Newspeak just like in book '1984'

Sheri

After subjecting the data to nearly 400 different statistical measures,
researchers found 19 different possible associations between thimerosal and
various mental outcomes  most of which suggested that thimerosal was
actually beneficial.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/health/27vaccine.html
September 27, 2007
Vaccine Compound Is Harmless, Study Says, as Autism Debate Rages
By GARDINER HARRIS

Yet another study has found that a controversial vaccine preservative
appears to be harmless. But the study is unlikely to end the increasingly
charged debate about vaccine safety.

The study examined whether thimerosal - a mercury-containing vaccine
preservative that was almost entirely eliminated from childhood vaccines by
2002 - is associated with neurological or certain psychological problems in
children ages 7 to 10.

Some parents' groups and prominent legislators contend that thimerosal has
caused an epidemic of childhood autism. Several studies have examined this
question and found no evidence that thimerosal is associated with autism.

The most recent study did not assess thimerosal's association with autism
directly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conducting a
separate autism and thimerosal study that is expected to be published next
year.

In this study, published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine,
researchers from the C.D.C. and several managed-care organizations
subjected 1,047 children to 42 neurological and psychological exams, which
included I.Q. tests, how well children recalled a list of names and whether
they could repeat the names backward, their manual dexterity, and whether
they stuttered or had tics.

The researchers also took detailed medical histories to determine whether
the subjects' mothers were exposed to thimerosal while pregnant, and how
much thimerosal the children were exposed to in their first seven months of
life.

After subjecting the data to nearly 400 different statistical measures,
researchers found 19 different possible associations between thimerosal and
various mental outcomes - most of which suggested that thimerosal was
actually beneficial.

Researchers largely dismissed these associations as statistical flukes.

"By chance alone, with that number of tests, we would estimate that 5
percent of the results would be significant," said Dr. Anne Schuchat,
director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
at the C.D.C. "And that's what we found."

The lone worrisome result was that, among boys, the study found an
association between thimerosal and tics, which are involuntary movements or
sounds. At least one earlier study had found a similar association.

But Dr. Schuchat said that researchers had made no distinction between
transitory tics - those that soon disappear and are not considered
clinically important - and permanent, serious or disfiguring tics.

"That particular finding is being evaluated further," Dr. Schuchat said.

Dr. Jeffrey Baker, a pediatrician and vaccine expert who is director of the
history of medicine program at Duke University, said that the study's
findings should be reassuring for parents.

"This study will further strengthen a growing consensus among researchers
that there is no real evidence that thimerosal in vaccines led to any
actual harm," Dr. Baker said.

But Sallie Bernard, executive director of SafeMinds, a nonprofit parent
organization whose members contend that thimerosal injured their children,
said the study was inconclusive. Ms. Bernard served on a board of
consultants that helped design and oversee the study, but she withdrew her
support for the published version of the study, saying its conclusions were
not supported by the underlying data.

"There are some red flags here," Ms. Bernard said.

Nearly 5,000 families have filed claims with the federal government
contending that vaccines caused their children to become autistic. Even if
the government dismisses their claims, many families have vowed to continue
their fight in the courts.

Since thimerosal's removal from vaccines, there has been no evidence that
autism is on the decline.