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Autism And Vaccines: Why People Still Believe The Hype
Early last month, the now-famous paper by Dr Andrew Wakefield that supposedly linked vaccines to the onset of autism, was formally retracted by the Lancet, the journal that published it back in 1998. This was a monumental decision, considering it was the conclusions drawn from this paper that launched the firestorm of debate around the safety of vaccines, and likely the cause of the current vaccine crisis.
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Posted by Matt Brown on 03/19 at 12:50 PM
The human mind is built to see patterns, even one's that aren't actually there.
A very good article, though I must say I'm less sympathetic to Jenny McCarthy then you are. That woman is true believer and no amount of evidence will shake her belief in her own preconceptions. In the process she is causing a great deal of harm to both the children she "helps" and their parents.
Posted by RAnn on 03/19 at 02:11 PM
I'm the parent of a 17 year old son who has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS. Unlike some, my son's was not regressive; looking back at things he was never normal. When I had a baby six years ago I thought long and hard about vaccines, did some research, and finally, crossed my fingers and allowed her to be vaccinated--but on a delayed scheduled. I know my decision is far more emotional than scientific, but the reason I made it was to minimize the risk of harm both from the vaccines (if there was a risk) and from failing to vaccinate (a known risk).
The incidence of autism started increasing with kids my son's age. His cohort was one of the first whose "baby shots" included HepB and HIb. My six year old got even more. Maybe the problem isn't Shot A or Shot B; maybe the problem is too many shots too close together. I haven't been able to find any mainstream study comparing autism incidence in fully vaccinated vs unvaccinated kids; but some of the anti-vac sites say that unvaccinated kids don't get autism. As a parent, all I want to do is protect my kids to the best of my ability. Autism is very real in our world today; for most parents, polio, diptheria and pertussus are hypothetical risks.
Posted by bensmyson on 03/19 at 02:15 PM
I appreciate your compassion as it regards the pain parents feel when their child regresses into autism. I appreciate your acknowledgement that regression even exists. I am one of those parents with a child that developed well, meeting and surpassing his milestones, got a vaccine and he regressed. I also have a compilation video that a behaviorist is using to teach her med students.
Jenny McCarthy is a parent. She is not my guru. Wakefield is just one of many doctors trying to help, his paper had to do with finding measles in the autism children he was studying causing children to have serious intestinal problems. My science regarding vaccines is journal articles and news reports. I would suggest that many such as myself question vaccine safety because of news reports such as http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3336455/Secret-report-reveals-18-child-deaths-following-vaccinations.html and http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501263_162-4770907-501263.html and nightmarish accounts about a baby dying after a HepB vaccine. http://iansvoice.org/days1thru2.aspx These are the reasons why I believe vaccines are not safe and can cause autism, not Jenny.
Posted by Tony Bateson on 03/19 at 02:32 PM
There is no hype about vaccines and autism although industry people like to make out there is. I didn't form my views about the direct links between Thiomersal and autism until Nov 2002. Well after I had my attention drawn to the possibility by Andrew Wakefield who had made no such direct connection. Those people who rebut claims about a link have not done the work. I have spent thousands of hours reading the literature including nearly all the scientific reports, I have met hundreds of parents, I have attended twenty meetings aggregate numbers of over two thousand parents and professionals and written dozens of articles and letters, published in four national newspapers and thirty regional papers in the UK. In all of this I have sought to find evidence of autism in unvaccinated people. I am satisfied there are none. Sooner or later everyone else will be satisfied that this is the case. In Britain we have around three million unvaccinated individuals but seemingly none are autistic.
Tony Bateson, Oxford, UK.
Posted by Sullivan on 03/23 at 05:51 PM
Jenny McCarthy is far from the advocate I would hope for for my child. Besides being crass, she is inconsistent in her stories and illogical. She bases her opinions on vaccines on poor science and misleads the public. Consider Bensmyson's comment above. He has it wrong about Dr. Wakefield's retracted paper. It didn't find measles at all in autistic children.
Jenny McCarthy's story doesn't add up. She claims that her child was injured by vaccines. Many have misread what she said and the story has morphed into various forms. The TIME article you cite is one. The author mentions Jenny holding her son while his eyes rolled back after vaccination. Where did that story come from? She doesn't mention anything of the sort in her "Louder than Words" book. Jenny McCarthy's son's regression followed the onset of seizures after he was 2 1/2 years old. If her son was vaccinated on schedule, that would put him over 1 year after his last vaccine. Other than the fact that he was diagnosed autistic and some people blame autism on vaccines, where is the supposed link?
Jenny McCarthy doesn't provide hope. She provides misinformation.
Posted by barbaraj on 03/27 at 05:48 PM
I watched my nephew deteriorate after his mmr, it wasn't over night, it began with excessive crying, months of screaming, odd shaking, until after many months the seizures started. What the cdc would like us to believe is at shot day you either react or you don't. The damage occurs over time. There is so much out there now , proving that likely the thimerosal ,aluminum, and live antigens cause autism, it's only a matter of time before Sebelius and her comment won't protect the program. Read her comment in Reader's Digest, she literally is taking away the free speech of the people and is manipulating media when she said she talked with media and asked them not to give as much weight to anti vaccine stories. There are no anti vaccine stories, there are only truths told by families of so many damaged children. When we KNOW media is being manipulated we MUST question .
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