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The than persuaded by Verstraeten’s results. Some, Attendee William Weil (a pediatrician rep-

groupthink such as John Clements of the World Health resenting the AAP) noted that even accepting
Stehr-Green’s assertion that Verstraeten hadn’t
Organization’s Expanded Program on Immu-
on display at nization, focused more on the public relations proven a link to neurodevelopmental disorders,
Simpsonwood implications. Clements stated: it was alarming that he hadn’t disproven it, and
primarily I hear the majority of the consultants there was insufficient evidence, he pointed out,
to reject a possible causal relationship. He stated
illustrates that say…that they are not convinced there is a that “the possibility that the associations could be
most public causality direct link between Thimerosal causal has major significance for public and pro-
health and and various neurological outcomes. … fessional acceptance of thimerosal-containing
The research results have to be handled,
vaccines.” Weil also observed that “the number of
medical and even if this committee decides that kids getting help in special education is growing
experts were there is no association…through freedom nationally and state by state at a rate we have
itching to of information that will be taken by others not seen before.” Another of his observations
and will be used in other ways beyond the
was that thimerosal in vaccines represented
exonerate control of this group. […] My mandate… “repeated acute exposures” and that “the earlier
thimerosal, is to make sure...that 100,000,000 are you work with the central nervous system, the

regardless of immunized with DTP, Hepatitis B and more likely you are to run into a sensitive period
for one of these [neurodevelopmental] effects.”
if possible Hib, this year, next year and
the science, for many years to come, and that will Finally, Weil pointed out the limitations of
and continue have to be with Thimerosal-containing epidemiological studies, calling for further in-
with business vaccines unless a miracle occurs and an depth animal and developmental neurotoxicity
studies and stating: “Some of the really gutsy
alternative is found quickly and is tried
as usual. and found to be safe. […] How will it be questions from a person who is very concerned
presented to a public and a media that about neurodevelopment cannot be answered
is hungry for selecting the information out of this.” At the same time, Weil cautioned
they want to use for whatever means others not to overly minimize or “play with” the
they have in store for them? …I wonder VSD data. Weil was the only reviewer present
how on earth you are going to handle it to rate the association between thimerosal and
from here. the neurodevelopmental outcomes as strong,
giving it a four on a scale of one to six (where
Despite the clear association between one was weakest).
thimerosal exposure and neurodevelopmental The groupthink on display at Simpsonwood
disorders demonstrated by the Verstraeten study, primarily illustrates that most public health and
many of the industry and public health scientists medical experts were itching to exonerate thimer-
present tried to minimize the implications by vot- osal, regardless of the science, and continue with
ing them away. When polled at the end of the day’s business as usual. Following the Simpsonwood
discussion, most of them voted to rate the link meeting, CDC moved aggressively to hastily gin
between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental dis- up five poorly designed epidemiological stud-
orders as “weak.” In his summary comments as ies 18-22 to disprove the link between thimerosal
meeting rapporteur, Paul Stehr-Green described and neurodevelopmental disorders. Written by
Verstraeten’s results as being only weakly indica- industry scientists, the published studies focused
tive of a safety signal—defined as “information solely on one injury (autism), and four out of
on a new or known adverse event that may be the five were done on foreign populations with
caused by a medicine.” While acknowledging minimal exposure to thimerosal. Three of the
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that the signal “deserved further investigation five studies were published in a compromised
and…raised some perhaps disquieting possibili- journal, Pediatrics, which receives a significant
ties,” Stehr-Green concluded that “there was not portion of its revenue from vaccine-makers. In
anything close to sufficient evidence to support 2002, the AAP dutifully “retired” its 1999 joint
a finding of a causal relationship.” statement on thimerosal. In January 2013, the
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32 Wise Traditions SPRING 2018