Vaccines & Thimerasol - Cover up?

[rambone]

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[steveh_131]

This sheds a little more light on the preconceived conclusions that researchers are encouraged to reach before they've even begun the research.

Marie McCormick said this, during a meeting of the Immunization Safety Review Committee organized by the Institute of Medicine:

"I am wondering, if we take this dual perspective, we may address more of the parent concerns, perhaps developing a better message if we think about what comes down the stream as opposed to CDC, which wants us to declare, well, these things are pretty safe on a population basis." (p. 33)

The context of this statement was a discussion of how to present the very real dangers of vaccines to parents in the short timespan that doctors have to communicate with the parents. Interestingly, she seemed to be suggesting that they should inform parents of these potential risks despite the pressure from the CDC to only declare their safety - nevertheless, the IOM ultimately endorsed the 2003 revision of this study.

As a part of the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine, the IOM claims to provide independent, objective analysis. This is obviously not the case, given the pressure they receive to vindicate vaccine safety at all costs.

Even back in 2001, when there was very little research on the subject, she was adamant that they would never acknowledge autism as a potential side effect:

"What I am trying to get at is, do we want to simply, on our gut, say looking at the significance of the wild disease that you are protecting, and the seriousness and potential association with the vaccine -- because we are not ever going to come down that it is a true side effect -- is that going to be sufficient for you to judge public health impact?" (p97)

Are these the statements of independent, objective researchers? Is it scientifically appropriate to decide on your conclusion before you begin the research? Should the CDC be pressuring researchers to provide certain conclusions? I think not.