Beyond the headlines: Link still claimed between thimerosal and autism

Activists stand by their argument despite the fact that science has yet to find proof of the link.

By Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli, AMNews contributor. June 19, 2006.

Long before some parents of children with autism backed an April USA Today full-page ad criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and charging its experts with a cover-up, the thimerosal war was raging. And, despite a paucity of scientific evidence linking the mercury-based vaccine preservative to autism, such charges continue to find traction. In other words, a growing number of parents doubt the safety and credibility of the very system created to protect the nation's health.

"When you can't argue the data, you go after the people. Hardworking, committed public health servants have been maligned, and it is just shocking," says Martin Myers, MD, associate director for public health policy and education for the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston's Sealy Center for Vaccine Development. "This is characterized as a debate. [But] it is not a debate in the scientific realm. This scare has taken on a life of its own, and it's hard to sort out the hysteria."

Caught in a flurry similar to public relations campaigns against conventional public health villains such as big tobacco and asbestos manufacturers, the CDC denounced the ad's allegations. Still, many of the activists adamantly believe their children are mercury poisoned.

"We feel like victims of a terrible crime," says Bobbie Manning, a Buffalo, N.Y., parent of a son with autism and the founder of A-CHAMP -- Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning. "It is very similar to what we saw with Vioxx or the tobacco industry. The safety information has been suppressed from the public."