Saturday, July 12, 2008

Cat Fight Among the Stars

Heard the latest squabble between two well know stars: Amanda Peet and Jenny McCarthy?

I am sure that this subject is something that has been discussed, rediscussed and discussed again quite a bit through every autism forum known to man; its controversy and differences of opinion—and there are two sides of the story, and not just--demonstrably--the parents of autistic children and the pharmaceutical companies, but parent to parent as well. I wanted to reevaluate the subject of thimerosol (and why the squabble) here. (Yikes!)

What I had understood was that the mercury-based preservative (thimerosol) has always been contained in vaccines, including the MMR, and that only during a small stretch in 1990s did someone decide to “gamble” and double-up on the amount of thimerosol used in vaccines (through multi dose and the inclusion of additional vaccines) to see "what would happen” and to save a nickel. This is and has been my understanding of the issue.

Since that time, vaccines have been--and are--provided to children with OR without the nasty thimerosol--or a great reduction in the amount of thimerosol. (Thank God because why should anyone “shoot up” our babies with mercury—it’s like saying “here baby suck on this old rattle coated with lead paint.”) Even in recent years my son had to have the flu shot (gulp) because he has asthma but dontcha know I chose the flu shot without the thimerosol added, “costs more,” the nurse added---odd comment to a woman who has two autistic children--dontcha say!?

My thoughts are, now tell me if I’m off base, that since (most) vaccines can be given without thimerosol (or a safe reduction) and without the “only ” known threat? Then why not keep your children healthy with THAT option? Jury is still out for me, not sure if thimerosol is the only connection to autism, but it certainly and most likely, has not helped.

And calling people "parasites" (as Amanda Peet did) simply because they are scared to vaccinate; incidentally, Jenny McCarthy has a son with autism and Amanda Peet has a nice new "healthy" baby.

Can't blame people who have autistic children for being scared and angry, now can we Peet??

Love to hear what you think?


Here is the Peet vs. McCarthy story

2 comments:

Maddy said...

I'm a bit out of the loop myself as I'd never even heard of Ms.Peet. But you're right, it's a very heated debate.

I suppose my 2 cents would be something like 'as long as there's a civilized dialogue that raises awareness, then I'm all for it.'

Best wishes

John Best said...

Hi,
The MMR shot never had thimerosal. All of the shots that did not contain live viruses have had thimerosal since 1931.

It was the HepB shot given on the day of birth, starting in 1991 that caused the largest increase in autism. The thimerosal was reduced starting in 1999 (but not completely removed) and most shots had only trace amounts by 2003. Then they began giving the flu shot with the full dose of thimerosal to babies and pregnant women because they knew the best way to cause autism was to get it into infants and fetuses before they had a Blood Brain Barrier which develops over the first month or so after birth. This made the drug companies seem blameless since everyone thought all the thimerosal was gone. It had the added benefit of scrambling babies' brains before they were born so nobody was watching normal kids regress between age one and two. That way, naive parents would believe all the liars who claim that autism is genetic.