Wednesday, January 9, 2008

New autism study once again disproves Thimerosol connection.

Yesterday's Post Dispatch (St Louis for you out of Staters) carried this Associated Press Story on a new study out of California. Seems that Autism rates continue to climb there despite the elimination of Thimerosol from vaccines, several years ago.
Autism cases continue to grow…by AP Science writer Alicia Chang
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080107/ap_on_he_me/autism_cases
Here is the original study article:
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/65/1/19

This is confirming of other studies done overseas showing similar results in Countries which eliminated Thimerosol entirely years ago. Their Autism rates are also climbing at the same rate as Countries which continued to use the preservative.
The "Epidemic that Wasn't" photo is disturbing. Not because, as the blogger suggest, they would have been diagnosed with autism today (who knows), but that at least some of these individuals are very likely suffering from Rubella Syndrome. Rubella Syndrome causes microcephaly, blindness and other birth defects.

In other words, these folks pictured are in the state they are in, because their mother had
a case of rubella when she was pregnant. There are almost no cases of this now that MMR vaccine has become routine. Women in family planning and prenatal clinics are routinely tested for immunity to Rubella and if not pregnant, are vaccinated. Vaccine preventable illnesses as the
photo shows, are NOT pretty.

KOMU has done a great disservice to the public by giving unbalanced air to anti vaccine fanatics trying to make a connection that is just not there. I hope the kid reporters so proudly displaying their photos on the blog page are sleeping well knowing that their "reporting" might result in the tragedy of a child dying of diptheria, or tetanus or being born with Rubella syndrome. They could make up for their error by running an equivalent series showing families dealing with
the consequences of vaccine preventable illness...tho they may have to
content themselves with file footage, decades old. Anyone here old enough to remember polio?
Bill Monroe RN

PS: I will reiterate, that thimerosl has not been used as a preservative in vaccines for children under age 3 in Missouri (andmost others as well) for some time now. This was the result of
irresponsible reporting and junk science testimony to the Legislature. So running local stories in Missouri about the danger to children of thimerosol in vaccines is borders on criminal, in my opinion.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the note of sanity, Bill. The latest study you cite is just the latest in a long line of studies that have concluded that there is no evidence of a link between vaccines and autism. Is there still a controversy? You bet, but only because the scientific evidence that some people have made up in their minds is too significant for them to refute.

~Zurama Arencibia Nuñez~ said...

The Flu Vaccine contains Thymerosal.

Anonymous said...

But not every kid gets flu shots with thimerosal. Many don't even get a flu shot.

So the questions remains: why aren't the CDDC numbers going down for 3-5 year olds?

I'm willing to accept that thimerosal causes autism, but first I need to see real evidence. What would it take to change your mind?

BillinMidMO said...

Flu vaccine for kids under 3 years old does not contain thimerosol... it is in single use unit dose syringes.
FluMist which is a nasal spray can be used on healthy kids/adults aged 4 and up to age 49. It is a live attenuated vaccine and contains no preservative whatever as preservatives kill live viruses. (The same reason that MMR has never had thimerosol as a preservative) I hear that the lower age limit on FluMist will drop to age two next year. General Intramuscular Flu vaccine in multidose vials does contain the thimerosol preservative. It can be used in folks aged 3 and up. There are also unit dose vaccines available. The reason for healthy adults to be vaccinated is not so much for their protection but for the safety of little ones and the aged infirm with whom they may have contact. Do you really want to be the one who causes the hospitalization of a newborn due to your errant cough?
There is way too much misinformation in this Blog, reflecting the terrible reporting on KOMU.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the misinformation is disturbing, but what's worse is KOMU's reluctance to correct what's been said. Its excuse, that the station is only reporting what others are saying, just doesn't wash. Good journalism also provides context, and clarification, and above all, skepticism.

I didn't know that about pediatric flu vaccines. Interesting. What the anti-vaxers don't get is that today's 3-5 years olds receive less than three percent of the thimerosal that kids did just ten years ago. Many (perhaps most) receive no thimerosal until after their third birthday. If TCVs caused autism, we should have seen a drastic decline in diagnoses starting with kids born after 2001.

Still waiting.

Anonymous said...

Epidemiology has a long history of JUNK SCIENCE influenced by industry and government. Question these ties always.

EFFIIIMD