Vexed by vaccines

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http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/features_julieshealthclub/2006/04/vexed_by_vaccin.html Vexed by vaccines Originally posted: April 10, 2006Vexed by vaccines In today's Los Angeles Times, writer Myron Levin details how states are working to ban the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from vaccines, despite strong resistance from influential (and sometimes drug industry-funded) health and medical organizations. It's a topic that should resonate with Illinois readers. Last year, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the Mercury-Free Vaccine Act, which phases out the use of thimerosal by 2008. Anti-mercury groups were thrilled; it was one of the most comprehensive mercury-free vaccine acts in the country. But the law, which was supposed to take effect on Jan. 1, 2006, never did. At least, not yet. The Illinois Department of Public Health filed for an exemption for the next 12 months because Health Department Director Whitaker worried that the phase-out could cause shortages of the season's flu shot and a few other vaccines. The outrage over the use of mercury in vaccines--a protest that comes mostly from parents of autistic children--subsided a bit in 1999 after the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics both halfheartedly called for the

removal of thimerosal from vaccines. (Today, both groups say the preservative is not dangerous to developing fetuses.) But while it has been largely phased out of most vaccines, thimerosal is still an ingredient in the flu vaccine. The flu vaccine was added to the ever-growing list of childhood shots in 2004, and the CDC does not recommend thimerosal-free shots for infants and pregnant women. We know mercury is a neurotoxin. We know the flu vaccine, which often isn't even effective because scientists must guess at the strain, can be made without it. This is a no-brainer. We should not be putting mercury into our bodies, even if it doesn't cause autism. Get it out of all vaccines, especially the flu vaccine. in Vaccines | Permalink

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