Jan 2012
Like clockwork, a few times a year, a profoundly asinine study will appear in a scientific journal somewhere ostensibly “further refuting” the hypothesis that vaccines are causing all this autism.
Recently, our minds were subjected to ad nauseum reporting on a study out of the UK-- A Comparison of Urinary Mercury between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Control Children—professing to do just that.
The study, written by a child psychologist, specifically offered up the following:
Background
Urinary mercury concentrations are used in research exploring mercury exposure. Some theorists have proposed that autism is caused by mercury toxicity. We set out to test whether mercury concentrations in the urine of children with autism were significantly increased or decreased compared to controls or siblings.
Methods
Blinded cohort analyses were carried out on the urine of 56 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared to their siblings (n = 42) and a control sample of children without ASD in mainstream (n = 121) and special schools (n = 34).
Results
There were no statistically significant differences in creatinine levels, in uncorrected urinary mercury levels or in levels of mercury corrected for creatinine, whether or not the analysis is controlled for age, gender and amalgam fillings.
Conclusions
This study lends no support for the hypothesis of differences in urinary mercury excretion in children with autism compared to other groups. Some of the results, however, do suggest further research in the area may be warranted to replicate this in a larger group and with clear measurement of potential confounding factors.
For those of you interested in the laypersons version of this, here it is:
A bunch of kids peed in a cup for 24 hours. Some had autism. Some were siblings of kids with autism. Some were neither. And, they all had their mercury and creatinine levels measured in their urine. The levels were compared, they found no difference, so, obviously, VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM SO PLEASE GET VACCINATED.
As usual, these types of studies, the types that serve to exonerate vaccines, get tons of press.
The Atlantic:
“Today in Research: Study Shows Vaccines Still Don't Cause Autism [this is their headline!]
Vaccines still don't cause autism. Crazy, overbearing parents, listen: vaccines do not cause autism. This recent study just confirms what other studies and doctors have found: zero link between the two. Analyzing samples from autistic children and non-autistic kids, researchers determined no difference in the mercury concentration in their respective urine. Doctors are so fed up with this myth that they've started firing families like you for refusing vaccines. Take this study along with the rest and vaccinate.”
Mother Nature Network:
“Mercury does not cause autism, another study now concludes. The levels of mercury in the urine of children with autism were no higher than urine mercury levels of children without the condition, the study from England found. The discredited idea that the form of mercury, called ethylmercury, sometimes used in vaccines may lead to autism has led to reductions in vaccine rates and increases in cases of preventable diseases, such as measles and mumps, according to the study.”
EMaxHealth:
“Autism Spectrum Disorders are complex conditions with many potential causes (none yet conclusively proven), but the one possible threat studied the most heavily – mercury - has yet another study to say that there is no clear link between the two.”
* * *
In seven years as an autism advocate, I have learned two very important things:
1. Members of the scientific/medical community are willing to lie, confuse, obfuscate, and be otherwise shifty and dishonest with both data and information to confuse the debate about whether or not vaccines cause autism, and will happily take advantage of a misinformed press and under-informed parent population.
2. The devil is always in the details.
What’s perhaps most remarkable about the aforementioned mercury-autism study is how easy it would be to figure out that the basis upon which both the data and conclusions are based is foolish for one simple reason: urine is an extremely poor and unreliable indicator of mercury levels in the body.
As usual, please do not take my word for it. Here’s Thomas Clarkson, Ph.D., University of Rochester (J. Lowell Orbison Distinguished Alumni Professor Emeritus of Environmental Medicine; Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics, and Pharmacology & Physiology, FYI):
By 6 months of age most American children receive 19 vaccines through 3 visits to the doctor. It’s worth noting that many kids also receive a birth dose of Hepatitis B, boosting this number to 20 vaccines.
So, of the first 20 shots given to kids, how many have been studied for their relationship to autism? The answer may surprise you: ZERO. That’s right, because only one vaccine, the MMR, has ever been studied for its relationship to autism. The MMR is a vaccine first administered to American children at 13-18 months of age.
But what about the 2, 4, and 6 month well-baby visits where children receive so many vaccines? The truth is they have never been studied or considered, so no one has any idea. This would be like trying to identify the source of a plane crash, suspecting mechanical failure, solely analyzing one of the wings, and then declaring the entire airplane free of culpability. But, that’s exactly what has happened.
Worse, somehow, scientists and the press have decided that mercury, a single ingredient in some vaccines, should serve as a proxy for ALL vaccines and ALL ingredients and that if they can, in many convoluted ways, demonstrate that mercury is somehow safe than by association vaccines should be safe, too. How else, after the UK study above gets published, does the Atlantic conclude:
Study Shows Vaccines Still Don't Cause Autism
Having personally spent the time to critically read every study produced to "prove" vaccines don’t cause autism, I was dumbfounded by their inadequacy. And, comments public officials make about these studies are even more absurd and unsupportable. Consider, from some of the studies, some of the actual questions that were asked (versus the way the press reported it):
Q: Do children with autism and without have different levels of mercury in their urine? [a wholly unreliable way to assess body burden of mercury]
Q: Do children receiving more thimerosal in their vaccines have different neurological outcomes from children receiving less thimerosal in their vaccines?
Q: Are autism rates different for children who received 62.5 mcg or 137.5 mcg of mercury?
Q: Did children who all received DTP vaccine with thimerosal have higher or lower rates of developmental disorders based on when they got the shots?
Q: Do Thimerosal containing vaccines administered to children raise mercury blood levels above safe standards?
Q: Does the use of RhoGam shots during pregnancy have a correlation with autism?
These 6 examples above come from 6 of the most commonly listed studies cited as "proof" that "vaccines do not cause autism." Yet, not one of them comes close to addressing this issue or answering the question we all really care about that goes something like this:
Our children receive 36 vaccines by the time they are five, including 20 by their first birthday. Is the administration of so many vaccines causing autism in certain children?