Conjecture
I’ve heard that a preservative in some vaccines can cause autism – what’s going on? This controversy has been raging for some time, with government and mainstream scientists on one side, and several small but vocal advocacy groups on the other. And many parents have been left feeling confused and frightened about their children’s health. The advocacy groups say that thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines, is toxic to the central nervous system and responsible for an alarming rise in rates of autism among children in the United States and around the world.
Some health activists continue to challenge the validity of the existing science and assert that the U.S. government has conspired with vaccine manufacturers to cover up the truth about thimerosal and autism.
Why was thimerosal added to vaccines in the first place?
Explain what kind of experiment would be needed to test the conjecture
There has been a raging controversy concerning a preservative found in children vaccines that has the probability of causing autism. This conflict between the government and the scientist against vocal advocacy groups has made parents to get concerned and alarmed about the children’s health and well being (Baby Centre 1).
The claims made by the advocacy groups are that, thimerosal a chemical compound added to vaccines as a preservative is highly toxic and has adverse effects on the nervous system of children. It is blamed for the reported cases of increased rates in the rise of autism disorders among children in the United States of America. Despite of this claim, scientist argue that there is no enough scientific evidence that link this vaccine preservative to the development and prevalence of autism disorder in children in the United States (Baby Centre 1).
This conjecture can be best tested through an experiment comparing infants who are exposed to thimerosal and those who aren’t exposed. Factors such as Age, race and environment should be kept similar for the subjects to be used for the experiment to reduce the probability of secondary factors to cause this autism disorder. Among these two groups, one of them is required to be exposed to vaccines containing thimerosal preservative. The other group should be given vaccines free of thimerosal preservative. After a considerable duration of two months an epidemiology study is recommended for both subjects. This examination should be done in order to discover any developments or changes in physical and neurological functions of the subjects related to autism disorder. This experiment can be best carried out by government disease control agencies such as, the CDC, Vaccine Research centers, Pediatrics disease and immunization groups among others (Baby Centre 3).
Mention what you would have to hold constant to test the conjecture
The preservative thimerosal in all the vaccines being administered to the subjects, age, race and environment are some of the elements that should remain constant in this experiment. This is to increase the level of accuracies and legitimacies of the experiment to be performed.
Describe what kind of data might be necessary to conduct your proposed experiment
Reported cases of children with autism and the type of vaccine that were administered to them should be readily provided. Data about the types of communicable ailments that are prevented through vaccination and the status of the vaccines used. The assessment reports of the previous methods used while conducting similar experiment. Their history of success or failure should be taken into consideration. Comparison of number of the reported cases of children suffering from autism within an area or state.
Works Cited
Baby Centre. Vaccines and Autism: Separating facts from fiction. Web.
Publisher: Baby Center LLC. 2010. Web.