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Hi Kelly,
You certainly do not sound catty, and I am in no way offended.
I realize this is a sensitive subject, and especially when a parent whose child has autism is concerned.
I am, however, convinced that there is NO CAUSAL LINK between vaccinations and autism.
While I do not wish to go into details, I feel somewhat qualified to speak on this as I am an immunologist.
Regarding the comment that it's too late for the government to say anything now - while I don't agree with everything the government does or says, I don't believe it is in the habit of putting peoples health and lives at risk in order to "save face". As I earlier stated, the government not too long ago removed Thimerosal from vaccine formulations due to public concern, even though there was NO EVIDENCE it casued ANY adverse affects. In my opinion, our goverment (U.S.) tends to err on the side of caution.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when you hear of the links between autism and vaccinations.
1)Autism is usually detected between 12-18 months of age; the MMR vaccine is usually given between 12-15 months of age. This is what we refer to as a statistical anomaly, like the incidence of deaths in India correlating with ice cream consumption in the U.S. The two may coincide, but one has nothing to do with the other. In addition, to take this one step further, most parents are very observant of their children immediately following a vaccination - for legitimate concerns regarding rare but real allergic reactions. It is not suprising that previously undetected signs of autism might then be recognized.
2)The rate of autism in children receiving the MMR vaccine and those that have not is the same. - disproving any causal link between the two.
Moreover, at least 1 study has gone back and utilized home videos and shown that many children who are diagnosed with autism at 12-18 months of age already exhibited signs of autism at a much younger age, long before being vaccinated.
At the risk of sounding confrontational, I am adamantly opposed to parents witholding vaccinations, which cearly puts their children at serious health risks, for reasons of unsubstantiated concerns of adverse affects of the vaccine.
You might find the following published report enlightening:
MMR Vaccine and Autism--A New Study...
In 1998, British scientists suggested that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine might be a cause of autism. They based their conclusion on a study of only 12 children who had developmental disorders, most of which were identified as autism. In 8 of the 12 cases, the children's parents or physicians suggested that the MMR vaccine might have contributed to the onset of the behavioral problems. This finding created great concern, and prompted a number of studies to see whether it was correct. Almost all of them failed to find a link between MMR vaccine and autism, and a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) came to a similar conclusion. In that study, the CDC researchers used school immunization records to check on vaccinations received by 624 children with autism and compared them with over 1200 children without autism. The major finding was that the first MMR vaccine was given at the same age in children with autism and those without autism, which suggested that the age at which a child receives their first MMR vaccination doesn't affect the risk of developing autism. (DeStefano F et al: Pediatrics, February, 2004, pp. 259-266)
...And An Interesting Development
As we noted above, the original claim that the MMR vaccine caused autism was published in 1998 in the British medical journal called The Lancet. Now, 10 of the 13 researchers responsible for that study have retracted their conclusion, admitting that they did not have enough evidence to suggest that the MMR vaccine caused autism. On February 23, the Lancet's editor stated (on the journal's web site), that the lead author of that report (who did not sign the letter of retraction) had failed to reveal to the journal that he had a conflict of interest when he conducted the research, since at the time he was also gathering information for lawyers representing parents who suspected that their children had developed autism because of the vaccine. In his defense, a colleague of that author argues that the researcher had not become involved with the lawyer until after the study had essentially been finished. (O'Connor A: New York Times, March 5, 2004)
COMMENT: What's so unfortunate about this issue is the fact that the original report was not worthy of publication in the first place. Most careful scientists recognized at the time that the evidence suggesting a link between autism and the MMR vaccine was extremely weak; more than five years later, most of the report's authors have belatedly come to the same conclusion. In the face of the widespread publicity given to that finding, however, public health officials had no choice but to conduct studies to see whether the suggestion was correct, and not surprisingly, the overwhelming evidence now finds no support for it. It's sad that so many parents were alarmed by the 1998 report, and it's also sad to think how much effort scientists had to spend on proving the study wrong, when those efforts could have instead been devoted to other activities that would have benefited children's health.
Source: Child Health Alert, May2004, Vol. 22, p4, 1p
Qadoshyah,
I'm not sure why the link did not work for you. I tried it again and it seems to be working.
BTW-in case anyone is wondering, I do not work for a pharmaceutical company - I have no stake in vaccines other than my belief that they are important safeguards of our children's health.
__________________
Darryll
Dad to Joshua (3) and Isabelle, DS, 1-09-05
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02-23-2006 11:00 AM
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