McCain Tosses His Hat Into the Autism Debate
“It’s indisputable that autism is on the rise among children,” Senator John McCain said while campaigning recently in Texas. “The question is, What’s causing it? And we go back and forth, and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines.”
John McCain, Republican Candidate has officially tossed his hat in the ring over the autism debate. He is correct in saying that there is strong evidence indicating that vaccines could possibly cause autism, as David Kirby at the Huffington Post presented last week that the government has finally conceded “that child had a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder that was “aggravated” by her shots, and which ultimately resulted in an ASD diagnosis.”
According to David Kirby, Sen. McCain stated that he believed there was strong evidence to implicat thimerosal as the REASON for the rise in autism cases…that the rise is “indisputable”, that we have more autism cases than we did 10 or 15 years ago, that he realizes this is a national emergency, that it may not be mercury, that it may not be vaccines at all, but that we have to get to the bottom of it all. Wow, that is a lot to chew?
Kirby also indicated that McCain did know what he was talking about and that he was not simply answering a question with fluff like some politicians often do (and the New York Times found that his remarks “made good politics”).
Despite the removal of thimerosal from most vaccines, California reported an increase in autism cases in January. However, with a shelf life of 3-4 years, vaccines have been sitting on shelves from 2000 to 2004 (containing mercury and thimerosal) so a child could have easily received a vaccine with thimerosal. Additionally, the flu shot also contains the full amount of mercury.
March 11th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
[...] the vaccines and autism. Upon further examination of the actual case, not the media hype that Senator John McCain and Kevin Kirby have given it, it seems that the Poling case is more of an anti-vaccination campaign than an actual [...]
September 5th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
To say there is a correlation between the vaccine and autism because of the rise in cases since its introduction is grossly misleading. Did you know that when ice cream sales increase, there is a corresponding rise in shark attacks.