metals weaken the human system. There is no defense for use of mercury in any form of medical application – particularly in children.
“God created our immune systems”
And we are told that the Christian God loves all creatures. And created all creatures. Including viruses and bacteria.
God didn’t stop smallpox. People did. We wiped out one of God’s creations. And I am thankful that we did.
I would also like to know how “good nutrition” and “clean living” are in accordance with “God’s design”.
If they were really sufficient and God given, how come we don’t naturally know the rules to nutrition and hygiene ? Do you sincerely think our ancestors lived with the necessary resources to have a balanced diet and a sterile environment ?
So, what major change in sanitation occurred in India over the past decade to allow for the elimination of polio there?
Perhaps I should clarify that my reference to “clean living” referred to both low toxin and minimal pathogens… Are you not aware that the original smallpox vaccine failed? The disease simply ran its course and died out. Most of those who perished existed in very unsanitary living conditions. This vaccine – along with countless potential others – is still completely unnecessary and harmful.
“Perhaps I should clarify that my reference to “clean living” referred to both low toxin and minimal pathogens… Are you not aware that the original smallpox vaccine failed? The disease simply ran its course and died out”
People who deny that vaccines work are just showing that they can’t accept even the most obvious evidence. How this helps you in your arguments (or how you feel this helps you) is beyond me.
Smallpox “ran it’s course and died out”? Just coincidentally with vaccination? And people who were vaccinated didn’t get the disease, but that’s just lies or something?
I suppose you are going to enlighten the “not aware” with some citations on this fact, and not take the lazy approach aka “Do your own research” ?
So, no serious answer then….okay.
@tru
Again, I’ll state whatever “god” you are worshiping, one that would allow diseases to hurt and maim humans, is not one who I would want to worship.
I’d rather worship a deity that would allow us to use our intellect and intelligence to find ways to help us prevent diseases and to help us live longer, something that you seem to have no interest in doing.
And speaking of children in such a way that you blame the parents for the child’s suffering is very revolting and sickening. I’d be ashamed to be a child of yours.
truluv4u: “God created our immune systems”
Which “God”? Apparently the one you worship has tried to kill me a couple of times. I really hate asthma attacks and hives. Could you please tell you deity to not make our immune systems attack us because we encountered certain pollens and molds? Please!
“Vaccines are unnecessary and harmful.”
Really? So your deity of choice also thinks kids should suffer with diseases and death?
Do tell us the best way to protect our kids from pertussis. I am sorry but calling a vengeful deity is not sufficient. You need to provide the PubMed indexed studies from reputable qualified researchers that the DTaP and Tdap vaccines are more dangerous than diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, and that the HebB vaccine is more dangerous than the cancers caused by chronic hepatitis b vrius.
The Almighty does allow natural consequences to fall upon humanity – yes, for the most part caused by inadequate nutrition, health damaging vices, as well as poor sanitation. Sadly, vaccinations are causing much more disease that their few antibodies prevent due to the truth in their insert warnings regarding failure to isolate patients for several months post vaccinations (shedding!). Children are experiencing brain inflammation from the shamelessly defended thimer0sal and aluminum contents – as well as the live injected viruses which wreak havoc on the nervous system. This Deity whom I reverently esteem is the only Living God – ultimately omniscient and Creator of all intelligence and knowledge. You will know this full well some day!
You are deluded in your thinking….and thimerosal hasn’t been in a single pediatric vaccine in over a decade.
It is certainly still in most flu vaccines and some others which are single dosed. Please verify your statements.
Click to access excipient-table-2.pdf
http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228#t1
Not most, not in any currently available in the US & definitely not in any Nasal Vaccines, which are the ones routinely given to children.
Also, California has a law which requires ALL vaccines given in the state to be Thimerosal free….which means no adult vaccines have it either, in the state.
To clarify–the California law is for vaccines given to pregnant women, infants and toddlers. So adult vaccines can contain mercury.
So, I verified my statements – can you verify yours?
truluv4u wrote: “[Thimerosal] is certainly still in most flu vaccines.”
Well, no, that’s just not true, unless by “most” you mean “less than one third.”
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaxsupply.htm
And none in vaccines given to pregnant women, infants or toddlers in California. And where’s the supposed drop in autism rates that should come with this dramatic drop in mercury exposure?
Answer: there has been no drop in the number of people identified with autism. Such a clear example of how the thimerosal hypothesis failed. But “truluv4u” and others (RFK Jr. for example) ignore it.
@tru
Again, victim blaming. Whatever supposed “god” that you profess to worship, that would allow you to blatantly lie and to blame others, through no fault of their own, for diseases, is utterly reprehensible.
Have you ever heard of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 8th commandments? Because your postings here have broken them.
“This Deity whom I reverently esteem is the only Living God – ultimately omniscient and Creator of all intelligence and knowledge. You will know this full well some day!”
Nah, I don’t like your deity. That one is an obviously incompetent designer. Not only is the plumbing system screwed up with air and food using some of the same pipes, the waste system is too close the reproductive system. Oh, backs! Yikes! Not too mention all of the things that go wrong with the immune system.
Plus it seems to have endowed upon you intelligence that is way below the mean.
“The Almighty does allow natural consequences to fall upon humanity – yes, for the most part caused by inadequate nutrition, health damaging vices, as well as poor sanitation.”
I’m trying to work out how that whole “jawbone of an ass” story fits into “inadequate nutrition”.