Vox Day brings up some great points about vaccines. The study involving the monkeys that he links to is the sort of thing that lends credence to my belief that there is a minority of children whose bodies have a severe reaction to the mercury in thimerosol. Something is causing an increase in the rate of autism, and it sure as hell isn't more autistic people getting their freak on.

The vaccine cheerleaders, who have yet to prove their case methodically, could argue that if they are proved right, then every unvaccined, dead child is blood on the hands of those of us calling for restraint. That same argument would also implicate environmentalists who oppose the use of DDT in areas where malaria is a problem, among many other examples. After all, if we are implicated by sheer reluctance and skepticism, then how much more would others be implicated because they dogmatically refuse to use a proven solution for unsound reasons? If we are guilty of child abuse, then the environmentalists are guilty of genocide, based on that counter-argument.

If vaccines are proved to be harmful in a subset of children, then the vaccine cheerleaders will find some way to backpedal out of that situation. They'll probably hide behind the ignorance that existed in the scientific community, claiming that the lack of obvious evidence was seeming proof enough that it worked (ironically, they'll castigate creationists for the same logic). One thing is for certain, and that's that while ideas may have consequences, it won't be the tireless, evidenceless supporters of systematic, mandatory vaccination that will bear them.