Did autism rates improve after mercury-laced vaccines were discontinued?
From 1999 through 2002, several mercury-laced vaccines were phased out of the recommended immunization schedule. They were replaced with low-mercury, or “thimerosal-free,” vaccines. Today, authorities claim that autism rates have not declined after the mercury phaseout, and use this to support their contention that vaccines are safe. (If mercury in vaccines contributed to autism, then rates should have dropped after mercury was removed.) However, during this so-called “phaseout” period, authorities actually added mercury-laced flu shots to the list of vaccines urged for all babies 6 to 23 months of age. Soon thereafter, the CDC also added pregnant women in their first trimester to the list of people officially recommended — and actively encouraged — to receive mercury-laced flu vaccines. In addition to these questionable actions during this greatly publicized “phaseout” of mercury, four doses of a new vaccine with high aluminum content were added to the immunization schedule (for pne
