Sticking Up for Thimerosal

Friday, August 5th, 2005

Sticking Up for Thimerosal explains that there’s scant evidence for vaccines as the cause of autism:

In 1990, Congress made autism one of the disabilities that qualified for federal funding. Thereafter, states were obliged to report all cases of autism. In a Minnesota study, to take one example, admissions of autistic children to developmental programs jumped starting in the 1991 school year and continued to do so for a decade. Often these increases occurred within the same grade. For example, 13 autism cases were reported per 10,000 Minnesota 6-year-olds in the 1995-96 school year — that is, among children born roughly in 1989. Five years later, the prevalence rate for this cohort was reported at 33 per 10,000. These were the same kids. Between the ages of 6 and 11, they’d suddenly ‘become’ nearly three times as autistic — or rather, doctors, parents, and school counselors were enrolling them in programs more aggressively.

(Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.)

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