I just love rubbing the truth in Jenny McCarthy's face (and anything else I can get away with) ever since she began her crusade to find something and someone to blame for her autistic kid (other than the wrath of a karma-lovin' god).A new government study adds to the evidence that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative (until recently found in many vaccines), does not increase children's risk of autism. Kids who had been exposed as babies to high levels of the preservative, either through vaccines they received or their mothers received while pregnant, were no more likely to develop autism, including two distinct subtypes of the condition.
Concerns about a link between vaccines and autism were first raised more than a decade ago by Andrew Wakefield. His report, based on 12 children, has since been discredited and was retracted earlier this year by the journal that published it. But the damage had been done, and with idiot bigmouths like McCarthy spewing bad info, the health scare caused many parents to shy away from recommended vaccines like the one against measles, mumps and rubella. The result? Outbreaks of all three diseases followed.
The researchers used data for U.S. children born between 1994 and 1999, who were enrolled in one of three managed care organizations. They found 256 children with an autism spectrum disorder and compared them with 752 children who did not have the condition, but were matched for age and sex. No matter when a child had been exposed to thimerosal, there was no increase in the risk of any type of autism spectrum disorder. In fact, children exposed to the preservative between birth and 20 months of age had slightly lower odds of developing the condition.
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