Bogus Treatments to Counteract Thimerosal Can Be Fatal
On February 15, 2017, Robert F. Kennedy and Robert De Niro put forth a $100,000 challenge to anyone that can prove that vaccines are safe. Of particular concern, is the now defunct preservative thimerosal, the safety of which has been a point of contention among vaxxers and anti-vaxxers. Although there is no evidence that thimerosal is harmful, the preservative was removed in 2001, as a preventative measure, thus causing concern among patients, doctors, and nurses who began to question its safety.
In a recent episode of Straight Talk MD, Dr. Paul Offit explains how some doctors sell parents on baseless treatments to counteract thimerosal “poisoning” with chelating agents, sometimes producing fatal results.
Frank:
What you wrote about in Autism’s False prophets is that some of the treatments to try to counteract thimerosal, Chelating agents, were actually lethal.
Paul Offit:
“That’s right. Chelating agents bind heavy metals like mercury, but it also binds any so-called Divalent Cations, like calcium. There was a boy in Pittsburgh who received an intravenous injection of a Chelating therapy from, frankly, a huckster, who was able to convince him or his mother that this was a treatment. And the boy’s heart stopped beating and he died.”
“Occasionally we see heavy metal intoxication in our hospital, whether it’s mercury or lead, and when you give Chelating agents you have to give them while you’re monitoring the child’s EKG. It’s serious business.”
“I don’t blame the parents for this. I think the parents are desperate. They want to do something. They’re very easily seduced into these false treatments which can be harmful and occasionally fatal.”
“I just think it’s unconscionable that physicians do this, and I think when Bobby Kennedy Jr. stands up and continues to beat this drum, he only is potentially going to drive more parents to these kind of harmful therapies. Oddly, in the name of helping children, all he does is hurt them.”
