Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week posted an important story in Salon about the dangers of a common vaccine that included a form of mercury called thimerosal. It’s well-written and well-researched and anyone with kids — and especially anyone concerned about the astounding rise in autism and related disorders in recent years — should read it. But what struck me about the piece was Kennedy’s honesty about his reluctance to get into the issue. Like a lot of us, including well-regarded Congressman Henry Waxman, he wanted to believe the best about doctors and medical firms supplying vaccinations for our children.
As an attorney and environmentalist who has spent years working on issues of mercury toxicity, I frequently met mothers of autistic children who were absolutely convinced that their kids had been injured by vaccines. Privately, I was skeptical. I doubted that autism could be blamed on a single source, and I certainly understood the government’s need to reassure parents that vaccinations are safe; the eradication of deadly childhood diseases depends on it. I tended to agree with skeptics like Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, who criticized his colleagues on the House Government Reform Committee for leaping to conclusions about autism and vaccinations. "Why should we scare people about immunization," Waxman pointed out at one hearing, "until we know the facts?"
It was only after reading the Simpsonwood transcripts, studying the leading scientific research and talking with many of the nation’s preeminent authorities on mercury that I became convinced that the link between thimerosal and the epidemic of childhood neurological disorders is real.
Read the piece and get the facts.
Kit Stolz 