A flood of lawsuits from parents of autistic children and a potent piece by Robert F. Kennedy arguing that the recent upsurge in autism is linked to vaccines using a form of mercury called thimerosal (published in Salon last week, and referenced below here and in many other blogs) as a preservative has prompted a strong response from The New York Times (registration required).
The newspaper quotes an impressive number of doctors and public health authorities on the issue that see no link between the vaccine and the disease, but also finds a dramatic scene, in which an outraged mother of an autistic child confronts a Midwestern state public health official. The catch? The state official defending thimerosal in vaccines herself has a child with autism.
The story goes on to lay out five lengthy studies of thimerosal given in four countries involving over a half million children that show no causal link between thimerosal and autism.
But the dispute over thimerosal hides a deeper, more troubling reality accepted by both sides:
Diagnoses of autism have risen sharply in recent years, from roughly 1 case for every 10,000 births in the 1980’s to 1 in 166 births in 2003.
Most scientists believe that the illness is influenced strongly by genetics but that some unknown environmental factor may also play a role.
Dr. Tom Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health, said: "Is it cellphones? Ultrasound? Diet sodas? Every parent has a theory. At this point, we just don’t know."
The pain in that–"Every parent has a theory"–haunts me a little.
Kit Stolz 