“they have not researched all the ingredients given out in the vaccines so therefore it is a lie to say that vaccines do not cause autism.”

It’s very simple. There’s no statistical correlation between vaccines and autism. Therefore vaccines don’t cause autism. Case closed. It doesn’t matter what the ingredients are, if there’s no correlation, there’s no causation. You might as well say that Jenny McCarthy causes autism. They haven’t researched it, therefore it’s true.

“i cant understand why it would bother people that we believe it may be the cause.”

Because the spread of misinformation causes people to die or become severely disabled due to preventable disease. Do you know what polio can do to a person? It’s not pretty. Do you really think we should kill thousands of people because of a scientifically disproven hunch that you won’t let go of?

I have made an Animation that I believe has strong satirical value.

“VACCINES”

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TheGuerrilla23#p/u/0/maTEmrQJ3K0

Derek B. (#6) provided a link to a hilarious article that was definitely worth the click. Ha-ha!

Speaking of Jenny M.’s claims: Well, celebrities often have more pull than they should, without having to prove their competence level towards the subject matter they spout off about. I’m just glad this wasn’t a newly found belief system or a New Age religion promo via a celebrity – there has been enough of that during the last several years.

Anyway, back to the subject: one thing seems to be true, for whatever reason, autism is on the rise. I don’t know, maybe we should blame it on environmental changes and pollution issues instead…

http://www.autismmedia.org/media4.html

Erik

My first child is autistic. My second is not. My husband and I vaccinated them both. Yes, that means I knowingly administered a vaccine to my second child when I knew my first was autistic. And I’m glad I did!

Contrary to Ms. McCarthy, autism did not steal my daughter’s soul. Her soul, her personality, her life is intact. As are the souls, personalities and lives of all people with autism. The implication that those with disabilities are so flawed as to not be human is outrageous, especially coming from a mother of a disabled child.

Here’s what I have experienced: there is a subset of parents who, for reasons of their own, cannot accept that, from the time their child’s cells first split, the child would be autistic. They need to believe that their children were born better/healthier/less disabled than they are, and that some outside (but unidentifiable) source ’caused’ all this trouble. There is a tremedous emotional attachment to this idea, and no amount of legitimate scientific research can dislodge it. In other words, these parents are no longer being reasonable ~ they are leading with their collective chins.

But they should know this: you cannot wage war on autism without waging war on the child who has it.

Thank you again for this!

Years ago, when I first started practicing, I defended a doctor who was one of many medical providers named in a wrongful death case. The decedent was a young guy who caught the chicken pox from his infant daughter. He went septic, then lived in a vegetative state for a few months until he had complete organ failure and died. The photographs were horrifying. One of the issues in the case was whether he should have been treated with acyclovir, which, IIRC, was still pending FDA approval for herpes zoster treatment, and is the same drug used in the vaccine today.

Had the vaccine been around back then, the baby, who was too young to be vaccinated herself, would not have been exposed to an infected kid at daycare; she would not have passed the virus on to Dad; and Dad would be alive today.

Is this one of the “too many” vaccines that we give our kids?

And speaking of Alzheimer’s, all members of my Paternal Grandmother’s family begin suffering Alzheimer’s starting at around 70 and lasting until they pass away in their late 80s and early 90s. All of them have lived with the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s for over 15 years before passing away.

If you want to keep going, my sister was diagnosed with Lupus at age 11 and much later with Gluten Enteropathy. I’m very familiar with gluten free diets. One aunt and one great aunt also suffered from Lupus. If I dig, I know I can keep pilling it on.

Do not presume that because we do not point out the disabilities within our own families that they are not there. I would wager that most people know somebody who has suffered from some learning disability or medical condition that inhibits their ability to function. Demands that we sympathize with Jenny fail to impress me.

The anti-vaxx movement consists of guilt ridden parents searching for answers who have had those answers provided by unscrupulous lawyers, lobbyists and glory hounds who are basically con-artists. They are using the pain and confusion of these parents to get themselves face-time and money. That is all that is going on here and it is sickening.

The anti-vaxx movement is INHIBITING autism research because so many people either “Don’t trust” the doctors who want to find the REAL reasons or who are convinced the cause has been found and therefore there is no need to keep looking.

There is no such thing as “vaccine induced autism.” There is not credible, medical evidence of such a thing.

Curious, one need not present an alternative to disprove something. Mountains of medical evidence show that vaccines do NOT cause autism.

My brother has a rare-chromosome disorder (Internal deletion of the Long-arm of Chromosome 10) that causes multiple medical problems, including many that manifest as both Down’s syndrome and Autism. We have been contacted multiple times by the anti-vaxx crowd.

I can tell you from personal experience that what has happened is very sad. Parents, wracked with guilt, undeserved but still there, are contacted by greedy lobbyists and lawyers and told “Vaccines caused this…you should SUE!” Thankfully my parents are intelligent, rational people and refused to listed. But many, MANY parents, who have a profound lack of understanding fall for this hook, line, and sinker.

It’s the “give me the pill” syndrome. Many people, seeing the advances in modern medicine, are simply unable/unwilling to accept that there are mysteries we don’t understand (the cause of autism being one of the biggest). So you get a TON of this “Correlation equals Causation” reasoning that is just bad logic.

As for Curious’ “The Merck Manual says…” have you ever READ the side-effect labels on ANY medication. Virtually any medication has “Death may result…” because is some test there was a death after taking the medication. Those “side-effects” are pure liability covers.

It sounds like some of you are “sure” that vaccines don’t cause autism. Pray tell – what then DOES cause it? If anyone on this site can say with certainty that vaccines play no part in this disability, you have to have concrete proof of an actual alternative “cause”.

If someone says that there is significant evidence against vaccines causing autim, why do they have to have concrete proof of what does cause it? That’s like saying, “Well, since you know that Fred didn’t rob the bank down the street last Friday, you must know who did it.” The specific cause of autism is still unknown, but genetic factors are a very likely candidate. Research is still looking into this. Vaccines as a cause have been examined, and no statistically significant correlation has been found in the well-controlled studies that have been conducted (e.g., comparing rates of autism in people receiving thimerosal-containing vaccines vs. those receiving thimerosal-free vaccinse, comparing MMR vs. no MMR, comparing vaccines vs. no vaccines, etc.).

Regarding Merck’s insert for their MMR vaccine. By law, IIRC, they are required to include in the labeling all effects that are associated with their product. So, out of 80 million doses since 1975, some recipients (we don’t know how many…it could be 3, it could be 1,000 or more) developed encephalitis, but it has been determined that it is very rare (so, probably in the realm of much less than 1%). Of those very rare cases, some could have been caused by the vaccine, but there is no distinct proof on way or the other. At any rate, it is believed to be a possibility, so it is placed on the label. This allows the consumer to make an informed decision as to whether or not they wish to receive the vaccine.

Regardless of that, however, encephalitis is a distinct disease which is different from autism and has a different diagnostic criteria. The argument is not that vaccines cause encephalitis (there is evidence to suggest that some vaccines do cause it), but that vaccines cause autism (for which there is not evidence). Simply because it has neurologic effects does not mean that it causes just any neurologic effect. Does it cause disphasia (sp?)? That’s a neurologic effect. How about tics? Dyslexia, perhaps?

Keep in mind, I am not arguing that encephalitis is a minor thing. It can be very serious, resulting in permanent brain injury. It may also result in no lasting damage, depending on how much swelling occurs. Also, again according to the labeling of the vaccine, it is very rare and may not even be caused by the vaccine itself.

A couple misconceptions you seem to have that I would like to clear up:

Thimerosal was added to make vaccines cheaper and more profitable.

Thimerosal was added as a preservative to prevent the growth of bacteria or other contaminants in multi-use vials of medicines. Such contaminants can have a very serious negative health effect on the recipient. The use of thimerosal, therefore, extends the usable shelf life of a medicine, a particular concern when using multi-dose vials. That is the primary reason for using thimerosal, to extend usable shelf life.

Stemming from this is that it does happen to decrease the cost of the medicine for the consumers. I fail to see how decreased costs to consumers is a bad thing. Single-dose vials, without thimerosal and having a shorter shelf life, offer much more potential profit for a company.

As to shipping thimerosal-laden vaccines off to other countries, again, I fail to see this as a huge issue. Many of the countries receiving these vaccines have poor or inadequate medicine storage facilities, so the use of multi-dose vials with preservatives like thimerosal is essential to proper medical treatment of the local population. Supposing that the mercury in thimerosal does cause autism, then a study of populations in third world countries should show rising/increased rates of autism, as compared to similar socio-economic populations who do not receive such vaccines. If you know of such a study showing these results, please share it with us.

As to the mercury in thimerosal building up in the body, as someone else already pointed out, ethylmercury is eliminated from the body very quickly and does not build up, like methylmercury (a mercury compound found in a number of environmental chemicals). Note, the EPA guidelines for mercury exposure are for methylmercury, not for ethylmercury.

Thimerosal has been used, IIRC, at least since the 1950s. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong on that. If thimerosal had as significant an effect as you suggest, then we would see many problems linked to its use since it was first introduced. If you have some studies that show such problems, again, please share them with us. Furthermore, if the mercury in thimerosal causes autism, then we should see a dramatic drop in the number of autism cases since 2001/2002, when thimerosal was eliminated from nearly all vaccines.

I’m not going to get into all of the politics of the FDA, as I am not nearly as well versed in it as needed to properly argue either side of the story. Suffice it to say that the FDA does not have “contracts” with pharmaceutical companies. They do suffer from problems of lobbyist action and political machinations by the executive branch of the government. Some products do get approved when they should not be (I’m of the opinion that Gardasil was one product approved too quickly, though I am also highly skeptical of the numerous claims coming out against it. Thus far, there have been no conclusive, proven links between Gardasil and the alleged maladies. Rather, a lot of post hoc ergo propter hoc anecdotes.), but significantly more products are denied entry to the market due to health concerns than are approved.