Today for my progress I edited my proposal paper and did some research regarding childhood vaccinations. I found a lot of information that was both interesting and surprising. There have been many studies that have been done and have not shown any link between vaccines and autism. However, even though these studies haven’t shown a connection to autism, there still remains a lingering controversy. It has been said that the vaccinations for measles, mumps, rubella combination vaccine (MMR) contain a preservative called thimerosal that supposedly causes autism. I had found a statistic that said that currently thimerosal is present in some of the inactivated influenza vaccines. Thimerosal is a mercury-containing preservative, which does not actually stay in the body. The mercury itself could cause brain damage if present in excessive amounts, but there is not enough in vaccines to cause any damage. Lately, vaccination concerns have received a great deal of attention from parents, doctors, vaccine manufacturers and the media. There have been multiple studies in the United States and elsewhere to prove the notion that vaccines do not cause autism, but still the safety is still a concern of many.
3 comments:
Molly,
It sounds like you're making good progress in your research! I think that you're topic is an interesting topic, especially because of the extreme controversy going around about the H1N1 vaccine. I know it's a big deal with all the Hollywood stars not wanting to vaccinate their children and frankly, I think it's kind of stupid. Maybe I'm wrong though that vaccines cause more than I think, so I will definitely keep reading your progress and learn something new about vaccines.
Good start :]
I had never heard of the idea that certain vaccination could cause Autism until your blog. I would not have believed this because i thought Autism to be a genetic thing and not linked to something as trivial as vaccination but your blog shows me how wrong i was. I think it may be hard to find many statistics considering Autism is a semi-rare condition and it would be hard to link it back to a small vaccine, but it seems like you have a good start to your Inquiry Contract and like you have actually found some valuable information.
I think its really interesting that there have been studies that show there is no link to vaccines and autism, but there is still some controversy about it. I liked how you talked about Thimerosal could cause autism, but then talked about how there isn't enough of it in vaccines to cause autism. It seems like you have found some good information to use in your essay.
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