Front and Center

Follow-Up on Representative Maloney's Autism-Vaccine Briefing

By: Jeanne Cantkier, Pamela Felice, Lisa Rudley, and Angela Warner

Warrior Help Is Needed and Necessary!

On September 24, 2008 our community experienced a monumental and potentially game changing moment. Thanks to the organized efforts of our dedicated community, there was standing room only at the Autism-Vaccine Briefing hosted by Rep. Maloney and presented by David Kirby and Mark Blaxill.

As a community, it is absolutely imperative that we follow-up now with our legislators to keep the Autism-Vaccine issue front and center. Getting all those people in the room together was just the first step. They have listened, and now we need to let them know what they can do to help our children. Remember, they work for us, the people!

Regardless of whether you initially contacted your Representative or Senator about the Autism-Vaccine briefing, we need you to RALLY NOW to follow up. Contact information to participate in the follow-up and a list of the Senate and House members who attended or sent staff can be found at the end of this post.

Here’s What You Can Do:

1. Contact your Representative and Senator’s office to:

a. Thank them if they attended.
b. Let them know (politely) that you are disappointed that they did not attend if they had in fact RSVP’d
c. Let them know that the Autism-Vaccine briefing took place if they did not attend and did not RSVP.
2. Mail each person a copy of the briefing transcript (HERE)
3. Urge each staffer who did attend to brief the Representative or Senator they work for.
4. Of most importance, let them know what you would like them to do next.

Representative Maloney intends to re-introduce H.R. Bill 2832 – Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007. With this information in hand, one of the most important things we can ask for is their support of this Bill when it is re-introduced. Make sure they understand that autism is a national emergency impacting 1 in every 67 children in this country (HERE). To demonstrate the importance of the study and Bill that Rep. Maloney will introduce, you could refer them to the survey conducted by Generation Rescue (HERE), and communicate to them the undeniable findings of this survey as they relate to autism and implicate vaccines.

For those of you who are comfortable in asking for more there is a great “ask” suggestion list following the contact information. For those of you who would like to participate, but are not the most comfortable with talking or emailing, we can provide you with tools to help you do one or both.

How To Contact Your Legislator:

If your Representative or Senator’s office was in attendance, it is important that they hear from YOU, their constituents, directly! We'll send you the contact info you need. Email us at followupmoms@gmail.com with your name, city, and state. In the subject line please list ONLY your time zone (EST, CST, MST, PST), and state abbreviation (ex: PA), and the “follow-up mom” handling your area will send you the needed information including the above mentioned tools. You can check the updated list below. It’s in order by state. After you have contacted your Representative and Senator's, drop us an email at followupmoms@gmail.com and let us know how it went and what their response was!

The Autism Action Network (formerly A-CHAMP) has given us the opportunity to MASS email our Representative and Senator’s offices (HERE). Everyone needs to DO this! You can personalize your email to include additional information. While it will not go directly to the staffer that attended the briefing; the national emergency of autism commands the action of our entire community and NOW!

Your help is critical to maintaining our momentum. Everyone’s commitment to our children, and our future children, has opened this door. It is time to walk through that door and get the job done!

Additional Suggestion Ask List:

Remember that real families and children need your help

Ask for a fundamental change in how we think about autism:

* Treat autism as a national emergency, we need a sense of urgency

* Drive a shift in focus to environmental causes, they can be prevented.
Include vaccines and mercury… they are clearly implicated

* Provide opportunities for true participation from the autism community in key agency processes by enforcing real external input on the NIH Strategic Plan through the formation of an Autism Advisory Board, and give us more seats on the IACC

* If your state is working to pass an autism insurance mandate, ask them to support passage of this mandate. The estimated cost of life long care for a person with autism far exceeds the cost of medically necessary treatment which can bring significant improvement and recovery.

* Recognize that the overwhelming priority is prevention, treatment today (not gene hunts or esoteric science projects) services and justice. And to that goal provide funding for prevention, education, treatment, insurance, research, and lifelong care

Ask for Studies:

• Support H.R. Bill 2832 - Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007

• Support H.R. Bill 1973 – Vaccination Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act of 2007

• Draft legislation to study the rising levels of background mercury and inorganic Hg exposures in the U.S. Dan Olmsted discusses this in his article, “Demon Barbers of Mercury Street" (HERE) published in Spectrum Magazine on Sept. 28, 2008
• Draft legislation to study the prevalence of mitochondrial dysfunction in ASD and regressive ASD

Conduct Hearings that would:

• Investigate the NIH research matrix and its over-emphasis on genetics

• Investigate the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, for their failure to investigate the increases in both the local and nationwide toxicity to which American children are exposed and the devastating social consequences that have resulted

• Determine the estimated lifetime costs of caring for all Americans with an ASD and project the total cost to society that will be incurred if we do not reverse the autism epidemic

• Investigate the mishandling of VSD data by CDC staff and the usefulness of the VSD for evaluating a thimerosal link. David Kirby addresses this in his article, "Weaknesses and Limitations" (HERE) of the CDC's Vaccine Safety Database, October 2, 2008

• Investigate the FDA for their failure to adequately monitor the safety of vaccine production and for holding vaccine manufacturers to a lower standard of safety than other, non-mandated pharmaceutical products

• Hold agencies accountable for avoiding research that might find a link between vaccines and autism based on the comments of former Director of the NIH, Dr. Bernadine Healy (HERE).

House

Robert Cramer AL D
Jo Bonner AL R
Jackie Speier CA D
Zoe Lofgren CA D
Henry Waxman CA D
Barbara Lee CA D
Duncan Hunter CA R
Loretta Sanchez CA D
Jerry McNerney CA D
Mark Udall CO D
Christopher Shays CT R
Mark Castle DE R
Dave Weldon FL R
Adam Putnam FL R
Robert Wexler FL D
Ginny Brown-Waite FL R
Nathan Deal GA R
Tom Price GA R
John Barrow GA D
Dave Loebsack IA D
Ed Whitfield KY R
John Tierney MA D
Chris Van Hollen MD D
Joe Knollenberg MI R
John Kline MN R
Michelle Bachman MN R
Tim Walz MN D
Chip Pickering MS R
David Price NC D
Brad Miller NC D
Earl Pomeroy ND D
Frank LoBiondo NJ R
Steven Rothman NJ D
Frank Pallone NJ D
Carolyn Maloney NY D
Kirsten Gillibrand NY D
John McHugh NY R
Nita Lowey NY D
Charlie Wilson OH D
David Wu OR D
Robert Brady PA D
Charlie Dent PA R
John Murtha PA D
Todd Platts PA R
Bill Shuster PA R
Jim Langevin RI D
Gresham Barrett SC R
Joe Wilson SC R
Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin SD D
John Tanner TN D
Zach Wamp TN R
Gene Green TX D
Louie Gohmert TX R
Pete Sessions TX R
Lloyd Doggett TX D
Silvestre Reyes TX D
Frank Wolf VA R
Nick Rahall WV D

Senate

Lisa Murkowski AK R
Jeff Sessions AL R
Johnny Isakson GA R
Saxby Chambliss GA R
Barack Obama IL D
Richard Durbin IL D
Mitch McConnell KY R
John Kerrey MA D
Ted Kennedy MA D
Olympia Snowe ME R
Norm Coleman MN R
Claire McCaskill MO D
Richard Burr NC R
Byron Dorgan ND D
Kent Conrad ND D
Frank Lautenberg NJ D
Robert Menendez NJ D
Ron Wyden OR D
Gordon Smith OR R
Sheldon Whitehouse RI D
Jack Reed RI D
Lindsay Graham SC R
Tim Johnson SD D
John Cornyn TX R
Kay Bailey Hutchinson TX R
Orrin Hatch UT R
Bernie Sanders VT I
Maria Cantwell WA D
Russ Feingold WI D
Robert Byrd WV D

This post and action would not have been possible without the incredible work and support of David Kirby, Mark Blaxill, Age of Autism, Generation Rescue, and Autism Action Network! Autism Salutes YOU!