Anti-vaxxers claimed that the MMR vaccine caused autism. When scientific studies shot down that claim, they moved on to thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative in some vaccines, but not in the MMR). They predicted that when thimerosal was removed from standard vaccines in the US in 2002, autism rates would plummet—they didn’t. So they claimed that mercury from other sources, like coal factories, made up for the drop in mercury exposure from vaccines. When the evidence did not support that claim, they moved on to aluminum as the cause (nope). And now they just reference vague “toxins.” No
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