vaccine argument continued

      Then you'll have to learn about how the body metabolizes Thimerosal into ethylmercury and thiosalicylate (while remembering that ethylmercury is not the same as methylmercury). You'll have to read studies in Thimerosal toxicity and recent re-studies when concerns were raised that infants might be less able than young children to flush it from their systems: NIAID-supported studies at the University of Rochester and National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD examined levels of mercury in blood and other samples from infants who had received routine immunizations with thimerosal-containing vaccines. [Pichichero ME, et al. Lancet 360:1737-1741 (2002)] Blood levels of mercury did not exceed safety guidelines for methyl mercury (which is the more dangerous type, but because we wish to be very safe we use the toxicity levels of the more dangerous type as our guidelines in medicine) for all infants in these studies. Further, mercury was cleared from the blood in infants exposed to thimerosal faster than would be predicted for methyl mercury; infants excreted significant amounts (relative to the dose) of mercury in stool after thimerosal exposure, thus removing mercury from their bodies.

You could also check out how you yourself almost certainly eat many many times more mercury than is metabolized out of Thimerosal when you eat fish (who store it in their bodies) or these food products (because high fructose corn syrup can be made with a process using mercury, and even though US companies don’t use that process anymore, sometimes they buy high fructose corn syrup from other countries) :

  • Quaker Oatmeal to Go bars
  • Jack Daniel's Barbecue Sauce
  • Hershey's Chocolate Syrup
  • Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce
  • Nutri-Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars
  • Manwich Gold Sloppy Joe
  • Market Pantry Grape Jelly
  • Smucker's Strawberry Jelly
  • Pop-Tarts Frosted Blueberry
  • Hunt's Tomato Ketchup
  • Wish-Bone Western Sweet & Smooth Dressing
  • Coca-Cola Classic: no mercury found on a second test
  • Yoplait Strawberry Yogurt
  • Minute Maid Berry Punch
  • Yoo-hoo Chocolate Drink
  • Nesquik Chocolate Milk
  • Kemps Fat Free Chocolate Milk

It may further reassure you to know that despite all this, because the kind of people who develop and administer vaccines really really really care about children's health, and would like to see NO amount of ANY kind of mercury in vaccines, The FDA is continuing its efforts to reduce the exposure of infants, children, and pregnant women to mercury from various sources. Discussions with the manufacturers of influenza virus vaccines regarding their capacity to potentially increase the supply of thimerosal-reduced and thimerosal-free presentations are ongoing. Discussions are also underway with regard to other vaccines. Of note, all hepatitis B vaccines for the U.S., including for adults, are now available only as thimerosal-free or trace-thimerosal-containing formulations. In addition, all immune globulin preparations including hepatitis B immune globulin, and Rho(D) immune globulin preparations are manufactured without thimerosal.

So all these anti-vax memes about mercury really say is "I understand almost nothing about both mercury and vaccines" - and really, couldn't you just admit that in the first place? It's not like you went to medical school.