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MMR/thimerosal lie
Tonight I sent this e-mail to the editor of the Well Being Journal.
Let's see if he replies or takes any action on it... PF ----------------- Hello Scott, I was wondering if you could help us settle a little debate on our Usenet newsgroup (misc.kids.health). Some of us feel that people opposed to vaccines deliberately lie in their propaganda to get people to fear vaccines, while others feel they are simply victims of misinformation themselves, regurgitating nonsense they have been fed by others in their ignorance. A great example is the commonly repeated lie that MMR vaccine contains thimerosal. The truth is, MMR has never had thimerosal nor any other mercury-containing preservative. Addition of thimerosal would ruin the vaccine. The lie came about because people often confuse two of the dozens of unsupported hypotheses on the cause of autism -- one that claims autism is a form of mercury poisoning from thimerosal-containing vaccines, and another that claims MMR vaccine itself causes autism -- leading them to conclude erroneously that MMR vaccine contains thimerosal. A web search of key words "MMR" and "thimerosal" can easily return several websites that have published pseudo-authoritative articles by anti-vaccine propagandists that plainly state that MMR contains thimerosal. An article on your website turned up on one such search, specifically: http://www.wellbeingjournal.com/MMR.htm This article plainly states, "Most vaccines, including the MMR, contain ethyl mercury or thimerosal, an organic neurotoxic mercury compound that is used as a preservative." Now, here's how you can help us. Will you post a correction to this lie contained in that article, and demonstrate that, even though you are an anti-vaccine propagandist, you at least try not to post blatant falsehoods, and are therefore not a liar? Or will you leave the article posted as is, and prove that you are intentionally spreading mistruths, and are therefore a liar? Thanks for your help! PF Riley P.S. Interestingly, I note that Dr. Brewitt has actually rewritten the article as it appears on her own website, so perhaps she isn't a liar. Will you join her? |
#2
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MMR/thimerosal lie
"PF Riley" wrote
The lie came about because people often confuse two of the dozens of unsupported hypotheses on the cause of autism -- one that claims autism is a form of mercury poisoning from thimerosal-containing vaccines, and another that claims MMR vaccine itself causes autism -- leading them to conclude erroneously that MMR vaccine contains thimerosal. A "lie" usually means a deliberate falsehood, not just a confusion. P.S. Interestingly, I note that Dr. Brewitt has actually rewritten the article as it appears on her own website, so perhaps she isn't a liar. Will you join her? Sounds like it was an innocent and insignificant mistake. |
#3
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MMR/thimerosal lie
"Roger Schlafly" wrote in message t... "PF Riley" wrote The lie came about because people often confuse two of the dozens of unsupported hypotheses on the cause of autism -- one that claims autism is a form of mercury poisoning from thimerosal-containing vaccines, and another that claims MMR vaccine itself causes autism -- leading them to conclude erroneously that MMR vaccine contains thimerosal. A "lie" usually means a deliberate falsehood, not just a confusion. When one should know better, failing to get the facts is just as bad as lying. P.S. Interestingly, I note that Dr. Brewitt has actually rewritten the article as it appears on her own website, so perhaps she isn't a liar. Will you join her? Sounds like it was an innocent and insignificant mistake. Really? Saying that the mercury in MMR causes autism when there is no mercury in MMR is an "insignificant mistake?" Roger, you can do better than that. Jeff |
#4
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MMR/thimerosal lie
"Roger Schlafly" wrote in message t... "PF Riley" wrote The lie came about because people often confuse two of the dozens of unsupported hypotheses on the cause of autism -- one that claims autism is a form of mercury poisoning from thimerosal-containing vaccines, and another that claims MMR vaccine itself causes autism -- leading them to conclude erroneously that MMR vaccine contains thimerosal. A "lie" usually means a deliberate falsehood, not just a confusion. A good journalist should check ALL of their facts. Imagine if such a situation occurred in the pro-vac field. I suspect you would be bvleating and braying all over the place. P.S. Interestingly, I note that Dr. Brewitt has actually rewritten the article as it appears on her own website, so perhaps she isn't a liar. Will you join her? Sounds like it was an innocent and insignificant mistake. With the inflammatory nature of such a misstatement of fact, it is neither innocent or insignificant. |
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MMR/thimerosal lie
"Jeff" wrote
Sounds like it was an innocent and insignificant mistake. Really? Saying that the mercury in MMR causes autism when there is no mercury in MMR is an "insignificant mistake?" It is insignificant because the author meant to say that mecury in the other vaccines may cause autism. The kids getting MMR are usually getting the other vaccines also. |
#6
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MMR/thimerosal lie
"Roger Schlafly" wrote in message t... "Jeff" wrote Sounds like it was an innocent and insignificant mistake. Really? Saying that the mercury in MMR causes autism when there is no mercury in MMR is an "insignificant mistake?" It is insignificant because the author meant to say that mecury in the other vaccines may cause autism. The kids getting MMR are usually getting the other vaccines also. Mercury is nearly gone for the usual childhood vaccines. If you add the total doseage that a kid could get now, it is far less than the the kid was getting before the rise in autism. Thus, it would be expected that if there is a link, the rate of autism diagnosis would go down. Since the Danish study showed that there isn't a descrease, the link is disproven. The clear preponderance of the evidence says that autism is not caused by mercury in vaccines. Anyone claiming otherwise has the burden of proof. |
#7
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MMR/thimerosal lie
"Roger Schlafly" wrote in message t... "Jeff" wrote Sounds like it was an innocent and insignificant mistake. Really? Saying that the mercury in MMR causes autism when there is no mercury in MMR is an "insignificant mistake?" It is insignificant because the author meant to say that mecury in the other vaccines may cause autism. How do you know what the authors thought? Are you able to read minds? Regardless of what the authors meath to say, they made a significant mistake when they said that mercury in MMR vaccine causes anything, because there was not mercury in the vaccines. The kids getting MMR are usually getting the other vaccines also. None the less, it is not what the authors claimed. This is a significant mistake. If I made a similar mistake (or even mispeledd a wooord), you would have jumped all over me. Jeff |
#8
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MMR/thimerosal lie
It is insignificant because the author meant to say that mecury
in the other vaccines may cause autism. The kids getting MMR are usually getting the other vaccines also. Mercury is nearly gone for the usual childhood vaccines. If you add the total doseage that a kid could get now, it is far less than the the kid was getting before the rise in autism. I also believe that the perceived rise in autism could be attributed to a change in just what is considered to be autism. We saw a huge jump in the diagnosis of dyslexia and other learning disabilities that seemed to correspond to a change in the definition of just what dyslexia and learning disabilities are. Anyone more knowledgeable in the field care to comment on this? Kimmer email: Lady_Kimmer at altcastlenet dot com |
#9
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MMR/thimerosal lie
"Kimmer" wrote in -
berlin.de: I also believe that the perceived rise in autism could be attributed to a change in just what is considered to be autism. We saw a huge jump in the diagnosis of dyslexia and other learning disabilities that seemed to correspond to a change in the definition of just what dyslexia and learning disabilities are. Anyone more knowledgeable in the field care to comment on this? My understanding is that the rise in autism incidence hasn't been accompanied by a corresponding rise in the incidence of developmental disabilities in general, indicating that at least some of the rise is due to kids who would have been previously diagnosed with some other developmental disability being diagnosed with autism instead. A cynical view is that DD kids are simply being diagnosed with whatever condition is the best-funded; a more positive view is that kids who were once simply written off as "mentally retarded" without much thought are now getting a more nuanced diagnosis that enables them to get appropriate help (if this is happening, it's probably especially the case for minority kids, who used to get disproportionally diagnosed with the conditions that had the poorest prognoses and were the least amenable to treatment). |
#10
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MMR/thimerosal lie
"Kimmer" wrote
I also believe that the perceived rise in autism could be attributed to a change in just what is considered to be autism. I believe I saw a study that looked at precisely that question, and concluded that the rise in autism is real, and not just a change in definition. I don't have the study, and I don't know whether it is reliable or not. But people have certainly looked at that issue. |
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