A California state public health department study may mute, at least somewhat, suspicion by many parents that the mercury-containing additive thimerosal in childhood shots, now discontinued in the US, may be why their offspring are autistic. The report concludes that, because the rate didn’t change — actually went higher — after the formulation was altered, the vaccines are unrelated to autism.

The AP’s Alicia Chang reports the essence of the study’s conclusions (in the Archives of General Psychiatry) , along with pertinent quotes. One, in her last graf, suggests this won’t entirely settle the matter. An advocate for autism research tells her that while the evidence is persuasive, “..until parents are satisfied, we need to continue to examine the question.” Well, discuss it with them, yes, but how long to do research on it if just a few more studies reinforce this one (which is hardly the first anyway)? Surely not until all parents believe it. Otherwise this is, oh, like saying that as long as the Southern Baptist Convention has questions about evolution, biologists must continue to regard evolution’s reality as an open scientific issue.

To get back on topic -Other stories include:

LA Times Jia-Rui Chong leads with the study’s conclusion and also has a bit deeper the advocates’ continued doubts. One says it’s so complicated that the numbers don’t confirm thimerosal is innocent – but some docs say the new results are “clear and unamiguous” ; San Francisco Chronicle Erin Allday ; San Jose Mercury News Barbara Feder Ostrov ; ABC News Audrey Grayson calls this up top “the latest nail in the coffin” of the theory linking the shots to autism ; Wall St. Journal Jennifer Corbett Dooren ; Reuters says this is “more proof” of no link ; US News & World Report Nancy Shute calls the news reassuring – and starts hers with a sympathetic line, “Parents of children with autism don’t get much good news…” as its causes remain mysterious ;

And while this one isn’t from a mainline outlet nor structured as breaking news, a long and expert – if vociferously tendentious – analysis is at the Skeptical Inquirer site by Steven Novella. He calls the new results the “final nail in the coffin.”

Grist for the Mill: AMA JAMA-Archives Press Release ;

pic source (a hyper-rational blog, Angry Toxicologist, and it’s worth a read);

-CP

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Health & Medicine Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.