Stomping Through A Medical Minefield

We shouldn't confuse scientific fact with belief. The scientific method is as follows: make an observation; form a hypothesis (explanation); if your hypothesis is true, what is then true about the observation; test the hypothesis and analyze results. All of the hysteria surrounding autism hits the first three, but ignores the step of proof. You are doing a disservice to your children believing in something that has not been proven. Either test and prove the relationship or find out what actually does cause autism so it can be treated/prevented.

The heart of the matter is that GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT MANDATE VACCINES. Government has no right to say people have to put something in their bodies, NO MATTER WHAT.

In addition, kudos to the mainstream media for setting up a straw man of a minority of those who write death threats. What is this exact percentage of the whole, who mostly just passionately oppose vaccines?

Last, it will ALWAYS be a common sense matter that mercury should not be injected into an infant, bypassing the skin barrier.

Ms. Clark:

Please reconsider your criticism of those families that question vaccine safety and have a healthy fear of mercury, one of the most toxic elements in our universe.

As to your flat earth comment, please remember that Galileo was tried and persecuted for helping to put that to rest over 400 years ago. He is a considered by some to be the father of modern science with his approach of question, observe, measure, and prove.

And today we question the role of vaccines in autism, and we observe that Thimerosal goes into bloodstreams of children and pregnant women, and we have proof that mercury is a neurotoxin (it destroys brain tissue), and we have the measurement in Thimerosal of 49 percent mercury by weight. Thus each person on this nearly round earth has the right to know about and question its use in vaccines. It has not been proven safe.

And over this weekend while we post on this site, there will be 140 children diagnosed with autism based on the 1 in 150 statistics given by CDC. So it is an issue of both good science and moral duty that we question and consider all evidence of harm and try to stop this horrendous epidemic on our most precious resource our children.

I have three boys. My oldest son is autistic. I hold a bachelor's degree in Marine Biology. I took care of many babies and young children for many years before I became a mother. I say this to let you know that I knew what normal development looked like. The only major difference in what I did while pregnant or raising my sons is how I had them vaccinated. My oldest was vaccinated according to schedule. After his sixth month set of vaccines, I began to notice a decline in his development, he was no longer truly progressing. By eleven months he was participating in our district's Early Intervention program. Eight years later, he's at the level of a two year old. As it is, he only progressed from six months to two years developmentally through two years of ABA therapy. With his brothers, I delayed all vaccinations until they were 18 months old and developing on target. Then I let the doctor give them one vaccination at a time until they had had one of each without a reaction. Then I let them get back on the recommended schedule. By the time they hit Pre School, there were all caught up with the kids who had been immunized from birth. From what I have seen in the autism community, it is a MIRACLE that neither of my other boys are autistic. As it is, not to be bragging, it's just the truth, my non-autistic sons are at least a year ahead of their peers in school. My autistic son is clever in his own ways (you should see him problem solve to get something he wants). Point is that I don't think I just got genetically lucky, that I sincerely believe that my autistic son became that way because his immune system couldn't handle the onslaught. As for vaccinations being around for a long time without so much autism, well, back then kids weren't given as many nor as young. Children get the Hepatitis B vaccine within an hour from birth! Also, children who may have been autistic weren't classified as such, only as mentally retarded and shunted off to asylums to live. Until doctors can conclusively point to what causes autism, I don't know how they can be so confident to rule vaccinations out. I can't wait until the scientific community develops a genetic screening for autism and I can find out if all my boys or just the one carry the autism gene(s). I'd also like to know if any studies are being done with families like mine that have managed to avoid a repeat of autism.

The last poster calculations look convincing, but if people started opting out of vaccines the amount of kids who caught the diseases would go up greatly. This would completly change the amount of kids who get the diseases. Also I am sure this poster isn't old enough to remember as very few are what happened before routine vaccinations. The amount of sick childen and the amount who DIED. I have 6 kids all who have been vaccinated on schedule. Just doing my family geneology I note that in the early 1900 and 1800's virtually every family had atleast 1 or more children who died before 5 and most of these were before 1 year old. Why because there were no vaccinations. It is amazing when you look at the amount of infants who died in previous generations. Vaccinations are an all or nothing proposition. If not enough kids get them it won't stop large outbreaks. The few who get autism even if it is related are a small percent compared to the amount who used to die or have lifelong disabilities from the diseases they caught.

For those of you who believe that vaccines and mercury cause autism - how do you then explain the fact that autism is on the rise when mercury/thimerosol has NOT been in vaccines in 10 years? It looks as though you are searching for a scapegoat to explain autism occurring in your children. Did it ever occur to any of you that previous recreational drug use could be a cause of the rise in autism? Autism rates have risen steadily since the 60s and MANY, if not most, of us experimented in our teen years with recreational drugs. I believe there is a plausible connection between past drug use and the rise in autism. The genetic effects/changes from drugs can be long-term in sperm and eggs. It only stands to reason that this is a distinct possible cause for the rise in autism.

The people who claim vaccines cause autism need to explain why 4x more boys get it than girls. Look to genetics. Boys only get one x chromosome. If that x chromosome doesn't have other genes to dominate over the "autism" genes (the way girls do with their other x chromosome), then they get genes expressed that lead to a complex matrix of anomalies that lead to autism. This happens whether they get vaccinated or not. Stopping vaccines will never stop autism. Let's get on with the real issues and stop villifying the people that SAVE LIVES with preventative measures.

I wonder why all the people out there who vaccinate their kids are worried about the small few who may choose not to on the ???recommended??? schedule? If everyone that wants to start vaccinating their child as infant does so, then great, you are covered; you do not have a thing to worry about. At this point, the only children at risk of measles and such are the ones whose parents choose to delay their schedule. So what do you have to fear?

I haven't read the book, but unless the author is proposing some theories, I don't see the point. Likewise, if the parents are all stuck on the vaccination theory, I think they are doing themselves a big disservice. The MMR vaccine timing coincides with the introduction of solid foods. We know that foods can have drug-like properties. The number of molecules that enter the bloodstream from food far outnumbers those from vaccinations. Has anyone investigated wheat gluten? This is ubiquitous in bakery products. Why is it in our food? Isn't this the same substance that made many pets ill last year? What are the health effects from this chemical? These are the kinds of things we should be focusing on. Wasting all of this time worrying about vaccines, which have such proven benefits, is very perplexing.

The real failing though is that everyone in society is expected to be vaccinated but there is absolutely no education about vaccinations in schools. Not until I took a course in immunology did I understand them. I don't think any parent should have their children vaccinated unless they understand how the immune system and vaccinations work. Then they will embrace them.

Get away from autism for a minute and look at the health of our kids in general. With all of the protection from disease that our kids are offered via vaccination AND considering the fact that we spend more money, per capita, on healthcare than any other country in the world, we should have the HEALTHIEST kids in the world. Would you expect anything less from our amazing doctors? Yet just this year we sank even further and the World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 29th in infant mortality. Therefore, if you want your newborn child to increase the chance they will survive past his/her first birthday you can choose 28 other countries to live in and have a greater chance. Amazing. We are doing something to our babies that is hurting them more than helping them. Wait, I know, it is putting them to sleep on their bellies. Dumb, dumb parent. If you want to improve cardiovascular function you need to STRESS the heart, if you want bones to be stronger you need to STRESS them with weight bearing exercise, if you want to improve respiratory function you need to STRESS the lungs to watch them improve. The same holds true for the immune system. If you want your kids to be healthier you need to stress the immune system and let them get sick. Unfortunately common sense in health care is not that common. Silly doctors, when you start keeping our kids healthy with your methods that is when I will subject my kids to your "treatments."

This is a very heart-breaking and intriguing topic, one that I, admittedly, don't know much about. Has anyone ever seen studies done on populations of children whose cultures/families don't use any sort of medicine (i.e. Christian Scientists)? What is the autism (suspected or confirmed) incidence rate in these communities?

okay i thought i would let you know about what happened in England in an area known as Kirklees i forfet the proper spelling but it is where my sister lives. in the year 1999 a new vaccine for measles mumps and rubella came on the market and kirklees was the first area to use it. that year my sisters son (1of 4 in the end) was one of the first to recieve it. that year autism rose over 300% for that area and the vaccine was imediatly removed from the market and that child 1 of 4 sons was the only one to get autism. it was removed due to the high levels of mercury.

Forget whether or not vaccination contributes to Autism...Vaccination is a medical treatment. As such, one should be properly informed of the risks and benefits. Since this treatment involves administration of a pharmaceutical product, one should be provided the entire product insert and ample time to research ingredients and adverse events. Only after fully understanding the risks and benefits, as they apply to this particular individual, should administration be performed. Further, in the event more than one product is to be administered, at the same time, not only should every product's information be provided, but also germaine research regarding concommitant administration should be provided; if no safety information is available for concommitant administration,then these products should not be given at the same time! Also, every recipient should be provided a snapshot of the history of the diseases to be prevented, including a graphic of prevalence from the early 1900's to current, percentage of individuals exposed to a disease who would contract the disease if ot vaccinated, percentage of individuals who contract the disease who would likely have negative life-long impact as a result of contracting the disease, the percentage of individuals who cotract the disease and die of said disease, and the percentage of individuals who contract said disease and die of a complication but not the disease itself. People should be informed that the "protection" offered by a vacine is not guaranteed and the percentage of those who are vaccinated who do not acquire immunity, and also that said immunity is transient. Because of the transience of vaccine-mediated immunity, they should be provided with a window of likely immunity. Finally, they should be provided a clear picture of the symptoms of the disease targeted by the vaccine, as well provide the percentage of people who contract the disease then have lifelong immunity for that disease. Then, and only then, is informed consent possible.

Those who automatically connect vaccines with onset of autism seem to avoid considering the vast unknown weight of environmental toxins that have strong known impacts on the reproductive systems and neurodevelopment . Take flame retardant chemicals (like PDBE) unused thirty years ago and now ubiquitous, by law. Laws designed to prevent smokers from immolating themselves in bed have resulted in everyone being subjected to exposure to these under-tested chemicals They wrap and swaddle babies from the day they are born, in blankets, cribs, mattresses. They are invisible and are persistent. They accumulate in mothers milk. More facts: On average, dust in California homes contains 10 times the PBDEs found in dust from other states and 200 times the amount in houses in Europe, according to a new study from the Silent Spring Institute. Worse, Californians have twice the level of this fire retardant in their blood as do people in other states. A recent research report by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group showed that American toddlers have, on average, a level of fire retardant in their bodies that is three times higher than that found in their mothers. In dozens of animal studies, these fire retardants also have been shown to harm reproduction and scramble brain development. Studies are underway to determine if PBDEs are contributing to increases in autism, hyperactivity, birth defects, infertility, diabetes and obesity in people. Don't just obsess on vaccines!