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Comment by hartror | Hacker News Reader

Also when Thimerosal was removed from most of the vaccines in 2001 it had no affect on Autism rates. This was pretty much the last nail in the coffin for that hypothesis, yet the meme continues.

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I figure it's like the "Bill Gates will send you $20 for every person you forward this to" chain e-mails.

From 2007:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.881:

(5) Considerable progress has been made in reducing mercury exposures from childhood vaccines, yet 8 years after the July 1999 statement, thimerosal remains in several nonroutinely administered childhood vaccines and many pediatric and adult influenza vaccines.

(6) There is no law or regulation to prohibit the reintroduction of thimerosal into any products from which it has been removed, leaving open the possibility that it may be reintroduced at some point in the future in new vaccines or vaccines from which it has already been removed.

So pretty much what you are saying is backing up what I have said. If thimerosal and other mercury based were responsible for autism then we should see a drop in diagnosis rates relative to the decrease in the use of thimerosal.

As there has been none there is no like, causal or otherwise.

But please keep going, this is almost as fun as playing Battlefield . . .

Let me translate for you. It says there was no law forbidding the use of Thimerosal, and also it says plainly that Congress found in 2007 that some vaccines still contained it. Thus, your statement that it was "eliminated in 2001" is false.

Continue replying to a cowards throw away account? Sure why not it is Friday night and I have a beer in hand.

Perhaps go back and read my comment you grossly misquoted [1] where I say "removed from most vaccines" if you are going to try to quote me at least do it right.

You should read the quote you posted then revise what correlation and causation mean in respect to science and biology in particular.

What you quoted explicitly states "thimerosal remains in several nonroutinely administered childhood vaccines". Note it says nonroutinely, which I will translate for you means not often. So even if only a fraction of the routinely used childhood vaccines had thimerosal removed in the past decade (and it sounds from your quote that none of the routinely ones did have it still in there in 07) we would see a corresponding drop in autism diagnosis rates.

We haven't.

Ball is in your court cowardly sir if you really believe in what you say you'll use your real account, no one is left on this thread to downvote you.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2073702 (Note i posted that a day ago and HN lock comment editing after a short period of time just in case you are wondering).

Thimerosal may have been removed from vaccines in 2001/2003, but because it was used as a preservative, vaccines made before then were not taken off the shelf and recalled and still used! According to this link below some up until 2007. Then, the swine flu had Thimerosal which was given to children as well.

"One point that was repeatedly stated was that except for the flu shot, all vaccines that have been offered to parents since 2003 have been thimerosal free. This is not the case.

Because parents in the autism community are very concerned about the prospect of their children getting mercury in their vaccines, many of them routinely ask to see the packaging before their child gets a shot. What some parents are finding is that vaccines with the full 25 micrograms of mercury are still being distributed in doctors offices, some with an expiration date of 2007."

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2005/08/still-finding...

So assuming that is relevant (I don't doubt some doctor still had medicines on the shelf in 2005 (date on post) from 2001 but at what rates your comment does not state) around now we should be already seeing a large drop in autism rates since the shelf life of the older medicines has expired? As there has not been a corresponding drop at all I hold that the autism caused by mercury in vaccines lobby is barking up the wrong tree.

Edit. didn't downvote you btw, did up vote after the downvote as your comment is fair and contributes to the debate. :(

The real question is, red pill or blue? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te6qG4yn-Ps

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