Never let it be said that we ignore the Republicans! Seeking to further highlight distinctions between the parties, presumptive nominee John McCain has been on something of an anti-science tear lately. First, he dined and spoke with the Discovery Institute in Seattle — not a huge red flag by itself (there were many co-presenters, and one can’t always choose one’s lunch companions), but telling in light of his many flip-flops on teaching intelligent design in schools. (Like any good postmodern conservative, he has staked out firm positions on both sides of a wide variety of issues.)
But the latest news is much worse, as McCain panders to crackpots who believe that vaccination causes autism.
At a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that “there’s strong evidence” that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in many childhood vaccines, is responsible for the increased diagnoses of autism in the U.S. — a position in stark contrast with the view of the medical establishment.
The main problem with such a claim is not that just it’s untrue — it’s complete rubbish, of course, but politicians say untrue things all the time. The problem is that, unlike unfortunate choices about NASA spending priorities, in this case the stupidity can cause people to die. Hilzoy quotes the CDC on measles, which these vaccinations protect against:
Measles itself is unpleasant, but the complications are dangerous. Six to 20 percent of the people who get the disease will get an ear infection, diarrhea, or even pneumonia. One out of 1000 people with measles will develop inflammation of the brain, and about one out of 1000 will die.
Of course, McCain himself will be perfectly safe. He is arguably the most superstitious Presidential candidate of recent times, relying on a defense-in-depth strategy when it comes to lucky charms.
“I’m wearing my lucky shoes from today till Sunday,” McCain says from his bus on Wednesday. At the moment, his pockets contain the compass, feather (from a tribal leader) and penny (flattened, in his wallet). When McCain once misplaced his feather, there was momentary panic in the campaign, until his wife found it in one of his suits. When the compass went missing once, McCain assigned his political director to hunt it down. Weaver found it, and it remains safe, knock wood.
Primary day requires additional rituals. By the time you read this, Steve Dart, McCain’s lucky friend, should have arrived in South Carolina from California. He has been present with McCain for every Election Day since McCain first won a seat in Congress. McCain must sleep on a certain side of the bed, particularly before an election (and he never puts a hat on a bed–bad luck). Rain is good for Election Day, as are motion pictures. McCain requires himself to view a movie before the vote is counted. He fell asleep in his hotel room in New Hampshire before he watched a movie on primary day, but his staff didn’t panic. “We have superstition fire walls,” says Todd Harris, a spokesman.
I presume that one of his first initiatives as President will be to provide lucky compasses, feathers, and pennies to young children throughout this great land, which will keep them safe from those nasty viruses. Ready to lead on day one.
Compare and contrast with the leadership of the Conservative Party in the UK:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7274505.stm
Get that? The leader of the Tory Party himself congratulating a gay MP on getting hitched. Now, imagine John McCain or any Republican candidate (or Democratic candidate for that matter) even hinting at such a thing. It just another example of how far we still have to go in this country before the sanity of science (and common sense) is no longer the exception, but the rule.
Unfair — the issue isn’t vaccination, which McCain favors, it’s thimerosol, which only recently was reported to be “definitively” not tied to autism. I didn’t know that negatives could be so definitively proven.
We don’t really know McCain’s ideas on science, other than that he is NOT a knee jerk opponent of stem cell research.
As far as his superstitions, I hope this was written with love, not derision. There is NOTHING that McCain can believe, no rabbit’s foot he can carry, that matches the faith based presidency of the current regime.
Superstitions don’t bother me near as much as hardcore faith issues, except if they’re taken too seriously, which could arguably be the case here. And McCain’s kowtowing to nutjobs is an even more weighty issue. But what is it with these GOP dudes? First Reagan and astrology, and now McCain and his lucky feathers. Must be a spooky quantum thing. What happens when your mind decoheres?
Mumps make adult male’s testicles swell up painfully, squeezing them sometimes to the point of permanent infertility. I know because there has been a small epidemic around here because of too many people not vaccinated. Thank god I was vaccinated.
It’s funny having had the measles, mumps, and chicken pox as a child, these diseases didn’t really seem that bad. Now german measles has always been associated with birth defects.
I found it interesting that as soon as a chicken pox vaccine was developed, this became a much more serious disease than it had been previously.
hmmm..
Notwithstanding this poke at the fear based marketing techniques of major pharmaceutical companies, there does not appear to be any credible evidence that mercury additives to vaccines increase the incidence of autism.
e.
Having almost died from measles as a child and having hearing problems for some years afterwards I have little sympathy for the anti-vaccination crowd. Several years ago when I was a high school teacher we had a couple of teachers off sick with whooping cough, caught from an unvaccinated student. Although they had been vaccinated as children their immunity had dropped.
McCain would be interesting to watch (from a spectator sports viewpoint), since his public image is miles away from his real positions, and probably pretty far from where he wants it to be at this point. I suspect then that the reports about his maverick positions (standing up to the scientific establishment), and the cute little stories about his superstitions, all those stories were likely fed to the media by his campaign, not by his opponents.
##%$%$*((((((G%#*%TG%( – bah!! Sorry about that. I have a family issue with this particular idiocy.
He is trying to win the presidency so, of course, he has to pander to the republican base. He needs them to win. But there is no way that he will do things like fight to stop childhood vaccinations or introduce a ban on gay marriage etc etc. He is moderate and a lot saner than most republicans.
There are evidences that connects autism with vaccination. That doesn’t mean it (vaccination) does cause autism, but I don’t think anyone has enough information to make an statement saying that it doesn’t.
Vaccination on US and other first-world countries it’s way less likely to cause damages than in third-world ones, as most of us (brazilians, for instance) don’t have access to the best vaccines available, we are far from that…
Please read: “The Vaccine-Autism Court Document Every American Should Read”: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/the-vaccineautism-court-_b_88558.html
I have no scientific knowledge to properly argue on that, but I found myself obligated to comment, since most of this post is untrue.
Anyway, this is a great blog. Thanks for your time spreading nice information.
There is more than enough information to state that vaccination doesn’t cause autism. See here or here, for example. Scientific studies are what matter, not anecdotes related in court documents.
There is NOTHING that McCain can believe, no rabbit’s foot he can carry, that matches the faith based presidency of the current regime.
So? He’s not running against Bush. He’ll be running against the Democratic nominee and Ralph Nader.
Around 2001 I found out that my son had been given vaccinations with thimerosal, which is ethylated mercury. Upon learning about this I imagine there was a “thunk” as my jaw dropped to the floor. “What?! You mean they use a compound of Mercury in vaccines?!” I subsequently discovered that those red colored antispetics I recall from my early youth under the brand names mercurichrome and merthyolate were similar to thimerisol. I was frankly rather dumbstruck.
Subsequently the issue has gone into a bit of a muddle. As things stand there is no credible evidence that thimerisol causes autism. Mercury is not a compound with any biologically necessary properties, other than certain polypeptides genetically coded to encapsulate lead and mercury atoms in order to expel them. I will have to say that it might be wise if we don’t ingest or introduce into our bodies compounds made with mercury, which goes also for cadmium, lead, arsenic, polonium, uranium … . This is even if the chemical form of the metal is tested to be “neutral” in mice or other laboratory animals. So while thimerisol has not been identified as a source for autism I do think that we should prevent the use of mercury and lead (lead shows up in all sorts of places) in ways that these can be introduced into our bodies.
Thimerisol might not be linked to anything, but I still put the use of this in vaccines in my “bad idea file.”
I read a book years ago titled “The Virus House,” written I think by Manchester. It was about the German nuclear program during WWII run by Heisenberg and Hahn. One bit was on how as a sideline there was a promotion for the use of thorium in toothpaste! Imagine the folly of that, throrium laced toothpaste.
Lawrence B. Crowell
McCain is also an ID advocate. Can we tolerate another era of ignorance?
Re Stan
For the information of Mr. Stan, thimerisol was removed from most vaccines by 2002
Re Lawrence B. Crowell
Thimerisol was added to vaccines prior to 2002 as a preservative so that vaccines would have a longer shelf life.
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Well, there went the chances of rational choice at NASA.
Whatever the media’s stance on Thimerisol and how it was reported has everything to do with an intense Drug Industry PR blitz and little to do with the evidence.
There is literature supporting both a correlation and no correlation with Autism rates on the books, but Pharma is making sure that anyone questioning the use of Thimerisol with being ‘anti-vaccination.’ Just like you just did. We don’t know what causes autism.
Good for McCain! Ask yourselves, why the New York Times is willing to go out and conduct a study of mercury in tuna if affluent Manhattanites could be harmed, but the Gray Lady is unwilling to report on a court case about mercury in vaccines when the Federal Government ADMITS a girl was harmed. Do you honestly think the U.S. Gov’t would ADMIT vaccines caused a child’s autism if there was NO scientific evidence to support it? If you don’t believe it, you can read the actual court opinion here: autismfathers.com
-Curt
Curt — If mercury in vaccines was a dominant cause of autism, then autism rates should have fallen after thimerisol was pulled from vaccines in 2002. They didn’t.
Not that I’m saying injecting kids with mercury was a Good Thing. I also would have been more than pleased if switching vaccine preservatives could have halted the autism epidemic. The evidence now suggests that the solution will not be so simple.
Curt, Robb, (et al.) –
Ethylated mercury (thimerosal) is NOT like the mercury compounds we are worried about being in our food, soil. etc. I understand that to a parent, the word “mercury” can be scary, but this is not just “injecting kids with mercury.” The science (i.e. the NON-correlation) has been understood for a long time. And, as others have mentioned, thimerosal has not been in vaccines for several years. Where is the corresponding decrease in autism?
Please, take a look at what the actual professionals have to say about it:
1) Dales L, Hammer SJ, Smith NJ. Time trends in autism and in MMR immunization coverage in California. JAMA 2001;285:1183-1185.
2) Kaye JA, Melero-Montes M, Jick H. Mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine and the incidence of autism recorded by general practitioners: a time trend analysis. BMJ 2001;322:460-463.
3) Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, et al. A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:1477-1482.
4) Michael E Pichichero, Elsa Cernichiari, Joseph Lopreiato, John Treanor. Mercury concentrations and metabolism in infants receiving vaccines containing thiomersal: a descriptive study.
The Lancet – Vol. 360, Issue 9347, 30 November 2002, Pages 1737-1741
5) Taylor B, Miller E, Farrington P, et al. Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: no epidemiologic evidence for a causal association. Lancet 1999;353:2026-2029.
6) Thompson WW et al. Early thimerosal exposure and neuropsychological outcomes at 7 to 10 years. N Engl J Med 2007 Sep 27; 357:1281.
7) Institute of Medicine, Immunization Safety Review Committee. Immunization Safety Review: Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Stratton K, Gable A, McCormick M, eds. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2001
Also check out these two web pages:
American Academy of Pediatrics:
http://www.aap.org/profed/thimaut-may03.htm
Genetic basis of Autism:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=7792363
Oh, c’mon Stan. It’s a well established pattern in most social circles that, just when we thought we’ve plumbed the depth of a particular brand of stupid, someone comes along with the new and improved stupid that naturally leaves the rest of us in shock and awe.
I’ve read that the chances of getting an autistic child are higher when both parents are engineers or scientists (only the “hard” sciences like physics count, not social sciences).
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This is sort of irrelevant. Barring some unforseen problem I think the Dem will smack the snot out of McCain. This election should be a total landslide.
Lawrence B. Crowell