The Meme Evolves: Mercury in Vaccines is Bad, Y'all!

[Beerina]

I put this in Social rather than Medicine because it's the social aspect which interests me.

I was at a family party last month, when the topic turned to a 15 minute discussion about how evil mercury in vaccines was. With the exception of me and three old women, who had no clue, but agreed with the consensus, there was universal knowledge of this fact.

Not a kibitzer or two -- everybody had heard it, and "knew" it.

There was not a mention of autism -- the meme had severed its reliance on autism as the Big Bad, and had co-opted its fraudulently purported mechanism of action into that role. And not even the mechanism -- just mercury itself is bad, mmmkay?

From what I could gather, it was about mercury as poison, though some were more about individuals with mercury allergies. The latter, however, didn't even enter the mind of most, who were in the former camp.

 

[Beerina]

I was spurred to post this by Dianne Rehm this morning, where a pro-vax lady and easy does it pro vax guy were debating the best way to go about maximizing vaccinations.

This latest development didn't enter into the mind of either -- they spent a great deal of time discussing the debunked and retracted autism study (useful to repeat, to be sure).

But nothing about this apparently rampant new meme that evolved, shucking off that diseased portion under pressure.

Scary because, in doing so, it no longer relies on fear of a rare event, autism, and relies on general fear of mercury poisoning.

Has anyone seen discussion of such things? Is it as widespread as I fear?

 

[Puppycow]

But most vaccines don't even contain it anymore, even though it is safe if they do.

 

[Psi Baba]

Meanwhile, measles, mumps . . .

 

[Puppycow]

Ah, but if it's safe, why did they take it out? You can't win.

Removing it reinforces the narrative that it must be harmful. Otherwise, why would they remove it?

 

[Mojo]

I was at a family party last month, when the topic turned to a 15 minute discussion about how evil mercury in vaccines was.

I hope nobody was eating any snacks with salt on them.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Fight woo with woo. Mercury us healthful because the planet Mercury is closest to the Sun, so it's embued with solar health energy. It's also a liquid metal, which therefore strengthens your blood cells against germs.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

a trio or quartet of supposedly bad actors

Andrew Gumbel's article implies that mercury, aluminum, bovine serum, and/or formaldehyde are sometimes lumped together as putative bad ingredients. "Everyone, however, seem to view the Disneyland outbreak as an important event – a reason either to rethink some of the doubts they have about vaccination, or to dig in and resist even harder."

 

[BenBurch]

You know another name for Thimerosal? Merthiolate. People used to put it on cuts and scrapes in quantities that would be equivalent to millions of vaccine doses.

 

[catsmate]

You know another name for Thimerosal? Merthiolate. People used to put it on cuts and scrapes in quantities that would be equivalent to millions of vaccine doses.

Yup. My parents has a jar of it in the bathroom when I was growing up. Next to the iodine.
Though the latter I converted to something more explosive....

 

[HighRiser]

You know another name for Thimerosal? Merthiolate. People used to put it on cuts and scrapes in quantities that would be equivalent to millions of vaccine doses.

I still use it or mecurachrome(sp?) regularly. They're very effective at keeping the cuts on my hands disinfected in spite of how wet and dirty the band-aids or tape can get.

 

[rjh01]

If anyone wants good information on the topic read this http://www.ncirs.edu.au/immunisation/fact-sheets/thiomersal-fact-sheet.pdf

Thiomersal (also known as thimerosal) is a mercury based preservative that has been used in some vaccines. There is no evidence that thiomersal in vaccines has caused any health problems except minor reactions, such as redness at the injection site. Follow-up studies in children and adults have not shown any harmful effects from thiomersal in vaccines. However, because of the ‘theoretical risk’ of harm from mercury, thiomersal was removed from most childhood vaccines as a precautionary measure. Current vaccines contain very little, if any, thiomersal

In short it is a non issue.

 

[CynicalSkeptic]

In short it is a non issue.

That's what they want us to think.

 

[dudalb]

This crap again......

 

[BowlOfRed]

I still use it or mecurachrome(sp?) regularly. They're very effective at keeping the cuts on my hands disinfected in spite of how wet and dirty the band-aids or tape can get.

The mercury-containing OTC antiseptics were mostly killed from the market in 1998 when they were removed from the FDA GRAS list. So I'm surprised you can still get it easily.

What's odd is that I found a link for something called "merthiolate" and found it to be a mercury-free product. Perhaps a brand name that was reformulated to remove the mercury? http://www.drugs.com/otc/121883/tincture-merthiolate.html

 

[steve s]

I hope nobody was eating any snacks with salt on them.

Or tuna.

 

[angrysoba]

There was not a mention of autism -- the meme had severed its reliance on autism as the Big Bad, and had co-opted its fraudulently purported mechanism of action into that role. And not even the mechanism -- just mercury itself is bad, mmmkay?

From what I understand, the central meme is always vaccines are bad because X.

At any point in history you can just make up whatever X is and it becomes the thing for which vaccines are bad.

For example, someone who is often thought to be one of the Good Guys^TM, George Bernard Shaw,

joined in the public opposition to vaccination against smallpox, calling it "a peculiarly filthy piece of witchcraft",

In Japan, the triple-shot MMR vaccine was replaced when it was believed it could cause meningitis. I don't think any link was found, but the replacement with single shots was done due to public pressure. From what I remember. Having said that, this then became a useful piece of evidence for showing that the MMR vaccine was not a cause in the rise of autism, as autism levels in Japan rose at the same rate as they did in other developed countries despite having been withdrawn.

I suppose the meme is as virulent as the flu, and we need to keep working on new vaccines to fight it off each year.

 

[Trebuchet]

That's what THEY want us to think.

Fixed that for you.

 

[dudalb]

From what I understand, the central meme is always vaccines are bad because X.

At any point in history you can just make up whatever X is and it becomes the thing for which vaccines are bad.

For example, someone who is often thought to be one of the Good Guys^TM, George Bernard Shaw,





In Japan, the triple-shot MMR vaccine was replaced when it was believed it could cause meningitis. I don't think any link was found, but the replacement with single shots was done due to public pressure. From what I remember. Having said that, this then became a useful piece of evidence for showing that the MMR vaccine was not a cause in the rise of autism, as autism levels in Japan rose at the same rate as they did in other developed countries despite having been withdrawn.

I suppose the meme is as virulent as the flu, and we need to keep working on new vaccines to fight it off each year.

Hard to find an effective vaccine against stupidity and ignorance, though.

Some of these people will be really shocked to find out that many substances which are deadly poisons in heavy concentrations,are valuable medicines that can save your life in diluted forms.

 

[cullennz]

Fight woo with woo. Mercury us healthful because the planet Mercury is closest to the Sun, so it's embued with solar health energy. It's also a liquid metal, which therefore strengthens your blood cells against germs.

lol