Thimerosal: A Missing Link in Denmark MMR-Autism Study ---Dawn Richardson
Today, the New England Journal of Medicine has published an article which
refutes a link between MMR and autism using epidemiology. This study was
released last week to the major media by the CDC, its major funder along
with NAAR. Since then, the CDC PR machine has been working very hard to spin
the conclusions their own way. Obviously, they want to put an end to any
more discussions and research on vaccines and autism.
However, while the study methodology appears to be good, and there is much
to learn from the informative findings, there are some significant
shortcomings in the conclusions drawn and the study results raise more
questions than they answer and underscore the importance for more research.
For example, one of the most concerning omissions of the study was their
failure to consider the absence of Thimerosal in the other infant vaccines
the children of the Danish study received prior to getting their MMR
vaccine.
Although she did not include it in her article, the reporter from the Dallas
Morning News who interviewed me (article below) was able to confirm that the
mercury based preservative under so much legal fire for triggering autism
was removed from vaccines on the market in Denmark prior to the birthdates
of the children studied. American children on the other hand, have
potential cumulative mercury exposures at sometimes neurotoxic levels from
prenatal exposures including maternal vaccination and immune globulin
preparations, environmental pollution and infant vaccinations which create a
significantly different set of circumstances when the MMR vaccine, which
does not contain mercury, is administered.
We feel very strongly that it is erroneous for the study's authors to
conclude that since the children in the Danish study did not show an
increased incidence of autism after MMR vaccine that the same would hold
true for all children. They have not satisfied the question of the MMR
vaccine's potential role as a trigger amidst other environmental factors
including previously administered mercury containing vaccines that have been
given to children outside of their population. It is entirely possible, but
not yet studied by the CDC, that a child's immune response, inhibited by the
elevated mercury levels from thimerosal-containing vaccinations, has less
ability to respond to the measles virus in the MMR vaccine. This might be
an explanation for the presence of measles virus cultured from the brains
and guts of 80 percent of autistic children. However, we are grateful for
their epidemiological research and hopeful that it will spur the absent and
yet much needed biological mechanism research here in the United States.
Sallie Bernard from Safe Minds (www.safeminds.org) has prepared an
exceptional press release and comprehensive point by point assessment of the
positives and the negatives of this study. We support and agree with the
position of Safe Minds on this study.
Additionally, you may want to pick up the November/December issue of
Mothering Magazine (www.mothering.com) - it has a sizeable section devoted
to investigating Thimerosal and neurodevelomental delays. It includes
articles by some of the other brains behind Safe Minds - Lyn Redwood and Liz
Birt, articles by mercury expert Dr. Boyd Haley and Autism expert Dr. James
Jeffrey Bradstreet , and an interview with Dr. Stephanie Cave.
Sincerely,
Dawn Richardson
Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education (PROVE)
http://vaccineinfo.net