Thimerosal Cover-Up: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

Wednesday night, political guru and comedian Jon Stewart dropped by the Comedy Central green room as I awaited my turn on The Daily Show. He had asked me on his program to discuss my recent Salon.com/Rolling Stone articles about the federal government's efforts to conceal the overwhelming scientific evidence linking vaccine preservative thimerosal to the epidemic of neurological disorders among American children. Stewart observed that if the story is true, the perpetrators should have their skin abraded with multiple incisions prior to being dipped in salt brine.

Earlier that day the New York Times reported an "unusual" invitation-only press conference in which representatives of the three federal agencies involved in the cover-up, CDC and FDA and the National Institute of Child Health Development, defended the use of thimerosal in vaccines. Following that press conference, Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, who is sponsoring legislation to ban thimerosal, rightfully denounced the trio for misleading the American public.

Although thimerosal is now discontinued in most American vaccines, it is still being administered to millions of children in the developing world with the help of American tax dollars. The public attempts by federal regulators to exonerate thimerosal will help ensure that this practice continues. Salt brine is too good for these people. A more appropriate punishment would be to force them to spend time in the lower level special education classes now bursting at the seams across America and see the autistic children lying on the floor screaming, many of them in dire agony from autistic enterocolitis.