Comments on: McCain, thimerosal and autism

By: TRUTH ON THE MARKET » Autism Misinformation Continues

TRUTH ON THE MARKET » Autism Misinformation Continues — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:33:55 +0000

[…] evidence supporting such a link and emphasized his support for autism research. See also Overlawyered, and here, and here. Obama has made similar references to the vaccine link and underlying […]

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:15:27 +0000

I give McCain credit for being aware of the issue at all, since if you don’t have an autistic kid it’s not that common a topic of conversation. Second, he’s campaigning, and has taken the question from a mother who appears heavily invested in the thimerosal theory due to her child’s condition. Even if he believes strongly that thimerosal doesn’t cause autism, I don’t know that that’s the time or place to trumpet that belief.

By: Ted

Ted — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:38:20 +0000

I’m inclined to give a presidential candidate the benefit of the doubt here. The nuances of the thimerosal debate, which have not been reported well in the mainstream media, probably isn’t in the top 300 issues McCain thinks about, and he gave an extemporaneous answer that essentially punted without more explicitly stating “I don’t know.”

Now, if McCain hires science advisers that push this nonsense, or makes anti-vaccine conspiracy theories a plank of his platform, then I’m concerned.

By: Steve Erickson

Steve Erickson — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:03:14 +0000

Autism has become an industry; and vaccines the enemy.

Contrary to McCain’s assertion that there’s “strong evidence” that thimerosal causes autism – the data shows exactly the opposite.

It’s similar to the common assertion (not made by McCain necessarily) that the US has poor health care. It’s become such a sound bite that no one questions the veracity of the statement.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:01:38 +0000

Hey, McCain’s convinced that not only is governmental restriction of political advertisment not related to free speech, he’s also convinced that the problems caused by huge concentration of power at the federal level (corruption) can be solved by concentrating more power at the federal level.

The dude’s pretty gullible. it’s unsurprising that he didn’t follow through and do his research.