SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Thus far, the opposing mindsets on the question of vaccines' role in the rise of autism diagnosis in America's young remain far apart.
Those who believe in such a connection assert:
-- Evidence cited to disprove a link between a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal -- once commonly found in childhood vaccines and still present in some booster and flu shots -- and neurological disorders comes from flawed and manipulated population studies;
-- Studies clearing vaccines have financial or other ties to pharmaceutical companies or otherwise are marred by conflicts of interest;
-- The government has been lax about studying the effects of thimerosal, which was tested only once, on 22 adult meningitis patients, who died, eliminating any chance for a follow-up of long-term effects;
-- Even if one accepts those findings, adult results do not necessarily apply to immature nervous systems;
-- Research shows thimerosal to be toxic;
-- Studies show children with autism retain more mercury than those without;
-- Scientists have uncovered certain metabolic deficits that prevent children from eliminating toxins like mercury;
-- The first documented cases of autism coincide with the introduction of thimerosal-containing vaccines;
-- The rate of autism has exploded in the past 20 years, from an estimated one in 10,000 to some one in 175 children;
-- At the same time, the number of school-age youngsters diagnosed with developmental disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other learning problems, has swelled to one in six;
-- The rise corresponds to the increases in thimerosal-containing vaccines in the childhood schedule;
-- The federal health agencies' explanation for these changes of "better diagnosing" is inadequate;
-- As predicted, the autism caseloads in special education departments have started to level off or even decline since the removal of thimerosal from most children's vaccines.
For their part, those who see no vaccine-autism link insist:
-- There is no autism epidemic; the numbers cited refer to diagnoses made, not actual cases; the definition of autism has been vastly expanded to include groups of children who previously would not qualify; understanding and awareness of the disorder have improved so that many youngsters who once would have been identified as schizophrenic, mentally retarded or learning disabled are now categorized as autistic;
-- Correlation is not causation; the increases could just as easily be attributed to the rise in the use of cell phones, video games or pesticides;
-- Ethylmercury, the type of mercury found in vaccines, and methylmercury, the type present in polluted fish, differ substantially in their travel through the body; no studies show thimerosal in the tiny amounts used in children's shots is injurious;
-- No research has determined the effect, if any, of ethylmercury in vaccines on the brain;
-- Studies of hundreds of thousands of children have shown no causative link between vaccines and autism or other developmental disorders;
-- In England, the concern is with the MMR shots, which never contained thimerosal; in the United States, the uproar is over thimerosal-containing vaccines;
-- It is unreasonable to claim some vast conspiracy among major health organizations, physicians, scientists, geneticists and others, including some of the biggest and most respected names in the field;
-- Parents suing vaccine manufacturers for harm to their children, lawyers representing them and researchers/scientists and doctors testifying on their behalf have a conflict of interest;
-- The study that set off the vaccine scare has been discredited, never duplicated, recanted by 10 of 13 of its authors and renounced by the journal that published it;
-- Public health agencies are acting in good faith and are so responsive to parental concerns, they urged the removal of thimerosal from childhood vaccines even in the absence of any evidence of harm, and are continuing to pursue this line of research;
-- It's impossible to prove a negative so no amount of studies will ever satisfy everyone that vaccines do not cause autism or any other disorder;
-- Vaccines are life savers that have spared generations of children from some of history's deadliest plagues;
-- The vaccine question has had enough scientific attention; money, time, effort -- all of which are available in limited quantities -- are better spent pursuing more credible causes of the disorder.
Still, federal officials say they remain open to "any and all hypotheses."
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(Note: In this multi-part installment, based on dozens of reports, conferences and interviews, Ped Med is keeping an eye on autism, taking a backward glance at its history and surrounding controversies, facing facts revealed by research and looking forward to treatment enhancements and expansions. Wasowicz is the author of the forthcoming book, "Suffer the Child: How the American Healthcare System Is Failing Our Future," to be published by Capital Books.)
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