Autism: Feeding the Hungry Lie, Italian Style

Autism: Feeding the Hungry Lie, Italian Style

J.B. Handley
Age of Autism
Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:03 UTC

Well, you won't be able to miss it because it's all over the news: another "study" published in Pediatrics proving that vaccines don't cause autism.

In case you wonder how the media feels about the whole thing, consider this opening line from the Associated Press article today:
"A new study from Italy adds to a mountain of evidence that a mercury-based preservative once used in many vaccines doesn't hurt children, offering more reassurance to parents."
Mountain of evidence?

Herewith, my guide to reading this new study:

1. Re-read my original post, Feeding the Hungry Lie HERE.

2. Open the new study from Pediatrics, titled:
Neuropsychological Performance 10 Years After Immunization in Infancy With Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines
3. Prepare for Nausea.

4. Read the details regarding the two groups that the Italians analyzed:

"Therefore, in the first 12 months of life, the cumulative intake of ethylmercury, the mercury metabolite of thimerosal, was 137.5 mcg for the children who were assigned randomly to receive the DTaP vaccine that contained thimerosal ("higher intake group") and 62.5 mcg for those who received the thimerosal-free DTaP vaccine ("lower intake group")."

5. Realize that this study is only comparing kids who got 62.5mcgs of Thimerosal to kids who got 137.5mcgs of Thimerosal. They have all been vaccinated, and they've all been vaccinated with mercury-containing vaccines.

6. Vomit.

7. Read about their sample size of children and prevalence of autism:
"We detected, through the telephone interviews with parents and reviews of medical charts, 1 case of autism among the 856 children in the lower thimerosal intake group and no cases among the 848 children in the higher thimerosal intake group."
8. Realize that in their sample, the rate of autism of the children analyzed was 1 in 1,704, 15-20 times lower than the US average.

9. Vomit.

10. Read the acknowledgements section:

"The study was supported in part by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through contract 2002-N-00448 with the Istituto Superiore di Sanita."

11. Vomit.

12. Read the AP's headline today: "Study adds to evidence of vaccine safety"

13. Vomit.

14. Read that the Editor-In-Chief of Pediatrics, Dr. Lewis First, wrote today on his blog:
"Finally, we get to the heart of the immunization controversy with a study by Tozzi et al. on whether or not thimerosal can influence neuropsychological performance ten years after immunization in infancy (475-482). You'll be reassured that the results show essentially no differences between groups who did or did not get thimerosal in their vaccines - and you'll want to know this information when talking with parents of your patients about the safety and benefits of vaccines."
15. Realize that the Editor-In-Chief of Pediatrics is either grossly misinformed or lying because you read the Italian study and know every child considered received Thimerosal.

16. Vomit one last time.

17. Pray that this study, like many of the others that have come and gone, doesn't falsely reassure a family with a young child about how best to approach vaccines.

J.B. Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue and a contributor to Age of Autism.