At Some Point, You Have to Stop Connecting the Dots
Vaccines did not cause Seung Hui Cho to do what he did.
That should be so obvious, you’d think.
But someone has made such a connection—-Orac at Respectful Insolence shows how such a connection is just wrong and only “compound[s] the vileness”:
Never mind that blaming autism for the rampage is bad enough, but [Alan E.] Moses [of The American Chronicle has to compound the vileness by implying that vaccines can turn children into killers. Never mind that there is no good evidence that the mercury in thimerosal in vaccines in any way contributes to the development of autism or autism spectrum disorders. Never mind that the latest statistics from, for example, California show no decrease and, indeed, a continued increase, in its autism caseload in 3-5 year olds in the first quarter of 2007, now four years since thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines other than the flu vaccine, when by now, if mercury causes autism, we should have seen a huge decrease in the caseload. Never mind that there’s lots of other evidence that shows no link between vaccines and autism.
Enough said, indeed.
4 opinions for At Some Point, You Have to Stop Connecting the Dots
KC'sMommy
Apr 21, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Oh my gosh now they are blaming Autism for what that young man did to those poor students :( To think that vaccines caused someone to be a murderer is unreal. I don’t know much about Autism and vaccines but I’m pretty sure that vaccines don’t cause people to become killers. I feel badly for parents of newly diagnosed children read that and wonder if there child with Autism will become a killer.
media frenzy
Apr 21, 2007 at 5:52 pm
There’s a great link on Orac’s site to a “Blame List”. Looks like nearly everyone, every group, everything is taking a hit.
http://www.cynical-c.com/?p=7191
Pedro
Apr 23, 2007 at 7:38 am
That sounds like a really far fetched theory to link autism to crime and thus link crime to mercury. But doing some searching on thimerosal revealed a site called http://thimerosal.worldwidewarning.net.
I am no expert and can not judge the articles but it does look that mercury is not a good thing to get into your system.
mumkeepingsane
Apr 23, 2007 at 9:34 am
It’s quite possible mercury is not a good thing in your system. My son, however, has never been injected with thimerisol and is moderately to severely autistic (according to his medical records). Just because it might not be the best choice of preservative does not mean it causes autism or violence. Oh, and I missed the study that shows that autistics are more likely to be murderers….news to me! (Can anyone tell I’m a bit short tempered this morning? Sorry.)
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