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The worlds of academia and pop culture rarely cross paths, let alone cross swords. But when members of the American Academy of Pediatrics caught wind of the autism plotline of a new television show this week, it sprung into action - and even rushed to release a research paper it hoped would bolster its critique.

The culprit was the debut episode of the ABC drama Eli Stone that aired last night, in which the title character successfully argues in court that a vaccine containing mercury causes autism.

AAP president and pediatrician Renée Jenkins called on the network to pull the show, saying that mercury is no longer used in routinely offered vaccines and that no scientific link exists between autism and vaccines. The AAP followed up with the early release of a new study out of the University of Rochester, which challenges the idea that mercury builds up in a dangerous way in infants.

Dr. Jenkins says it's rare for her organization to step into the fray, but the lingering perception that vaccines cause autism is a vexing one for pediatricians.

"Considering vaccines are the cornerstone of preventive care, we thought it was imperative we say something about it," she said in an interview from her office in Chicago.

The TV court case undoubtedly mimics the continuing U.S. case involving 5,000 families of autistic children who are suing for damages in a federal "vaccine court," despite recent research that suggests autism rates continue to rise despite the absence of the controversial mercury-containing ingredient thimerosal in vaccines since 2000.

"Very often it's difficult to let go of a theory," she says.

Dr. Jenkins and her colleagues fear the show may have a similar effect to a 1998 British research paper that linked the measles vaccine to autism. Although the paper was later discredited, Dr. Jenkins says there was a drop in the immunization rates in that country after it was published and an increase in measles cases, some fatal.

Although the Eli Stone storyline is clearly fictional, "People get messages from TV or, certainly with the emotional tone to it, could cause people to become concerned," she said.

A year ago, the American Psychiatric Association was part of a successful campaign to pull a Volkswagen ad featuring a man on a ledge contemplating suicide who then changes his mind after a stranger drives by and tells him about the car's new pricing. The APA argued that the ad was insensitive to the issues of mental health and suicide.

But ABC refused to pull its debut of Eli Stone last night, and Aime Wolfe, an ABC spokeswoman, reiterated in an e-mail yesterday that the show is fictional and that "the characters, products, and events depicted in the episode are all fictional. The storyline plays on topical issues for dramatic effect, but its purpose is to entertain."

Ms. Wolfe said the network planned to show an "information card" at the end of the show that directs people to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website (cdc.gov).

The AAP urged the precautionary removal of thimerosal from vaccines in the late 1990s. For the new paper, University of Rochester professor of microbiology and immunology Michael Pichichero studied infants in Buenos Aires, where vaccines still contain thimerosal, and found that babies expel thimerosal much faster than originally thought, leaving little chance for the build up of mercury.

The study was originally scheduled to be released Monday in the new issue of the AAP journal, Pediatrics.

, While Western countries are unlikely to turn back the clock, Dr. Pichichero says the implications for the developing world are great. As a consultant for the World Health Organization, Dr. Pichichero says countries that still use vaccines containing thimerosal needn't change formulations.

"So the suppositions used to argue that children might receive excessive doses of mercury by receiving thimerosal-containing vaccines is refuted quite clearly by our study," he said in an interview.

He said he hoped the early release of his study added to the chorus of criticism of the Eli Stone episode.

"Parents really worry about their children and want to do the right thing. And doctors want that too."