reply to post by SimonPeter
The autism debate has been squashed shortly after Wakefield published his study. The methodology was horrid. It was given to us as an example of how
not to perform and publish a study when I was in medical school. Unfortunately though most lay people, Altmed diehards, and anti-vaccine believers
still believe that laughable conclusion at the end of his paper despite all the evidence that contradicts it.
(
www.cbsnews.com...)
"Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, hypothesized that the vaccine caused both the autism symptoms and gut problems.
Parents with autistic children, desperate to find it's cause and a cure, quickly rallied around Wakefield's study. Vaccination rates dropped in
Britain as well as the United States. New cases of measles rose.
And so did the cases of autism or at least its diagnosis.
Later studies tried to replicate Wakefield's findings, but could not. Debate raged about the root causes of autism.
But the BMJ investigation by journalist Brian Deer found that five of the 12 children in Wakefield's paper had symptoms before the MMR shots. One
girl turned out to have a heart disorder. Her symptoms disappeared after it was treated. The report claims three of the children turned out to not
have autism at all and only one was eventually diagnosed with the regressive form of it described in Wakefield's paper."
(
www.fda.gov...) Here's some information on vaccine preservative safety. Their
statements are also based off independent studies in case you call "BIAS." Most vaccines as of today don't contain thimerosal. Vaccines have their
risks but the diseases you mention have never been linked to vaccines or mercury or aluminum salts. The metals haven't been found on autopsies of
people with these conditions. Do you have evidence or studies that it has been? Do you have scientific evidence or anecdotal... or educated guessing
or gut instinct? There is a difference in those things and a reason why the scientific method is used in the sciences and not those other things.
Can an increase in diagnosing these diseases be attributable to better classification of them (what was once called schizophrenia, dumb, personality
disorder, seizures is now autism, what was once forgetfulness is now Alzheimer's... what was once aching joints and fatigue as a consequence of
living is now fibromyalgia... etc)?
Very likely.
Can an increase in screening for these conditions also contribute significantly to their rates of diagnosis?
Yes.
Can better testing like questionnaires, imaging, and laboratory tests lead to increasing rates of disease?
Yes.
From the AAFP (
www.aafp.org...)
"Thimerosal Removal Has Not Helped Autism Rates
According to the FDA, only two types of vaccinations recommended for children under age 6 years still contain thimerosal. Some formulations of the
diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis, or DTaP, vaccine and certain seasonal influenza vaccine products use minute or trace amounts of the
preservative.
"Thimerosal was removed from vaccines because of concerns that some infants might be exposed to cumulative levels of mercury during the first 6
months of life that exceeded the maximum amount of mercury allowed by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)," Kimmel said. "The EPA guidelines,
however, have as much as a 10-fold safety factor," he noted.
As previously reported in AAFP News Now, despite the widespread removal of thimerosal from U.S. vaccines within the past decade, rates of autism have
remained constant.
"Since thimerosal has been virtually taken out of vaccines, the rates of autism have stayed the same. (If thimerosal was a cause of autism), we
should be seeing a marked decrease in autism, but we're simply not," said family physician Doug Campos-Outcalt, M.D., M.P.A., of Phoenix, who serves
as an AAFP liaison to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Furthermore, he added, raising unfounded concerns about thimerosal in vaccines diverts attention from finding the actual causes of autism."