A report on a mercury vaccine study says:

Dr. Michael Pichichero, a pediatrician and immunologist at the University of Rochester, said he and his team studied 61 infants between 1999 and 2000 who had received thimerosal-containing vaccines. While traces of mercury showed up in initial blood tests, the element was completely cleared within 30 days.

30 days?! Am I supposed to be encouraged by that?

So if I had given my kid HBV vaccine at birth, as I was pressured to do, my kid would have had mercury in her blood for 30 days!

Mercury is poisonous. It is not known what levels of mercury cause harm. Subjecting a newborn to 30 days of mercury intoxication seems like a bad idea to me, even if most kids seem to recover.

Meanwhile, Bush is planning to re-introduce the smallpox vaccine. The obvious thing would be to just make it available to anyone who wants it. No one in the US govt is smart enough to know what smallpox vaccines are needed, if any. The plan is to force certain military and hospital personnel to get the vaccine, and not allow others to get it. The policy is dictatorial and foolish.

JG writes:

Of course! [we are supposed to be encouraged] (These are *experts* telling us this, for heaven's sake!) ...and hey, don't discount the fact that they studied a whopping 61 kids. (sarcastic comment)

Pichichero is a consummate vaccine apologist. He has financial ties to (hold your breath!): Abbott; Bristol Myers Squibb; Eli Lilly Co.; GlaxoSmithKline; Merck & Co.; Pasteur Merieux Connaugh; Pfizer; Pharmacia Upjohn; Schering; Wyeth-Lederle. He's also a proponent of pertussis vaccination for adults.