Obama and McCain on autism-vaccine pseudoscience

Both candidates talk about an autism-vaccine link. Schmuck Talk Express™ John McCain is far, far worse, indicating that a link is proven (it’s not) and that this link is the thimerosal preservative (disproven more than once, with links within the Post link above).

Obama isn’t nearly as bad, but he too says the science is inconclusive and is either ignorant or is schwaffling.

Kevin Drum has a hot and pretty solid discussion of this, which is getting a lot of comments.

For more of my earlier blogging on how this is a combination of a rediagnosis of schizoid disorder of childhood as Asperger’s syndrome, with a rising overdiagnosis of Asperger’s as full-spectrum autism (which is, IMO given the amount of hysteria about autism, a reasonable assumption), see here.

Over at Huffington Post, David Kirby has an excellent overview of a March conference call that was, as he says, held “between vaccine safety officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, several leading experts in vaccine safety research, and executives from America's Health Insurance Plans, (the HMO trade association) to discuss childhood mitochondrial dysfunction and its potential link to autism and vaccines.”

Now, while not endorsing quackery, he does show how much quackery is out there on this issue:

They say that corn oil and syrup are inflammatory.

Really? Then why didn’t Columbus and the Spanish conquistadors find a continent full of autistic American Indians?

As for “childhood mitochondrial dysfunction,” that’s a new enough subject matter that Wikipedia doesn’t even have an entry for it, and even Google only has 721 hits.

As for what may cause “childhood mitochondrial dysfunction,” this blog lists:

mercury, aluminum, pollution, pesticides, medicines
and prenatal alcohol exposure have all been shown to damage mitochondria.

So, why don’t we ask moms if they were spraying chemicals on the lawn or garden while they were pregnant, or had a toddler in tow?

Or, why don’t we ask how much they drank while they were pregnant?

And, this blogger has no link(s) as to where this is “shown,” sorry.