John McCain’s health advisers showed concern about vaccine safety, but they wouldn’t say McCain would order mercury out of vaccines if he were president, according to a mom who met with the candidate’s campaign staff this week.
Becky Estepp, a former Aliso Viejo resident and the director of TACA San Diego, has been hounding both candidates for a response to the video she posted on YouTube earlier this year, in which she asks the presidential candidates to pledge to issue an executive order removing all mercury from all vaccines. (Becky believes vaccines are a cause of autism.)
She had letters from each campaign and spoke unofficially to Obama staffers at the Netroots Nation convention in autism last month.
She met with two policy advisers to McCain this week. While she was encouraged by the advisers’ agreement on the main issue of vaccine safety, she summed up the campaign’s position as she saw it: “I’m concerned and yet I’m not doing anything about it.”
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“We were really happy with the level of people that they sent to attend to the meeting,” Becky said. “They gave us an hour, and it was a back-and-forth conversation. At times it seemed like we were talking in parallels, like one side wasn’t quite getting to the other.
What we came in with was vaccine safety. Sure, we’re all parents of children with autism, but that really wasn’t the point. The point was making the vaccine schedule safe — safer — in the next couple years. We really don’t see how that can be a negative. How can someone be against vaccines safety? They seemed interested in what we were saying.”
I asked if the staffers seemed to disagree with her, and believe that vaccines are safe already.
“I did not get that vibe. It more like, ‘But how would we implement this?’ They were sort of deflecting. I felt like we were getting deflected quite a bit.
“I think the McCain campaign wants us to be grateful for what Senator McCain said in March in that townhall meeting, where he acknowledged there is evidence that preservatives in vaccines could have harmed our children. No doubt we are grateful. The fact that he came out first to say it speaks volumes, and that really makes us feel good. But it’s not enough. We’re worried about the next generation of children.
“I was hoping for more. It’s certainly not like anyone shut the door. I just dont think they’re realizing how many votes there are in this issue. I think there’s thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of votes on this issue and they’re not seeing it.”
Up next for Estepp: Meeting with McCain’s Senate staff next month.
Previously:
Autism may not stir up campaigns, says professor.
Until someone with real power and position witnesses their own child, grandchild, nieceor nephew regress into Autism, change will continue to be slow.
It is sometimes impossible to understand without first hand experience. 1in150 American children are not disposable.
“While she was encouraged by the advisers’ agreement on the main issue of vaccine safety, she summed up the campaign’s position as she saw it: `I’m concerned and yet I’m not doing anything about it.’”
More like, they aren’t doing what Becky Estepp wants them to do about it. This makes sense, as Ms. Estepp is not health care professional working in the field of immunology.
Who will speak for the children whose diseases will not be researched if the government does as the mercury mommies demand and throws money down the toilet researching questions which have already been conclusively answered or which are scientifically implausible?
What I can’t understand is that mainstream medicine is desperate to save our children from measles and HepB, but are not paying a bit of attention to 20 kids a day being diagnosed with AUTISM (not a scientific number, but!?! What if 20 kids a day contracted measles? Would we care? Would we be doing more about it? Would there be histeria on CNN? YES! The contradictions here are jaw-dropping.
Dinah, no one is throwing money down the toilet if both sides are not satisfied with the science that exists. You can scream all day that the science we have is enough to prove there’s no connection, but the fact will remain that thousands and thousands of parents and doctors and researchers say there is NOT. PERIOD.
What does mercury have to do with autism, Kevin?
If we’re going to remove “toxins” from vaccines, why not remove water from vaccines too? It can be fatally toxic- in the right amounts. I think that is what you are missing here. Toxicity is directly related to volume and duration of exposure.
Not only is there no connection between thimerosal/mercury and autism, there is no evidence that any substance in the vaccine schedule promoted in this country is dangerous in the amount provided through the vaccines.