Autism

Does the MMR vaccine contain thimerosal? Thanks.
I'm not worried about the vaccine causing Autism. I'm writing an essay for my college English class about the possible link, but i'm arguing that it does not cause it. I just need to expand my essay, so i'm just looking for more information.

MMR never had thimerosal. AND, thimerosal in vaccines never caused any harm that anybody has been able to measure or prove.

There's so much hype around this topic, I put together a summary that maybe will help you with your decision. The choice is yours, of course, but you should hear from someone who doesn't have an agenda. My agenda is the same as yours, to be a good parent, nothing more.

Do vaccines cause autism?
———————

Some parents claim they do. But there are many many studies that show no link between vaccines and autism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy#Recent_studies

Also, many parents have stopped vaccinating, or are vaccinating less over the past 10 years

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immunization29-2009mar29,0,3148179.story

but the rate at which autism is diagnosed is still climbing, unchanged:

http://www.fightingautism.org/idea/autism.php

If autism was caused by vaccines, and if many parents (as many as 40% in some wealthy California districts) are choosing to not vaccinate, shouldn't we see SOME change in the rate of autism diagnosis?

Is there an autism epidemic?
———————–

It sure seems like it, doesn't it? You never used to hear about it, then came Rain Man, then came Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey, Larry King and Oprah, and now everyone has an autistic kid.

So if autism is rising, all things being equal, then we should see more kids applying for special education assistance in school, right?

But we don't. We see about the same number (as a % of population) getting special attention in school that we saw 10 years ago. But more of them are diagnosed as having "autism spectrum disorder" and fewer are diagnosed with other disorders.

http://www.autismstreet.org/weblog/?p=297

Other studies are similar. There may be a slight rise in actual cases of autism, but it's hard to see through all the "switched diagnoses" and the effect of greater awareness of the condition: "Honey, I just learned on Oprah that Johnny is autistic."

How did this vaccine-autism thing start?
—————-
In 1998 Dr. Andrew Wakefield at the Royal Free Hospital in England concluded, based on a study of 12 kids, that there was a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. Since then, it has been learned that:

what he said about the kids medical histories was not true;

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece

10 of the 12 doctors who co-authored the study removed their names from the study and published a retraction saying: "We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient.";

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_enterocolitis#.22Retraction_of_an_interpretation.22

While they were criticizing the MMR vaccine, Wakefield and the Royal Free Hospital were filing patent applications for an ALTERNATIVE VACCINE!

http://briandeer.com/wakefield/vaccine-patent.htm

Wakefield now faces professional misconduct charges.

Yes, he's a charismatic guy who seems really sincere in his desire to help people. But I fear he will be remembered by history as a major contributor to a resurgence of deadly diseases.

Is it really possible that this is all just hype??
——————————————-

Over the past 6 years, Americans convinced themselves that (1) it was just fine to give mortgages to people who had no down payment and no income; and (2) these mortgages became valuable assets when repackaged and sold by banks.

The entire premise is absurd, yet we ALL fell for it, and our economy is in shambles.

Yes, it's possible for people to get fooled by hype, fooled in MASSIVE numbers. We're in a period where science=unnatural=bad. After all, sticking a needle into a baby seems grossly unnatural, and unnatural is bad, right? So blaming vaccines for SOMETHING just feels right.

But that is bad logic. Diseases are all natural, and they are bad. Very bad.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010978.html

Humans realized long ago that they could be fooled, and they started coming up with ways to keep from being fooled. That's where the scientific method, and controlled, blinded studies came from – a desire to not be fooled.

So by all means do your own research. But please, don't be fooled.