Mistrust rises with autism rate

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=dc21673219fb0a88&cat=c08dd24cec417021

Mistrust rises with autism rate
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
The argument over what is causing soaring rates of autism has reached a boiling point with furious parent groups and their famous allies accusing scientists and public health officials of hiding information to cover up their own mistakes.
Scientists are offended and in some cases intimidated by an onslaught of e-mail, Internet slurs and unprecedented criticism. (Related story: The future of autism)

At issue: whether the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, used in several infant vaccines up until five years ago and still in some vaccines that children get, is responsible for the developmental disorder.

"We're injecting poisons into children," said environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a phone interview last week. Last month, Kennedy charged in an article in Rolling Stone and posted online on Salon.com that U.S. health officials purposely covered up the dangers of thimerosal to protect themselves and "Big Pharma" from lawsuits in "a chilling case study of institutional arrogance, power and greed."

Scientists say those charges are absolutely false. Much of the evidence for a thimerosal link to autism, they say, rests on questionable studies and comments taken out of context. Virtually all medical professional societies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and Institute of Medicine have stated there is no evidence vaccines cause autism.

"There is a dangerous mistrust of science," says Paul Offit, an infectious-disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "I don't think it's new, but it may be worse
more...

Recognizing the growing mistrust of parents in getting immunizations!!! now!!!!!!!

[Wetzelbill]

1. RFK Jr. is one of my heroes and I don't say that lightly

[earth mom]

4. I feel the same way about RFK Jr. We need more like him. eom

[AmyDeLune]

2. CDC Link

I barely scraped by high school chemistry, so I can't say how good/thorough the cited studies are, but here's the link anyway.

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/thimerosal/default.htm

[KT2000]

3. FINALLY!!

It's about time they are called on their complicity with huge corporations. For too long they have sold us down the river to protect their own incomes and jobs.

Anyone working on an environmental health issue learns early on that you cannot count on the medical/scientific community to do anything other that pitch for the polluters. The few brave have my respect, but they are few.