The claim that thimerosal causes autism was the central question of a large, multi-year Autism Omnibus trial, which ruled definitively last year that thimerosal does not cause autism.

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That brings up the question of interception--if we can catch autism early, should we fix it?

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"That's the billion-dollar question, " says Santarelli, who is holding off testing his drug in autism until researchers know more.

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The important question in assessing claims like this is whether vaccination can be shown to increase the frequency of autism.

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