JISHOU, HUNAN — I’ve been meaning to blog about the anti-vaccination movement, but haven’t had the time to develop a thorough entry. Now I don’t have to; someone with much better creds has done it for me.
Here’s the link: eSkeptic magazine. The author is Harriet Hall, MD, who dispassionately debunks the Holy Trinity of the anti-vax movement: Andrew Wakefield, thimerosal and the Jenny McCarthy/Jim Carrey road show.
About 10 years ago, Wakefield, a British doctor, published journal articles and argued publicly that the MMR (measle, mumps, rubella) vaccination caused autism. The data in the articles was fraudulent, and his conclusions lies, but that hasn’t stopped the anti-vax crowd’s referring to his work as “proof” vaccinations cause autism. Nor has the revelation that Wakefield was in the pocket of lawyers trying to sue vaccine manufacturers for causing their clients’ children’s autism.
In fact, Brits not getting the MMR vaccination for their kids — undoubtedly due to Wakefield’s self-serving anti-MMR publicity — has created a resurgence in measles cases in the UK.
Thimerosal is a benign mercury compound that used to be in vaccines in tiny amounts as a preservative. After the mercury-causes-autism scares of the 1990s, mercury compounds were removed from vaccines. Autism rates, instead of falling, rose. Anti-vaccination spokesmouths still claim vaccines cause autism, but now allege other ingredients are the culprit.
Jenny McCarthy (and her equally expertly dumb partner Jim Carrey) have been beating the anti-vaccination drum for a while now, turning the autism scare into their own profitable cottage industry. McCarthy’s son is autistic (she used to believe he was an Indigo child), so she has become a role model for other mothers of autistic kids.
Her appearances on Larry King and Oprah, and her new blog on Oprah’s website, have given McCarthy a “bully pulpit” to spread her misinformation and blather to millions. Experts fear a resurgence in childhood diseases in the USA, as has happened with measles in the UK, if enough parents follow McCarthy’s advice and postpone or avoid vaccinations for their kids.
Anti-vax supporters trot out anecdotal evidence to “prove” vaccinations cause autism, ignoring the vast numbers of non-autistic folks who have also been vaccinated. The causes of autism are still not fully understood, but more than likely vaccines are not the problem.
Get your kids vaccinated. The benefits outweigh the risks.
Boyd Haley, PhD – former Chemistry chair, University of Kentucky
http://www.iaomt.org/testfoundation/thimerosal.htm
Thimerosal Toxicity Slide Show
http://www.iaomt.org/testfoundation/thimtox.htm
Iatrogenic exposure to mercury after hepatitis B vaccination in pre-term infants.
Stajich GV, Lopez GP, Harry SW, Sexson WR. J Pediatr (2000) May; 136(5):679-81 (10802503)
”In most vaccine containers, thimerosal is listed as a mercury derivative, a hundredth of a percent. And what I believed, and what everybody else believed, was that it was truly a trace, a biologically insignificant amount. My honest belief is that if the labels had had the mercury content in micrograms, this would have been uncovered years ago. But the fact is, no one did the calculation.”
By Neal Halsey M.D.
“The important thing to note is that thimerosal is an issue really only for pediatric vaccines for small children. The developing nervous system is very sensitive, so if they’re exposed to mercury it’s more likely to cause damage.” By Dr. Pierre Lavigne
(P.S.: None of these people are actresses.)
(P.P.S.: If mercury or thimerosal was in fact a cause of autism, the prevalence of autism would have decreased after 1999, when thimerosal was removed from vaccines. Instead, autism rates have increased in the succeeding decade. So, thimerosal was not the culprit.)
(P.P.P.S: If you have something to add, don’t just drop quote-mined quotes and a snarky remark. Discuss.)