Autism & Vaccination - apophenia (false connections) or truth?

international | health / disability issues | other press

Friday June 22, 2007 20:07

by apophenia

the current issue of eSkeptic tackles "Autism & Vaccination"

On June 11, 2007, nearly 5,000 parents of autistic children filed a lawsuit against the [U.S.A.] federal government, claiming that childhood vaccines (specifically the mercury-containing thimerosal in the vaccines) caused their children’s autism. The previous year The New York Times ran a column that was skeptical of the claimed link between autism and vaccines, which generated this comment on an internet message board that is typical of the anecdotal thinking that perpetuates this myth: "You say, ‘There is no proven link’ between mercury and autism. There also is ‘no proven link’ between going outside in the rain and cold without a hat or coat and getting the sniffles. Look at the data: the epidemic of autism mirrors the administration of vaccines with mercury. Now that they are off the shelves (more or less), the cases are going down."

n this week’s eSkeptic we address one of the hottest topics in the news this week: vaccination and autism, considering the best scientific evidence to date on the possible connection. As you shall see, the scientists considering the link, Matthew P. Normand and Jesse Dallery, provide an excellent summary of what we know and do not know. Despite the lack of scientific evidence for a connection, however, do not expect this controversy to disappear, as the power of anecdotal thinking cannot be dismissed. Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning — in this case, the parents of autistic children are understandably seeking a causal link that provides them with an opportunity to right a wrong, in this case fixing the problem through changing the body’s chemistry, diet, nutrition, toxin load, etc. Sadly, it appears at this point that the causal vector(s) probably lie elsewhere..,

Read whole article at link
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-06-20.html#feature