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?

"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.

"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

"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.

"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.

"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.

"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

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

"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).

"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.