Feb. 15, 2005 – A lawyer representing parents who claim their children’s health was damaged by mercury-containing infant vaccines has revealed a memo from a scientific consultant sent to pharmaceutical giant Merck warning about the high mercury dosages. Plaintiffs in cases against the company say the memo, which was written years before the public was made aware of the potential hazard, is damning evidence that Merck knew of the risks but did nothing to correct them.
The 1991 memo was written by Dr. Maurice R. Hilleman, a former senior vice president of Merck, to then-head of Merck's vaccine division, Dr. Gordon Douglas. The LA Times, which obtained a copy of the memo, quotes Hilleman as writing that infants who receive their vaccines on schedule would be dosed with as much as 87 times more mercury than is accepted as safe in daily consumption. "When viewed in this way, the mercury load appears rather large," wrote Hilleman.
The high levels of Mercury in vaccines was not revealed by public health officials until 1999, eight years after Hilleman wrote his memo. Mercury, which used to be a common ingredient in childhood vaccines has largely been removed, ostensibly as a precautionary measure, though drug companies say there is no hard evidence that the previous levels were unsafe.
Vaccine manufacturers are embroiled in lawsuits by parents who say their children were poisoned by the injections and have suffered neurological disorders as a result.
