Inside the vaccine-and-autism scare | Salon Books.

I have so much trouble picking how the right part to highlight, so just go read please. Here is a bit of the article:

Offit begins by tracing the history of the anti-vaccine movement to its roots in England in 1998: That’s where a young, charismatic and ambitious researcher named Andrew Wakefield held a news conference to reveal he had discovered that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism. The prestigious medical journal Lancet subsequently published his paper. Soon, headlines warning parents about “child jabs” appeared on the front page of newspapers all over the U.K., and droves of parents began refusing the MMR vaccine. Despite the resurgence of measles in the U.K. as a result, Wakefield was hailed as a muckraker. The BBC even made a biopic about his fight against the establishment.

In 2000, the news crossed the pond. Indiana Rep. Dan Burton, himself the grandfather of an autistic child, worried she had been injured by vaccines, and held a congressional hearing to publicize Wakefield’s findings. Several scientists in the American medical community testified that they, too, had research showing that something in the MMR was suspicious. Just as in England, the media here swarmed. Among the resulting press were Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Deadly Immunity,” published simultaneously in Rolling Stone and Salon, and David Kirby’s blockbuster book, “Evidence of Harm,” a damning account of the link between autism and vaccines and of our government’s efforts to cover up a link between the two.

Kirby focused on the notion that thimerosal, a mercury-based compound used to protect vaccines from contamination, is causing an epidemic of autism. This despite the fact that thimerosal was removed from vaccines in 2001, even though it had been used for decades and no studies had been done to verify there was a danger. (Not unexpectedly, this decision, made abruptly by leaders in the medical community, raised even more suspicion about vaccines and autism). Kirby’s book became the centerpiece of the anti-vaccine movement and brought him fame. He started speaking widely on the subject, earning appearances on programs as well regarded as “Meet the Press.” He even began talks to turn his book into a movie by the same company that made “An Inconvenient Truth.” In describing all of these factors — shocking medical research, media publicity, political endorsements and conspiracy theory — Offit shows us how vaccines, the most significant and lifesaving medical therapy in history, fell from grace.

Now, I’ve said it before, I do not believe vaccines all by their lonesome cause autism – or anything. Well, some of them cause the disease they are supposed to prevent, but frankly, some antibiotics make me way more sick than whatever they are trying to heal, so there you go. I do believe our kids get so many vaccines, and they are so poorly tested, that they make our kids sick or cause reactions or make happen faster something that was already in the works, genetically speaking.

My son is autistic. My son is not vaccinated. My son is high functioning. Maybe if I hadn’t been so diligent in researching, and I had had him vaccinated, he would be so much worse, because they would have created something more inside of him. I have no idea.

I truly believe autism is environmental. I truly do. I don’t think it’s just mercury (I know, it’s supposedly been out of the vaccines since 2001 – to be honest, I don’t keep up anymore, I know they kept using the ones that were already made and the ones produced after that date were not supposed to have it, except for some flu vaccines that do) I think it’s everything. They are a scary cocktail of stuff! So are antibiotics. So are a lot of things.