Vaccines: Latest findings suggest link between vaccines and autism

If you're not an doctor, keep your opinion to yourself.

That's a blunt way of describing a not-so-subtle message that ran through a report on ABC's World News Tonight last month in the US. And many officials in the medical establishment would be very pleased if you and I knew as little as possible about the controversial topic of this report.

The autism-vaccine controversy heats up and gets personal
The ABC report concerned the association between childhood vaccines and autism. The topic was raised when Rolling Stone magazine published an article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., titled 'Deadly Immunity.' In a nutshell: Mr. Kennedy accuses the medical establishment of helping drug companies cover up evidence that autism may be caused by vaccines that contain the mercury-based preservative thimerosal.

After covering the details of the controversy ABC anchorman Charles Gibson turned to medical Timothy Johnson, M.D., for commentary. Dr. Johnson began by recognising the controversy and then pointing out that there is no conclusive scientific evidence to back up the autism/thimerosal link. And then he kindly pointed out that Mr. Kennedy may not be a reliable source on this matter because he's not a doctor.

The condescending implication, of course, is that poor Mr. Kennedy's non-doctor status puts him in a class of laymen who couldn't possibly grasp the nuances of this case.

Granted, Mr. Kennedy doesn't have a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree. But he is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Virginia Law School, and he has a Masters Degree in Environmental Law from Pace University.

So, it's safe to assume, while he's not a medical doctor, he's also not a complete idiot.

Doctors weight in against thimerosal
The Boston Globe recently carried an article by Mr. Kennedy that reiterated many of the points he made in the Rolling Stone piece, such as the fact that in the early '90s public health officials in America significantly increased the number of vaccines containing thimerosal.

No degree in medicine needed to understand that one. Or this one: According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the autism rate among US children in 1995 was 1 in 2,500. Ten years later the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts the rate at 1 in 166.

Well...I'm not a doctor either, and yet these dots are pretty much connecting themselves!

But if ABC's Dr. Johnson wants some doctors to weigh in on the thimerosal issue, Mr. Kennedy can oblige:

* Dr Maurice Hilleman, was one of the leaders of Merck's vaccination program. In a 1991 memo he warned company executives that when the standard schedule of vaccines was given to a 6-month-old child, mercury exposure would be more than 85 times the safety standards set by the US government. He suggested that thimerosal use be stopped. His suggestion was disregarded. Government officials later added seven more vaccines containing thimerosal to the vaccine schedule.

* In June 2000, a secret meeting to evaluate thimerosal research was organised by the CDC and included representatives from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and several drug companies. At that meeting, Dr Bill Weil, described the results of the studies as 'statistically significant.'

* One of the participants of that meeting, Dr Richard Johnston said that he didn't want his newborn grandson to receive vaccines with thimerosal 'until we know better what is going on.'

* Dr Jill James is a FDA scientist who recently conducted a study that found many autistic children lack the ability to produce glutathione, an antioxidant that helps the body remove mercury.

I wonder if the opinions of four doctors are enough to persuade Dr. Johnson that drug makers should have been far more careful when they included a known toxin as an ingredient in their widely used vaccines?

An ounce of caution...
Many scientists, researchers and Dr. Johnson argue that there is no conclusive scientific evidence linking autism with thimerosal use. When they say this, they're setting the bar high for scientific proof. And they should. One or two, or even three or four studies may be very persuasive without being scientifically conclusive.

So let's say 15 years ago there was no hard evidence based on current research that mercury would poison a generation of children. Then wouldn't it have made a world of sense to hold off forcing it on our kids until the evidence WAS conclusive?

I realise this sort of talk gives drug company bean counters a good laugh. But the parents of thousands of autistic kids aren't laughing. And sadly, neither are their beautiful children.

In recent years the thimerosal content of children's vaccines has been reduced, but Mr. Kennedy notes in the Boston Globe article that the preservative is still used in flu vaccines, tetanus boosters and some over-the-counter drugs. The influenza vaccine is a new addition to the recommended childhood immunization schedule.

And where thimerosal is concerned, the UK is one step ahead of the US. Thimerosal is being phased out of use in vaccines in the UK. Only hepatitis B and influenza in the UK programme now contain thimerosal. The amounts of thimerosal in the UK vaccination schedule are lower than those in the US schedule, where the routine programme involves many more vaccines containing it.