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
2. Theoretically Speaking

“Hello” was the response on the other end of my newly initiated phone call.

I knew this voice instantly, from the hundreds of times I’ve heard it on television, podcasts, and YouTube videos. I was shocked that it could be he who answered the phone and believed I might be wrong. “Yes, um, we are vacationing in the area and wanted to visit the Foundation.  Is tomorrow ok?”

The strong but comfortably aged voice, with a hint of Canadian accent replied “Yes, tomorrow will be fine.”

I then was convinced I was right and ventured, “This sounds like Mr. Randi.”

“Probably because it is” he said.

“I am just surprised you’re there” was my feeble reply.

“Well I had to be somewhere.”

I felt him smiling at me.

My impression is that this is Randi in a nutshell. Like that phone call from a complete stranger, he is at once self assured, reassuring, strong, wizened, comforting, bold, and honest. So multi-faceted but then so simple in his approach to everything, which is direct honesty. This is a characteristic of magicians and why they seem to be so confoundedly different from the rest of us. I would never conceive of being honest while trying to deceive people. This of course is the defining difference between say a magician and a psychic, the archetypical examples being James “The Amazing” Randi and Yuri Gellar.  Magicians say, “I am about to trick you.” Psychics don’t tell you.

We arrived at the small Mediterranean style building, which looked to be converted from a house into a business office. Sean, a James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) employee met us at the door and welcomed us in. He led us into the Isaac Asimov Library, showed us some of the interesting artifacts, about 2,000 books (including strange and stupid tomes of the Church of Scientology), and shared personal stories about his time at the JREF. He then excused himself to “tell Mr. Randi he had guests.” I figured Randi would come in quickly, exchange pleasantries and be off on some of the many projects he seems to always be leading. I was wrong, we were generously graced with an audience for the next 3 ½ hours by the “Amazing One” himself.

We were guided and educated through the wonderful world of skepticism, including an explanation and expose of an original Scientology E-meter. The device looked like a cigar box with important looking controls and a needle that supposedly measures resistance. Inputs on the side of the box allowed connected wires which instead of plugging into the handles were simply knotted and slipped through holes cut into the tops of the handles, originally empty, painted tomato cans. We were regaled with tales of Randi’s past victories over Geller, Kreskin and Popoff. We were a captivated audience as we learned about the origins of the JREF, its original benefactor, and James Randi’s second career, as well as anecdotes about his famous friends. With open elation he told us of his tour with Alice Cooper, his admiration for Martin Gardner, and his friendship with and mutual respect of Johnny Carson. We were informed of projects like TAM7 (The Amazing Meeting) and the new TAM UK in the works with the likes of Penn & Teller, Richard Saunders, Ben Goldacre, Phil Plait and the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe crew among other notables.

We finished this extraordinary visit with the performance of a “minor miracle” – an incredible magic trick Randi said would amaze us, and we still are. I came away from my afternoon at the JREF with a renewed sense of wonderment, a higher level of admiration, and the feeling that the skeptical movement is being steered by very wise and still capable hands. Randi’s humor, intellect and generosity are unparalleled.

I encourage you to make the trip to Ft. Lauderdale to visit the JREF for yourself. Randi invites all to attend the open skeptics meeting held there the last Wednesday of every month. Immediately after reading this post, leave a comment, check out and support the JREF, and get to TAM as soon as you can.

Related posts:

1. The Skeptrack Experience at DragonCon – Part 1
2. The Skeptrack Experience at DragonCon – Part 2
3. Education is Not Just for Kids

I’ve belonged to Orlando Atheists & Freethinkers group for a little while now.  Previously, I was on like-minded Internet sites for several years.  One of the many things I find interesting is the acknowledged need for freethought educational resources for our children.  But I see very little conversations or requests for adult continuing education on the same subjects.  The religious communities hammer home the idea that their membership should grow in knowledge of dogma.  It should make equal sense that the “Reality Based Community” should grow in scientific literacy.

Other people’s kids accept strange concepts about life, afterlife, origins of life, and the world around them. How easy then should it be to educate our own kids about science and the real world, since we freethinkers have facts on our side.  This can only happen if we ourselves are armed with superior knowledge on these vital subjects.  More than facts, we should also be able to give children the ability to use critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning.  To do this we must be more than a little familiar with these concepts.

This desirable idea of constant self-education in reason is not just for the sake of the kiddies, but also for our own sake.  I was a victim of a multitude of false dogmas, concepts and ideas for many years.  I still am not immune to charlatans and scams.  Vigilance and self education is the best defense against all the varying attacks on our rights, rationalism, and wallets.  We may be immune to the purveyors of god(s), an immunity for most of us probably attained through reason, but how are we doing against spiritualists, alternative healers, advertisers, and political apologists?

Certain concepts like logical fallacies are still hard for me to keep in mind when presented with new or different arguments.  These really come in handy around political campaign season.   Trying to tell the difference between folklore/urban myths and actual sound practices is hard to do without a minimum of critical thinking skills.  If a person doesn’t understand the scientific method, proper testing or statistics, as well as the peer review process, it makes deciding between science and pseudo-science incredibly difficult.

We people of reason should see the advantages of the our worldview over those of the fantasy-based beliefs.  Simply knowing us will perhaps expose others to reason; when we engage with the uninitiated, it would be best to know what we are talking about.  If we do, this can only benefit our neighborhood, communities, country, and eventually and hopefully the world at large.  I like to suppose that we are at the beginning of a renaissance of rationalism, but it isn’t the first time.  In the later part of the 1800’s both reason and spirituality boomed; the likes of Mark Twain and Robert Ingersoll on the freethought side and those of the ilk of Mary White (founder of Seventh Day Adventism) and Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism) on the religious side.  Eventually freethinkers lost and very well might lose again if we don’t learn all we can and expose others to this knowledge, even if it is just our own kids.

Recommended Resources:

James Randi Educational Foundation
Pharyngula – PZ Myers Science Blog
The Skeptics Guide Science Podcasts and Blogs
CSI – The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Related posts:

1. Bad Journalism, Not Vaccines, Kills Kids
2. The Skeptrack Experience at DragonCon – Part 2
3. The Skeptrack Experience at DragonCon – Part 1