Confused About Autism and Vaccines? You're Not Alone!
Tuesday March 4, 2008
I just received the most recent Google Alert for the search term "autism." I glanced over the entries, and almost discarded the list. Then I looked again, and realized how accustomed I'd become to coping with constant contradiction. Here are the headlines:
- Autism linked to vaccine
- Why McCain’s Autism-Vaccine Quackery Is Especially Disturbing
- Researchers deny link of autism with vaccines
- US Government Concedes That Mercury Causes Autism
- McCain Perpetuates Vaccine-Autism Myth
- U S Government Concedes Vaccines Cause Autism
If you're new to the autism community -- or even new to the autism debates -- you have every right to be confused. The truth is, we are living in confusing times. These headlines are not an odd glitch -- they represent the daily helping we receive of conflicting opinions, dueling research studies, and angry debates.
How do you respond when you see such a conflicting set of statements that appear to announce mutually contradictory events? Are you angry? Confused? Amused? Is it all just too much? Or have you, like me, become accustomed to this state of affairs? What are your thoughts?
Comments
I find these articles to be like commercials. I don’t pay attention. None of them have anything new to report, they are just rehashing the same old arguments. Don’t waste my time! I’m busy with my ASD child. I’ll pay attention as soon as there is something new to report, such as “Federal gov’t awards grant for ASD research”, “New research shows that children with a genetic propensity towards autoimmune disorders are affected by vaccines containing mercury”, whatever. It’s a sad state of affairs that there is nothing new to report, and even if there was, I’m afraid it would be hidden behind all of this garbage news.
Well, autism in the news is always a good thing, even if it causes confusion. I’m not sure why vaccines would now confuse parents on choice, side effects have always been there and should be a consideration regardless of the autism factor. McCain is getting a whole lot of mileage for his remarks however I doubt he ever spent much time prior on the topic and even if he did, those comments don’t hold water with me. The only hits I see on RSS feeds is when you have it hit autism, otherwise general news sites, it’s not so hot. You have to have the key words in there to ever happen upon these news articles so where it may look like a lot to me, my neighbor would never see it.
When I see such a conflicting set of statements that appear to announce mutually contradictory events how do I react? I read them all, but until they knock on my door with some real smoking gun that would not only pertain to my child but every child, it just makes for good sharing and further education for other’s.
I read some of the articles but mostly find they say the same old thing. It is so lopsided in one very apparent direction. As the first person said above, you look for something different like “genetic propensity toward vaccines or anything with mercury”…I would add “anything with toxins that can cause neurological damage”. I feel very frustrated with the angry masses who think we are all paranoid if we believe there is something wrong with the current vaccine program.
Lisa,
I feel more confused now than ever. Seems like every day another study contradicts yet another study. I feel like I’m skeptical of everything these days and I don’t want to be …
Judith
I have been grappling with this same issue, as a parent and as editor of a new site, The Autism Retort, http://autismretort.com/. I am trying to link to stories of all types, but the conflicts are amazing. As a parent, I feel that vaccinations played a part in our journey with Autism and Seizures, that’s all I know. I know some of the things we are doing that i swear are helping, are considered quackery by the mainstream. It seems that one of the government’s goals is to make Autism Parents look like they just said the earth was flat, in the media.
I don’t want to see any doors shut to finding answers, over politics.
Who do we trust? I do not trust, nor do I have the slightest bit of confidence in government at any level, to be honest with us or to actually be a part of the solution, not the problem. Special Interests own Washington, D.C. and in turn the tentacles of the government bureaucracies. If there is a link between vaccinations and autism, adhd, asthma, immunity system issues, etc, yada, yada, yada, it is not far fetched to think that the government knows it, but still tries to cover up and sweep under the rug.
If you are hesitant or scared to give your child vaccines but decide to do it anyway, try your best to space them out as much as possible. Don’t overload your child’s immature immune system with tons of toxic ingredients to fight. Their systems cannot hanlde that.
Also, the best thing to do is to videotape your child during the week before the vaccine shot is given, showing the child’s behavior, focus, interaction, playing with toys and playing with other kids, making eye contact, etc. Make sure you have the correct date and time on your taping, include also some form of an exact date on your film such as the date on the newspaper or Weather channel for example, something that cannot be argued.
THEN when you feel that your child has made significant changes or regressed from a vaccine shot, videotape the child afterwards with all of your concerns being addressed - if they stop looking at people, stop playing, are uninterested in anything, do not respond to even their name, etc.
This is the kind of evidence that will HELP you in making your case and if enough parents start doing this, the drug companies and our governement agencies that are supposed to protect us will start sitting up straight in their chairs finally.
Please tell other parents to do this and spread the word.
I agree…it is amazing too how some of the same research can be interpreted in different ways by different people. Personally, I am still not totally convinced vaccines cause autism. On the other hand, I do think it is very possible that something in the vaccines may trigger the onset of autism in someone genetically predisposed to it. More research definitely needs to be done as the numbers of autistic children continue to increase. There is a great debate about the potential link between autism and vaccines at www.opposingviews.com/questions/are-autism-and-vaccines-linked. Multiple experts from both sides weigh in and provide their viewpoints. Great read on the topic!