Liz Birt

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Elizabeth "Liz" Ann Birt (b. August 10, 1956, Kansas City, Missouri - d. December 28, 2005) was a corporate, tax and health care attorney and lobbyist. She was a co-founder of the Coalition for Safe Minds, the founder of Medical Interventions for Autism, a founding board member of the National Autism Association, a co-founder and board member of A-CHAMP, and a principal author of Mercury in Medicine, the 2003 staff report released by the House Government Reform Committee that brought together the background and science concerning the toxicity of mercury used to preserve vaccines.[1]

Contents 1 Education and early career 2 Safe Minds 3 Matthew 4 Show me the data! 5 Thoughtful House 6 Quote 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Education and early career

In 1992, Birt graduated from DePaul University School of Law and worked for years as an insurance underwriter. She began her legal career as an assistant general counsel to Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, where she specialized in health care tax litigation and contract disputes.

[edit] Safe Minds

As an attorney, Birt wanted to sue vaccine makers, but could not, because of legislation that has been enacted federally to protect the pharmaceutical industry from liability. Birt instead became an active board member of Safe Minds (Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders), founded in 2000 and led by the parents of autistic children, a non-profit organization dedicated to investigating the risks of exposure to mercury from medical products.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, Safe Minds helped uncover evidence that federal agencies may have systematically manipulated data related to thimerosal containing vaccines (TCVs), including discovery of a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) document, based upon the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project, citing a 2.48 relative risk of autism in children who were exposed to 62.5 micrograms or more of thimerosal from vaccinations. The CDC later 'amended' the number to 1.69, which Birt and Safe Minds believed to be misleading.[2]

[edit] Matthew

In 1996, Birt's son Matthew was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, which is generally ascribed to children with autistic spectrum disorders that do not meet all of the criteria for autism. Within seven blocks of her suburban Chicago home in Wilmette, Illinois, five other children also were afflicted by what Birt believed is an emerging autism epidemic. "It's just rampant," Birt said.[3]

She subsequently dedicated her life to discovering the cause of his disorder, and used her skills as a lawyer to advocate for children with autism and to help provide improved care for Matthew and the millions of other children that have now been diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders. Birt often spent 60 hours or more in a week researching autism or lobbying for more resources to fight developmental disabilities.

Matthew developed normally until he was about 15 months old, when he could count to ten and say about 30 words. Then he gradually developed autistic symptoms, which Birt attributed, like many other parents of children with autism, to two vaccinations her son received on the same day. In the following months, he began to act as if he was deaf, stopped talking, and instead spun in circles, stared at lights and ignored his family.

In her 2005 testimony before the Illinois Assembly, Birt attested to the apparent connection between MMR vaccine and her son's evident autistic enterocolitis. "Unfortunately, for Matthew his gastrointestinal disease has worsened and he is now on immunosuppressive treatment because he developed lesions in his esophagus. He has had several grand mal seizures. He has documented measles virus infection in his intestine and cerebral spinal fluid that matches the vaccine strain. In addition, his body is unable to detoxify. He has antibodies to myelin basic protein which acts as a conductor for nerves in his brain. His immune system is dysregulated; he has high levels of inflammatory cytokines. He is currently being evaluated for kidney stones. In short, his body is a train wreck."

[edit] Show me the data!

Upon encountering investigative reporter David Kirby, in 2003, at a Washington, D.C. protest in over a rider attached to Homeland Security Act legislation that would absolve vaccine makers from liability for vaccine injuries, Birt told him "We need to get our hands on the raw VSD data, right away, I won’t stop fighting until we do!" The data has been the subject of a great deal of controversy, pitting parents and a few allied autism researchers, including Mark Geier, in a pitched battle against government agencies and pharmaceutical companies, who contend the data might be misused.

After meeting Safe Minds principals there, Kirby wrote the book Evidence of Harm (2004), which relates the story of Safe Minds parents including Birt, Lyn Redwood, Sallie Bernard and Mark Blaxill.

[edit] Thoughtful House

Birt became involved in the creation of Thoughtful House, a research and clinical center for the treatment of autism and other developmental disabilities, located in Austin, Texas. The principal medical investigators at the center are physicians Andrew Wakefield and Jeff Bradstreet.

The Elizabeth Ann Birt Memorial Fund for Truth and Love has been established at Thoughtful House to fund autism research and to help the many families who need assistance with the care and treatment of their affected children.

[edit] Quote

"I have spent the majority of my professional time since 2000 working on the issue of whether or not vaccines are related to the epidemic of autism that is plaguing our country. I have been hopeful that our federal government would take the lead in investigating this issue. I spent many hours reviewing documents provided by our federal health agencies and pharmaceutical companies relating to this issue when I was on staff for the House Committee on Government Reform and as counsel to SAFEMINDS. What I found was shocking. After seeing the text of Senate Bill 1873 (BioShield Two) I no longer have faith in our elected officials in Washington." Liz Birt

[edit] See also

• List of vaccine topics
• Neurodiversity

[edit] External links

• NationalAutismAssociation.org - 'Elizabeth Birt: Please share your thoughts and memories of Liz here', National Autism Association
• AspenTimes.com - 'Wreck kills woman on Highway 82; Two others injured', John Colson, Aspen Times (December 29, 2005)
• Cherab.org - 'Joint Statement on use of the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink for Thimerosal Investigations', Autism Research Institute, Autism Society of America, Cherab Foundation, Cure Autism Now, Echo of Canada, Safe Minds, Speechville Express, Unlocking Autism (November 3, 2003)
• CNN.com - 'Uncovering autism's mysteries: Is there more autism? Or just a new definition?' CNN (March 2, 2003)
• Mothering.com - 'Fighting for Matthew: A Parent's Activism', Liz Birt, Mothering (November/December, 2002)
• SafeMinds.org - 'The Coalition for Safe Minds'
• SARNet.org - 'Autism Projects in Memory of Liz Birt', Schafer Autism Report
• VaccinationNews.com - 'Safe Minds Commentary on AAP Critique of Geier & Geier Thimerosal Paper', Sallie Bernard