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June 27, 2005
REPORT FROM THE FRONT LINES
I have a number of friends who are pediatricians, who have to deal with questions regarding vaccinations, thimerosal, autism etc. on a regular basis.
When trhis topic was in the news in late 2002, one of my pediatrician friends told me that he had numerous parents ask him about the supposed vaccination-autism link, being very skeptical of the evidence against such a link.
And very often, those parents would immediately ask him about whether they could get a smallpox vaccine for their children (the debate over which was also in the news at the time).
Of course - as was well publicized at the time - the documented proof of adverse reactions from the smallpox vaccine far exceeded any proof as to the adverse effects generally of regularly administered vaccines, or of any thimerosal-autism link.
Posted by Dr. Manhattan at 2:18 AM | Permalink
Comments
Hi Doc, thanks for these posts (which I found via Megan McArdle).
I had attempted to post an extensive comment about my son's Aspergers Syndroe, etc, but it was rejected due to "questionable content," which was identified as a word describing one of the popular ED medications -- a word not contained anywhere in my post. So go figure.
Anyway, keep it up, I agree with you --- and I'm a trial lawyer!
Posted by: wavemaker | June 27, 2005 3:24 PM
Thanks and sorry for the comment rejection - the comment sections get spammed so much with drug-sellers that I have to have filters set up that err on the side of over-inclusion.
Have medications helped your son?
Posted by: Dr. Manhattan | June 27, 2005 3:37 PM
There is no contradiction in wanting to minimize risk from supposedly dangerous mercury and wanting to minimize risk from smallpox. All it means is that those parents:
(a) believed that it is reasonably possible that smallpox will return, and
(b) believed that is is reasonably possible that mercury in vaccination harms kids.
Since both beliefs are non-mainstream ideas, it's not surprising that parents would worry about both, or neither.
Posted by: Leonard | June 27, 2005 4:24 PM
Leonard,
I will reiterate the point, hoping to get the point through to you:
Injection A is well-known and scientifically proven to have a significant number of adverse side effects.
Injection B has been implicated (with shaky scientific backing at best) in occasional adverse reactions.
Parents express doubt about B, want A.
Make sense yet?
Posted by: Deoxy | June 29, 2005 11:07 AM