Some of the main types of degenerative brain diseases include (but aren\u2019t limited to):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Dementia-type diseases<\/strong>: These cause progressive damage to various areas of your brain, causing neurons in several areas of your brain, to die. That can then cause a wide range of symptoms depending on brain areas affected. These include many conditions, such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease<\/a>, frontotemporal dementia<\/a>, chronic traumatic encephalopathy<\/a> (CTE), Lewy body dementia<\/a> and limbic predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Demyelinating diseases<\/strong><\/a>: These involve myelin damage or loss, which affects sending and relaying of nerve signals. Examples include multiple sclerosis<\/a> (MS) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder<\/a> (NMOSD).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Parkinsonism-type diseases<\/strong>: These happen because of damage to specific neurons in your brain that help manage coordination and precise control of muscle movements. This includes Parkinson\u2019s disease<\/a> and other forms of parkinsonism<\/a> (the general term for conditions that look similar to Parkinson\u2019s).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Motor neuron diseases<\/strong>: These happen when neurons that control movement die off. Examples include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis<\/a> (ALS, often known as \u201cLou Gehrig’s disease\u201d) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Prion diseases<\/strong><\/a>: These are a type of protein misfolding disease that cause serious brain damage in a relatively short time (most people don\u2019t survive more than a year). Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease<\/a> is the most common, and most cases happen for unknown reasons. It can also be genetic (survival time for these cases is between one and 10 years).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/my.clevelandclinic.org\/health\/diseases\/24976-neurodegenerative-diseases<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/childrenshealthdefense.org\/defender\/government-misled-public-thimerosal-link-autism-decades\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\nAccording to a special investigation by journalist Sharyl Attkisson, the government has misled the public for decades about the science linking thimerosal to autism and other neurodevelopment disorders. It also continues to claim thimerosal has been removed from all childhood vaccines \u2014 even though some vaccines, including those given to children, still contain the ingredient.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"vaccine](\"https:\/\/childrenshealthdefense.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/misled-thimerosal-autism-vaccines-feature-800x417.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe U.S. government has long told the public that thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative ingredient, poses no harm to children, but that out of an abundance of caution, the ingredient hasn\u2019t been used in childhood vaccines since at least 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a special investigation by journalist Sharyl Attkisson<\/a>, both these claims are false. Attkisson described them as part of a \u201ca concerted propaganda campaign to mislead the public\u201d about thimerosal and the science<\/a> linking it to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attkisson\u2019s investigation outlines how government agencies<\/a> and the mainstream medical establishment for decades promoted a contradictory narrative about the toxic<\/a> chemical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the one hand, they misled the public about thimerosal\u2019s known and possible harms and actively worked to discredit anyone who questioned its safety. On the other hand, they also falsely assured the public that it had been removed from vaccines<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thimerosal is still used in some vaccines today, including some \u201cthimerosal-free vaccines,\u201d Attkisson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her investigation shows that evidence linking thimerosal in vaccines to neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, has existed for decades. It also exposes an intentional project to rewrite the scientific narrative around the toxin to hide that link from the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thimerosal is still present in vaccines<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Websites for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia<\/a> \u2014 a key source for vaccine industry propaganda promoted by Google<\/a> \u2014 and others have long posted statements leading the public to believe thimerosal has been removed from children\u2019s vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, although in recent weeks some changes have been made to the CDC website, the site still contains statements like this one: \u201cFact: Thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines<\/a> in the United States in 2001.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia states on its website that thimerosal \u201cwas removed from vaccines<\/a> after an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Modernization Act was signed into law on Nov. 21, 1997.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese claims would receive five outrageous Pinocchios from any neutral fact-checking organization,\u201d Attkisson wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her report, Attkisson shows a series of screenshots from websites and vaccine labels \u2014 many removed from the internet but archived on the Wayback Machine<\/a> \u2014 from 1999<\/a>, 2001<\/a>, 2004<\/a>, 2005, 2009<\/a>, 2010<\/a>, 2018<\/a>, 2019<\/a>, 2021<\/a>, 2022<\/a>, 2024<\/a>, and 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The screenshots all show thimerosal as an ingredient in vaccines available to children in the U.S., including in flu shots and some tetanus shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the government and vaccine manufacturers knew, a timeline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1997, Congress asked the FDA to review the use of thimerosal in drugs and vaccines due to safety concerns about mercury exposure. The following year, the agency requested detailed information from manufacturers about thimerosal in their products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By 1999, U.S. and European public health institutions had begun recognizing that cumulative exposure to mercury in all vaccines<\/a> a child takes \u201cmay exceed some of the government guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That same year, the Public Health Service, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), National Vaccine Advisory Committee and the Inter-Agency Working Group on Vaccines all recommended that mercury be removed from vaccines licensed in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The advisory committee thimerosal working group proposed analyzing the Vaccine Safety Datalink<\/a> (VSD) to identify vaccines with \u201cplausible\u201d neurologic, neurodevelopmental and renal conditions \u2014 including autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delay, stammering, epilepsy, and tics \u2014 related to mercury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If \u201cany hint of association\u201d appeared, the committee would conduct follow-up studies, its members said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2000, the CDC brought together vaccine makers and the public health officials who regulate, mandate and distribute vaccines for a meeting conducted behind closed doors at the Simpsonwood Retreat and Conference Center in Norcross, Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transcripts from the Simpsonwood meeting<\/a> obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests revealed attendees discussed the findings on thimerosal research \u2014 which showed a link between mercury-based thimerosal in vaccines<\/a> and brain injuries, including autism \u2014 and debated strategies for keeping the information from the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the meeting, immunologist and pediatrician Dr. Dick Johnston explained that mercury (in the form of thimerosal), a known toxin, is used in vaccines because it lowers rates of bacterial and fungal contamination during manufacturing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he said there was \u201cscant data\u201d on the safety of injecting babies with multiple metals through vaccination, Attkisson wrote. This, despite the fact that \u201caluminum and mercury are often simultaneously administered to infants, both at the same [injection] site and at different sites,\u201d Johnston said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other experts present at the meeting agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the CDC\u2019s National Immunization Program, reported that the VSD analyses \u201cto date raise some concerns of a possible dose-response effect of increasing levels of methylmercury in vaccines and certain neurologic diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers found possible associations between thimerosal-containing vaccines given to healthy babies before age 6 months and tics, attention deficit disorders, speech and language disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was further worrisome that an association between brain disorders and thimerosal showed up in the limited sample of children mostly aged six and younger since that\u2019s typically too young to be diagnosed with ADD and autism,\u201d Attkisson wrote. \u201cThose disorders are typically diagnosed from ages 6-12.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many doctors at the meeting expressed concern. One famously said he knew that definitive research may take some time, but in the meantime, he had a newborn grandson. \u201cI think I want that grandson to only be given Thimerosal-free vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the meeting, other published research also linked autism and thimerosal<\/a>, including a 2001 report<\/a> by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which found a \u201cbiologically plausible\u201d connection between thimerosal exposure and neurodevelopmental disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis sounded alarm bells with some in public health since the number of recommended vaccines and, thus, cumulative mercury exposure had exploded in the 80s and 90s, along with autism cases<\/a>,\u201d Attkisson wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2001, the government urged the removal of thimerosal from vaccines while officially denying that it caused any harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why remove it, Attkisson asked, \u201cif it\u2019s unquestioningly harmless?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018A powerful propaganda campaign\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the meeting in Simpsonwood, the pharmaceutical industry, government and scientific establishment \u201claunched a powerful propaganda<\/a> campaign designed to discredit the scientists and studies unearthing vaccine-autism links, or investigating vaccine safety, in general,\u201d Attkisson wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This included \u201cflooding the scientific landscape with industry-friendly counterstudies\u201d claiming that thimerosal was safe, exerting pressure on the media, politicians and medical organizations like the IOM, and funding nonprofits to misdirect the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2003 publication<\/a> of the final version of the VSD study discussed at the clandestine Simpsonwood meeting was key to this campaign, Attkisson wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final version reported that phase one of the study had found significant positive associations between the cumulative effects of thimerosal in vaccines with tics and language delay at three and seven months. However, it also stated, \u201cIn no analyses were significant increased risks found for autism or attention-deficit disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was misleading because the report didn\u2019t also state that the children studied were too young for these diagnoses, Attkisson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final version also used \u201cword play\u201d to downplay significant findings of increased neurodevelopmental risks, saying things like \u201cno consistent significant associations\u201d were found, even though different types of significant associations of elevated risk had been identified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier drafts of the report later obtained by Congress showed how the authors played with language to minimize the appearance of risk, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study also failed to reveal that its lead author was hired away from the CDC during the study by vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKlein, whose vaccines were being studied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study concluded there were \u201cconflicting findings\u201d and called for more research \u2014 yet it was \u201cpeddled to the media as proof that vaccines don\u2019t cause autism,\u201d according to Attkisson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Demyelinating diseases<\/strong><\/a>: These involve myelin damage or loss, which affects sending and relaying of nerve signals. Examples include multiple sclerosis<\/a> (MS) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder<\/a> (NMOSD).<\/li>\n\n\n\n