Reply #45: yes, but you are also being unfair in a way [View All]

[northzax]

there are a lot of snake oil salesmen out there, true. But the average parent or loved one of a child with ASD just wants to know why. And Thimerasol is a great answer for them, it puts all the responsibilty on large, faceless, easy to hate companies and the government, and says the parents did evertything right. (please note that I have no desire to blame parents, I have no idea what the causes of ASD may be, some combination of genetics an environment, I suspect, but when you have a sick child, it is natural to want to blame someone, and vaccines allow just enough self blame to be easy to accept. It's human nature. And look at the past half century, kids get cancer, some company is at fault, kid gets brain damage, it's the OB's fault, etc. We don't live in a culture where sometimes bad shit just happens, so we look for someone, something to blame. I can only imagine this urge in a parent who sees their child suffer in anyway.