A Question of Harm -- The Legacy of Vaccination
The Age of Vaccines
In the early '60s, there were approximately 450,000 measles cases and an average of 450 measles-associated deaths reported each year in the United States [1] . The disease had been a killer for centuries, and at its peak an estimated 3-4 million persons in the United States were infected each year, of whom 400-500 died, 48,000 were hospitalized, and another 1,000 developed chronic disability from measles encephalitis. [2] Despite its ubiquity, measles was nothing to sneeze at.
Fortunately, in the face of this danger, American ingenuity once again rose to the occasion, and in 1957 a functional vaccine was produced. [3] Over the following years, a widespread regimen of vaccination was introduced across the country, and the results were nothing short of astounding. By the year 2000, measles had gone from millions of cases annually to being officially declared eliminated in the United States by the CDC. [4]
This is not an isolated result:
- Polio - from 21,000 annual US cases in 1952 to zero today. [5]
- Pertussis (Whooping Coung) - killed between 5,000 and 10,000 annually; now kills approximately 30 annually. [6]
- Smallpox - killed between 300 and 500 million people in the 20th century [7]; certified as completely eliminated by the WHO in 1980. [8]
Look at that last number one more time. Really. From up to 500,000,000 deaths in 100 years, to a planet where nobody will ever die from smallpox again. Ever. This is the legacy of vaccination.
Now, some people are looking to throw it all away.
Thimerosal - The Mercury Factor
Before the early 90s, the average citizen would likely never have heard of thimerosal. Invented by Morris Kharasch at the University of Maryland, and filed for a patent in 1927 [9], thimerosal has been used as a preservative and disinfectant in the health care industry for decades. One of its primary uses has been as a preservative in multi-dose vaccine formulae, where it is used to protect the vaccine batches against infection by Staphylococcus and other bacteria.
Thimerosal is approximately 50% mercury by weight, and metabolizes in the body into ethyl (as opposed to methyl) mercury. [10] Thimerosal is typically included in vaccines at 1 part in 100,000 to 1 part in 10,000, which is sufficient to clear out a wide array of potential infections in the vaccine. Standard vaccine doses for children under 35 months is .25 mL; for children up to 9 years, it is .5 mL. [11] With a thimerosal component of 50 micrograms per .5 mL, that works out to about 12.5 micrograms of mercury in the very young doses and 25 micrograms (the maximum considered safe) for vaccines administered to children up to age 9. [12]
Recently, the inclusion of thimerosal in vaccines has begun to cause concern amongst parents worried about the toxicity of mercury, and its effects on young children. There is even a belief among a small segment of the population that there is a connection between childhood vaccinations and autism, centered around the mercury in thimerosal. Although a 2003 study found that autism spectrum disorders increased both in places where thimerosal use increased (California) and decreased (Sweden and Denmark) [13], authorities in the United States were concerned enough that they began to phase out thimerosal-preserved vaccines. Because of this, today only one childhood vaccine in the United States - influenza, an optional vaccine - contains thimerosal. [14]
A Question of Harm
Nonetheless, the anti-vaccination movement has picked up steam in the past few years, and authorities now believe that pockets of unvaccinated children are forming. This is beginning to have deadly results, as old killers long eradicated from American public life - measles, pertussis - begin to once again strike children down with sickness, even death. [15] Tragically, despite both reduced vaccination rates and removal of thimerosal from childhood vaccines, autism rates continue to climb, indicating the link between thimerosal and autism likely never existed in the first place and making the rejection of vaccinations all the more senseless. [16]
In the end, it is a question of risk. The risk from diseases like measles, rubella, pertussis, diphtheria and more is well documented and deadly, and the tools for fighting them well understood and effective. By contrast, the causes of autism are poorly understood; indeed, almost all we know is that vaccination almost certainly is NOT the cause. To face having to trade dozens of powerful immunities in order to prevent the possibility of autism would be a difficult and unenviable choice; but when we understand that autism rates have continued to climb even in those who take vaccines without thimerosal or who take no vaccines at all, the conclusion is evident.
There is nothing more precious than the life of a child. It is both the right and the responsibility of a parent to follow up on your concerns about the health and welfare of your children. So please, don't take my word for it. Talk to your doctor. Read the studies. Ask the FDA or the CDC. And vaccinate your family. There is no more powerful or effective way of saving a life.
Footnotes
[1] - http://healthvermont.gov/news/2008/051208measles.aspx
[2] - http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/measles/faqs-dis-vac-risks.htm
[3] - http://www.answers.com/topic/john-franklin-enders
[4] - http://www.cdc.gov/Features/MeaslesUpdate/
[5] - http://polio.emedtv.com/polio/polio-history.html
[6] - http://www.dcmilitary.com/stories/011708/pentagram_28068.shtml
[7] - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080131122956.htm
[8] - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/smallpox/en/
[9] - http://www.google.com/patents?vid=1672615
[10] - http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/safetyavailability/vaccinesafety/ucm096228
[11] - http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/about/qa/vaxadmin.htm
[12] - http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/safetyavailability/vaccinesafety/ucm096228
[13] - http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/S0749-3797(03)00113-2/abstract
[14] - http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/safetyavailability/vaccinesafety/ucm096228#t1
[15] - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26333787/
[16] - http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/oct/05/science/chi-tc-nw-autism-tribuneoct05
Follow Tim Ellis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DJDynamicNC
The IACC, Washington's leading arbiter for directing federal funds to autism research, unanimously voted to recommend studies that include investigations into possible links between autism vaccines.
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HuffPost's Pick
While tempted, at real risk to myself, I wait. Revised
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Since ijois asked: I've all my vaccinations including Td booster. Flu vaccine for at least last 15 years.
Question from isjois:
Sheldon - What a gentleman - "waiting your turn" and all!
I am. I haven't had the flu in years so I'm scared of this --- even if it is no worse than regular flu. I can go to a vaccine clinic, tell a lie about my medical history and get vaccinated.
Yesterday, I thought of doing that. Why should I delay protecting myself for another week? If I wait, there's a real chance I'll get the flu and at best, be sick for days. If I tell a lie no one will ever discover, I can protect myself.
Remembrance (Veteran's) day, where the sacrifices of other is remembered , made it easy to decide to wait. Not that I'm happy decidiing to wait.
I and millions of others know we can tell a lie and get vaccinated now . Yet we're waiting at a real risk to ourselves. Some of those who wait will be hospitalized and ... Yet we're waiting.
So when it's your turn, get vaccinated. Vaccination, unlike waiting, is essentially risk free. It protects kids with foolish parents, those whom the vaccine hasn't protected and those who need more time for the vaccination to build up antibodies. These days, my country, your country ask so very little of us. Certainly we can do this.
A rare article that would be found by a joint search of `vaccine', `fact' and `sense'
THE RARE ARTICLE THAT WOULD BE FOUND BY A JOINT SEARCH OF
VACCINE FACT SENSE.
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Results 1 - 20 of about 3,250,000 for fact AND sense AND vaccine. (0.36 seconds)
Flu Vaccination: Those who advocate it usually do their homework.
Blame the public health officials with conflicts of interests and pharma manufacturers more concerned about profits and position that safety.
If they made safe vaccines and developed a safe program (not a one size fits all) then there wouldn't be as much concern.
Anti-vaxers have the law wrong.
The vaccine law is: Better that many die than vaccines kill even a few.
Vaccinations did not save us;
http://chi
This column is redolent of the quality we call in the UK "brass-neck".
Without any particular status Tim - and much less than Jenny McCarthy - you censure people who essentially used to hold your opinions: that the benefits greatly outweighed the risks and that there were also altruistic reasons for vaccinating. That is what we were all told and what as good citizens we believed. Unfortunately, many of us woke up to realise our children had been sold down the river. Unless you actually start to listen to the people saying it has gone wrong there cannot be any risk/benefit analysis, and the fact that someone like you just sneers at Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey demonstrates your prejudice and bias.
The first resort in the event of vaccine damage is denial. I give you an instance of how it works in the UK here, bearing on the US case of Bailey Banks:
http://chi
If the system was genuinely balanced there would be a machinery of care, not of dismissal - I don't see it.
See Tim Ellis's Profile
You're absolutely right that I have no status to speak of. What I do have is simple, basic research, the kind anybody can perform. Get the facts and make your conclusion.
It's good that you bring up Bailey Banks, however, so we can get that one cleared up. In that case, the court - not scientists or researchers mind you, but people very much like you or I - made up their minds, based on the evidence they saw, that MMR might have caused PPD in young Bailey Banks.
What's interesting about this evidence that they saw is that it was exceptionally flawed. But again, I'm just a raver, so don't take my word for it - http://lef
Annnnd here's a good article for you to read on this topic, too - http://www
Let's just read that headline together now, shall we? "MMR Doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed autism data." Now, that does present a problem, doesn't it?
This is a poor response. What has Bailey/Banks which is about ADEM (acute disseminated encephalomyelitis) got do with the Bustin/O'Leary disagreement (which is about persistent measle virus in the gut and which some may think still unresolved). As to Deer's data fixing allegation that isn't a problem at all (except for Deer):
http://www
http://www
The Sunday Times article remains up in defiance of the PCC. Two fundamental problems are how could Wakefield have altered the data without the other 12 authors noticing for 11 years (and signing it) and Deer's incompetence in deciphering medical notes which he shouldn't have had in the first place. For instance, interpreting deafness as an early sign of autism when the child had a diagnosed ear infection.
Six days before the latest raft of allegations, by the way, the Sunday Times boss, James Murdoch, joined the board of GSK with a brief to defend the company's reputation:
http://chi
Tim,
What do you say to all those parents who say their kids were progressing normally up until they got a vaccine shot?
What do you have to say to my friend whose child was walking by 6 months, speaking 2 languages by 2, then after another round of vaccines couldn't walk and talk?
Okay. Let's vaccinate against polio and measles.
I'm okay with that.
How about meningitis?
Well, meningitis is caused by a whole range of different agents, many normal parts of our everyday bodily flora. Which ones do you think we need to vaccinate against? And how do you think we should deal with the problem of serotype replacement?
Data indicate that vaccines have been very effective in reducing incidence of meningitis.
Strangely enough, during a conversation about relevant vaccines, my family doctor told me that there are severe risks to a general vaccine against meningitis. He said that the chance of a harmful side effect multiplied by a mandatory dosage would result in more cases of the vaccine harming people than the actual disease itself.
I agree with the author. If you're inclined to dig into the science and the numbers, head over to WIRED Magazine for a well written outline of the scientific FACTS around the autism-vaccination debate: http://www
Jenny McCarthy and her partner, Jim Carey, were on Oprah recently. They put more fear into otherwise sane parents. But they're celebrities and Oprah often gets the last word on this kind of thing (has she done a show about the history of vaccinations and their effectiveness? Has Oprah asked the scientists to sit on her stage? No. That's not sexy.)
So, we are willing to conclude that the celebrities and special interest groups are right and thousands of scientists are wrong. We are willing to conclude that history never happened. What the??
Autism DIAGNOSES continue to rise and without proof of the CAUSE, let alone correlation. Everyone loves a bandwagon, especially people who are hurting and need validation. I'm a parent. I am very afraid of my children being hurt unnecessarily. But I believe there is a lot of good science and HISTORICAL FACT to back up the practice of routine vaccinations. Period.
Thank you!
Fanned!
Some studies you didn't mention:-
M Hornig, D Chian, and W I Lipkin, 'Neurotoxic effects of postnatal thimerosal are mouse strain dependent', http://www
David S. Baskin, Hop Ngo and Vladimir V. Didenko, 'Thimerosal Induces DNA Breaks, Caspase-3 Activation, Membrane Damage, and Cell Death in Cultured Human Neurons and Fibroblasts' , http://tox
Burbacher TM, Shen DD, Liberato N, Grant KS, Cernichiari E, Clarkson T., 'Comparison of blood and brain mercury levels in infant monkeys exposed to methylmercury or vaccines containing thimerosal
Waly et al, 'Activation of methionine synthase by insulin-like growth factor-1 and dopamine: a target for neurodevelopmental toxins and thimerosal', http://www
Richard Deth et al, 'How environmental and genetic factors combine to cause autism': A redox/methylation http://www
See Tim Ellis's Profile
However, one I did mention: "How thimerosal is no longer present in childhood vaccines - http://www
If thimerosal is really your concern, simply skip the flu vaccine and get all the rest. That meets both our concerns. Are you willing to meet that compromise? I think that's more than fair.
Sorry to spoil the party. No the whole culture is my concern. Flu vaccine is given to pregnant women, and annually to infants + we have now the swine flu vaccine, and probably a pandemic scare every year from now on. They want to give multiple doses of the swine flu vaccine. There are other concerns as well like aluminum - see Waly et al. More use of aluminum as an adjuvant may have very similar consequences.
thimerosal has only been removed in some vaccine for PERSERVATIVE use. It still is residual from the manufacturing process. One cannot truthfully say these vaccines no longer contain mercury. They do.
Hornig et al. couldn't be replicated by the MIND Institute. The rest of the studies are either speculative or can't say if the effects would translate to the real world. All of this data was argued back and forth in the Omnibus Autism Proceedings.
Bubacher et al. simply says that thimerosal can be detected in the blood and in the brain following exposure. That doesn't tell you much, since eating seafood will do basically the same with methylmercury.
The thimerosal hypothesis has been basically dead since about Q3 2006. Removal of 98% of thimerosal from pediatric vaccines produced no results. The thimerosal hypothesis will go down in history as a good example of a hyped-up hypothesis that failed completely.
Sources?
Burbacher demonstrated contrary to Pichichero that mercury was crossing the blood brain barrier - and after all the stuff was being injected into infants. I don't think we can assess the effect of the withdrawal of thimerosal unless other confounders (for instance within the vaccine schedule itself) are taken into consideration - it certainly isn't a good thing and it shouldn't be there.
Did Burbacher differentiate between organic and inorganic hg?
I agree with Jenny McCarthy, "I would rather have my kids get measles than autism". And besides, there's a lot more that you didn't mention in this article about vaccines. For example, we in the autism arena pay attention to measles outbreaks. And we even look for people who live in those areas and ask them about who was vaccinated and such. And currently, it looks like there is no difference in those who get measles between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. But, I will tell you this: no matter what position you take, you will find things to back up your beliefs. To rid your children of autism, as I have done, you have to actually look for the truth. Defeating measles, takes high doses of Vitamin A for a few days, defeating autism takes years of numerous things to rid pathogens and toxins to reset their immune systems because by the time they have autism symptoms, they have stock-piled gobs. Frankly, I think the pro-vaccine people post on Huff. Post because they know it will get them some attention. Until you spend the lengthly amount of time doing the research it takes to learn how to recover a child from autism, which includes lots of research on vaccines, all you know is information from an article here and there that looks interesting. Thus, you aren't fooling those in the autism arena, just those who never done much research themselves.
comparing measles to autism is difficult because the risks involved are different, also there both have degrees of severity. If you would rather you kid had measles than autism, that's your choice, but the current science supports the idea that you don't have to choose between the two.
See Tim Ellis's Profile
Would you rather your kid get smallpox than autism? Would you rather your kid be paralyzed from polio than have autism?
Actually, that's not even a good example. The trade off isn't "would you rather have you kid die painfull from smallpox than have autism." The trade off is "would you rather expose your kid to painful infection, paralysis, or death from over a dozen otherwise-defeated diseases OR protect your kid from something that Jim Carrey, Jenny McCarthy, and some upset parents think maybe caused autism because of something that isn't in vaccines anymore so now they've changed their story."
If you don't get a vaccine, it might stop your kid from getting autism. It might not. You don't know. But you knwo what it will guarentee? Your kid won't be struck down and slaughtered by some of the most dangerous diseases on Earth.
I mean hey, it's your kid. But there are zero studies showing a clear link between vaccines and autism (and remember, thimerosal isn't even in vaccines any more, yet the antivaxers have just changed their story - isn't that suspicious?), whereas there are over 300,000,000 clear links between smallpox and dead people - which was ONLY defeated because of vaccines. If smallpox was still around, would you not get the vaccine for it for your kids?
We haven't had universal smallpox vaccination in the UK since the mid-19th century when it had to be stopped because all too obviously the infection was being spread by the needle. Smallpox died out in the UK not because of vaccination but because of improved living conditions. At the beginning of the last century people were dying like flies of all sorts of infectious diseases, but mortality had collapsed in most cases before vaccines were introduced. I make the point, not because I am anti-vaccine per se but simply because it is true.
http://chi
You talk disparagingly about Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey but actually they have responded like intelligent parents - and could have had a much easier time if they had chosen to say nothing (as people in the limelight I can promise you it wasn't a safe career move). On the other hand I understand you are a professional rave promoter, so I can't see why that makes you more of an expert - and certainly not on their child.
Measles is associated with encephalopathy, blindness, deafness, pneumonia, and other bad things. That's not speculation - it's a stone cold fact. On the other hand, no association has been found between MMR and autism.
Strange. The CDC says that possible side effects of the MMR include:
Deafness
Long-term seizures, coma, or lowered consciousness
Permanent brain damage
Looks like Orac let you off your leash. Must be a free roaming day.
Craig, can you cite a credible study that found an association between MMR and autism?
And yes, I already know the answer.
That's not what my comment said. You'd know that if you'd read it.
Good boy.....
You know what,I'd rather my kids caught measles than had autism too.
But this is a false dichotomy and you are not comparing similar risks.
If my child caught measles, he would have a 1:5000 chance of dying, and around a 1:5 chance of becoming realy sick with pneumonia or being hospitalised. But odds are he'd be ok.
But the risk of getting autism from the MMR vaccine is literaly zero.
It's like falsely associating taking aspirin with breast cancer, and saying "I'd rather have a headache than cancer."
Of course you would.
Great article. Nice to see Huffpo publishing something that isn't antivaccine for a change.
Word.
When the CDC Pichichero report said it's better than we thought, it clears the blood quicker 3 to 7 days their own NIH paid for researcher came back to haunt them .
Thomas Burbacher said Not so fast, says Thomsas Brubacher, M.D., a scientist who studies the biological effects of ethyl mercury on primates. "Just because it came out of the blood doesn't mean it is excreted from the body. It could have gone to the brain. In primates, you actually get more mercury in the brain after exposure to ethyl mercury than with methyl mercury - it has an easier time crossing the blood brain barrier."
Also Thimerosal turns into inorganic mercury by two and a half times that of the fish mercury, and it is the most damaging to the mitochondria depleating the glutathione. Glutathione is needed for heavy metal excreation.
Can you please site your sources? While your post seems to plausibly contain some relevant facts without sources it is completely baseless. For all we know, you could have made it all up yourself or taken it from some other completely biased source.
I for one, could say that it is McDonalds that is causing these cases of autism. How sure can you be that little jimmy was already autistic before you went for that happy meal??
It has some truthiness to it. As I recall, Bubacher found that the brain to blood ratio for ethylmercury was slightly higher than for methylmercury. I don't recall if the difference was significant, though.
In any case, Bubacher et al. is not exactly evidence of the view that thimerosal from vaccines causes neurodevelopmental disorders.
brian autism is not caused by mcdonalds - mcdonalds causes other diseases. why don't you try to be constructive & helpful? how would you feel if your child had ASD?
Dr.Engley findings were truth, The AAP when they found out that the EPA amount daily for mercury was exceeded they were firing off statements like Thimerosal is accumulative in the body per MSDS.
We must find the best chelating agent and get with it. Only when they went to simpsonwood meeting and the top DOC. there that day said "we are all in a bad position from the stand point of defending any law suites and he said I am concerned.
Here is a little history on the product THIMEROSAL From the 1948 report
Dr. Engleys AMA blue ribbon panel findings that were ignored
"We found thimerosal is toxic down to a level that is almost unbelievable. Down to 1.10, maybe 100 nanograms.
It is clear from this research supported by a grant from the American Medical Association that Thimerosal is neither efficacious nor safe, and should be removed as a preservative in prescription biologics and pharmaceutical products, as well as from topical over-the-counter products such as Butt-Balm that have Thimerosal present in their formulations as an active ingredient.
Just before he died Dr. Engleys last quote and most important
"if they had followed through on our 82 report the vaccines would have been freed of thimerosal and all this autism they tell me would not have occurred"
You can't get any more clearer than that.
commenter 314159 read the simpsonwood meeting transcripts the experts were discussing how the synergy effect of the two salts mixed could cause more damage.
Also they discussing that you would never want to go any earlier with the Thimerosal, or you would cause more out comes. Shortly after removing Thimerosal from children's vaccines,the CDC Dir. did just that, for she knew that the numbers of autism and other neurologic effects would plummet with the removal of the known neurotoxin. So the CDC Dir. said that preg.women were at risk for flu complications and shock! so were children 6 mos to 2 yr's of age.
All the while knowing that the makers of THIMEROSAL states very clearly that THIMEROSAL has not
been studied in pregnant woman for safety or efficiency, and that pregnant women should not be exposed to thimerosal for it can cross the placenta and go into the fetus and cause mild to severe
mental retardation.
shame on you, for even trying to defend the mass poisoning of the most precious resource of America
Sources again!
And after reading your last line about poisoning the most precious resource in America.. I think my McDonalds argument just picked up a LOT more steam... :)
This conspiracy theory, on the other hand, really is bullshit. Only a minority of pregnant women are known to get the flu shot. There are preservative-free flu vaccines too. The safety of the flu vaccine in pregnant women has been studied and so forth.
Additionally, it's quite a fantastic conspiracy theory. It suggests that higher ups at the CDC could introduce the flu vaccine with such precision as to offset the high hypothetical risk of about 180 micrograms of cumulative thimerosal removed from pediatric vaccines over a period of a couple years, and that no one would ever notice.
If you look at the 3-5 autism caseload out of California DDS for the last 7 years or so (this is publicly available data) and you put it in a graph by quarter, you'll see a very straight line. There's no effect on any service referral trends that can be noticed in the least.
Most of you Ped's out there do not know that Thimerosal causes apoptosis AKA neuron cell death, add ALUMINUM to it and you get the synergy effect of the two salts mixed and killing factor of cells in the brain is now x 10. The blood brain barrier is made more permeable with the Aluminum, as Aluminum is being used as a catalyst in children's vaccines.
It is impossible for someone to say that the children's vaccine program is safe, in the haphazard way that they have conducted them selves in the safety of children's vaccines the opposite appears to be more likely. Children's vaccine program has become a very dangerous roulette wheel of neurological damage.
Like I said Mr. Ellis just what the HECK is something that reacts violently together and causes a neurotoxin to become a super neurotoxin, and at the same time causes THIMEROSAL a known neurotoxin to have an easier access to the blood brain barrier. Just what is this doing in a children's vaccine???? When the maker of THIMEROSAL states plainly that under reactivity data Aluminum is something to stay away from. As the Dad of a very severely vaccine damaged child, I am completely speechless that the agency's that have done this to our American children! are allowed anywhere near vaccine safety. For their incompetence speaks volumes while their victims the Children who were effected, most can't speak at all.
See Tim Ellis's Profile
Can you cite your sources please? I have cited all of my information and assertions. Can you please do me the favour of providing evidence for your claims? I am happy to be convinced by solid evidence.
Did you read the article where I noted that thimerosal is no longer in children's vaccines, and hasn't been in a decade? Given that information, are you still opposed to vaccination? If so, why?
Check out fourteenst
Let me put this small amount of mercury into perspective;
00.2 Part per billion not safe to drink in water per EPA
200 parts per billion is considered by the EPA as liquid hazardous waste
Tim this should shock you ,when the Pediatricians play catch up on vaccines and a child gets 9 vaccines on one day at on setting 7 of which contain the mercury; that is 32,500 parts per billion on one day at one setting of a known neurotoxin. According to these numbers the CDC seems to think our American children are hazardous waste dump sites. Just how incompetent can our health
agency's be??????? shouldn't this qualify for domestic terrorism??????
CONTINUED next post
See Tim Ellis's Profile
Can you please cite your sources? Please note that not a single children's vaccine in America save the influenza vaccine (optional) contains thimerosal. So if you calculate that out, 0 times 25mcg per dose equals... zero micrograms of thimerosal in the mandated vaccines.
Zero.
Even if he cites sources, his argument doesn't add up. EPA toxicity limits are for methylmercury - a totally different beast. Ethyl is rapidly excreted.
In a flu shot there may be thousands of parts per billion of ethylmercury, but the vaccine is a .25 or .5ml dose as a single one-off injection.
EPA limits assume people will drink many thousands of times that volume of water, EACH AND EVERY DAY for ever.
tim, actually it is not zero, as thimerosal is still used in the manufacturing & partially filtered out, but residual amounts still remain in some vaccines - call the vaccine companies & they will confirm this as i did (if you want a source to confirm).
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