whaleto

"In my view, this is not a scientific issue. This is about as proven
an issue as you're ever going to see, and what's occurring here is a
cover up under the guise of protecting the vaccine program. And I'm
for the vaccine program. You keep covering it up and your not going to
have a vaccine program," Geier

http://www.detnow.com/wxyz/ys_investigations/article/0,2132,WXYZ_15949_2650117,00.html

mark probertfebruary 15, 2004

(Jeff, you may want to re-word that).

jeff

I meant ot state that nearly all of the scientific evidence to date shows
that vaccines do not cause autism. Thanks Mark.

andrew

Except that the signs of ethyl mercury (thimerosal) poisoning are exactly the SAME as the
signs of autism! I understand your aversion to the phrase thimerosal "causes autism," but
apparently there has shown to be enough "scientific reason" for serious concern, so that
the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the US Public Health Service (USPHS).. and
the Food and Drug Administration have made statements alerting the public and clinicians.

Therefore, your energies would have more credibility if they would be directed to the advo-
cacy of nontoxic thimerosal-free vaccines which would to a great extent help to defuse this controversy.


~AH

hcn

Not really.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/111/3/674.pdf

http://www.cispimmunize.org/fam/mmr/a_report2.html

http://www.cispimmunize.org/fam/thimrosal.html

http://www.aap.org/policy/jointthim.html

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/vaccinesafety.htm


I understand your aversion to the phrase thimerosal "causes autism," but


....

Then show some kind of do***entation for your statements.

For the record: thimerosal has been used in vaccines since the 1930's...
and the MMR has been used in the USA since 1971.

pfriley

Wrong. This is more bullshit spouted by the uneducated, antivaccine
armchair autism theorists, along the lines of other such claims such
as "MMR contains thimerosal," and "autism experts recommend separating
the components of MMR." Repeating nonsense over and over again doesn't
make it become true.

Read this:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/111/3/674.pdf

Karin B. Nelson and Margaret L. Bauman. Thimerosal and Autism?
Pediatrics, Mar 2003; 111:674 - 679.

An excerpt follows.

=============

ARE THE CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF AUTISM SIMILAR TO THOSE OF
RECOGNIZED MERCURY TOXICITY?

Bernard et al(1) present a table listing ~95 clinical findings they
consider to be shared by autism and mercury poisoning. Their table
does not distinguish typical and characteristic manifestations of
either disorder from the rare, unusual, and highly atypical.

In mercury poisoning, the characteristic motor findings are ataxia and
dysarthria (Table 1).(5,6) These signs, along with tremor, muscle
pains, and weakness, are noted on relatively high-dose exposure, acute
or chronic. In 3 Romanian children accidentally exposed to ethyl
mercury in a fungicide, these same symptoms were prominent.(7) The
outcome of fetal methyl mercury poisoning in severe form also included
spasticity.(8) In contrast, in autism, the only common motor
manifestations are repetitive behaviors (stereotypies) such as
flapping, circling, or rocking. Persons with Asperger syndrome may be
clumsy, and hypotonia has been noted in some infants with autism; the
frequency of clumsiness and hypotonia in autism spectrum disorders is
not established. No other motor findings are common in autism, and
indeed the presence of ataxia or dysarthria in a child whose behavior
has autistic features should lead to careful medical evaluation for an
alternative or additional diagnosis.

The most characteristic sensory finding of mercury poisoning is a
highly specific bilateral constriction of visual fields.(5,6,9) With
lesser exposure there may be compromise of contrast
sensitivity.(10,11) In addition, there may be paresthesias or, in
infants, erythema and pain in hands and feet because of peripheral
neuropathy. In autism, decreased responsiveness to pain is sometimes
observed along with hypersensitivity to other sensory stimuli,
including hyperacusis. The "sensory defensiveness" of autism seems to
reflect altered sensory processing within the brain rather than
peripheral nerve involvement.(12–14)

Other signs that may appear in children with chronic mercury toxicity,
such as hypertension,(15) skin eruption,(16) and thrombocytopenia,(17)
are seldom seen in autism.

In relatively mild mercurism in persons without characteristic motor
or sensory changes, psychiatric symptomatology may be absent, and if
present is nonspecific, with findings such as depression, anxiety, and
irritability.(18–20) There may be impairment of recent memory. Even
for individuals with known elevated postmortem levels of mercury in
brain, it may be impossible to conclude whether the nonspecific
psychiatric findings they demonstrated in life were the result of
mercury toxicity.(21)

When severe mercury poisoning occurs in prenatal life or early
infancy, head size tends to be small and microcephaly is common.(22)
Prenatal exposure to other neurotoxins—lead, alcohol, and
polychlorinated biphenyls, for example—also predispose to decreased
head size. In contrast, in autism increasing evidence indicates that
head size(23–25) and, as measured by volumetric magnetic resonance
imaging, brain size(26,27) tends to be larger than population norms.

At sufficient dose mercury is indeed a neurotoxin, but the typical
clinical signs of mercurism are not similar to the typical clinical
signs of autism.

carey gregory

Really? I wasn't aware that the signs of autism were numbness, weakness,
spastic paralysis, visual impairments, blindness, coma, and death.

pfriley

This is an example of stupid people (i.e., antivaccine idiots)
adjusting the "facts" to fit their theory, instead of doing what
people with brains do, which is to adjust the theory to fit the facts.

PF