I've been ranting about this issue for over a year now, but obviously the media has not taken the hint.
It's very hard to take medical reporters seriously if they can't even get the basics right.
Take, for instance, Reuters reporter Megan Rauscher, currently covering the IOM meeting on vaccines and autism in Washington. After reporting on yet another epidemiological study purporting to debunk a MMR-autism link, Rauscher ends the article with this gem:
On Monday this week, a scientific panel weighing the possible autism/vaccine link met to hear about several new studies conducted since they last met in 2001. Many of these studies focus on a possible link between autism and the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, which is no longer in the MMR vaccine in the US, as well as a possible tie to high mercury levels in fish.
Note to Rauscher and nearly every other media type I've seen or heard report on this subject: The Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine contains LIVE viral components. Mercury-based thimerosal was first sold to the US Army as a highly-toxic antiseptic, then later promoted as a germ-killing preservative for vaccines. As anyone who has studied basic biology knows, anti-septics/preservatives and live microorganisms don't mix. Okay, forget basic biology, it's common sense.
The MMR, as well as the live-polio vaccine have never contained thimerosal. Never, ever, ever. The theories behind the mechanisms for MMR-induced autism and thimerosal-induced autism are completely different and for the most part unrelated. It's really not that hard to understand and one would expect anyone covering a meeting on the subject to have done a minimal amount of homework.
I feel your pain. I've had this conversation with people many, many times: I had a lengthy argument with one woman who kept saying, "Yes, they started leaving thimerosal out," and I kept saying, "No, it was never IN the MMR," and she said, "Well none of them have it now," and I said, "No, MMR never had it," and on and on like a chorus of "Poor Old Michael Finnegan."
Posted by: emily at February 13, 2004 09:40 AMYou might want to take a look at this link.
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/maude.html#location
It contains data on all vaccination/side-effect reports made over the last (10?) years. Just sorting the AUTISM cases together and reading the list of corresponding vaccinations shows a pretty good correlation with MMR AND with DTP-type vaccines. Just thought you might want to try doing some of your own statistical analysis. More simply, it is there to see by eye.
Posted by: pwaksman at February 13, 2004 02:14 PMI've heard it repeated in so many articles that thimerosal was a vaccine preservative in the MMR vaccine, I hadn't really questioned it. Do I get a pass because I've only been taking biology for a year?
Posted by: natasha at February 13, 2004 03:11 PMYes Natasha, you get a pass. It is not suprising that lots of folks make the same mistake.
I collected links to more than 50 news articles making the same mistake over and over again. I used to send polite emails to the writers in an effort to raise the level of understanding.
I got responses to a couple that told me I didn't know what I was talking about. I gave up, quit collecting links, and quit trying to educate the journalists.
Posted by: dwight meredith at February 13, 2004 03:30 PM