This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Fictional show enters autism-vaccine area
Eli Stone’s pilot failed to present mountains of evidence exonerating thimerosal.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
ABC gets a “D” or, more accurately, an “F,” for the failure of their writers to do their homework.
In the network’s show, Eli Stone, the “successful attorney’s” recovery of damages for his plaintiff in a lawsuit that claimed that a made-up mercury-based preservative in a vaccine was to blame for his client’s autism was irresponsible. Although the show includes statements that science has refuted any link between autism and vaccines, the episode’s conclusion delivers a contrary impression.
The show failed to present the mountains of evidence accumulated over years of study at the cost of millions of dollars that exonerate thimerosol, the actual mercury-based preservative found in trace amounts in a small number of vaccines. Worst of all, the show undercuts the tremendous efforts that have gone into the prevention of diseases by immunization. It is not only the medical community and parents that should be irate but also lawyers and those in the broadcasting industry. Is this the message that we should be sending to young people studying law or broadcasting?
In this fictional tale, the executive of a pharmaceutical company producing the vaccine is depicted withholding vaccines from his own child. This is ridiculous as there has been virtually no thimerosal in childhood vaccines since 2001 except for some influenza vaccines. There are mercury-free influenza vaccines available for pediatric use so no child need receive mercury-containing vaccines. Trace amounts of less than 1 microgram remain in some vaccines that would result in far less mercury injected than considered safe by the FDA. These trace amounts are less than the amount an infant will receive in its mother’s milk. How about a sequel on discouraging breast-feeding?
Risking diseases
What is lost in this argument is the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. A false alarm in the United Kingdom has resulted in a drop in immunizations against measles, mumps and rubella to dangerous levels with numerous hospitalizations and even some deaths resulting from measles. What is more, the reduction in pertussis immunization in Japan, the United Kingdom and Sweden a few decades ago resulted in massive outbreaks and many deaths. Failure to immunize is not without a price and a dear one at that.
Autism is a growing and serious problem. It has been estimated that about one in 150 children suffer from this condition. There is strong evidence for a genetic basis. Probably the most convincing evidence for the absence of a causative association is the finding that the incidence of autism continued to increase in California after 2001 when thimerosol was removed from childhood vaccines (Arch Gen Psy. 2008:65;19). This confirmed a similar experience in Denmark where autism increased subsequent to the removal of thimerosol from their childhood vaccines (JAMA. 2003:290;1763). Thus the point now is moot. These and other published findings and The Institute of Medicine’s comprehensive report no relationship between autism and thimerosal.
The effect of thimerosol was reputed to be due to its mercury content. This substance had been included in vaccines for many decades to prevent bacterial growth.
The mercury compound is the ethyl salt and not the methyl salt, the former being excreted much more rapidly. Methyl mercury is known to be a neurotoxin and massive doses prenatally have been known to have a deleterious effect on postnatal neural function.
Two studies of infants on the Faroe and Seychelles Islands whose mothers consumed a large amount of fish in their diets during pregnancy have lead to rather conflicting results. One showed a slight increase in function believed to be due to the beneficial effects of fish oils and the other a slightly deleterious effect believed to be due to polychlorinated biphenyl compounds. Neither of these studies showed an effect on autism. The amount of mercury a child would have received from vaccines at 6 months of age before thimerosol was removed is approximately the amount consumed in a can of tuna fish each month. Thus the caveat about consumption of certain species of fish.
Probably the most convincing evidence is the different clinical and pathologic findings in autism and mercury poisoning (Pediatrics. 2003:111;674). Motor function in autism is characteristically stereotypic and in mercury poisoning it is ataxic and dysarthric. Speech is delayed and characterized by echolalia in autism and dysarthric in mercury poisoning. There is sensory hyperresponsiveness in autism and peripheral neuropathy is found in mercury poisoning. Autistic children are socially aloof and insist on sameness while there is toxic psychosis and non-specific depression and anxiety in milder cases of mercury poisoning. As the pathologist has the last word, the brain tends to be smaller in mercury poisoning and larger in autism and there are striking differences in microanatomy.
Finally, in the department of “there is nothing new under the sun,” I recall a commentary I was asked to write for Pediatrics (1985:76;627) as chair of the Red Book Committee at the time. The press and anti-vaccine groups were disseminating misleading and frightening information about pertussis vaccine. I cited Mary Cunnigham in ‘Powerplay” as describing the broadcast industry as follows: “A more honest appraisal of their profession would show that they live by the same rules of business as everyone else. Bonuses and promotions are in the not-so-long run still tied to higher circulation and larger advertising revenues. If it’s true that’s nice but if it sells that’s even better.” These experiences reinforce the need to absent our children and ourselves from television. Fight prime time, read a book!