Vaccines that contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal cannot cause autism on their own, a special U.S. court ruled on Friday, dealing one more blow to parents seeking to blame vaccines for their children's illness.
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More grants out the door today, but check out ABC correspondent Jake Tapper's post on John McCain's views on thimerosal and autism:
At a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that "there's strong evidence" that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once…
Via the ABC News blog Political Punch comes news that senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain has taken a strong stance on the discredited link between vaccination and autism... a stance contrary to scientific consensus. Here's what Jake Tapper wrote:
At a town hall meeting…
I'm posting about this because I want Orac's head to explode. Apparently, the first episode of the ABC legal drama, "Eli Stone", involves the protagonist taking up the mercury militia, anti-vax cause:
While police and legal dramas often use ripped-from-the-headlines topics as the basis of episodes…
I nearly aerosolized Diet Pepsi all over my computer screen when I read this:
It a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that "there's strong evidence" that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in many childhood vaccines, is responsible for the…
Another step for rational, science-based thought.
Appeals are in the works.
While I am smugly pleased, courts are no place to decide science. Creationists use courts to change the teaching of evolution because they can't change the science. Similarly, I don't place too much importance in this other than P.R. Which is mighty important for lay people.
It's not really the verdict that's important for P.R.; a lot of important findings came out during the trial. It's an excellent uh, teaching opportunity?
The "on their own" may be misleading though: absolutely never, though not philosophically correct, is probably correct. I guess the honest answer is "mercury is not established to have cause autism in any case investigated to date".