[snip]

"...But goddamnit you don't need 15 Phd's to know that MERCURY IS A NEUROTOXIN!"

I appreciate your apparent frustration. Please consider the following:

1. Elemental mercury and it's various organic and inorganic compounds are toxic in widely varying degrees.

2. The compound thimerosal, while containing mercury, is nonetheless useful. Presumably, adequate toxicological studies have already been done and have shown that the risk-benefit ratio is favorable.

3. Please remember that the central concept of toxicology is that effects are dose-dependent. That you state "Mercury is a neurotoxin!" is not completely accurate or complete. Even water can be toxic in large enough doses.

BREAK UP THE MMR INTO 3 SEPARATE SHOTS

What reason can you give for doing that? Why do you think it will help?

Keep in mind that doctors are the people who did not believe that little invisible agents caused disease. Now most people are pretty sure that germs DO exist.

Take a moment to reflect on why people know this

On the chance that there is more at work here than doctors know, why not break the shot into the 3 separate vaccines and administer at different appointments? (See Note at bottom.) The children are in and out for checkups constantly, so they just need to change the vaccine schedule.

On the chance that there is more at work here than doctors know, why not have the doctor light 12 candles and pour a libation to Papa Legba before administering the shot?

Are all you people who pooh-pooh the parents' own knowledge of their child seriously saying that the doctors' comfort zone with the traditional vaccine schedule is more important than the risk that some children do have autistic changes?

Where is the evidence to suggest that this is being done because of "comfort zone" issues as opposed to the currently available science? I can't answer that question, so please help me out.

I have yet to hear anybody justfy why the MMR continues to exist...

if you think it SHOULDN'T exist, please present a credible argument why. You are the one making the claim, after all. That burden of truth, therefore, is on you.

...when overwhelmingly that's the particular shot that parents claim is the culprit.

So what? If you stop and think just a little for at least one nanosecond, you might consider that there could be other mechanisms at play here that have nothing to do with the fact that there are three vaccines being administered simultaneously. Besides, the parents accounts are nothing more than anecdotes, not evidence. These anectdotes inspired some people to study the issue properly to see if there are any actions to be taken. So far, there is insignificant evidence to suggest that any action need be taken.

The vaccine is to keep the child safe. If in some cases the vaccine as currently administered actually hurts the child, the doctor has lost the point and everyone has lost the game.

Yes, of course, and that is tragic. But don't you think the responsible thing to do is to try to find out why, using the best scientific tools at our disposal?

Please, and I do mean this in all sincerity and kindness- educate yourself on the subject of logic. I recommend starting by studying Logical Fallacies. Google will return many hits on that topic.

Look, there is a scary issue for parents, but there is a massive amount of information out there. Unfortunately, some of it does not deserve merit. I'm really sorry to have to say this, but by the examples in your letter, your tools for separating fact from bullshit appear to be lacking- however, you have lots of company. Many of us were simply not taught how to think like this, and since we want to think the best of people, we become victimized by promulgators of nonsense. There is a lot of it about, and we owe it to ourselves and loved ones to learn to protect ourselves from it.

Carl Sagan wrote an excellent book on this subject, by the way. It's called "The Demon Haunted World."

I wish you all the best. Thanks for listening.