I was riding along on the flotsam and jetsam of topical hyperlinks from website to website, when I came across an article at ezinesarticles.com titled, “Thimerosal: Autism and Mercury Poisoning Side Effects?” by Margaret Wommack. I have had about enough of misleading journalism, pop culture, and con artists who are victimizing the public at large.

In Wommack’s case I can’t tell if she is just ignorant of the science and is practicing lazy journalism by not vetting her information, or if she is a willing shill of the anti-vax cabal. She is a small voice in the growing chorus of the ignorant and the ignoble crying wolf on the vaccination front.

In the offending article, thimerosal is wrongly set up as the culprit for all sorts of nasty conditions including autism. Then something strange happens; the author switches up and puts the blame on mercury.

“Mercury causes such concern because it is the second most toxic element on earth and has been known to cause learning disabilities, autism, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis (MS), fibromyalgia, lupus, arthritis, depression, and bipolar disorder. Even seemingly small amounts of mercury have major, deadly consequences and mercury poisoning affects the kidneys and the nervous system. Other effects of mercury poisoning include burning feeling in the limbs, mental side effects such as loss of memory, vision and hearing, other psychological effects, paralysis, congenital malformations, kidney failure, and even death.”

Now it is true that thimerosal is a type of mercury, but like alcohol there are different types and one should not confuse methyl and ethyl while partying. Thimerosal is found in the environment and at normal levels is completely safe. Thimerosal that was used in vaccines was found to be way below normal environmental exposure for babies. As reported in Neurologica Blog on Jan 29, 2009.

“A new study published yesterday (Monday) in the journal Pediatrics provides more evidence against any link between thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative in some vaccines) and autism or other neurological disorders. This study adds to the large and growing body of scientific evidence for the safety of vaccines, and contradicting the claims of the anti-vaccine movement that vaccines cause autism.”

Furthermore, while there is no scientific evidence that links thimerosal and autism,

“Since 2001, with the exception of some influenza (flu) vaccines, thimerosal is not used as a preservative in routinely recommended childhood vaccines.” (cdc.gov/vaccinesafety)

Yet Wommack claims that “The continued use of mercury-based preservatives in vaccines is dangerous and drug companies know it.” What is her evidence? Where are her citations? Misleading the public on this issue has real consequences. Concerned parents are erroneously choosing not to vaccinate their children and some of those kids will get sick and others will be infected and many may die.

Many childhood diseases have been virtually eliminated by safe and efficacious vaccines for decades now. Bad and undisciplined journalism as well as pop-cultured misinformation is endangering our society.

According to the CDC, the leading cause of childhood deaths now are car accidents. In 2005 a tragic 1,335 children between 0-14 years old died. Keep referring back to that horrible number as you read the next paragraph.

Successes of vaccines are staggeringly good, and lack of societal memories of a time before the immunizations were mandatory have rendered us unable to recognize such remarkable advancements.

• Smallpox in the US afflicted tens of thousands of children every year, leaving them scarred, ill, or dead.
• Fifty thousand children a year contracted Polio before the vaccine, including 13,000-20,000 of the paralytic kind. Thousands of children were confined to leg braces, others were destined to crutches or wheel chairs. Many were confined to the iron lung as the only means of treatment.
• If exposed to Measles, 90% of any unvaccinated population will contract the virus.  Before 1963 more than 90% of Americans by the time they were 15-years-old had the disease, causing 500 deaths a year.  The Vax worked so well that there were 894,134 cases in 1941 to 89 cases in 1998 and 44 cases in 2002.
• Then there is the success over Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Diphtheria, Hib, Rubella, Hepatitis B, Tetanus, Mumps, Varicella (chickenpox). These childhood diseases each claimed from 100 to 10,000 young lives per year in the US alone (ecbt.org).

Modern science and real medicine have saved literally millions of lives through vaccines.  Yet there are advocates out there who either haven’t done their homework or are stupid and want these horrible diseases to return.

Educate a doubter and save the children.

Related Posts:

1. Education is Not Just for Kids

Tags | critical thinking, Science, vaccines