(Last spring, two bills were defeated, in large part by testimony and

lobbying efforts by myself and Dawn Winkler that were before the California

State Senate Committee on Health and Human Services. One of the bills would

have added two doses of Hepatitis A vaccine to the mandatory childhood

immunization schedule, the other bill would have added four doses of Prevnar.

Together, passage of these bills would have added an additional six shots to

an already overburdened childhood immunization schedule. The defeat of these

bills was the first time in California's history that the Legislature said no

to new vaccine mandates. The Committee called for a hearing on the subject of

mandated vaccine policy. Below is the testimony I presented to the Committee

at the hearing this week.)

 

                                                       Testimony

                   Russell's story, one child every three hours, the ultimate betrayal

                                                             by

                                                       Rick Rollens

  

                                                    January 23, 2002         

                       

                                                California State Senate

                                   Committee on Health and Human Services

                                             Senator Deborah Ortiz, Chair

                     "Childhood Immunizations Mandates:  Politics vs. Public Health"

  

  

  

      Madame Chair and Members: My name is Rick Rollens. As many of you know,

I recently worked right here in this building for over two decades for the

Senate serving in various capacities including chief of staff to a Senator,

chief consultant to the Senate Rules Committee, Director and creator of the

Office of Senate Floor Analyses, and as Secretary of the Senate. My 23 year

tenure with the Senate came to an end in 1996 when I resigned my position as

Secretary of the Senate in order to further dedicate myself to the pursuit of

effective treatments and a cure for my beloved son, Russell. I am here today

to share with you the story of my son's case of vaccine induced autism, the

exploding autism epidemic in California, and the politics of

vaccination/public health policy.

  

      Russell began his life as a normal, healthy, and robust child, meeting

all his age appropriate milestones. At seven months old, after receiving a

series of vaccines including his third DPT and first HIB vaccine, Russell

began the slow and insidious process of slipping into the world of autism.

Within hours of those shots, Russell began a nonstop 10 day period of high

pitch screaming, fevers and listlessness...conditions that his pediatrician

nor anyone else in the medical practice ever recognized as an adverse vaccine

reaction. After seven short months of normal development in this world,

Russell's life had changed forever, as well as the lives of all who know and

love him. Even today nearly 10 years later, the physical pain and suffering

that Russell experienced after those shots continues to be part of his daily

life. Physical pain is something that all children with vaccine induced

autism suffer from. Within days after his first MMR vaccination Russell began

his final journey into the abyss of regressive autism - losing most of his

remaining skills, developing severe sleep disruptions, chronic

gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune problems, a worsening of his already

disturbing behaviors, and suffering pain exhibited by harrowing days of

endless crying. Within months, Russell was officially diagnosed with autism.

  

      After months of medical investigation of Russell's condition, including

state-of-the-art brain scans, hundreds of tests and immunological and

neurological work-ups, we consulted a noted pediatric neurologist who

thoroughly examined Russell and reviewed all of Russell's medical history. He

advised us that in part, Russell's brain dysfunction had very likely occurred

as a result of some form of encephalitis resulting in bilateral

hypometabolism in the temporal lobes of his brain. Based on years of

extensive medical investigation that had been done on my son, along with the

strong temporal relationship between the timing of the vaccinations he

received, the reactions to the vaccines, and the onset of the symptoms of his

condition, as well as the scientifically based knowledge that one of the many

serious adverse effects of certain vaccines is brain swelling and

encephalitis… I believe that Russell is a victim of vaccine induced autism.

My story is not unique. I would challenge each of you to talk to many of your

own constituents who are the rapidly growing number of parents of children

with autism. I can assure you that you will hear first hand accounts from a

disturbing number of these parents of a normally developing child, the

introduction and reaction to a vaccine or multiple vaccines, the timing of

their children's regression and vaccination, and the onset of the multitude

of other medical conditions and complications that accompany this acquired

autistic condition.

  

      Since 1980, the number of new cases of autism in California has and

continues to increase at an alarming rate. Throughout the past 22 years,

California has experienced an increasing epidemic of autism, precisely during

the same time period that we aggressively added 14 additional doses of

vaccines to the mandated childhood immunization schedule and increased the

frequency of vaccines given at a younger and younger age. Over 80% (8 out of

10) persons in the entire system with autism were born after 1980...the same

year as California law mandated for the first time that all children provide

proof of immunizations before entering school, therefore requiring for the

first time that all California children entering school receive the full

complement of the then 23 mandated doses of vaccines in 1980. The Measles,

Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine was also added to the mandated childhood

immunization schedule in 1979-1980 as well.

  

      According to data from the Department of Developmental Services (DDS),

autism is now the number one disability entering California's developmental

services system. 2001 brought yet another in a series of annual 20% increases

over the previous year. As documented in a Report to the Legislature in 1999

by DDS, autism increased 273% over a recent 11 year period while the

population of California grew by only 19% and other disabilities including

mental retardation experienced predictable, population adjusted increases.

Over the three year period since the release of the Report in 1999,

California has added an additional 6,600 new cases of fully diagnosed autism.

  

     In a system that DDS estimates will cost taxpayers well over $2 million

for each new child with autism, 2 out of 3 persons with autism in

California's system today are young children between the ages of 3 and 13

years old. California's developmental services system is currently adding, on

average, 8 new children with autism a day, 7 days a week, or one new child

every three hours.  

  

      Vaccines contain numerous potent and neuro toxic agents such as live

viruses cultured in animal tissues, genetically engineered bacterial agents,

preservatives, and extremely toxic chemicals including aluminum,

formaldehyde, and mercury. As you heard in testimony here today, our children

are exposed to 37 doses of these concoctions beginning HOURS after birth,

with the majority of exposure to these potent toxic agents administered

during the first year of life in multiple doses ....All of this happening at

the worst possible time, as it is the most critical time of brain,

neurological, and immune system development. It should provide no level of

comfort for parents of children yet to be born that over 300 new vaccines are

currently in development. It should also be noted, that autism was never even

described in the medical literature until AFTER the introduction of the

mercury containing whole cell DPT vaccine. Adding insult to injury is the

fact that there has never been a single safety study on the short term or

long term effects of the interaction of these potent cocktails of numerous

multiple active agents on the developing brain and immune systems of our

children. I know for a fact that these studies DO NOT exist, because even

when the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) recently went looking for them they

could not find them, and even with a Congressional subpoena served to U.S.

Surgeon General David Satcher in 1999 before a Congressional committee to

produce the studies he says are there, he has yet to produce a thing. Even

the so-called safety studies of individual vaccines, which range from a few

days to a couple of weeks of passive surveillance, are woefully inadequate.

When single vaccine studies are conducted they are paid for by the vaccine

manufacturers themselves, and performed by researchers who receive direct and

or indirect funding from those same vaccine manufacturers. It is an insidious

situation that I compare to having a tobacco company pay for a study produced

by persons who receive funding from the tobacco company, then report that the

tobacco product that has been studied is safe and causes no harm. The entire

system is riddled with conflicts of interest, and driven by profits and

medical arrogance. The system is a sham. When it comes to examining the

question of the link between autism and vaccines, this same conflict ridden

group continues to produce junk science....studies produced not to seek the

truth, but to contain damage control over the growing concern that vaccines

may in fact be causing autism. Even our own Department of Health Services,

Immunization Branch is guilty of this deception.

  

  

      The science on the safety of vaccines and their relationship to the

cause or contribution to the development of autism is simply not there. Not

until independent science, free from the influence of the powerful vaccine

machine, that is currently underway at places like the M.I.N.D. Institute

that examines the biological mechanisms of how vaccines are causing autism in

genetically susceptible children is completed will we discover the truth

about autism and vaccines. Thousands of us have suffered the ultimate

betrayal of trust by blindly allowing our precious children to be injected

with dozens of vaccines....trusting that those responsible for vaccine safety

have made sure that my child and thousands of others like him could not

develop autism after exposure to a vaccine or vaccines. Thank you.

  

  

   ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.