Jennifer Boettner's letter "Choice should be key factor in vaccinations" (SN 6/15) pulls all of the regular conspiracy theorist's tricks. Letters can be quite persuasive when the author ignores the facts.

The first trick tries to put the original author in a bind. Boettner poses that "If vaccines work, then why would an unvaccinated child put the vaccinated population at risk?" Although a seemingly impermeable barrier, this question has easy answers - "not everyone can afford to be vaccinated," "widespread and judicious use of vaccines has virtually eliminated some viruses such as smallpox and polio," and "allowing viruses to have hosts allows them to mutate into deadlier forms over time."

There's one trick down. Boettner has backup, though - play on the natural distrust of the government. She claims vaccination advocates use of "guilt propaganda," and links scientists and doctors to politicians and drug companies. She alleges this gigantic conspiracy to inject vaccinations - but for what? To make children cry? And as with all conspiracies, how could anyone keep all the biologists, chemists, doctors, and all the people at national and international agencies quiet?

A second trick down, but Boettner saves the best tricks for last - lie, lie and lie again. Thimerosal, a mercury-containing vaccine preservative conspiracy theorists claim causes autism, was never "outlawed," as she claims. In fact, studies by the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no toxicity at vaccine levels and no link between thimerosal and autism.

But, due to loud-mouthed conspiracy theorists, these agencies recommended the replacement of thimerosal as a preservative, which has been done. Boettner claims thimerosal is still present in the influenza vaccine but ignores press releases stating that preservative-free versions are available for infants, children and pregnant women. Furthermore, despite the thimerosal removal, autism cases are still on the rise.

Then, she lists other ingredients present in trace amounts of vaccines, just to scare readers, such as aluminum (necessary for the body, present in breast milk), formaldehyde (also necessary for the body's DNA and amino acid synthesis), and "antifreeze" (actually, there is only one ingredient in antifreeze present, ethylene glycol, that had been shown 36 years ago to be nontoxic at these levels).

Most appallingly, she claims the decline of certain diseases cannot be attributed to vaccines, and is a result of better nutrition and hygiene. Excuse me? Smallpox? Polio? Were those cured by switching to whole-grain breads?

Mike Saelim
physics and mathematics senior