"It’s indisputable that (autism) is on the rise amongst children, the question is what’s causing it. And we go back and forth and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines."Does McCain actually know the evidence that thimerosal causes autism or is he just making stuff up? McCain thinks the scientific community is divided on the issue of thimerosal causing autism. Let's see who disagrees with Mr. McCain: the Centers for Disease Control, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Food and Drug Administration. Maybe McCain just has a high regard for Bobby Kennedy Jr. and falls for Kennedy's opinions on the causes of autism.
The evidence that vaccines containing thimerosal causes autism is so slim that it now borders on none. But you would never know that if you Googled "thimerosal autism". Maybe that's what John McCain did. The number one link on that Google search is the National Autism Association which makes the argument that it is "biologically plausible" that thimerosal-containing vaccines are the cause of autism. Doing a search on thimerosal autism on PubMed gives you quite different results. For example this article, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which concludes:
Our study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immune globulins and deficits in neuropsychological functioning at the age of 7 to 10 years.Or this study done by the California Department of Public Health which concludes:
The DDS data do not show any recent decrease in autism in California despite the exclusion of more than trace levels of thimerosal from nearly all childhood vaccines. The DDS data do not support the hypothesis that exposure to thimerosal during childhood is a primary cause of autism.Maybe it's a good thing that no Presidential candidates have signed up for the Science Debate 2008.
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