The medical mainstream attempts to reassure parents that childhood vaccines are safe

Game Over

You don’t see Today show host Matt Lauer get testy very often. But a few weeks ago Lauer seemed like he was about to get an edge on at the end of an interview with NBC chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman.

They’d been discussing the medical mainstream’s insistence that there is no link between childhood vaccines and autism. As the interview concluded, Lauer slid into that smooth wrap-it-up tone and said, “Controversial subject…”

Here, Snyderman cut him off with a sharp rise in volume: “NOT controversial!

Lauer: “Well, but controversial for parents who still believe…”

Snyderman: “It is NOT controversial, Matt!”

Earlier in the interview, Snyderman had said she’d been physically ambushed by angry parents of autistic children. So Lauer pointed out that if the topic were not controversial she wouldn’t have been ambushed. But Snyderman was having none of it. In a chastising tone she repeated that the topic is NOT controversial because “the science is the science.”

And that’s where the mainstream stands firm on this topic. The science is the science – so there! Game over. Go home. We decided. You lose.

The question is: If this NON-controversial discussion is closed, why does the mainstream continue to incessantly harp on it?

Making mountains

A couple of weeks ago the Associated Press covered a new study that “adds to a mountain of evidence” that thimerosal (the “controversial” mercury-based vaccine preservative) does not cause autism or other neurological problems.

“Mountain of evidence”? Does it seem like the AP is trying a little too hard to convince us that this controversy is a non-controversy?

More than 1,400 Italian children who had received either a low dose or a high dose of thimerosal in a battery of vaccines a decade before were evaluated with brain function tests. Results showed only one case of autism, and very little difference in neuropsychological outcomes between the two groups.

But an important element is missing from the study: a control group. Comparing the two groups without including a group that received zero thimerosal is a deal-breaker. It’s like comparing wine drinkers to beer drinkers and concluding that because there was little difference in drunkenness between the two groups, beer and wine don’t cause much drunkenness.

Fail. Reset and try it again.

Lighten the load

The lead author of the Italian study told the AP that this research combined with previous studies “tells us there is no reason to worry about the effect of thimerosal in vaccines.” And an “outside expert” agrees: “there is no risk of any neurodevelopmental outcomes.”

Okay. So if thimerosal is perfectly safe, can someone remind me why the preservative was removed from nearly all childhood vaccines eight years ago?

I’ll let the American Academy of Pediatrics explain: “Mercury exists in a different form in our environment (such as in some fish) so children will be exposed to it in other ways. We can’t always remove mercury from the environment. But we can control the mercury used in some vaccines. So, by taking thimerosal out of vaccines, we are lessening the amount of mercury a child will be exposed to early in life.”

Exactly. A trace of mercury is not necessarily a problem – it’s the CUMULATIVE LOAD that will bring you down. And at some point the mainstream experts had to agree that, yeah, hmmm, I guess we probably shouldn’t be shooting mercury into infants over and over again beginning just days after birth.

Years ago, Congress very kindly passed a law indemnifying vaccine makers from liability. So with this protective legal shield, why do Dr. Snyderman and her fellow mainstreamers insist so often and so loudly that thimerosal was no problem and vaccines don’t cause autism?

I think it boils down to a campaign of trust. There are many parents out there right now who are opting out of all or some of the CDC’s recommended vaccine regimen. So at every turn the mainstream has to dispel doubts and heap the reassurances high, because they’re terrified that a trend might turn into a landslide.

Sources:
“Nancy Snyderman to Matt Lauer: NO! Matt, there’s no controversy over vaccines and autism” I Speak of Dreams, 10/31/08, lizditz.typepad.com
“Neuropsychological Performance 10 Years After Immunization in Infancy With Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines” Pediatrics, Vol. 123, No. 2, February 2009, pediatrics.aappublications.org
“Study Adds to Evidence of Vaccine Safety” Carla K. Johnson, Associated Press, 1/26/09, ap.org
“What Parents Should Know About Thimerosal” American Academy of Pediatrics, 2004, ciispimmunize.org