Robert J. Krakow wrote a long editorial claiming that the Hawaii chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics was wrong to oppose a bill that would have limited Hawaiians’ access to certain vaccines. His credibility was weakened from the outset when his headline cited “the Negative Affect of Mercury in Vaccines.” Can someone who can’t distinguish “affect” from “effect” be relied upon to discern sensible vaccine policy?
Krakow’s scholarship doesn’t improve as it goes on. He fails to mention the six major epidemiological studies which have compared populations that received thimerosal with ones that did not, finding no difference in autism rates. He overstates the importance and misstates the conclusions of some findings in the biomedical literature that do not, in any case, invalidate the inescapable observation that thimerosal exposure is not associated with the incidence of autism.
Governor Lingle’s planned veto of the thimerosal ban is in line with the many other states which have considered and rejected such legislation in the past year. Her decision is sound and science-based, and I applaud her for it.
”’Lisa Randall, lisa_randall@prodigy.neta resident of Pikesville, MD, can be reached via email at”’ mailto: