| Titre : | Mercury, Vaccines, and Autism : One Controversy, Three Histories. (2008) |
| Auteurs : | BAKER (Jeffrey-P) : USA. Trent Center for Bioethics. Humanities. And History of Medicine. Duke University School of Medicine. Durham. NC. |
| Type de document : | Article |
| Dans : | American journal of public health (vol. 98, n° 2, 2008) |
| Pagination : | 244-253 |
| Langues: | Anglais |
| Mots-clés : | Mercure ; Vaccin ; Prévention santé ; Autisme ; Histoire ; Historique ; Homme |
| Résumé : | [BDSP. Notice produite par INIST-CNRS tmlR0xmj. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. The controversy regarding the once widely used mercury-containing preservative thimerosal in childhood vaccines has raised many historical questions that have not been adequately explored. Why was this preservative incorporated in the first place ? Was there any real evidence that it caused harm ? And how did thimerosal become linked in the public mind to the "autism epidemic" ? I examine the origins of the thimerosal controversy and their legacy for the debate that has followed. More specifically, I explore the parallel histories of three factors that converged to create the crisis : vaccine preservatives, mercury poisoning, and autism. An understanding of this history provides important lessons for physicians and policymakers seeking to preserve the public's trust in the nation's vaccine system. |

