This one comes from Italy, which accidentally set up a ready-made study when, in the early 1990s, children there got whooping cough vaccines with notably different amounts of the preservative thimerosal, with the vaccines differing by a factor of more than two. Thimerosal fingered by many autism conspiracy theory peddlers as the causative agent for an alleged, but actually nonexistent, “epidemic” of autism.
Ten years later, 1,400 of the children took a batter of brain tests. Only tiny differences were found, within the range of chance, in two of 24 measurements. As for actual cases of autism, only one was diagnosed, and that in a child who got the low-thimerosal vaccine.
Update, Jan. 6, 2011: Well, we know now that the lies of Andrew Wakefield involved deliberate fraud. So, it's strike 4, or 4,000, and counting. Though antivaxxers won't own up to that.
Probably, the exposure of the deliberate fraud is itself a conspiracy.
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