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Aug 22, 2008 02:11 PM | 95
If you didn't vaccinate your kids, you too could find yourself partly responsible for the resurgence of a disease thought eliminated in 2000.
Measles—a highly contagious disease-causing virus—is making a comeback in the U.S., thanks to parents fears over vaccines. Fifteen children under 20, including four babies, have been hospitalized and 131 sickened by the red splotches since the beginning of this year in 15 states and the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC had announced in 2000 that the disease was eliminated in the U.S. thanks to a vaccine that can completely control it. But fears of autism have led some parents to forego this treatment and at least 63 of the sickened children were unvaccinated.
Peditrician Pauline Filipek of the University of California, Irvine told ScientificAmerican.com this spring that parents who don't vaccinate their kids are putting the tykes at risk of long-forgotten diseases, like measles. What they're not doing: preventing autism.
"Many, if not most, of the younger siblings [of autistic children] never have any vaccinations," says Filipek, who believes that autism is not caused by vaccines. "And they are as autistic as the day is long."
Because the disease is highly contagious, it is the first to come back when vaccination falters. This is in part due to travel to other countries, such as Italy, Switzerland and the U.K., where similar outbreaks are occurring among children who have not been vaccinated. In previous years, such imported cases had petered out due to widespread vaccination but now the disease can spread.
So far, Illinois has the most cases, with 32 cases, followed by New York and Washington. In all of 2006, the latest year with full figures, there were only 55 cases total and an estimated 93 percent of U.S. children had been vaccinated. In fact, this is the most cases in such a short time span since 1996 and is due to "viral transmission after importation," according to the CDC.
It remains unclear whether vaccination levels overall are dropping or not, but at least 95 percent of children must be vaccinated to prevent measles from returning. The disease has become endemic to the U.K., for example, thanks to a vaccination rate that has fallen to 85 percent. Already one child has died in the U.K.
Prior to the vaccine's introduction in the 1960s, as many as 4 million people came down with measles each year and as many as 450 died as well as 4,000 who developed permanent disabilities when the measles inflamed their brains.
(Photo: John Heseltine/CORBIS)
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95 Comments
Add CommentMeasles is back thanks to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION not just that small number of those that chose not to expose their children to a vaccine that CAN CAUSE autism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCompletely true. Most people (or their ancestors) in America came through legal immigration (many through Ellis island), so I don't understand why thousands of illegal immigrants are allowed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy solution: Close the Southern border, increase border security, and increase the number of legal immigrants allowed each year.
Funny, the only other countries I saw in the article were from Europe, and they're having the same problem (vaccinations going down, measles going up). But that must be because of all those measles infected illegal immigrants going to the UK, Switzerland, and Italy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have a question.... If the measles comeback is my fault for not vaccinating my son with MMR, but only a third of the measles cases were unvaccinated individuals, then doesn't it stand to reason that the disease resurgence is only 1/3 my fault?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis may be one of the most alarmist articles I have seen on vaccinating in a long time.
Encephalopathy is not just a result of the virus, but also an unfortunate side effect of the measles vaccine. But if you get encephalitis from the actual disease, at least you have a chance of having it properly diagnosed and treated.
When you get it from the vaccine, doctors just ignore it, call it "autism", say there is no cause and no cure, and pack you off to speech therapy.
Unless you are Hannah Poling and your father is a Johns Hopkins Neurologist who actually medically investigates your illness.
Until the medical community owns up to Vaccine Induced Encephalopathy (HHS and the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program's dirty little secret) and starts taking vaccine injury seriously, parents will decline vaccination in greater numbers and measles rates will keep climbing. Parents are not stupid and we know when we are being lied to.
Henny Penny 'the sky is falling because 150 people out of 300 million got sick and completely recovered' articles like this one only fuel the fire. The "autism" rate in this country is around 1% of children. The collective yawn from the medical authorities over the generation of neurologically impaired kids, while freaking out over the .0005% infection, 100% recovery measles rate this year, is like a big neon BS sign hanging over the head of Mainstream Medicine.
As the measles rates rise, the medical community will have no one to blame but themselves.
You want people to start vaccinating again? Own up to the pervasiveness of vaccine injury, start taking measures to prevent it and treat it immediately when it happens.
Until you do, just keep watching the slide into complete anti vaccination continue.
I agree, cases we are seeing are not via illegal immigrants from our southern border. There are communities in Europe and US who refuse vaccination and are the reservoir for the virus and passing it on. Please read more about the links to autism. No studies are finding this to be true.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease, Please, read the science on this one. There are absolutely no solid, peer reviewed studies showing a link between autism and vaccines. None. There are, however hundreds linking once common childhood diseases with morbidity and mortality. We have forgotten how costly a preventable case of chicken pox, measles or rubella can be. Not only in lost parental wages, but more importantly, the suffering cost to the kids. It is lunacy to submit our children and the children of our neighborhood to preventable diseases. Please look at the studies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe facts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) Autism is found to be not linked to vaccines (or thimerosal) in more peer-reviewed studies than ever that are continually being produced by the scientific community. New research is proposing genetics. (Check out any article in google scholar)
2) While Autism-like disorders are on the rise, diagnosis of mental retardation is decreasing, indicating that specificity of the diagnosis is a factor. (Article actually produced by this mag)
3) The reason vaccines are important is the capability of hospitals to treat large numbers of people if ever there was a highly contagious outbreak of measles, mumps, rubella... It is the protection of society as a whole. (wikipedia measles)
4) Blaming immigration is meaningless when the state of highest outbreak is Illinois. Illinois is in the middle of the US. (common sense)
5) The risk of complications from vaccines far outweighs the risks of complications from getting any one of measles, mumps or rubella...and is non-comparable when talking about the risk of not being vaccinated against all three.
6) Please go get your child vaccinated now. Or risk your child, and being responsible for others, being permanently damaged by these diseases.
Before making these statements, please do some homework. Check on the number of parents intellingent and informed enough to challenge these vaccinations. What kind of CDC big pharma propaganda are you spreading here? This is so irresponsible of you. I seriously doubt I'll keep you on my newsletter list.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEurope right now has more immigrants from third world countries then ever before in recorded history entering Europe and staying. The UK is struggling with how to control this influx while the Swiss have recently passed legislation limiting the amount of LEGAL immigrants much less illegal. Take a look yearly number of measles cases in mexico. Bed bugs, TB, hepatitis,leopardsy(arkansas) can all be directly traced to ILLEGAL ALIENS and the lack of proper screening upon entering the US.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFC,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have looked at the studies and I got so tired of hearing what you just said, that I started making a list of the studies that linked vaccines and autism. I have about 35 on this list, but it is not complete by any stretch.
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2007/06/no-evidence-of-any-link.html
Autistic children have been quietly paid from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund for more than 15 years. The fact that vaccines cause autism is an open secret for health authorities. They have just been successful in publishing bad study after bad study, and getting away with it, because docs just read the abstracts and the AAP/CDC/Pharma statements on the studies, but never read the actual studies. Most of them are use samples designed not to find a correlation between vaccines and autism. Start taking a look at the studies you believe support your thesis with a critical eye. You will find that they are most often used to support assertions that the methodology cannot support.
And keep in mind, autism is devastating in every way to a family. When you talk about the cost and suffering of rubella (gone since 2005) and chicken pox, it make autism parents laugh. To raise one of our kids it will cost between 3 and 10 million dollars. Lost wages from chicken pox? Autism causes lost careers, sometimes for both parents. The human toll can not be calculated.
This is a settled arguement, Vaccines absolutely can and do cause autism.
If you vaccinate your children, they are not susceptible to diseases found in people from other countries. We are a civilized nation. We have vaccines available for people so they may remain healthy. You should read kw02120's response. This person is correct.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's funny though - you believe the mainstream media when they claim vaccines cause autism, but yet this article is quackery? Come on ladies. Educate yourselves.
What then of the claim about younger siblings?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat of the claim about younger siblings. Can anybody with an autistic unvaccinated child confirm that? My mind isn't made up about this issue yet so I am genuinely curious. Also the illegal immigrant position seems questionable to me, any statistic on that claim? As a Texas resident I can tell you that most of my children’s illegal classmates (and their families) receive much better preventative healthcare than they do as uninsured Americans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMr. Whistler,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCould you first read my initial post on vaccine induce encepalopathy and respond to that? Everyone seems to be ignoring the initial case I made.
This article is completely biased. Was it put out by the FOX network?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRachel,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have left a message for Pauline Filipek, the woman who made that assertion. I have never heard of any science that supports this and if it exists, it is an important clue to the vaccine autism connection that we need to know about.
Hopefully Dr. Filpek will respond. From her comment you can't tell if she was speaking from personal experience or good research.
I have only heard about a survey in the autism community that showed that unvaccinated younger sibs showed almost no autism. I am looking for that study too.
Challenge these vaccines with what? If you are aware of any studies that directly link vaccinations with autism, I for one would love to see it. On the other hand, if you would like, I can post the links to numerous studies that show no causaul link between vaccinations (with or with out thimerosal). I would also be more than glad to post plenty of references to the carnage that lack of vaccination can hold. I can empathize with parents of children with disabilities, but, we need to do the research to prove a cause. Right now, there is NONE that links the two.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFC... I just posted a link to a list of 35 studies that support a link. Did you have time to read them all and digest them in the last 15 minutes? ;) There are many studies out there that claim to prove no link. But what i have said is that you need to take a closer look at them. Please post the ones you believe disprove a link.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can understand why a parent might be hesitant to take a perfectly healthy child and give him or her all sorts of vaccines. But, speaking as a research scientist with a fair amount of skepticism for the claims of big pharmaceutical companies (who actually lose money making most vaccines, by the way), there is no link between vaccines and autism. The rise in autism is most likely due to the rise in average age of mothers, and better classification by doctors of what autism actually looks like (as opposed to just mental retardation or general disability). Let's keep widespread, preventable infectious disease outbreaks in the past.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPrior to the vaccine's introduction in the 1960s, as many as 4 million people came down with measles each year and as many as 450 died as well as 4,000 who developed permanent disabilities when the measles inflamed their brains.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell thats interesting. The Reuters oh-my-God-its-measles-the-sky-is-falling story that I read earlier today says that 1000 people developed disability due to their measles.
One never does know what to believe when reading the news stories these days, but thats ok, Ill go through the numbers again.
If you look at the total number of people who died or were chronically disabled, thats a total of say 4500 people. A conservative estimate for the US population of one hundred million people in the mid nineteen hundreds put the rate of death or disability at one in twenty two thousand.
While I do not believe that the incidence of full blown autism is anywhere near the one in one hundred and fifty number that is so often publicized by organizations such as Autism Speaks, (which , btw, does nothing to help families dealing with autism but whose only interest is in raising lots of money and then funding genetic research while covering the rear ends of those responsible for the environmental harm thats being done, and oh yes, throwing lots of gala concerts and parties which the little children rarely attend), the rate of full blown autism is far and away above one in twenty two thousand by anyones estimate.
And yet the American public is being told to fear measles, and not autism. And now, the American public is being told to fear those whove brought the vaccine travesty to light.
Every time I hear about this story on the news I hear parents concerned about vaccine damage being painted as foolishly buying into junk science. There is never a mention of Hannah Poling, or any interviews with the many people such as Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institute of Health, who believe the evidence for a link between vaccines and autism is strong. You want to know what junk science is? Its when were told, over and over again on TV and radio, that the mercury has been removed from vaccines when anyone can look at the FDAs own website (http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1 ) and see that there is still the same toxic level of mercury in the flu shots now being routinely advised for pregnant women and babies and children. Except that its not junk science, if the people propogating this misinformation know that what theyre saying is false. It is genocide.
Im not nearly as afraid of terrorists, even after 911, as I am my own government and the main stream media which seems to bring me no real news anymore, only propaganda.
If I had it to over again my children would be vaccinated over my dead body. The hell with herd immunity. My children are not cows or sheep. And no, I dont give a rats rear end if your poor little Johnny or Jane is a tad inconvenienced by the measles. Do you want to see what inconvenience is? Go spend a week with a family that is raising a severely autistic child. Find out what its like to watch a child who was once normal, smiling, happy, who is now unable to speak, banging his head against the walls, smearing his feces on the bathroom walls and floor. And dont tell me about the people whove experienced severe long term disability from the measles, or about the statistics Im supposed to fear, please. Im not that stupid and uneducated.
Robin Nemeth
http://wideopenwest.com/~r_nemeth/vaccine_flyer.htm
“Prior to the vaccine's introduction in the 1960s, as many as 4 million people came down with measles each year and as many as 450 died as well as 4,000 who developed permanent disabilities when the measles inflamed their brains.”
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell that’s interesting. The Reuters oh-my-God-it’s-measles-the-sky-is-falling story that I read earlier today says that 1000 people developed disability due to their measles.
One never does know what to believe when reading the ‘news’ stories these days, but that’s ok, I’ll go through the numbers again.
If you look at the total number of people who died or were chronically disabled, that’s a total of say 4500 people. A conservative estimate for the US population of one hundred million people in the mid nineteen hundreds put the rate of death or disability at one in twenty two thousand.
While I do not believe that the incidence of full blown autism is anywhere near the one in one hundred and fifty number that is so often publicized by organizations such as Autism Speaks, (which , btw, does nothing to help families dealing with autism but whose only interest is in raising lots of money and then funding genetic research while covering the rear ends of those responsible for the environmental harm that’s being done, and oh yes, throwing lots of gala concerts and parties which the little children rarely attend), the rate of full blown autism is far and away above one in twenty two thousand by anyone’s estimate.
And yet the American public is being told to fear measles, and not autism. And now, the American public is being told to fear those who’ve brought the vaccine travesty to light.
Every time I hear about this story on the news I hear parents concerned about vaccine damage being painted as foolishly buying into ‘junk science’. There is never a mention of Hannah Poling, or any interviews with the many people such as Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institute of Health, who believe the evidence for a link between vaccines and autism is strong. You want to know what junk science is? It’s when we’re told, over and over again on TV and radio, that the mercury has been removed from vaccines when anyone can look at the FDA’s own website (http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1 ) and see that there is still the same toxic level of mercury in the flu shots now being routinely advised for pregnant women and babies and children. Except that it’s not junk science, if the people propogating this misinformation know that what they’re saying is false. It is genocide.
I’m not nearly as afraid of terrorists, even after 911, as I am my own government and the main stream media which seems to bring me no real news anymore, only propaganda.
If I had it to over again my children would be vaccinated over my dead body. The hell with ‘herd immunity’. My children are not cows or sheep. And no, I don’t give a rat’s rear end if your poor little Johnny or Jane is a tad inconvenienced by the measles. Do you want to see what inconvenience is? Go spend a week with a family that is raising a severely autistic child. Find out what it’s like to watch a child who was once normal, smiling, happy, who is now unable to speak, banging his head against the walls, smearing his feces on the bathroom walls and floor. And don’t tell me about the people who’ve experienced severe long term disability from the measles, or about the statistics I’m supposed to fear, please. I’m not that stupid and uneducated.
Robin Nemeth
http://wideopenwest.com/~r_nemeth/vaccine_flyer.htm
Read the article again. AT LEAST 48.09% of those who were infected had not been vaccinated. I was in grade school (a few hundred in a private school) well before there was a vaccine, when the population in the US was just over half of what it was today. I don't recall how many, but a large number of my classmates had measles. Including myself, there were a few in my class that had trouble afterwards. Nothing bad, really, just focusing and being a bit frustrated. It may be that having a severe case of Chicken Pox affected me too. Given the incerase in the US population since the vaccine was introduced, if the vaccine was eliminated there would be many more than 4 million (maybe 8 million?) infected, 4,000 (maybe 8,000?) disabled, and 450 (maybe 900?) dead. There simply is no link between Autisn and vaccines. Check this link out. http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=84662 Ginger, did YOU have a measles vaccine? I'll bet you did.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGinger, where did you come up with 25%? It's closer to 60%. The unvaccinated victims includes children too young for the MMR.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScientific American can do an article on racism in autism diagnosis. The majority of kids with autism are white because the kids who are MR and white have parents who refuse the MR label and demand an autism label, but ethnic parents are less likely to do this. Also there are some autism spectrum kids in the ethnic groups who are being counted as MR or "specific learning disability" or perhaps as "emotionally disturbed" instead of how they should be counted as autistic. Autism is full of racism. Just check the ethnicities of your pyscho antivax commenters. I would guess from experience that they are all white and that they are all willing to blame any problem on ethnic people. They don't want immigrants coming here and taking money from their white autistic kids, for example.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this""Many, if not most, of the younger siblings [of autistic children] never have any vaccinations," says Filipek, who believes that autism is not caused by vaccines. "And they are as autistic as they day is long."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe above is one of the most unscientific statements I have ever seen, and I am surprised to see Scientific American not following up on its sources.
With all due respect to the one who wrote "There are absolutely no solid, peer reviewed studies showing a link between autism and vaccines", actually there are quite a number of peer-reviewed articles that show a link, just none that the CDC or other government agencies have done or want to do out of fear of the results.
Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former director of the NIH, has publicly stated that there may well be a link between vaccines and autism and the government is purposely avoiding any studies that might show causality. In fact, the CDC and FDA knew full well in the 2000 Simpsonwood meetings that there was enough evidence for a causal connection that they were sworn to secrecy about the findings.
See:
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/mercury_in_vaccines_autism_research/drbernadinehealynihvaccinate.htm
Watch the CBS interview with Dr. Healy and read all the other evidence, much from the back pages of the CDC and FDA websites. Or just google "vaccines with mercury" (without the quotes) to the first result and follow the thread from there.
Anyone who has been paying attention to the Autism Omnibus Proceeding in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims knows what is happening. Yes, measles is making a comeback because people are afraid to get their children vaccinated. If the CDC would admit that they don't know if there is a link between vaccines and autism, it would go a long way to restoring peoples confidence in government programs.
As one of the CDC officials said at the Simpsonwood Meetings: You can find a hundred junk scientists who will say that there is a link between vaccines and autism, but you will not find a single respectable scientist who can say that there is definitely not a link. Too bad the CDC didn't listen to its own advice.
Peter Shefler
Children's Vaccines: http://www.healing-arts.org/children/vaccines
AutismNewsBeat,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am not sure what you mean by 25%. I can't see where I mentioned that number anywhere. Do you mean the "1/3 of the blame" first sentence in my first comment? I was just being snarky about the crazy title and first sentence of the piece. But if you say that I am 60% to blame, have you taken into account that my older son has gotten the MMR? Does that make me only 30% to blame? Is there a blame chart or some sort of guilt abacus for me to check on? ;)
Yes Knurl... I had the measles vaccine in 1969. No one asked my opinion about it at the time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd I was on the road to fully vaccinating my children when my little one stopped talking, stopped answering to his name and stopped making eye contact after his 18 month shots, and after his SECOND serious vaccine reaction. But because his doctors did not take his first vaccine reaction seriously, they kept vaccinating him with the SAME vaccine. Despite the fact that the package insert says not to give it again if a serious reaction. Because, again, doctors (and apparently you) do not take vaccine injury seriously. And here's the thing Knurl, one of the side effects of the measles vaccine is actually getting the measles. It is a live virus vaccine. So the problems that your friends had as a result of having the measles, people can also get from the shot. And people can get encephalitis from both the measles and the measles vaccine. Understand?
Two events occur at the same time; does this meen that they are automatically related? The fact that most autism diagnoses occur at the same time that most children are getting vaccinated is not direct proof. Most of the studies that seem to 'prove' a link are small-scale studies. The few large-scale studies are clear: no provable link. For all those who argue that measles are a far lesser issue, that's also misleading. While full-blown autism is an awful experience for a family (I've got two cousins, one on each side of the family, with it), check the numbers: the vast majority of cases being diagnosed are 'autism-spectrum', not full-blown autism. After working with a number of very young (>6 years) children with 'autism-spectrum' disorders, only to have those diagnoses reversed after the ages of 8-10 when they were re-evaluated, I have real issues with the automatic diagnosis of 2 year olds. Autism is rapidly becoming the latest 'there's something wrong with my kid' condition. I have met no fewer than 4 doctors who have been pressured into making the 'autism-spectrum' diagnosis by parents who are sure there is something wrong with their child becuase the child isn't as sociable as the parent thinks they should be.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe argument that measles is an 'easy' disease is, frankly, wrong. The side effects are not easy, and while serious side effects are not common, they become more likely the older the victim is. 40C fevers are nothing to sneeze at, encephalieis is actually worse than most autism-spectrum disorders, and corneal scarring is not fixable. Add to that the fact that measles can be terotogenic, and you have a nasty combination. Toss in the fact that Mumps and Rubella are in the same shot, and all their side effects, and you have a lot of parents playing roulette with their kids' lives.
Hmmm... Perhaps that was a one in a million case? My daughter, as well as my nephews and nieces and my cousins families as far out as my second cousins (guesssing 53 total), plus most children of all my friends here in New York had to have the vaccine in order to attend school. ALL children ARE required to have the vaccination in order to attend school in New York. If it is a problem, why is the problem you claim not rampant in a State of 19 million plus?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWorst case scenario: Several thousand are not ok at all, or dead. A less than worst case scenario (if it even applies here): A few are not ok. Best case (AKA Perfect) scenario: An impossible scenario.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGinger - I've followed the many twists and turns of your beliefs over the years. You now seem to be saying that encephalitis following vaccination is called autism? What rubbish. Do you have any evidence for that? Not in a Petri dish but in a person? I've taken a look at your list and find it singularly unimpressive. You include 'science' that is unpublished - such as a poster presentation at IMFAR, 'science' that does things to dendritic cells but not to - y'know - people. 'Science' like the Nataf paper which supports the Porph hypothesis that even DAN! doctors don't think is accurate. Science that shows that ethyl and methyl mercury don't get excreted at the same speed. What you LACK on that list is any science - any at all - that establishes that any vaccine, any vaccine component or any vaccine schedule has a causative link to autism. You also include the Poling case study which I'm afraid demonstrates the exact opposite to your belief that vaccines cause autism. I challenge you to go through every symptom presented in that case study as one caused by vaccines and then see how many exist in the DSM (IV) for autism. You will find that not enough symptoms exist to make a diagnosis of autism. You and your friends are living in a fantasy world Ginger. Trouble is that your fantasy is directly harming people. Two children in the UK have DIED from measles in the last two years. Its not a nothing disease. You and all your pals do indeed need to accept your share of the responsibility for all the children that are hospitalised and die as a result of your continuing perpetuation of ignorance.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"I have a question.... If the measles comeback is my fault for not vaccinating my son with MMR, but only a third of the measles cases were unvaccinated individuals, then doesn't it stand to reason that the disease resurgence is only 1/3 my fault?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHmmm. Let's look at that reasoning. Unvaccinated child is carrier/transmitter of measles. Unavaccinated child comes into contact with 100 uninfected children in same Kindergarten (nevermind the potential secondary and tertiary transmission). Of those 100, 18 become measles cases (6 who were unvaccinated). Is it only 1/3 her fault?
Now I am confused :)
Help, I need a third grade mathematician!
FC170MAN
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are right. The has been no peer reviewed research that has been officially published or officially recognised as research. There has been plenty of research carried out, but as soon as evidence for the truth of the link between autism and mercury poisoning ( preservatives used in all vaccines) funding gets cut and research programmes never ever get to publish results. The end product is a blanket statement for "no proof". I have seen a trend in the rise of autism recognition and vaccine rates, but I dont personally believe the actual active vaccine element is responsible. I think that patients and parents are completely ignorant of the other agents included in the vaccine (such as the highly toxic mercuric compounds used as preservatives) which have a drastic effect on the neurological development in the still growing brains of children. Perhaps people should start looking at the other ingredients common to all vaccines to see if this is linked to rises in autism and perhaps dementia, especially in older vacccine recipients.
The other side of the coin is that perhaps autism is being recognised far more now than it ever has, giving an impression in an increased number of cases. Perhaps we have always had these high rates of autism, but the numbers have not been recorded because of the stigma attached to mental health issues.
Perhaps there are any number of other factors to consider. Blaming "illegal immigrants" only serves to breed hate and division among society and steers people away from the real truth affecting our society's health issues.
I think you need a third rate mind to come up with Ginger's reasoning on everything related to vaccines and autism. I guess if her kid starts a local outbreak or helps to further it and children are hospitalized, parents miss a week of work or a person of any age dies because her child spread the germs to them, then they'll be able to tell her to her face if she is to blame.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWould it be surprising if her neighbors felt that painting a large scarlet letter "A" on her front door and or her family's vehicles was an appropriate way of expressing anger anti-vaccine activists. Maybe a new expression will be "Measles Ginger" a la "Typhoid Mary".
"You also include the Poling case study which I'm afraid demonstrates the exact opposite to your belief that vaccines cause autism. I challenge you to go through every symptom presented in that case study as one caused by vaccines and then see how many exist in the DSM (IV) for autism. You will find that not enough symptoms exist to make a diagnosis of autism. You and your friends are living in a fantasy world Ginger. Trouble is that your fantasy is directly harming people."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWord, Kev. It's a tribute to our First Amendment that people like Ginger Taylor are free to spread their asinine marketing campaign on a science website. But the answer to Ginger's inaccurate and misleading speech is speech that respects the truth, and pays attention to real evidence, not unpublished poster presentations and other baseless speculation.
Thanks for your contribution.
I love Ginger Taylor. From a mom of 11 healthy unvaccinated children. I know first hand that vaccines cause autism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAdolf Hitler: " If you tell a lie loud enough and long enough they will believe it." Stop saying there is no link. There most defiantely is. Common sense tells us there is. There isn't a study done that proves any vaccine creates an immunity. If vaccines worked than people who got vaccinated wouldn't get the diseases. Hello?????
Ok. My nephew. Up to 18mos old perfect healthy vibrant baby. Within 48 hrs. of getting the mmr he is autistic. UHMMM!!!! Won't make eye contact. Won't smile. Won't communicate. We have pictures to prove the difference in behavior.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA friend : Beautiful daughter. Chubby healthy. Smiles all the time. Very photogenic. Loves to laugh and hug and play. 16mos old. Within 48hrs. of mmr begins signs of autism.
A friend: Very bright boy baby. Looks directly at the camera at 6 mos old and smiles for many photos. Healthy full of life. 18mos old receives a mmr shot. Diagnose Autism. Never again looks at anyone not even his parents.. No laughter.
Let's see. In the time it took me to type three incidents of personal experience I have completed a scientific experiment to most definately prove that autism and mmr are linked.
You step in front of a moving car and you die due to internal bleeding caused by an impact to your healthy body. What was the cause of death?
According to those who don't believe there is any link between autism and mmr vaccine they may say "you tripped and fell and that fall caused the impact which caused the internal bleeding and the car had nothing to do with it." Or, the breakfast you ate made you nauseas and you fainted and the fall to the pavement caused the impact which caused the internal bleeding." Cause and effect. It's a scientific term. Research it. You'll be amazed.
Machine and kavinci. You can bs all you want. The odds are getting better that you either vaccinate which is similiar to getting a very, very mild case of the disease or your kid will get the disease.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt that point in time the chance to BS is over. You and you child do have a major problem that hopefully won't do to much damage.
The studies are in. The real health risks of vaccination are known and they are mild for most. Some people do have allergic reations for one reason or another. Some people can't drink human milk either. There is no evidence that autism is one of those risks.
Getting the disease on the other hand is seriously dangerous. Check the data.
If you want to play for higher stakes, go for it but don't bs about it and don't bother to complain about it if your kid gets the big one. You knew the odds or should have and you called the play.
First I post then I log in now I have to retype the post. Not cool.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe odds of a child getting one of these diseases is getting worse not better as more an more parents decide to opt out using one claim or the other.
The problem is they don't trust the medical profession/big business with some reason or they don't want to be bothered but in this case they are forgetting that the real risks from the diseases are very, very serious and a few just don't care.
Also everyone who has checked using solid methods has found the same thing. No connection between autism and vaccination. There are risks of allergic reactions but I'm afraid that even mothers milk is not safe for some children so anything you do carries a risk.
If parents refuse to take reasonible and prudent steps to prevent their children from getting diseases I guess we should let them. You can count on the Universe to prove who made the mistake and who didn't. At worst it just cleans up the gene pool a bit.
I take my flue shots every fall because I got tired to getting the flue. There is a risk from the shots but there is a risk from the flue. So for this plan has worked well for me.
I agree with 'machine' and also with those in favor of mandatory vaccination. If the vast illegal immigration isn't at fault for the recent outbreak of measles, it may well be for others right around the corner. In any case, it's a serious problem waiting to become a catastrophe. The 100 million illegal Hispanic immigrants now in the US - beginning in the 1970's - are very much a part of the cause of resource shortages...like water. I agree with a major closing of the southern border of the USA. Bring manufacturing back to the US! It's tariff time again.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt sounds like your daughter has a language deficit. She is still communicating.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this100 million? Where did you pull that number from?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this" Take a look yearly number of measles cases in mexico. Bed bugs, TB, hepatitis,leopardsy(arkansas) can all be directly traced to ILLEGAL ALIENS and the lack of proper screening upon entering the US."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisArkansas Leopardsy? Isn't that the worst kind? Holy crap!
To AutismNewsBeat: None of us know all the symptoms of Hannah Poling. What we do know for a fact is that medical personel at the Division of Vaccine Injury at the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, accepted the diagnosis of "regressive encephalopathy with features consistent with an autistic spectrum disorder, following normal development." and that this was a consequence of her vaccinations and that the Office of Special Masters Awarded her compensation under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Dr. John Poling's case study was published in the Journal of Child Neurology, which is peer-reviewed. So whether we are talking about "autism" as per DSM-IV or "regressive autism" or "regressive encephalopathy" or "autism spectrum disorders" is not really the point. The point is that severe, permanent neurodevelopmental disorders (diagnosed as many different conditions" MAY be caused by childhood vaccinations or components of these vaccines IN A CERTAIN SUBSET OF SUSCEPTIBLE CHILDREN, and that subset may be larger than we think. So says Dr. Bernadine Healy, former NIH director. How do you respond to Dr. Healy's assertions in the CBS interview and in her article, "Fighting the Autism-Vaccine War"? The interview and the article can be found at: http://www.healing-arts.org/children/mercury_in_vaccines_autism_research/drbernadinehealynihvaccinate.htm / Peter Shefler / Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona: Children's Vaccines: http://www.healing-arts.org/children/vaccines
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf any particular child would be susceptible to any particular reaction from a very few attenuated viruses in a vaccine (or the few dead antigens in other vaccines) then logically that child would be much more vulnerable to exposure to the real deal, un-controlled, un-measured exposure to vastly more dangerous wild-type viruses. Hello! Hannah Poling's own mother admitted that Hannah would have had the same outcome if she had come down with a case of measles as a toddler. Except that maybe Hannah would have been much worse off with a case of measles or chickenpox and she might have died as children do sometimes when they catch measles or chickenpox (and flu and tetanus and many other vaccine preventable diseases). The antivax are not interested in saving the lives of people like Hannah, or children who are on immune suppressing drugs, who are especially vulnerable to diseases that other children my survive with minimal problems. And they don't care if older people or people with AIDS die because their little unvaxed kid coughs on them. They are callous and cold-blooded people who have the UNMITIGATED GALL to accuse BIG PHARMA of being callous.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome of the logic used in these comments is amazing: "My child was fine on day A. My child received a vaccine on day B. Day C my child is autistic! There must be a link!"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can use similar logic. I have received multiple vaccines for various diseases and I'm perfectly healthy. Therefore there must be no link.
Has anyone stopped to think that perhaps autism diagnoses are increasing due to a greater understanding of what autism is? Or perhaps it is due to one of the hundreds of unnatural toxins found inside our own bodies (check out the 60-sec podcast about air fresheners for an example). Or perhaps there truly is a link but the risk of being unvaccinated far outweighs the risk of some kids developing autism-spectrum disorders. Lets stop all vaccinations and we'll see autism disappear (but maybe that will be because we all start dying from smallpox and polio).
Healy is speculating, as are you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOk. You cannot have mandatory vaccines. It won't fly. Even people who are for vaccines should know the danger of mandatory anything. That would begin to take away your constitutional rights and would definately lead to other mandatory laws. Death and taxes are and should be the only mandatory laws. There really is no proof that vaccines work. There is no proof that they are safe. This is America and we have the right to choose what we want and don't want in our bodies. If they work than the people who are for them should by all means get vaccinated. Likewise the people who don't fear the disease should not get the vaccines. Anyone who gets any of the diseases that you can get a vaccine for isn't going to be exposing themselves to anyone anyway so what are you afraid of??? Why not attack the overweight people and make mandatory salad and low carbs??? More people die every year from obesity, heart attacks, diabetes, and other overweight diseases than measles. Research these things and forget about measles. You are more likely to survive measles than obesity any day of the week. And what about tobacco??? Come on. People who don't even smoke die of tobacco. Go after them. I'll vaccinate myself when they stop selling cigarettes, liquor, any junk food that when not eaten in normal doses could cause obesity etc.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"There really is no proof that vaccines work." Wow. Then tell my why Measles was declared eradicated a few years ago? Why is polio virtually eradicated? Why is smallpox virtually eradicated? Obviously no proof here at all. "There is no proof that they are safe." Again, if they were so unsafe, there would be many more dangers to receiving them than there are. The number or people who experience side effects is so small compared with the number who receive the vaccines. Of course people die more from diseases other than measles. Have you stopped to think that perhaps this is because the vaccines work and this disease was practically eradicated?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOk. All who are for vaccines and against obesity go to cdc's page. Out of 304,000,000. united states population 4.6 million have congestive heart failure and 43,000 die every year. So far this year only 64 cases of measles have been reported and no deaths. (that is up to April 08). This is according to the CDC.gov's own page.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEnough silliness, let the Luddites skip the vaccinations, when the population is cleared of their genes the world will be a more rational place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisResponse to Ginger:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo, many MORE than 1/3 of the cases ARE your fault. When you choose not to vaccinate your child, you reduce the immunity of society as a whole. That makes those who cannot be vaccinated (infants who are too young, children on chemotherapy, etc) and those with depressed immune systems at greater risk for contracting the disease because it is more prevalent in society than it would be if everyone who could get vaccinated, did. Your choice doesn't just affect your own children, it also affects everyone around you.
At least in part, this thesis is bullshit. Anyone who knows anything about biology 101 knows that bugs mutate all the time. The vaccination scare is just to insure that the drug companies get their pile of cash.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt least in part, this is bullshit. Anyone who knows anything about biology knows that bugs mutate all the time. This is just an excuse to keep the cash flowing to the drug companies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegardless, Ginger I am so sorry your child is ill. I am a mother too, and aside from all this I am so very sorry your child has autism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd vaccinations are so easy, readily available and CHEAP. Just get it done!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRD
www.FireMe.To/udi
machine,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRepetitive use of all caps in postings is a sure sign of idiocy. Another sign is saying really stupid things. By linking recent developments to illegal immigration, you are implying that illegal immigration is a new phenomenon. It's not.
I'm not "anti vaccine"... I'm simply "pro informed consent" and the problem is, parents (and many doctors) have no clue what really goes into these vaccines.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wrote my doctoral dissertation on vaccination almost 8-years ago... and when you actually take the time to look at the research, or lack thereof, you'll see why these parents are not crazy for bypassing the shots.
The sad thing is, they mention 146 total children have been diagnosed with measles this year, and "...63 weren't vaccinated."
Do the math... the other 83 kids who got the disease WERE vaccinated... which means their vaccines didn't work. If anyone is at "fault" here, its the vaccine manufacturers for producing a shoddy vaccine.
So don't fall for the media hype. Look at this from an open, unbiased perspective and you may just change your mind about the vaccination issue as well.
"When you talk about the cost and suffering of rubella (gone since 2005) and chicken pox, it make autism parents laugh. "
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt may make you laugh, but I (an autism parent) am far from laughing at that. I am disgusted that you would make such a comment and insulted that you would include me in your little group of callous people.
"The sad thing is, they mention 146 total children have been diagnosed with measles this year, and "...63 weren't vaccinated." Do the math... the other 83 kids who got the disease WERE vaccinated... " You claim to have a Ph.D. in vaccines? Why didn't you actually read the MMWR from the CDC?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5733a1.htm
Look at table 1: 63 were not vaccinated for religious or other reasons. Another 17 missed the opportunity or had unkown reasons for not vaccinating. The horrible part (or, most horrible), 16 were too young (under age 1) to be vaccinated. Out of 123, only 11 were known to be vaccinated with 1 or more doses of the vaccine. Some were possibly vaccine failure. Some hadn't had the booster (under 4). Some were likely old enough to be vaccinated under the old schedule before there was a booster. 15 had an unkown vaccination status.
But, bottom line, the vast majority were unvaccinated.
I'm sick of hearing the CDC mantra: "Vaccines do not cause Autism." Dr. Healy, former head of NIH, has publicly stated they haven't done ANY studies testing the hypothesis of thimerosal-causation on suceptibility groups.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnother lie you'll often hear is that mercuray has been removed from vaccines. Not all mercury has been removed from childhood vaccines. The thimerosal phase out began in 1999. It was supposedly out of most vaccines between 2003-2004. However, even today we have thimerosal containing vaccines. The FDA didn't even approve the thimerosal free version of Engerix Hep-B by GlaxoSmithKline until January 30,2007. Source: http://www.fda.gov/cber/approvltr/hepbgsk013007L.htm
That means as recently as 2008 some infants may have received the stock piles of thimerosal containing Hep-B vaccines. In addition not some but MOST of the flu vaccines, which are routinely recommended for pregnant women and infants, still contain thimerosal.
Please do your research before parroting the CDC mantra we've been hearing for years.
"Ginger, where did you come up with 25%? It's closer to 60%. The unvaccinated victims includes children too young for the MMR. " ANB: the number is *at least* 79%. Table 1 of the MMWR from the CDC shows 123 as the total count, 11 were vaccinated, 15 had an unkown vaccination status. Assuming all of the people in the "unkown" were vaccinated (unlikely), that gives about 79% were unvaccinated at the minimum.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMatt, why don't you go back to Autism Speaks to spread your Big Pharma propaganda over there. You've claimed to be the parent of an autistic child. I for one HIGHLY DOUBT IT.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of the most hotly discussed issues debated right now is autism. Autism generally begins to manifest around the age of three and is a developmental disorder which seems to impair verbal function and is often comorbid with mental retardation, (although less than previously thought). The history of autism and pseudo science is long and intertwined. In the 1950s, Bruno Bettelheim first began diagnosing children with autism as suffering from refrigerator mothers; mothers who he said were not forming the proper attachment with their children, leaving the child with a severely avoidant attachment pattern. He based this on his observation of holocaust victims at Auschwitz, who after severe abuse would with-draw into a non-social state (Simpson, Hanley, & Quinn 2002). Bettelheim was later found to be a fraud and a plagiarist (Simpson, Hanley, & Quinn 2002); his diagnosis however stuck around as accepted theory and partially continues to exist to this day. This caused generations of mothers of children with autism to suspect their love for their children and their fitness as parents.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe current autism pseudo-science craze is that childhood vaccines cause autism. This claim suffers from three of the four of Stanovichs warnings about pseudo-science. It relies heavily on testimonials, there is little to no scientific evidence that vaccines cause autism. The Taylor, Miller, Farrington, Petropoulos, Favot-Mayaud, Li, and Waight (1999) study is one of the numerous studies done on autism that found there was no evidence of vaccines causing autism. Woo, Ball, Bostrom, Shadomy, Ball, Evans and Braun (2004) found that there was a risk perception bias among parents who blamed vaccines on autism; the parents who reported that the vaccines caused their childs autism, placed less importance on vaccines in the first place, and underestimated the dangerousness of the diseases being vaccinated against. The second warning about the pseudoscience of vaccine induced autism is the end run around peer review, when one looks at the scholarly evidence for vaccine induced autism there is surprisingly little, however the papers and talk shows (Larry King just did two shows on vaccines and autism) are loudly proclaiming this pseudo-science. The difference between doing a peer-review search and doing a google search for autism yield very different results, of the over 100 articles I reviewed I saw 2 that indicated that mercury and by association thimerosal (the mercury containing compound found is some vaccines) were directly linked to autism, however the google search was rife with this pseudoscience. The most incriminating aspect of this vaccine hysteria is the correlation causation argument. Children get their pre-school vaccines around the age of three, during the language development stages when autism is most often diagnosed. It may be that parents of autistic children are blaming vaccines through a simple correlation logical fallacy. This linkage between the diagnosis of autism and the recipient of the preschool vaccines is a third variable correlational error. The third variable here is the aforementioned age of language and social development.
I think vaccinations should pretty much be a no-go for parents. These things are a literal witch's brew containing mercury, aluminum, cells grown on aborted fetal tissue, formaldehyde (used to preserve corpses) and much much more. A common thing in debates is to say that mercury has been taken out since 2001. Nope! Go to the any vaccine manufacturer's website. Say Merck for example, and look for ingredients in any of their vaccines. You will see. The government has an elaborate procedure for cleaning up even droplets of mercury that would make you think it was something from planet 900x that crash landed. The government also admits that it is a potent neurotoxin and can cause personality changes. I wonder what some of those personality changes are commonly called today, hmm? Read a great article on the reality of vaccines here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://warofillusions.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/the-abbreviated/
big pharma will never admit any wrong, ever. they can't. The way this country's legal system exists and works will prevent them from ever admitting any wrong, at all, ever. Even if they furvently believed it. On the other side of the equation is money. lots of it. Reputation is all. 300 out of 300,000,000 (i have no idea what the numbers are, and do not wish to belittle the other speakers, however, it is small). Admitting one of their vaccines can cause a problem is tantamount to admitting all of your work is suspect. Doctors can fall into the same trap. However, reading anecdotal evidence, and assuming it stands for something the scientific community "missed" is ridiculous. You want truth? Go find a company to sponsor your own testing. Third party. Sorry, the research simply does not support your claim. Is it reasonable, or possible? sure. Is it a leading cause, heck even a minor cause, of autism? not a chance. The substrate of mercury used in that particular type of shot was discontinued almost 30 years ago.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThats my two cents.
We Who Do Not Vaccinate are being villified by the the AMA, CDC, and Big Pharma- and they are doing everything they can to make you afraid of us. Just look at the new onslaught of vaccine ads (by the way, if you are such a true believer in vaccines, why are you so worried that your vaccinated kid will get sick from exposure to our kids?) We are not ignorant parents who don't care about our children. On the contrary- we are extremely concerned parents who are researching everything we can regarding the safety of vaccines. Unfortunately, the more we read, the more we are convinced NOT to vaccinate! I just hope the government does not succomb to pressure from Big Pharma lobbyists and force vaccines without ANY exemptions(which I'm sure is already in the industry's playbook). There used to be a time when a kid would get the measles and all the neighborhood parents would send their kids over to get the measles ON PURPOSE. I wonder how those parents would be judged today?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow, Hitler? I certainly wouldn't call what I have read to support a link between Autism and vaccines common sense even in its loosest definition. If we are going to site common sense then it seems to me it would have to support that a widespread lack of cases of a disease after exposure in vaccinated subjects is a fairly good indicator of the effectiveness. If your thinking were correct would not all those exposed to the highly contagious virus be infected? I don't know very many people who contract the diseases that they are vaccinated against (except as a side effect, go figure). Don't misunderstand; I have no love for pharm companies. I am certain they are the shadowy rulers of the American economy (along with Microsoft-glancing over shoulder) and would do anything, including vaccinate my kids with an unproven drug, if they thought they could make a buck off it. But to say that vaccines as a whole are ineffective is absurd. It borders on ignorant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy aunt died of complications (pneumonia) from measles in 1898. She was a beautiful little girl of two and a half. She was the first born of my maternal grandparents. She never had the chance to grow up...to know her siblings who came after...to marry and have children and grandchildren of her own. My grandma grieved for Mildred all of her life. She never got over her daughters' death. (Grandma died at the age of 88). If Mildred had survived, the doctor told grandma that Mildred would have had chronic eye problems for the rest of her life. My grandparents lived in a time when antibiotics were not available and they would have dearly loved the opportunity to have had a vaccine available to protect their four children from these diseases. My mother made sure that her children were vacinated. Think about it and weigh your decision wisely! Lil
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhere is Mumps and Rubella? Interesting that just as consumer confidence in vaccines plunges The CDC deflects the attention from the Gardasil disaster with the sensationalizing of so-called Measles outbreaks. Measles vaccine is injected with Mumps and Rubella vaccine. So where are all the Mumps and Rubella outbreaks?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe problem with these so-called 'outbreaks' has to do with the primary function of nature - to create a generation of strong biological entities. vaccinations are never the answer, and within this culture there exists a very dangerous trend to depend on 'medicial science' to solve the 'health crisis' of a culture that does not choose to practice preventive health. this culture has become a nation of individuals not willing to put forth the time and effort to improve their respective health concerns. if parents are truly concerned about their children's health, why do these same parents continue to pollute their children's biology with poorly constructed food stuff created to generate a profit and not increasing the potential benefits of health? high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors and colourings, and preservatives such as BHT (derived from petroleum oil..) have created ill-designed foods that have created ill-health issues in children ranging from obesity, diabetes, and depression. vaccinations can not eradicate the current health situation plaguing this culture. preventive health becomes the true mandate towards creating a generation of strong and healthy individuals. as long as this culture continues to consume foods designed for profit by corporations concerned with profits, then these diseases will continue to spread and continue to spark the erroneous debate over whether increasing vaccinations among the populace will solve the threat of these so-called 'outbreaks'. all vaccinations brings about adverse side-effects as currently witnessed with the cervicial cancer vaccination in texas that hs brought death and injury to thousands of teen-age girls. understanding how biology works will provide insight to many individuals towards their own personal health and the personal health of others.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am surprised at the widespread ignorance on this blog. For a bunch of SciAm readers, I would expect that you would be people swayed by research and eveidence -- not by anecdotal tales such as "My kid got vaccinated and caught autism two days later" and tout them as a reason to eschew life saving (and community protecting) safeguards. Having worked with one of the foremost autism spectrum disorder researchers in the nation, I can tell you that if any reputable researcher discovered that you could induce autism (a profound and complex disorder) in 48 hours with an injection of ANYTHING, it would be plastered all over the cover of every relevant science journal. Even if you believe in the Big Pharma conspiracy, you undercut the work of hundreds of thousands of scientists with no ties to large pharmaceutical companies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAutism is confusing, distressing and mystifying to parents and I can understand the desire to latch onto any plausible sounding explanation, but the vaccine angle is a non starter...it's about as reasonable as intelligent design. Just because you don't know the cause of something, doesn't mean that anything said to be the cause is equally valid.
There *are* studies that show a link between exposure to neurotoxins and autism. See Generation Rescue. But regardless of studies... let's just think for a moment about what's happening. Vaccines are filled with neurotoxins (formaldehyde, etc) and when you get one it's injected directly into your bloodstream. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to suppose that there may be people, especially small children with developing bodies, who can't handle that level of toxicity. To boot, what if that child already has a compromised immunse system, but the parent & doctor doesn't realize it because they're just starting to get ill. If you take them to the doctor and give them 6 shots of dead viruses and toxic materials, is it really that surprising that SOME of them might have a severe reaction to this?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThink about what's actually happening when you get shots, what's in them, the fact that it's INJECTED into the blood (as opposed to other toxins in our environment.) Think about the fact that we give our children THREE TIMES as many shots now as when I was a child (in the 1980's). To me, it's obvious there is a potential link between these facts and the near epidemic levels of asthma, ADHD, and autism since I was a child. Maybe this ISN'T what is causing all these issues with children these days, but boy, it seems like a completely obvious thing to consider - and look very carefully.
I agree. I never knew there were so many completely ignorant people unable to make rational conclusions based on facts that read this magazine. Some of you are spouting talking points from pundits of all people. Its like taking news from a pundit over a scientific study. Come on people, brains evolved for a reason, use em.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe mumps outbreak is in Chilliwack, BC amongst the religious right who also refuse to protect their children by vaccinating them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst of all this needs to be put into perspective. 100,000 people die every year from preventable medical mistakes. That's 100,000 DEAD!!!! 40,000 from car accidents. However, every science site has to harp on some parents who are rightfully skeptical of the government and the agency that determines vaccine safety. Thanks for the crappy science.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWasn't it this very magazine that carried the article showing that exposure to a wide variety of illnesses during pregnancy dramaticly increases the risk of autism in the children of the exposed mother? This would then prove the link between the disease regardless of how the baby is exposed, either by vaccination or contagion. There is considerable evidence that autism runs in families but do the genetic studies go back to prior generations before the vaccinations started to be used?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI see a lot of FUD from all sides but no convincing science anywhere.
Measles is back because your govts are creating the emotional environs for it to thrive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt wasnt vaccinations that eliminated the disease it was living opportunities & inner growth which political leaders are now making sure is attempting to anihilate to bring people to their knees in preparation for their New World Order. Theres a lot of ignorance here probably an indicator of people not taking responsibilty for their own health.
Blame, Blame & reaping as they sow. NOT RELIGION...Simply QUANTUM PHYSICS. Learn & wake up. Ignorance produces mistakes, Mistakes are lessons & lessons are for learning from NOT REPEATING.
I thought too much for my children to let them have injections.
I forget the name of the Dr. we are taught invented vaccinations (there were 2 of them) (Pastuer & I think Jenner) One guy stole the work of the other...but before he died he admitted it was not the way to go.
I deliberately said it that way because I cant recall his exact words.
Judy
Measles is back because your govts are creating the emotional environs for it to thrive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt wasnt vaccinations that eliminated the disease it was living opportunities & inner growth which political leaders are now making sure is attempting to anihilate to bring people to their knees in preparation for their New World Order. Theres a lot of ignorance here probably an indicator of people not taking responsibilty for their own health.
Blame, Blame & reaping as they sow. NOT RELIGION...Simply QUANTUM PHYSICS. Learn & wake up. Ignorance produces mistakes, Mistakes are lessons & lessons are for learning from NOT REPEATING.
I thought too much for my children to let them have injections.
I forget the name of the Dr. we are taught invented vaccinations (there were 2 of them) (Pastuer & I think Jenner) One guy stole the work of the other...but before he died he admitted it was not the way to go.
I deliberately said it that way because I cant recall his exact words.
Judy
First , I am very saddened that this kind of junk journalism is published ...any where! Ginger Tayler made a great comment...I will add that the UK and switzerland are ahead of the USA in terms of life expectancy. We hear the fear mongering and guilting for not vaccinating but rarely do you hear about the DEATHS and other serious problems these vaccines are capable of. Big pharma and cavalier doctors dont care about us...they care about the huge profits to be made, altuistic motives are not on their side...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn the other hand so called Anti vaccine zeolots hardly want me or my children to get sick or die.....
The biggest proponents of vaccination typically have finacial ties to big Pharma.....especially as of late ethical misconduct of researchers,doctors and so called journalists have shamed themselves and given us every reason do doubt.
"neurologic and sometimes fatal conditions associated with the measles vaccine include ataxia (inability to coordinate muscle movements), mental retardation, aseptic meningitis, seizure disorders, and hemiparesis (paralysis affecting one side of the body). Secondary complications associated with the vaccine may be even more frightening. They include encephalitis, juvenile-onset diabetes, Reye's syndrome, and multiple sclerosis."--Dr Mendelsohn MD."
I would rather take my chances with measles...than autism ,death, or who knows what?
I work in Dr's clinic, we get several vaccine reactions that result in loss of consiousness, frothing at the month and seizures resulting on hospitaliztion- you would think these reactions would be reported- but NO THEY ARE NOT!!! Which prompted me to do a bit of research (in medical journals, CDC, WHO, etc. I now have 3 healthy unvaccinated children- I am certainly not the only health professional that wouldn't dare jab their kids- no Dr would openly admit it either. I am an educated person who has done far more research than a pro vaccinating mother and my decision should be accepted, the same as I respect a mother that decides to vaccinate. The sooner people take responsability for their own health, eat good food, stop running to the Dr for antibiotics and so forth- the sooner we will have healthy kids. Most kids that come in at the age of 2, have at least 10-20 visits to the Dr in the past- this is ridiculous. My kids have NEVER had autism, asthma, antobiotic- nothing!! And don't say that it is because diseases are decreases due to vaccines- kids are still getting the diseases for which they are getting vaccinated agianst.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Measles is back thanks to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn Mexico vaccination is mandatory for all children. Schools do not accept children that do not show their vaccination chart, which has their full history on vaccines. All the vaccines in the chart are free,
"My kids have NEVER had autism, asthma, antobiotic- "..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey have never had antibiotic?... since when antibiotic is a sickness?
My kids had ALL the vacines mandatory in Mexico:
tuberculosis
hepatitis b
difteria
tosferina
tetanos
poliomilitis
influenzae b
rotativirus
Neumococos
Sarampion
rubeoloa
parotiditis
They did not have autism, nor, asthma. But that is just one case, we need full statistics to be meaningfull
Measles is not a fatal disease. It's completely treatable. Back in the 50's and 60's, MOST kids had Measles and recovered just fine! The Measles vax is as pointless as the chicken pox vaccine! We all lived through that too! I'd rather my kids get Measles than an autoimmune disease or autism ANY DAY! I'd rather treat a sick child than injure a healthy one!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismachine,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand others who won't accept the truth!
Accept the responsibility, your genes gave your child Autism.
Sadly, the fact is that Autism runs in families, like other mental illnesses, and genetic related health issues.
The truth is, YOU were careless with your child's future. It's been the same problem as years before, only now we have a NAME for it.
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In my country (Australia) children with a diagnosis of of Intellectual Disability (Mental Retardation in the US) and Autism Spectrum Disorder used to both be eligible for certain Government funding. Now funding will be granted for ID only. I just got off the phone with a psychologist - she was going to assess a child for ID first and if they were eligible under ID not go ahead with an Autism assessment - becuase "it won't increase his level of services to have a second diagnosis and it is a long expensive process" intersting to see if this becomes a common theme and we stsrt to see a skew in the numbers of children receiving the different diagnoses. We foung that a significant number (30%) of diagnoses changed when we started funding mental health disorders not behaviour disorders so I am willing to predict a similar shift.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGinger Taylor,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow big statements require big evidence. Apparently the quietly funded bit hasn't been that quiet becuase you know about it.
Please list the names of these people as I would like to contact them and find out how they did it.
Could you also please outline the way in which the sampoles were selected to create a correlation. I have a background in mathematics and statistics so would find this interesting also.
Not sure the arguement of "my child is more than your child" is a particulrly profitable way to go though.
Goodnees - where to start. How about science 101. Vaccines don't provide immunity in 100% of the population. However those people that become infected after vaccination have less intense symptoms.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe problem with common sense is that it isn't - the fable of storks bringing babies developed from storks nesting on warm roofs at certain times of year that co-incided with a greater number of births (more people get pregant in summer than winter). The point of the scientific method is that it doesn't rely on common sense and is therefore a greater indicator.
Hitler also loved dogs - what is your point?
Hi Ginger,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are showing ignorance here - with this area of experimentation you can't prove a link - you can only find evidence to support a theoretical link.
Goole Popperian thinking it will help you form more cohesive arguements
divine - wow persecution complex much?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI know in Australia there was an add showing a child with pertussis because one died through being infected by an unvaccinated child - the parents of that child can only be suffering shocking guilt I imagine
Cheezy...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease list the link to your KMasters thesis - I would like to have a critical read
nurse - methinks you protest to much - I am in a family of medical professionals - every one is vaccinated - have wroked in major clinics and hospitals and never seen such nonsense you describe - it is actually disfficult to shut them up when they are unhappy about how something run...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisvery suspicious
Check out http://factsnotfantasy.com/vaccines.php for more information.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd it's not just illegal immigrants, it's a loss of herd immunity, and it's happening all over the US because of willful ignorance and stupidity.
MOBILES GALORE (527)
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