Comments on: The Thimerosal (that’s not) in Vaccines Does Not Cause Autism. Can We Stop the Deadly Scaremongering Now?

By: PalMD

PalMD — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:13:28 +0000

@hfamom

Just because we don’t yet know the cause doesn’t mean we need to invoke imaginary causes.
A hypothesis should be based on something other that “well, something made a child sick, I’ll make a guess, since no one else knows.”

It is easy to fall into the logical fallacies of burden of proof, unrealistic expectations, false dilemma, and others, especially when a child’s health is involved.

By: Bad

Bad — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:54:10 +0000

I don’t think parents of autistic children will ever justly face any blame in this or any similar disease, even if the causes are some sort environmental exposure their children by chance came in contact with. No one knew. We know so little even now that we don’t really even understand what autism is, much less how it is caused.

I think opinion here is a dodge, however. That thimerosal did not cause the increase in autism is far far more than opinion: it’s now a well established fact, and indeed the idea that it was a cause is simply beyond reality: it was NOT IN ANY vaccines post 2002, and wasn’t in fact in many prior to that. In addition, there are far higher amounts of environmental and ingested mercury and other heavy metals in children and people that show no effects at all from it.

By: hfamom

hfamom — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:17:40 +0000

I appreciate that we differ in opinion. When a conclusive cause is determined and the incidence of Autism is greatly reduced or eliminated I will still be dealing with the effects of this disorder. Perhaps that’s why I look towards causations that do not directly point back to me.

By: podblack

podblack — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:05:27 +0000

Thank you, interesting links! I’ll add you to my blogroll, hope you consider doing the same. :) http://www.podblack.wordpress.com.

By: PalMD

PalMD — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:13:50 +0000

We also don’t know if children’s car seats cause autism. After all, kids who ride in car seats do get autism. Maybe we just shouldn’t risk it.

By: Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 01:53:27 +0000

” We don’t yet know what causes Autism– is it worth the risk when these vaccines protect against virtually defucunt diseases? ”
Vaccines have saved countless lives and protect people from diseases that can kill people to this day.
There are allot less “defucunt” diseases than you think. Many diseases are kept at bay but are not completely dead. Whats keeping them at bay is vaccinations. While 1 unvaccinated person may be protected by herd immunity (from the majority being vaccinated) but if enough are unvaccinated than many of these “defunct” diseases will come back and that would be a very bad thing.

By: Bad

Bad — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 01:25:41 +0000

There have been studies “proving” both sides of the Thimerasol debate.

I strongly disagree. The biggest and best designed studies all unequivocally come down on the side of no link. The smaller studies that claim a link were poorly done, and have many well demonstrated weaknesses. There mere fact that someone can make a claim against something or produce a study is not enough to demonstrate that we should just throw our hands up in the air and declare that we can’t tell either way.

And I would say that blaming something that isn’t even IN the shots for causing autism is paranoia. I mean, the fact that taking thimerosal out of vaccines had no measurable effect on rates of autism at all is pretty darn definitive.

We don’t yet know what causes Autism– is it worth the risk when these vaccines protect against virtually defuncts diseases?

They are and remain defunct only insofar as we create a large enough herd immunity to them. When that immunity breaks down: real people can die.

You could say “is it worth the risk” for virtually anything. The point is that we cannot declare things to be risks without good reason to think that they are.

By: hfamom

hfamom — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:38:54 +0000

There have been studies “proving” both sides of the Thimerasol debate. As the parent of an Autistic child I wish I hadn’t allowed my son to have the shots. We don’t yet know what causes Autism– is it worth the risk when these vaccines protect against virtually defucunt diseases? I don’t advocate paranoia– only caution.

By: Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:34:11 +0000

It doesn’t madder how many studied come out, the the anti-vaccination people will never stop. In there minds vaccines cause autism and no amount of evidence will disprove it.
Its like the creationists, free energy freaks, flat earth freaks and all the other crazes out there.
Nothing will change there minds and they will twist any study to say what they want.

We can only hope that studies like these will save people from joining the crazes.