To Pampers: In reference to your article "More Good News About Vaccines" in your last E-Newsletter: Loraine Stern, M.D.

does not know her facts. Thimerosal was not finally removed from newborn Hep B vaccines until the end of 200l, and is still in many of the boosters and other childhood vaccines. Parents report that some pediatricians are even still using up their supplies of thimerosal-laden vaccines. Many of the children that may have been poisoned by thimerosal in their newborn vaccines will not even be diagnosed for a year or more, as mercury is a slow neurotoxin and the effects do not show up for a long time. This, of course, is why there has not yet been a decline in the number of diagnoses of autistic disorders, nor is this decline likely to be apparent for a few more years, as many children do not actually get diagnosed until they are in school. The thimerosal study that revealed no "connection between vaccines and autism" was flawed and has been shown to be so by respected research analysts. This study was done by researchers paid by companies that make vaccines. Vaccine reform will not take place until ignorant physicians like Dr. Stern take the trouble to read the studies and understand the dynamics of mercury, an extremely insidious neurotoxin that damages the brain and gut and immune system to the point that when a triple live vaccine like measles is administered, the susceptible child's immune system is unable to cope and the child develops a full blown autoimmune disease called autism spectrum disorder. Mercury is toxic to neurons, and as it is excreted through the stool damages the gut, which makes up 70% of the immune system; susceptible children can start getting 4-15 or more ear and other infections in their first year of life and then given multiple gut and immune system-damaging antibiotics. It took a lot of us a long time to realize that these children had been injured at birth for lifetime disability with a vaccine that extremely few newborns need (only those with mothers with AIDS or hepatitis). I treat autism spectrum disorder children, many of whom are still in diapers, and am the author of "Children with Starving Brains", a medical treatment guide for autistic chidren. I am on e-list boards with thousands of parents of these vaccinedamaged children; many parents are enraged at Proctor and Gamble and have already said they will never buy your products again. I will be endorsing their boycott of Pampers to all my listmembers until you inform yourselves of what is really going on with the current epidemic of autism. Jaquelyn McCandless, M.D.