Thimerosal in vaccines doesn’t lead to autism?

Who do they think they're fooling?

By Gibbwake

Sweeping the newswires and dinosaur news media recently is a story from the California Department of Health telling us that there is no mercury autism link and that "conspiracy theorists will continue to engage this theory on the link between autism and vaccinations” The story on ABC is written with strong language, and phrasing the flawed California study as “latest nail in the coffin of a theory that draws a link [between mercury and autism]”. All of this flawed analysis is based on the unfounded claim that thimerosal has been removed from vaccines. No evidence is offered to this claim, which could potentially cause unwitting parents to think the vaccines forced by the state are perfectly healthy.

To those not familiar with this vaccine additive, “Its called thimerosal and it's made from mercury, the second most toxic metal known to man. Uranium is the most toxic. For years, thimerosal has been extremely controversial because there were alternatives to preventing vaccine contamination. Questions remain about how pharmaceutical companies conduct vaccine research and how the government regulates those companies.” Here is video of what mercury does to brain tissue under a microscope.

Thimerosal is a compound that is 49.6% mercury by weight. Although it is not used in all vaccines, it has been part of the manufacture of many vaccines since the 1930s. One of the first published papers on the mercury preservative thimerosal was by a Rockefeller Institute scientist, named Kenneth C. Smithburn, hired by Eli Lilly & Co. to test its effectiveness in treating meningitis patients. Although all of the 22 patients died, it was reported they took the mercury solution “without ill effect.” According to Andrew Waters of the Waters & Kraus law firm, "Lilly then cited this study repeatedly for decades as proof that thimerosal was of low toxicity and harmless to humans. They never revealed to the scientific community or the public the highly questionable nature of the original research."

After that, with thimerosal declared safe after killing all of the people it was tested on, it has been used:

• to kill the bacteria that make the vaccine itself (e.g., whole cell pertussis vaccine)
• to kill bacteria that might enter the vaccine during the production process (e.g., influenza vaccine)
• as a preservative to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination of vaccines during their clinical use. In this case, thimerosal is added at the end of the production process either to the liquid vaccine itself or — in the case of dry powder vaccines — to the liquid used to dilute the vaccine

Reading the headlines and listening to the talking heads on network news channels stumble over their teleprompters reporting on the new study, you would think that the mercury has been removed. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case - it has actually increased and is used in 90% of flu vaccines. It should be noted that fetuses and young children suffer the greatest risk because their nervous systems are still developing. They are four to five times more sensitive to mercury than adults. Not only is it in 90% of the flu vaccines, but President Bush himself vetoed a bill passed by congress that would have banned thimerosal. What kind of logic are these people using to think that it has been removed – why would Bush veto a bill that wants to ban thimerosal if it has already been removed?

Notice how many of the reports, like this US News and World Report story mention that “makers of most childhood vaccines stopped using a mercury-based preservative..” The keyword there being “of most” since many still use it. The study authors conclude that thimerosal had been taken out by 2001 when this is simply not the case. Alex Jones commented on his radio show today on the 1-8-2008 show, "In 2001, the FDA made a recommendation for liability to vaccine makers that they make available small runs of non thimerosal based vaccines - but the others, for some reason, had a 4 to 5 times increase."

12 years ago, autism rates were 1 in 2500, in 2005 they were 1 in 166 (1 in 80 in boys), and current estimates are nearly double that number, but Judith Greher, one of the authors of the study said as late as 2006 that she didn’t even think autism is an epidemic.

Read the rest of the story here.

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