Cause and Effect: Mecury-based Vaccines and Autism?

Look at all the cases in which a vaccine containing mercury was followed by a child developing autism!

Her (Sykes') son was a normal, active baby. A photo shows Wesley clutching an Elmo doll, his blue eyes shining and aware. But in a later photo, taken after autism had set in, Wesley stares vacantly next to his smiling brother...

During pregnancy, Sykes had been given a shot to prevent problems from occurring because she and her baby had a mismatched blood factor. Now, she learned that the drug contained thimerosal, which is half mercury. The additive was also in most childhood vaccines, and had been used since the 1930s to prevent bacterial contamination, especially in multidose vials.

...

The afternoon after Kelly Kerns' 2-month-old daughter Kaylee got several vaccines was "living hell," with the child screaming and arching her back, her mother said...

When Kaylee was 18 months old, her white-blonde hair began falling out and she stopped talking. Meanwhile, Kerns had twin boys -- Andrew and Daniel. When they were 15 months old, they received three vaccines. A week later, they stopped talking. All three children have since been diagnosed as autistic.


--CNN

Man, that sounds convincing doesn't it? A pregnant mother or baby gets a vaccine or a treatment with mercury, and BAM! the baby develops autism! Right? Wrong.

There are scientific tests of causation: the problem appears soon after the exposure; the link makes sense biologically; the risk rises as the dose rises; the link is strong and consistent rather than weak or occasional; the problem doesn't occur without the exposure (a test rarely met). [emphasis added]

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There's a 3 percent to 8 percent recurrence rate of autism in families and the disorder is four times more common in boys -- more suggestion of a genetic link.

Take a look at the bolded stuff. That means in order to prove that vaccines are causing it, we have to check that kids who don't get vaccines don't get autism. Well, we can't really do that in the US. So we have to check if as kids have more vaccines more of them get autism. This study hasn't been done. Nothing is proven. Not only have they NOT proven mercury's it, there's a more plausable explanation available - genetic factors - so we shouldn't resort to something we haven't yet tested.

Here's an example: say that every time you eat coconut cookies you get the runs. What's the reason? If you said coconut, you're wrong: it could also be flour, or sugar, or any of a number of other ingredients. It could be that you always eat them with milk and you're actually lactose intollerant. There's a lot of things that have to be tested before you can say anything conclusively. That's why everything in science is just a "theory," from evolution to gravity.