Thimerosal and the red M&M.
In 1976, due to a health scare over red dye #2, M&M/Mars pulled the red M&M from its assortment of candy colors. In actuality, the candy never even contained the offending dye, but the company, wanting to distance itself from scandal, yielded to the public outcry and quietly removed all red M&Ms from the market. Red wouldn’t return as a standard color for the chocolate that melts in your mouth, not in your hands, until 1987.
Unlike the red dye, thimerosal in vaccines is a very real health risk, having been linked to autism and other developmental disorders. I am by no means a conspiracy theorist, but I do earnestly believe that pharaceutical companies make millions and millions of dollars for each new vaccine introduced into a child’s vaccination schedule, and that they therefore have a strong financial incentive to push vaccines for even the most innocuous conditions, and without appropriate testing to insure that ALL children can handle such a heavy load of chemicals injected into their systems. I also believe that the FDA and the CDC were asleep at the wheel when these amendments to the standard vaccine regimen were pushed through, and that they have a strong desire to cover their collective asses. Again, it all comes down to the money.
As a result, autism cases have risen from 1 in 10,000 in the 1970s to 1 in 166 today. There is a growing counterculture of parents and practitioners who either refuse to vaccinate, or do so with much greater caution and temperance than endorsed by mainsteam medicine. This angry movement is gaining momentum, and I don’t think that Big Pharm and the government agencies responsible for this crisis can realistically cover it up much longer.
Here’s the part I don’t get, and I’m hoping that perhaps one of you is smarter than I am and can clue me in. Why don’t vaccine makers simply ditch their red M&M? It’s not like they’d have to admit culpability. All they’d need to do is issue a public statement that says:
“We know that thimerosal-containing vaccines are perfectly safe {*cough* bullshit}, despite claims to the contrary. But because we want you to have total piece of mind when vaccinating your child, we’ll be using a different preservative in all our vaccines from here on out.”
The only two factors I see preventing this. First, a thimerosal-free vaccine may be more expensive than its thimerosal-containing counterpart. Can anyone out there verify/refute this? Second, I’m no lawyer, and therefore have no idea whether a move like this, even if accompanied by a statement like the one above, would open them up to being sued. Again, I’d welcome any enlightenment one of you could provide…
February 8th, 2005 at 9:09 am
I have heard that the savings comes out to about $1 per shot using the thimerosal.
February 8th, 2005 at 10:20 pm
They probably haven’t reached the event horizon where such a public statement is necessary. They are probably riding it out as long as they can, then they may make a switch if necessary.
Normally I’d bitch about corporate America and how all they care about is making money and their shareholders. But let’s be honest… This is the evil of humanity. Some corporations just let us look at beautiful humanity with a magnifying glass.
Rant over.