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By Dr. Elizabeth Mumper
[Delivered at the National Institutes of Health — NIH — at a special event at which the vaccine-injured spoke first.]
I have heard these stories a thousand times. I am a board‑certified pediatrician with 46 years of clinical experience.
I’ve practiced in group and solo settings, served as director of pediatric education for a residency program, and received numerous awards for child‑health initiatives. My solo practice had 3,500 general pediatric patients. I spent five years as medical director of the Autism Research Institute.
By caring for and consulting on more than 600 children with autism from five countries and 20 states, and hundreds of children with complex chronic illnesses, I have a unique clinical perspective to share, which mirrors what these families shared today.
My concerns about vaccine safety began in 1999 after my patient experienced a severe and irreversible reaction following a vaccine I gave. Despite exhaustive efforts to identify another cause, I could not.
The trajectory of my career changed. I left a secure academic position I loved and opened a solo practice dedicated to children whose medical needs were not being met.
During my career, I learned an extraordinary amount from parents who are usually perceptive observers of their children’s health. At the Autism Research Institute, we partnered with families to identify medical problems that were overlooked. Their insights guided our research and these actions should guide our actions today.
Families directed us to treat gastrointestinal dysfunction, immune dysregulation, and impairments in detoxification pathways. Collaborations with international scientists helped identify mitochondrial dysfunction, methylation abnormalities, cerebral folate deficiency and prolonged cell danger responses.
Most pediatricians do not know about these issues. Addressing these problems often resulted in measurable improvements in autism symptoms.
Some children initially diagnosed with moderate to severe autism entered kindergarten no longer meeting criteria for autism because their medical problems were treated. Other severely affected children treated as toddlers have gone on to college without knowing they once carried an autism diagnosis.
My concerns about vaccine safety extend far beyond the narrow question of whether vaccines cause autism. Autism and complex chronic illnesses are profoundly heterogeneous.
In my experience, antecedents, mediators and triggers vary widely among children. Vaccines contribute to oxidative or mitochondrial stress in all children. In some kids; they amplify pre‑existing vulnerabilities.
For others, early-life factors — such as C‑section birth, antibiotics, or prematurity — create antecedent conditions that interact with later vaccines and precede neurodevelopmental regression.
In 2005, I gave grand rounds at the university where I had been chief resident. Simply raising the possibility that the accelerated vaccine schedule might contribute to rising autism prevalence resulted in my adjunct faculty appointment not being renewed.
At the time, I used a modified schedule that reduced aluminum exposure while remaining fully compliant with Virginia’s school requirements.
In 2006, I met with AAP [American Academy of Pediatrics] leadership to discuss vaccine safety concerns — which were dismissed.
Despite no research funding from government or pharma, I published a dozen studies in my spare time. One 17‑year project examined whether autism risk could be reduced by applying insights learned from families.
After seven years, my autism prevalence was 1 in 297 — at a time when the national rate was worse than 1 in 50. I submitted the findings to the AAP in 2013, expecting interest in a six‑fold reduction in such a serious public health problem. I received no response.
My clinical observations — confirmed by independent data mining — was that children who got more vaccines were more likely to develop chronic illnesses. In my practice, under‑vaccinated children had lower rates of chronic diseases.
Other pediatricians in town dismissed patients for not following the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] schedule. Because 30% of families in my practice sought religious or philosophical exemptions, I was able to compare outcomes across groups.
Children who received any vaccines in their first year of life showed higher odds of developmental delays, asthma and ear infections compared with unvaccinated children. Analyses by dose quartile demonstrated increasing odds ratios for several conditions as vaccine exposure increased.
We published our findings, and since then, 12 additional studies have reported similar associations. These associations highlight the need to clarify underlying mechanisms of injury related to early childhood vaccination.
A birth cohort study at Henry Ford followed 18,000 children to compare chronic health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated from birth through long‑term follow‑up.
After multivariate adjustment, vaccination exposure showed a higher risk of chronic conditions, including asthma, autoimmune disease, atopic disease, eczema and neurodevelopmental disorders.
By 10 years of follow‑up, 57% of vaccinated children had chronic illness compared with 17% of the unvaccinated. Vaccination was independently associated with a 2.5‑fold increased likelihood of chronic health conditions. Academia chose not to publish the study, citing concerns about career repercussions.
There should be no stigma in revising vaccine schedules. We know more now about the roles of mitochondria and metabolism. Emerging genomic research identifies single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with higher risks of adverse reactions, including CCL2, NLRP3 and CARD 8.
To my knowledge, NIH has not conducted research on children who had documented regression following vaccines. These children represent critical signals — “canaries in the coal mine” — whose genetic, metabolic and inflammatory profiles could inform individualized risk‑benefit assessments.
My concerns arise from direct clinical observation, gaps in the vaccine safety literature and plausible mechanistic pathways for adverse reactions. I have three specific collaborative requests for immediate action:
- Discontinue mRNA vaccination for infants, children and adolescents. My book details many reasons for this policy.
- Fund NIH research that leads to actionable treatment strategies for affected children — I will collaborate with you to teach clinicians how to heal these children.
- Study subsets of children with autism and those who have experienced adverse vaccine reactions to develop risk measurement tools such as newborn testing to identify babies at risk.
The proposed NIH framework includes objectives particularly relevant to this discussion and offers unique opportunities for collaboration with us. We have an obligation to act with integrity and scientific curiosity.
I have faced over 25 years of institutional resistance. Today is the day for NIH to take our concerns seriously and develop strategies and policies to help this generation of children. I am at your service.
Originally published by Brownstone Institute.
Dr. Elizabeth Mumper is CEO of Advocates for Families and on the faculty of the Medical Academy of Pediatrics and Special Needs. She is a physician, educator and clinical leader with deep experience in pediatrics, neurodevelopmental care and professional training.
