MYTH DEBUNKED: MERCURY DOESN'T CAUSE AUTISM

Back when "Asperger's" was still a thing (Hans Asperger was a Nazi who only diagnosed boys!), my dad and many others fell for the MYTH that mercury in vaccines (like the MMR or mumps shot) and fish (like pike or tuna) causes autism, ADHD, and other neurodivergences.

That is a MYTH, a HOAX, pure TARADIDDLE debunked since decades ago. The "doctor" who said it, Andrew Wakefield, is a worse FRAUD than Gilderoy Lockhart.

There are people who still believe this hoax, and they even say it's the mercury in the COVID shot! Including Christian novelist Karen Kingsbury, who in Unlocked blames the mercury in vaccines for love interest Holden's autism (more severe than mine, he is nonverbal and communicates via tablet and flashcards!):

Holden (as a toddler) would sing and laugh and dance with Ella (the protagonist, then also a toddler) and then … Then what happened? Was it the vaccines Tracy (Holden's mum) had read about a few years back? That must’ve been part of it, because he was whole and happy and here. He was so here back then. 

Even at the doctor’s office when Holden was three. Tracy had told him that evening that the doctor felt bad. So many shots in one day. Upsetting the child when he was so happy. And Dan (Holden's dad) could see like it was yesterday the way Holden looked the next day, tired and beat up, a fever racking his little body. “Why so many shots?” he’d asked Tracy. The reason had made sense to everyone: his previously scheduled checkups hadn’t worked out … Holden had been sick … or they’d been on vacation. Always something. By the time he came in that fall, he was behind on his vaccine chart. The preschool he and Ella attended wanted his immunizations up to date.

Dan had called. He’d at least done that much. When the doctor called back, Dan’s tone verged on short. “He’s sick. How many shots did he get?”

“Nine. But that’s very normal, Mr. Harris. Kids Holden’s age handle that many shots all the time.” 

“Nine shots!” Dan had argued with the guy, but it went nowhere. Since then they knew that a single shot contained three hundred times more mercury than the FDA considered safe in adults. Even so, the argument in favor of shots remained stronger than any opposed to them. Kids needed protection from diseases, and research on immunizations held no smoking gun.

What had happened? Was it the immunizations, the way some people believed? Or something in the food they fed him? She’d heard specialists tell parents not to panic about getting kids their shots. The inoculations protected kids against deadly diseases, after all. But maybe not so many at one time. That was the new thinking. The schedule of shots had changed in 1989, … become more aggressive. Maybe too aggressive for some kids —kids like Holden. It was hard to know.  

Moreover, Wakefield suggests that autism is CURABLE by the Grace of G*d, a worse taradiddle and snuffbumble than the mercury hoax. This is a cradle-to-grave, incurable condition, and the miracles of Jesus, where he heals "fools" and "cripples," are actually lifted from Apollo and Asclepius myths (I subscribe to the Pagan Copycat theory, but, unlike others, I think there was a historical person in ancient Israel, Yeshuva ben Yosef the carpenter's son from Nazareth, a revolutionary leader upon whom layers of solar and resurrection myths - 12 disciples like twelve zodiac signs, the miracles [healing fools and cripples, calming tempests, multiplying food, exorcisms, etc.], omens during his birth [new stars in the sky, animals talking, no one allowed to be violent, etc.], attempt made on his life by a tyrant in infancy, raised by Muggle foster parents in a foreign country, virgin birth in a cave on the winter solstice, and death by violent execution on the spring equinox, then resurrection, etc. - were added through the ages, starting with the Gospels themselves, just like it happened to King Arthur and the heroes of the Trojan War. Otto Rank [focusing on birth and infancy, with a Freudian/Oedipal bent], Lord Raglan, Joseph Campbell [the monomyth] and many others have found these parallels; already Count Volney - who thought all religions have a solar/zodiacal origin, Brahma and Saraswati are related to Abraham and Sarah, etc - and J-B Pérès - who said Napoleon having twelve field marshals may be a reference to the Sun and the zodiac signs, like Jesus and his disciples, King Arthur and his knights, etc; and that Napoleon's son by his Habsburg wife, the so-called "Eaglet," [the crops] was born on the spring equinox. Napoleon's Habsburg wife would be the fertile Earth, and her predecessor Josephine, the barren Moon. To Pérès, Napoleon defeating the Revolution is like a Chaoskampf between the sky-god and the serpent of chaos [Hercules vs. the Hydra, Thor vs. the Midgard Serpent, Indra vs. Vritra, etc]; the Revolution was very chaotic, described like a "hydra," and the word revolutus means "coiling," like a serpent). 

Yes, mercury makes people crazy, but, like Paracelsus said, the dose makes the poison. An alchemist or a hatter, who was exposed to great quantities of mercury every day, would definitely go insane (hence the term "mad hatter's disease" and the unforgettable Lewis Carroll character!). There is such a tiny amount of mercury in a platter of tuna sushi or in a COVID shot that it barely affects mental health.

We all should separate the chaff from the wheat - and pity those who still believe in such snuffbumble!