Autism concerns continue: 60% of swine flu vaccine will have thimerosal
According to an AP Poll, 1/3 of parents oppose or will not get their children or themselves vaccinated with the new flu vaccine this year.
Concerns are wide ranging. A lack of trust of the new vaccine, purseived by some that not enough testing had taken place. There are feelings that the risks of Swine Flu has been overblown and that it is just another “flu”. And, again the highly controversial yet wide spread concern and worry about vaccines or something in them being linked with Autism. Despite recent studies stating there is no link between Autism and vaccinations, parental fears continue and the debate surges on.
Although Thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines in 2004, according to an article in theSeattle Times, 60% of the 225 million swine flu doses will have the mercury based preservative, Thimerosal in them.
The preservative is not in the FluMist nasal spray, which can be given to healthy kids age 2 and older. But it’s in many injectable doses, which are packaged in multi-dose vials that require thimerosal to prevent bacterial contamination.
In 2006, The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, established by the World Health Organization to provice scientific assessment of vaccine safety, concluded that there was no scientific support for concerns about thimerosal. The mercury in thimerosal, according to the committee, is ethyl mercury, which stays in the blood for less than a week and is excreted. The more harmful methyl mercury stays in the blood for about a month and a half and accumulates in the body.
Yet parental concerns are still out there. You can find many anecdotal stories out there from parents of autistic children who sincerely feel that the vaccinations or something in them triggered the disorder. Now, it is common for a parents who would not have had a second thought about vaccinations before, stop and are asking questions.
The current US childhood immunization schedule calls for 28 injections with 11 different vaccines against 15 different diseases by two years of age. Of those 11 vaccines, only the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) shot has been studied in association with autism, (although a CDC study of an MMR-plus-chickenpox vaccine did show that the risk for febrile seizures in infants was doubled.)
Meanwhile, those 11 vaccines contain scores of ingredients, only one of which, thimerosal, has ever been tested in association with autism.
The unknown is always a bit controversial. The truth is we just don’t know what causes autism. That is scary but each side of this issue has a point. I am sure both sides would agree that we need to continue to research what the effects of vaccines on our youngest citizens.
Source: Examiner
Other stories at We Are Change Colorado Springs
