The truth is that no one without a vested interest in the profitability of vaccines has studied all 36 of them in depth. There are more than 100 vaccines in development, and no tests for cumulative effect or vaccine interaction of all 36 vaccines in the current schedule have ever been done. If I'm mistaken, I challenge those who are making such grand pronouncements about vaccine safety to produce those studies.

........

I've also heard it said that no evidence of a link between vaccines and autism has ever been found. That statement is only true for the CDC, the AAP and the vaccine makers who've been ignoring mountains of scientific information and testimony.

As an epidemiologist, I get so friggin' fed up with the anti-vaccine crowd dismissing the best available science that, if they had spent just a minute looking through a scientific journal, they could easily see for themselves.  Like this large, population-based study from Lancet in 1999, which concludes:

Our results do not support the hypothesis that MMR vaccination is causally related to autism, either its initiation or to the onset of regression--the main symptom mentioned in the paper by Wakefield and others. The data on clinical presentation and immunisation status of the cases in our study were recorded before the recent publicity suggesting a possible link between MMR vaccine and autism. The two datasets were collected independently of each other, so avoiding the bias that can occur when cases are ascertained as a result of a perceived link with vaccination. This study does not rule out the possibility of a rare idiosyncratic response to MMR. However, if such an association occurs, it is so rare that it could not be identified in this large regional sample.

Or this one, from PLoS ONE:

The objective of this case-control study was to determine whether children with GI disturbances and autism are more likely than children with GI disturbances alone to have MV RNA and/or inflammation in bowel tissues and if autism and/or GI episode onset relate temporally to receipt of MMR. The sample was an age-matched group of US children undergoing clinically-indicated ileocolonoscopy.

.......

We found no differences between case and control groups in the presence of MV RNA in ileum and cecum. Results were consistent across the three laboratory sites. GI symptom and autism onset were unrelated to MMR timing. Eighty-eight percent of ASD cases had behavioral regression.

Or this one, from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine:

Methods

Between the mid-1980s through the late-1990s, we compared the prevalence/incidence of autism in California, Sweden, and Denmark with average exposures to Thimerosal-containing vaccines. Graphic ecologic analyses were used to examine population-based data from the United States (national immunization coverage surveys and counts of children diagnosed with autism-like disorders seeking special education services in California); Sweden (national inpatient data on autism cases, national vaccination coverage levels, and information on use of all vaccines and vaccine-specific amounts of Thimerosal); and Denmark (national registry of inpatient/outpatient-diagnosed autism cases, national vaccination coverage levels, and information on use of all vaccines and vaccine-specific amounts of Thimerosal).

Results

In all three countries, the incidence and prevalence of autism-like disorders began to rise in the 1985-1989 period, and the rate of increase accelerated in the early 1990s. However, in contrast to the situation in the United States, where the average Thimerosal dose from vaccines increased throughout the 1990s, Thimerosal exposures from vaccines in both Sweden and Denmark--already low throughout the 1970s and 1980s--began to decrease in the late 1980s and were eliminated in the early 1990s.

Conclusions

The body of existing data, including the ecologic data presented herein, is not consistent with the hypothesis that increased exposure to Thimerosal-containing vaccines is responsible for the apparent increase in the rates of autism in young children being observed worldwide.

Or this one, from the Archives of General Psychiatry:

The estimated prevalence of autism for children [in California] at each year of age from 3 to 12 years increased throughout the study period. The estimated prevalence of DDS clients aged 3 to 5 years with autism increased for each quarter from January 1995 through March 2007. Since 2004, the absolute increase and the rate of increase in DDS clients aged 3 to 5 years with autism were higher than those in DDS clients of the same ages with any eligible condition including autism.

The DDS data do not show any recent decrease in autism in California despite the exclusion of more than trace levels of thimerosal from nearly all childhood vaccines. The DDS data do not support the hypothesis that exposure to thimerosal during childhood is a primary cause of autism.

That's just a sample of the hundreds of articles that completely contradict everything Mr. Carrey is saying.  So no, Jim.  The mountains of evidence are not on your side.

Of course, he goes on:

With vaccines being the fastest growing division of the pharmaceutical industry, isn't it possible that profits may play a part in the decision-making? That the vaccine program is becoming more of a profit engine than a means of prevention?

Ah, yes!  The vast vaccine-wing conspiracy to make profits!  Just like that heartless doctor, what was his name, Dr. Jonas Salk!  We all remember Dr. Salk's pyramid scheme to reap in the billions of dollars for his polio vaccine.

Mr. Carrey, I work for a pharmaceutical industry (GlaxoSmithKline).  And I can tell you that its main profits don't come from vaccines at all.  The studies I cited above were not even done by the pharmaceutical industry.  They were done by academicians and epidemiologists who were seeking the best evidence explaining the link between vaccines and autism, and they all found NO link.  Get the point?

Of course not.  Carrey keeps on writing:

We have never argued that people shouldn't be immunized for the most serious threats including measles and polio, but surely there's a limit as to how many viruses and toxins can be introduced into the body of a small child.

Really, Mr. Carrey?  You've NEVER argued that children shouldn't be immunized against other serious threats?  Hmm, I seem to recall your girlfriend arguing just that on Larry King last year.

MCCARTHY: We get that they're saving lives, but the increase is ridiculous, you guys. Look, it's plain and simple. It's bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

KARP: No, it's not.

MCCARTHY: Too many shots too soon.

(CROSS TALK)

MCCARTHY: My son died in front of me due to a vaccine injury. And there are many -- every week I get a picture of a dead child.

KING: You lost a son?

MCCARTHY: Evan died in front of me for two minutes, cardiac arrest. Every week, I get a picture sent to me of a child that died following a vaccination.

(CROSS TALK)

MCCARTHY: Are we considered acceptable losses?

KARP: Jenny, let's bring it down just a notch for a second here. When we look at autism, 75 percent of kids with autism, there's demonstrated change that the child has in the first year of life before they get to this period when they're getting the Mumps, Measles vaccine.

MCCARTHY: Give me Mumps and Measles. I'll take that way over autism any day.

Enough of this.  I would spend more time blaming Mr. Carrey for spreading false information, but I think that the Huffington Post has to answer for this bullshit too.  So, Huffington Post, a couple questions:

2. Are you more interested in posting editorials from celebrities who deny the best available science, instead of posting the results of the best available science?

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Cross-posted at Daily Kos