Parents everywhere need more vaccination choices for children

I'd like to commend you for your excellent editorial of Oct. 23 titled "Parents fight for vaccination choice." I am the father of Alex, 21, who has autism, is nonverbal and hyperactive, measures 6 feet 3 inches and is over 200 pounds, but is athletic. He needs one-on-one assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

When he was vaccinated in California in 1987 (under the brand-new law, the first of its kind in 1986) at 1 month, 6 months and 9 months old, we, the parents, were not even informed about the contents of thimerosal, which is about 50 percent mercury.

My son had a predisposition to learning disabilities. His grandfather had a learning disability because his father had worked all his life for Bethlehem Steel and died totally toxic just before his retirement.

If I would have known the contents of the vaccinations Alex received or was supposed to receive, I would have taken him to Hamburg, Germany, where we would have a choice of vaccinations, with single shots. I never would have vaccinated him before he reached the age of 2.

Alex and I were at the fallen Berlin Wall in August 1990. Two months later Alex was diagnosed with autism. We had never even heard the word autism before.

I have a story about us in my Web site www.burndsman.com.
Bernd Lichters
Los Angeles, Calif.