The Commons Blog: RFK Jr. & Thimerosal

RFK Jr. & Thimerosal

Posted by Jonathan H. Adler · 19 June 2005 · Environmental Alarmism

The Huffington Post and other sites are buzzing about RFK Jr's "investigation" of a purported link between Thimerosal in vaccines and autism. Respectful Insolence's ORAC, himself a scientist and academic surgeon, is wholly unimpressed (see also here). Given RFK Jr's penchant for exaggeration, distortion, and sloppy research, I know who I'm inclined to believe.

UPDATE: Salon readers weigh in here.

SECOND UPDATE: See also this post by Skeptico, demolishing Kennedy's "completely dishonest" use of evidence, and more from ORAC here. This post on the Huffington Post is also worth a read.

THIRD UPDATE: Overlawyered notes Salon has already posted some corrections to RFK's article. That was fast. [Note, the corrections are linked at the bottom of the original article, but can also be found here and here).

FOURTH UPDATE: The President of the Institute of Medicine responds to RFK.

FIFTH UPDATE: Michael Fumento critiques RFK further on OpinionJournal.

TrackBack (32)

4 governments have examined the records of 4,000,000 children who had received the vaccine in the past. There was no link found. Zero.

RFK is insane.

Posted by: Jake at June 19, 2005 03:18 PM

Montana Jake,

Is there a link to a site or sites which show the studies by four governments of the records of more than four million children?

Posted by: Thorley Winston at June 21, 2005 12:24 PM

I read Salon today.

A letter from IOM President is published in full, along with Kennedy's response.

Where are the "corrections Salon has posted?"

Posted by: Lori Brown at June 23, 2005 09:58 AM

The RFK Jr. article seems a bit over the top to me -- the allegations of clandestine govt/pharma meetings is overblown. but it does raise at least a concern about a possible connection between thimerasol and autism. the evidence that seems to be cited most frequently against a link are supposed studies out of canada and denmark, which banned thimerasol about 10 years ago, but autism rates have remained steady. i'd like to read more about these studies. imus seems pretty concerned about all this, and in just trying to investigate it, is getting a lot of resistance.

Posted by: milowent at June 23, 2005 02:22 PM

Kennedy's next project is already in the planning stages.

He's been alerted, anonymously, to the fact that everyone who drinks water eventually dies.

This is big.

Posted by: bobby b at June 24, 2005 05:11 PM

RFK, the opponent of coal bunrning power plants that opposes wind turbines off of Nantucket exagerate? Nah, couldn't be.

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=32133

Posted by: william at June 24, 2005 06:54 PM

"He's been alerted, anonymously, to the fact that everyone who drinks water eventually dies." Yeah, that's the spirit. I heard that argument for years from my Pall Mall smoking grandfather, who loved to quote "science" (The PR put out by the industry and it's 'researchers') in defending his habit. He later died from lung cancer. Since we all die eventually anyway, and double-blind, replicable science is arduous and takes decades, let's ignore all anecdotal reports and dismiss any research that conflicts with governmental studies. Obviously these people are either fraudulent researchers or emotional parents. I find this outlook much easier to deal with.

I much prefer to examine the inconsistencies and errors of the 'opposition' than continue to wonder if there might actually be a legitimate problem. The idea that we may have been unintentionally poisoning babies doesn't fit in with my politics. And on top of that, the guy is a Kennedy, an 'environmental wacko!' What more do I need to know?

Posted by: becky at June 27, 2005 09:38 AM

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