Letters to the Editor
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People believe what they want to believe
and it's a lot easier apparently to believe that your kid has autism because of something someone else did than because of just random chance or genetics. When students pick a topic for a paper in my Abnormal Psyc class, every semester someone chooses autism and vaccination and invariably the scientific literature shows no connection.
The interesting thing is that in the US, thimerosal has not been in many vaccines for years. Ask the FDA:
http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1
Currently it's mostly in influenza vaccines. It was more important when multiple injections were sourced from a given bottle of vaccine. Now vaccines are usually provided in single-dose vials.
BUT there is nothing, nothing, you can tell a certain core out there to convince them. NOTHING. I just try to educate the people I can and hope it sticks.