Mercury is a neurotoxin. And it’s in childhood vaccines. When Dr. Brian Hooker did the calculations for the Hepatitis B vaccine given to children, he found his son had received 80 times what is considered the safe limit for mercury. Dr. Hooker’s son has autism. “I was mortified because of what I had done to my son unwittingly,” he said.
Dr. Hooker joined Forum Conversation for an in-depth discussion about vaccines and autism during which he described his journey and research into the causes of autism which led to researching several childhood vaccines and other environmental factors. “There are toxic environmental factors, things that are injected, breathed, or ingested – that are driving this [autism] epidemic,” he said.
Dr. Hooker has served on the board of Children’s Health Defense since 2018 and has been their Chief Scientific Officer for two years. He has a PhD in biochemical engineering from Washington State University and has been involved in bio research and biotechnology for 35 years.
The following is from an interview with Dr. Brian Hooker. It is part of the Forum Conversation, an ongoing series by Report from Planet Earth, where influential leaders and broad-minded thinkers of our times, share their experience and knowledge.
In 1999 Dr. Hooker’s son was diagnosed with autism. At the time his son was 18 months old. This triggered his quest to understand what caused autism; how can it be reversed, and what can be done about it.
He began by searching through research being published by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) but what the CDC was publishing left him feeling dissatisfied. So, he began researching other sources to find out “ what indeed was the truth.”
“I was astounded to find out that the vaccines that my son received contained mercury,” Dr. Hooker told Report from Planet Earth. “Mercury is a neurotoxin.” The prevailing thought in publicly available research, he said, showed mercury is responsible for neurodevelopmental disorders.
Dr. Hooker explained that there is continuing debate whether the 12.5mg contained in the childhood Hepatitis B vaccine is over the safe limit. “But I did the calculation, and when my son was receiving these mercury-laden vaccines, he was exceeding the EPA and the FDA limits by over 80 times,” he said.
“I was very, very concerned about the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal that was used in many, if not most of the vaccines that my son received in the late 1990s.”
When Dr. Hooker compared publicly available research with research that the CDC was publishing and statistics on children who had received vaccines containing mercury compared to those who hadn’t, it became clear the CDC was “hiding something.”
In 2000, a paper by Sallie Bernard confirmed the mercury-autism hypothesis. “I was mortified because of what I had done to my son unwittingly, but it really challenged me to look further into this issue,” Dr. Hooker said.
The Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has never curbed the level of mercury in infant and childhood vaccines. Thimerosal has never been completely taken out of vaccines in the US.
“Some formulations of the flu shot, those in multidose vials, still contain 25 micrograms of mercury via thimerosal. The CDC claims that 93% of all flu shots made in 2021-2022 were thimerosal-free. However, they do not state whether that calculation is made per vaccine dose or per vaccine vial. Indeed, if this refers to individual vials, that would mean that up to 43% of all doses contain thimerosal,” Dr. Hooker explained.
Dr. Hooker also found that several detergents are used in the manufacturing of vaccines. “For example, different forms of polysorbate molecules actually poke holes in the blood-brain barrier. And that allows neurotoxins like mercury, formaldehyde, and aluminium to enter the brain of vaccinated [people].”
Studies have shown that when mercury gets into people’s brains in the form of thimerosal, its half-life is nearly infinite. “So, it’s really locked into brain tissues,” he said. “It appeared to me that these vaccines were the perfect mechanism to inject mercury directly into the brain.”
Mercury can be cleared from the brain. Dr. Hooker has tried several things and what he found worked for his son was a process called chelation and some over-the-counter supplements, such as glutathione and n-acetylcysteine, proved helpful.
To treat the effects of autism, Dr. Hooker took a more holistic approach that considered autism from a systems perspective – that is termed biomedical – rather than neuropsychiatric. “There are a number of effective therapies; chiropractic, naturopathic, acupuncture,” he said. “Underlying all of these approaches are nutrition and diet,” such as eliminating gluten and casein from his son’s diet to alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms.
It’s been established that mercury toxicity will promote the overgrowth of candida yeast in the gut. “So, when you add mercury to the microbial community, it responds by killing off those bacteria that are susceptible to mercury and allowing those organisms that are not susceptible to mercury like yeast to flourish. Also, some nasty anaerobic bacteria like Clostridia are tolerant to mercury. The gut biome is basically set out of balance when exposed to mercury,” he said.
“I’ve met individuals who have come up to me and said, my son or daughter never had a vaccine, yet they’re diagnosed with autism. But there are numerous toxins that pregnant mothers, infants, and our children encounter in the environment.
“If you’re close to coal-fired power plants, there’s mercury in the air because coal contains mercury. If you are close to manufacturing facilities or freeways, that can also be a risk factor. And then there are countless additives in our food with potential risks. We are increasingly exposed to glyphosate, which is associated with genetically modified organisms. There are so many insults to our children. And I think one of the ramifications besides just neurodevelopmental disorders in general, is this increase in autism. My son didn’t get vaccinated in a vacuum.
“Considering the toxic burden that these children were exposed to in the 1990s, and only increasing in this century, I think that the causes of autism are really multifaceted.”
Autism has also been associated with acetaminophen, commonly known as the brand names Tylenol, Paracetamol or Panadol.
“The incidence of autism has increased dramatically since the early 1980s. It was estimated as anywhere between one in 10,000 to one in 2000, at the highest level. By the time my son was diagnosed in 1999, it was one in 250 … The latest autism numbers show that the incidence in the United States is one in 36 children, and I believe that’s one in 29 boys.
“There are toxic environmental factors, things that are injected, breathed, or ingested – that are driving this epidemic.”
The CDC must have been aware of increases in autism for decades and have an idea of what is causing it. Rejecting the possibility that its environmental toxins, including toxins in vaccines, suggests at least, negligence. But as Dr. Hooker noted it’s worse than negligence on CDC’s part:
“I worked with a whistle-blower, Dr. William Thompson from the CDC. In his comment when I asked about autism causation, he said that the CDC was completely paralysed regarding the question of autism because it always led them back to vaccinations.”
A 2017 study by Dr. Anthony Mawson showed that autism rates were at least five times higher in the vaccinated group compared to the completely unvaccinated group.
Dr. Hooker did a follow-on study with Neil Miller which was published in 2020. “What we found was children who received any vaccine in the first year of life compared to those that didn’t, were twice as likely to get a developmental disorder diagnosis. By the time they were eight years old, they were four and a half times as likely to get a diagnosis of asthma by the time they were eight years old. And then they were twice as likely to get recurrent ear infections,” Dr. Hooker said.
A third study was done by Dr. James Lyons-Weiler and Dr. Paul Thomas. “They affirmed the results of Mawson and my results with Neil Miller.” Unfortunately, this last paper was retracted by the journal for being biased toward finding an association between vaccines and conditions like autism.
“I want individuals who are genuinely questioning, who want to learn about this subject, to do a deep dive into the science on both sides … I encourage individuals to look closely at the pronouncements that say that vaccines don’t cause autism. Consider the veracity and viability of the studies on both sides. Look at the completeness of the science saying that there is a relationship between vaccines and autism. And once you do that, the important questions and answers will begin to appear.”