Autism Diva has been all over these hysterical Stepford mommies for quite some time. If anybody needs a vaccine to prevent blatant moonbat syndrome regarding autism as mercury poisoning, you can find all the immunity you might need at her blog.

On a personal note...as someone on the autistic spectrum...these vile miscreants are barely a razor's edge above the racial eugenecists of the early 20th century. They are walking around, at their rallies, carrying signs with their children's pictures on them, captioned "Mercury Poisoned"...and the poor kids are standing right beside them! And yes, most of the kids understand all too well what the signs are saying about them, and what their mommies think about them. A lot of these kids have Asperger's Syndrome, which means they have average to well above average intelligence. They get the meta message their mommies are conveying about them just as clearly as any "neurotypical" would.

But, this isn't my blog, and not my soapbox, so let me just conclude by saying that anyone who does not get their children vaccinated deserves to go to jail jail jail...and the fact that wastes of sperm like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Don Imus have cast their lot with the Mercury Poisoning Mommies should tell any reasoning human being all they need to know about the credibility of this cause.

It's zero.

Pep

Cue Meryl Streep holding up an apple to a congressional committee and shrieking "What are we doing to our children!"

I heard all of that vaccination b.s. when it was time to vaccinate each of our children. The exceedingly remote chances of some complication are more than outweighed by the benefits of my children avoiding preventable childhood diseases not to mention the really scary stuff. My children's pediatrician (a dead ringer for a younger Anne Archer) is on her game so I trust her judgment.

Anyone who wants to read a few real facts about this stuff should go to Orac's blog (http://oracknows.blogspot.com/). He's exceptionally detailed in his fisking of the Kennedy piece, and well worth reading. This kind of pseudoscience masquerading as good public policy is just infuriating to those of us in medicine.

I'm totally in agreement with RTLB on this one. The evidence is completely on the side of getting the MMR shot. On-the-other-hand, the chix-pox vaccine is being pawned off on us without good evidence that it is a good idea (and yes there is millions of dollars at stake). The argument is there is a mortality rate associated with CP (low but certainly true), what isn't mentioned is how serious CP can be when an adult gets it or that the evidence is still out on whether the vaccine lasts as well as the protection of catching CP as a kid.

Also a poke in the eye I can't resist (apologies in advance):

Amazing how you are willing to accept the scientific consensus on MMR vaccines, but not on global warming where the consensus is much stronger...

And what consensus is there on the causes of global warming? I read somewhere that Mt. Pinotubo and Mt. St. Mary's put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than all of mankind's efforts since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

The problem is that no one knows why autism is going through the roof. No one knows how to fix it, either. All that a parent can do is treat it, prevention and cure are taken away, at least for now.

Allen writes:

"The problem is that no one knows why autism is going through the roof."

If you read this:

http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/2005/07/three-reasons-not-to-believe-in-autism.html

And especially this, from the aforementioned Orac Knows:

http://oracknows.blogspot.com/2005/07/hitler-zombie-smells-thimerosal.html

...you should get a pretty good idea of why autism diagnoses are "going through the roof."

Short answer: they're not. The world is just getting to know some of us better.

;-)

Pep

Ooops. Allan. Not Allen. Allan.

The wife walked in naked just as I was proofreading that last post.

Yeah. Allan. That's it.

Now, what was I saying???

;-)

Pep

Parents should get more information on shots. They should make a practice of making informed choices and finding doctors they can trust. I'm only just going through your links. The CDC's site mostly refers to the link between vaccines or the MMR shots and autism, not thimerosal, though their link to the IOM offers an interesting report from 01:

The IOM Immunization Safety Review Committee’s most important conclusions were 1) that the evidence is inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship between exposure to thimerosal from vaccines and the neurodevelopmental disorders of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and speech or language delay, and 2) that although the hypothesis that exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines could be associated with neurodevelopmental disorders is not established and rests on indirect and incomplete information

I believe I heard in a news segment that mercury was used in the 90s as a preservative, and that it no longer is. The IOM report acknowledges this, saying that the "IOM conclusions are consistent with the goal" of the Public Health Service, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians as of 1999 "to continue using thimerosal-containing vaccines, while at the same time, taking the precautionary measure of removing or greatly reducing thimerosal from vaccines as soon as possible."

That's enough to make a parent ask that the vaccines their child is receiving not have thimerosal. I consider myself fortunate that my kids got their shots before the 90s, and that my grandkids will get their shots after the controversy. And I'm not downplaying measles, mumps or rubella - the University of Maryland Med Center notes that measles particularly is highly contageous, and outbreaks continue to occur among the unvaccinated (worldwide annual cases: 42 million; annual deaths of children: 1 million; in 2000, the US had 86 cases).

Pep, the rise in autism is not due to better detection, there is an actual explosion in incidence.

However, the best evidence is that autism is a structural disorder of the brain, and is present at birth, rather than being caused by the child's environment.

However, it is very possible that the cause may be linked to the mother's environment - one promising avenue of research links the incidence ot autism to high levels of maternal stress.

In any case, the mercury thing has been pretty thoroughly debunked. Some parents have such a hard time being at peace with "we just don't know". They would rather fervently believe something that is not true, rather than have to accept not knowing.

If I were the parent of a kid who developed problems after the MMR vaccine, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that "we just don't know" means there is no link, and you would be pressed harder still to explain to me how there is a good mercury, or an okay mercury.

A classic example of mis-placed priorities is seen by the fact that Radon in basements and foundations (and relatively easily and cheaply shielded against or removed) causes more cancer than almost any other source, yet the public concern, despite the occasional PSA, is almost nil.