Concerns about the thimerosal-autism link persist for a number of reasons. Methylmercury is unquestionably a toxic substance and there is warranted concern about exposure to many toxins present in the environment. Known links between toxin exposure and disease such as cancer should prompt close scrutiny by our government and the scientific community. On the other hand, reports in popular media also propagate the putative link and often present anecdotal information as just as valid as scientific evidence. Moreover, inaccuracies in reporting are often overlooked or viewed as insignificant. For example, Rolling Stone magazine recently published an article written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accusing the U.S. government of concealing evidence linking thimerosal-containing vaccines to autism. Particularly concerning is the lack of accuracy in his presented evidence. The following disclaimer was posted on June 20, 2005 on the Rolling Stone website acknowledging some of these inaccuracies: “NOTE: This story has been updated to correct several inaccuracies in the original, published version. As originally reported, American preschoolers received only three vaccinations before 1989, but the article failed to note that they were innoculated a total of eleven times with those vaccines, including boosters. The article also misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of 6 months. It was 187 micrograms – an amount 40 percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA’s limit for daily exposure to methylmercury. Finally, because of an editing error, the article misstated the contents of the rotavirus vaccine approved by the CDC. It did not contain thimerosal. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors. An earlier version of this story stated that the Institute of Medicine convened a second panel to review the work of the Immunization Safety Review Committee that had found no evidence of a link between thimerosal and autism. In fact, the IOM convened the second panel to address continuing concerns about the Vaccine Safety Datalink Data Sharing program, including those raised by critics of the IOM’s earlier work. But the panel was not charged with reviewing the committee’s findings. The story also inadvertently omitted a word and transposed two sentences in a quote by Dr. John Clements, and incorrectly stated that Dr. Sam Katz held a patent with Merck on the measles vaccine. In fact, Dr. Katz was part of a team that developed the vaccine and brought it to licensure, but he never held the patent. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors.”
