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Actually I think you're on to something in the correlation of the vaccine (or the preservative to be more precise) and genetic issues. In fact, it may even relate to certain nerve/brain diseases a parent might have had that was passed on that later had a negative reaction to the injection.

What is really bothering me about this blame game is that things are purposely being confused. If you will notice in many of these posts, both MMR and thimerosal are being used interchangably as a cause of autism.

But it won't work. The anecdotal evidence uses the introduction of MMR in the US to correspond to the alleged jump in autism cases. But now we are told thimerosal is to blame, but since it has been around much longer than MMR, the people making these allegations are forced to explain why we only see autism cases jump in the 80s.

Essentially it seems to me that they are just throwing a bunch of allegations up against the wall to see what sticks, much like breast implants.

The notion about MMR injections and Autism came about after a British researcher in the Royal Academy of Medicine published a paper a few years ago drawing a correlation to the widespread use of the MMR vaccine and the incidence of Autism in the UK.

Now three other researchers at the same institute published an article disputing his findings. He continues to persist in his own research. This peer review is all well and good. And this is why I also say that it's a worthwhile research to pursue and rebuke as necessary. This is the scientific process.

I'd post some links on this but I'm inundated with work.

The trouble of course comes about when lawyers get involved. There is a huge class action lawsuit in the UK over the MMR injection. The National Health there does not provide the alternate of getting each of the vaccinations separately. Whether this lawsuit leads to better analysis or just makes this more confused remains to be seen. Finding out about Ford Pinto gas tanks was an example of good legal legwork. However, the cases based on junk science are too numerous to mention.

I'm on the side that rejects the link between Autism and vaccinations. However, I'm willing to listen to reasonable arguments to the contrary. I'm also on the side of caution which is why I recommend the vaccination schedule be pushed back by 6 months to a year and why I applaud the pharmaceutical industry's decision to remove Thimerosal.

It's hard for a parent to watch their child live in their own world and deal with the crushing blow to the hopes and dreams they had for their child. As I noted, why wife is a chemist and is quite logical most of the time. But when it comes to this issue, even she gets emotional and looks for some bogey man to pin the blame on. It may be too late for my son but I hope there a cause and cure for Autism is found somehow.

Regards.