Thimerosal-free childhood vaccines still suspect in autism

Thursday, December 30, 2010 by: Bethany Sciortino
Tags: vaccines, autism, health news

(NewsTarget) In a recent article in the Chicago Tribune "Link between autism and vaccines discredited," Dr. Cory Franklin makes the definitive claim that vaccines do not cause autism. The study to which his article refers was published in Pediatrics, the online journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Researchers reviewed the medical records and interviews with parents of 1000 children exposed to an undisclosed amount of thimerosal, the mercury containing preservative once used in childhood vaccines. Because only 25% of these children had autism while the rest claimed to be neuro-typical, Pediatrics claims thimerosal-containing vaccines and immunoglobulins do not significantly increase the risk of autism. This hardly discredits or proves anything, especially given that the study in question lacks any scientific evidence. Should we believe that vaccines don`t cause autism just because only 250 out of 1000 cherry-picked kids in this study have the disorder?

What`s in a childhood vaccine?
Even if thimerosal is no longer used in childhood vaccines, there still remains antibiotics like gentamicin, strepomycin and neomycin.

These vaccines are live viruses cultured in chick embryos, monkey liver cells and fetal cow serum. Some are cultured in human lung cells and almost all vaccines are cultured with human albumin - the plasma from another person`s blood collected from aborted fetuses. Then there are detergents, disguised with difficult-to-pronounce names and used for paints, household and industrial cleaners and metal working fluids.

Some vaccines also contain monosodium L-glutamate (MSG), an excitotoxin known to cause cancer and linked to brain and neurological damage in autism, ADHD and Parkinson`s Disease - not to mention formaldehyde (a known carcinogen), antifreeze, aluminum, emulsifiers and "other buffers."

This is not information that is readily handed out at your child`s well-baby visits, but you can go to Merck`s website and download the prescribing information for almost all of their vaccines. For example, Merck lists the MMR-II vaccine as "preservative-free" and the ingredients as follows:

Active Ingredient: Weakened virus of measles, mumps and rubella viruses
Inactive Ingredients: sorbitol, sodium phosphate, potassium phosphate, sucrose, sodium chloride, hydrolyzed gelatin, recombinant human albumin, fetal bovine serum, other buffer and media ingredients, neomycin.

Translation as follows:

Active ingredient (the objective): Three live viruses - measles, mumps and rubella cultured in unborn chickens and human lung tissue of an aborted fetus
Inactive ingredient (what they can`t make the vaccine without): sugar alcohol; detergent; a buffer or cell washer to allow chemical reactions to occur; sugar; salt; protein extracted from boiled bones, connective tissues, organs and some intestines of animals such as cattle, pigs and horses; DNA containing protein from human blood plasma created in the human liver; plasma from fetal cow blood often drawn from a live cow fetus after its mother is slaughtered; other stuff; antibiotics.

Most people, if given this information beforehand, would not willingly inject themselves or their children with such a toxic cocktail. It is not surprising that recent studies focus on thimerosal, an ingredient that supposedly has been removed from this vaccine more than seven years ago.

After reading this lengthy list of additives, the question remains - can the ingredients of vaccines increase your risk of autism? Or allergies, or disease, or any condition for that matter?

The truth is simple: there are real risks associated with vaccines and autism is only one. Everyone should be informed before they vaccinate or not vaccinate themselves or their children - after all, this is America and it is your choice.

SOURCES:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-09-1...

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/sept131...

http://www.merck.com/product/vaccines/home.h...

About the author

Bethany Sciortino is a married, stay-at-home mother of three young children. Bethany left her career to aggressively research the cause of and treat her eldest daughter's autism, as well as take care of her growing family. Bethany is an advocate of proper nutrition, natural healing and illness prevention through herbal and vitamin supplementation and dietary intervention not only for her daughter's autism, but for adults and children of all ages. Contact Bethany at [email protected].