I'm on your side, MM... Kids nowadays get so many vaccinations for illnesses that were considered normal childhood illnesses. I know two children with autism and have read enough about it to think there may be a correlation between that and the thimerosol preservative in vaccinations.
I know two children with autism and have read enough about it to think there may be a correlation between that and the thimerosol preservative in vaccinations.
From Autism Today:
"...it was found that three studies showing a link between thirmerosal and autism did not meet any of the eight established epidemiologic study quality criteria, while four studies finding no link met between five and seven of the quality criteria.
In addition, when an Institute of Medicine committee reviewed published and unpublished studies in 2004, the group found no supporting evidence for a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines or the MMR vaccine and autism.
Current vaccines given during the first six months of life have essentially no mercury, except trace amounts, Dr. Orenstein said. "There is virtually no mercury."
Vaccines today are much more highly purified than in the past, he said. "They are not being overloaded with antigenic proteins."
In addition, Dr. Orenstein concluded, "epidemiological evidence shows no relationship between those with multiple immunizations and asthma nor infections."
"There have been enough studies done trying to link autism to vaccines," Carden Johnston, MD, past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics of Birmingham, AL, told Medscape. "Ever since Ed Jenner started smallpox vaccinations, there have been public groups trying to link vaccines to morbidity." Research funds should be spent on more productive areas, he concluded.
I grew up in a large family before vaccines, and had every one of the so-called "childhood diseases." I almost died from whooping cough, and lost six months of second grade as a result. I think people have forgotten that measles, mumps, chicken pox and whooping cough are not necessarily benign. There can be serious complications, and when my kids came along, I was grateful for the vaccines.