No claims to date on the $100,000 reward offered by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to any journalist who can find even one peer-reviewed study that shows that thimerosal (mercury) is safe in the amounts administered to children and pregnant women.  I do however, give the CDC credit for openly admitting their vaccines include among other things, toxic metals (aluminum salts), thimerosal (mercury), formaldehyde, WI-38 found in the chicken pox and rabies vaccine (human fetal tissue cell lines), chemical cleansing agents (Triton X-100), toxic chemicals such as glutaraldehyde, dangerous bacterial strains (E.coli) and also the CDC information lists African Green Monkey kidney cells as a component in the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine and others.

Parents need to do their own independent research prior to blindly injecting any vaccine into their children or themselves.  I am not suggesting there is zero benefit in any vaccine but surely the power of the decision to vaccinate or not, needs to remain with the educated parent, not the state.  Contact your representative today to vote no on SB217.

ROBIN FINK, Coudersport, Potter County

PennLive.com editors picked five letters to the editor from the past week to include in a Sunday wrap-up. First among them was this one regarding a bill in the Pennsylvania State Senate that would end vaccine exemptions for schoolchildren.

The writer is obviously well-informed about vaccine safety. Robin Fink makes it clear that vaccines carry risks. Fink writes about RFK Jr.’s $100,000 challenge to the press to find any research that shows mercury in vaccines is safe and about the toxic ingredients in vaccines.

Fink makes no statement telling parents not to vaccinate, but merely advises them to educate themselves. Fink’s letter calls for parents keeping the right to choose when it comes to vaccinating their children. It arguably makes a valid point. It also points to a lot more concerns than just the MMR vaccine and the one ingredient, thimerosal, in the flu vaccine.

No matter how rational and sound Fink’s letter may be, I can see this attacked as “anti-vaccine.” No pro-vaccine advocate ever tells parents “to do their own independent research.” Instead, they’re told to “talk to your doctor,” because mainstream medicine has been schooled in the mantra, “studies show no link”—to any serious side effects. I hope parents in Pennsylvania take this letter seriously and retain the right to make decisions about their child’s health.