What's In a Vaccine? Autism, Vaccines, and Getting Informed
So when you're making a decision about vaccinating your child, how do you choose wisely?
In seeking information about vaccine ingredients, I discovered that one of the best resources out there is my own About.com colleague Vince Ianelli. Vince, a pediatrician and writer, has published an article which answers many parents concerns about ingredients in vaccines. He even directly confronts questions about whether and why ingredients such as aluminum, formaldehyde, human serum albumin, gelatin, antibiotics and yeast proteins are still in vaccines.
Vince is not an autism parent, nor is he an apologist for the medical community. But he does understand the "green vaccine" movement, and he does provide clear, accurate information about its origins and significance. Readers may find his article - and other related information - useful and informative.
Comments
hello lisa, thank you for this link! i was searching about vaccine ingredients and this one is the best explained.
Your readers deserve better information-
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/25/cbsnews_investigates/main4296175.shtml
“They’re some of the most trusted voices in the defense of vaccine safety: the American Academy of Pediatrics, Every Child By Two, and pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit.
But CBS News has found these three have something more in common – strong financial ties to the industry whose products they promote and defend.
The vaccine industry gives millions to the Academy of Pediatrics for conferences, grants, medical education classes and even helped build their headquarters. The totals are kept secret, but public documents reveal bits and pieces.
A $342,000 payment from Wyeth, maker of the pneumococcal vaccine – which makes $2 billion a year in sales.
A $433,000 contribution from Merck, the same year the academy endorsed Merck’s HPV vaccine – which made $1.5 billion a year in sales.
Another top donor: Sanofi Aventis, maker of 17 vaccines and a new five-in-one combo shot just added to the childhood vaccine schedule last month.”
The information in that article is slanted to make it seem like all that junk in the vaccines is OK.
Any parent reading that ‘reactions are very rare’ only need look around and see how ‘rare’ it really is. Is your child ‘rare’? My kids sure are.
Mom and Dad, do more research, don’t trust any one source.
This information is all slanted to make it seem like all that junk in vaccines is AOK. Parents aren’t stupid.
Do your own research– don trust any one source.
“Very rare?” Please.
The purpose of the articles is to provide parents with accurate information about what is in the vaccines and why it is there. I feel they do a good job of doing just that.
Lisa (autism guide)
I think this is a good reference to offer parents when deciding vaccine choices. The general population does not have a severe reaction to any vaccine and it is rare. At the present time there is no knowing which will or wont have a severe or minor reaction but based on the info provided, a parent can weigh their choices.
As for profits, everyone is out to make some. If these diseases weren’t serious things, we’d never need a vaccine, so of course there’s a profit to be made and nothing or no one works for free.
I don’t really care who promotes or defends what vaccines or who financially contributes. Basing choices on that is simply foolish. Look up each disease there’s a vaccine for, it speaks for itself to parents, or it doesn’t. Everyones risk factor may be different than other’s too.
Thanks for the reference, I’ll pass it along.
My daughter had a severe vaccine reaction. 6 hours after her vaccinations I changed her diaper and there was blood in it. I had no idea that vaccines could cause phyiscal harm.
She had vomiting , seizures and high fevers.
Its been 4 years now. She stille has seizures and she has autism. She has 6 different therapies WEEKLY.
What did I find out when I the parent looked into the matter of vaccines. I found that mercury was removed. I found that misleading. They were referring to the legal term for removal in the pharmacutical/legal world. What that meant was that in my 8mth olds vaccine they did use thimerosal in the production process. They then had to filter out the preseverative (thimerosal-mercury) out of my child’s vaccine. But how do you filter out a preservative that is 46.9% mercury? HOW? It is not possibly to safely filter it out. Ther legal terlm they are now going for is “elimentanted”.
I now know there is thimerosal free vaccines. But I do not vaccinate due to the almost deadly reaction that my daughter had. Autism was nothing compared to the possiblity of death. So now I try to raise vaccine injury awareness. I want parents to be aware where thier vaccines are coming from and what they contain. We are so careful what we put in our children’s bellies why not the entire body.
I had to put my two cents in based on my families experience with vaccine reactions.
Thank you for hearing me.
Angela Mother of a Vaccine Injured Child I am on myspace under that name. Myspace.com/preventvaccineinjury
Actually, they stopped using Thimerosal and as more vaccines were produced, that created the filter process and the more and more vaccines created, the less and less that trace amount is. This process was on the news quite a bit at the time and why they could not disasemble their production to clean it out.
It also depends on who the manufacturer was, some never used thimerosal while others did.
My cousin who is about 30 years olf had a vaccine reaction not unlike your daughter however no long lasting medical effects occured, and it was a vaccine that never contained Thimerosal at all.
Your “Alternative Vaccination Schedules” link article is not what the link would lead you to believe based on the title. If you are looking for an alternative schedule, check out Dr. Sears vaccine book. The article you linked to says:
“None of these vaccines is optional though.”
Not true — it depends on what state you live in, but all are entirely optional (but with risks).
I think the word optional was used in a different manner of meaning as written in the link offered.
all vaccines are optional, no matter where you live however some states do not have waivers or lack on certain waivers. in order to attend certain public places like school and day care, they require a child to have vaccines or a waiver.
if a parent never sends their kid to day care and home school, vaccines no matter where you live are totally optional.
I appreciate the Doctor’s synopsis. I think it’s a bit too much of a “gloss”, however.
He didn’t discuss adjuvants in vaccines, which are designed to trigger a stronger immune reaction. I’m not sure which vaccines they’re added to – maybe all or maybe just some.
There is/are adjuvants in the anthrax vaccine. I received six times in the military before and during my Iraq deployment.
Each time I got the Antrhax shot it hurt much worse. I don’t mean a knot in the arm for a few hours, I mean searing burning pain the instant the injection occurs. The body isn’t reacting to the inactivated anthrax bacilli that fast — it must be something else in the vaccine. And the shots come from the same vial — the recipe doesn’t change from shot #1 to shot #6.
Ask ANYONE who has received the anthrax series and they will tell you the exact same thing. It is not psychosomatic.
So the question is what effects are adjuvants having on our kid’s developing immune systems?
When I first started to try to figure out my son’s autism, I used to think thimerisol was the problem. But I tend to believe the studies which haven’t found a link. I don’t doubt that mercury / heavy metal poisoning may be the cause of SOME kids’ autism. But I don’t think my son’s autism was caused by mercury.
I think the broader problem with vaccines is the sheer number we give our kids when their immune systems aren’t ready. The CDC never met a vaccine it didn’t like. They just add more and more and more to the schedule. And the things they are protecting against aren’t all that bad. Varicella is an unnecessary vaccine because the disease is mild and offers life-long immunity, whereas the vaccine gives about 5 years of “titer” protection, then leaves adults susceptible to chicken pox — which is far more serious.
Same with Hep-B. I understand if mom is an i.v. drug user or gets lots of tattoos. But the average kid doesn’t need Hep-B at birth. Again, Hep-B vaccinations only offer 5-10 years of protection. SO by the time the kids are in high school getting tattoos of their own, they are unprotected. So what’s with the Hep-B shot?!
I think the vaccines and overuse of antibiotics are going to emerge as the likely triggers for the majority of autism cases. Just a hunch.
The immune system’s response to the high number of shots and antibiotics for ear infections may be what leads to the development of leaky gut, autoimmunity, or other problems which, in turn, causes autism in susceptible kids.
It might be other triggers in kids who are autistic from birth. Maybe mom had a flu shot while pregnant. Maybe mom had preeclampsia. Maybe there was some other environmental exposure that the child received in utero.
There seems to be a complex combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental triggers. Wish we could fast-forward 100 years and find out the answer.
Many parents (myself included) have noticed a temporal nexus between shots and their child’s regressive autism. So far I’m not aware of a study that has really looked at this in an unbiased way.
Will an independent study ever convince ALL parents? Maybe not. But I think most parents are open mined enough to be persuaded by fair and unbiased studies. We just haven’t seen any yet.
-Bob
Continuing…
So what WOULD convince us vaccine-skeptical parents? When the cause or causes of autism are found. That will convince us.
Right now medical science is still rubbing the cobwebs out of its eyes. Until recently, it viewed autism as caused by “refrigerator mothers.” Some pediatricians who graduated from medical school more than 10 years ago still have this idea in their head.
There’s also an inherent arrogance in the medical community. They are quick to dismiss parental observations, rather than take them into account. Are we objective — maybe not 100%, but we try. Do we know our child better than any doctor ever will? Yes. So parental observations are not scientifically rigorous, but they are of scientific value and should not be disregarded.
Of course we don’t want to leave our kids unprotected against dread diseases. But we have legitimate and unanswered concerns about vaccines.
My autistic son has bounced back A LOT since he was really severely autistic at 18 months. Now he is 30 months and is actually talking, good eye contact, etc. What changed? No shots since 18 mos. He is a year older. Plus ABA. Plus lots and lots of love. How much of a role has the removal of vaccines had?
My “gut” tells me it has helped a great deal. I’m not yet willing to risk further vaccines on him. I will be racked with horrible guilt and sorrow if he gets whooping cough or something that a vaccine could prevent. ON the other hand, I want to protect his brain from further injury while he is rebounding so well and trying so hard.
My younger son (9 months old) is on a modified vaccine schedule. He never gets more than one vaccine at a time. And no more than one per month. He is still pretty much up to date on his vaccines. And has no symptoms of autism thus far.
Yes, I know it’s anecdotal — but so many parents have had the exact same experience. It’s worth instigating and it’s worth keeping the heat on the ultra-pro-vaccine lobby.
The question – and it remains a legitimate and unanswered question – is whether any vaccines do any harm. If so, what is the problem? Is there a cumulative effect? Synergistic effect?
And, come on! Do we really need to vaccinate for Hep-B in the absence of risk factors? (No!) Do we need to vaccinate for Varicella (No! – it’s turning a mild childhood illness into a serious adult illness).
Hopefully some good independent (unbiased) studies can be undertaken to sort this all out. I will remain open-minded but skeptical.
-Bob
My 3 year old son has autism and if I would have known what was in the shots, he would have never got them. He was normal until 18 months. I have talked to friends that are drs & nurse and I want everyone to know that they said that there is still thermosal in the shots. Along with antifreeze and many other things. Because of this my baby will not get these shots. They are sure trying to cover this stuff up.
But how do you filter out a preservative that is 46.9% mercury?
It’s not filtered. They use a chelating agent.
There is no evidence that the trace amounts of thimerosal you are talking about cause autism. Plus, the symptoms of autism are distinct from mercury poisoning.
Why do anti-vaccine activists keep telling us that vaccines contain anti-freeze and ether when they do not? And what’s the big deal with formaldehyde – it’s a naturally occurring chemical. Your body contains about 5 mics of formaldehyde per liter of blood. A 12-pound infant has about 1.2 mics naturally occurring, which if five times more than than the maximum amount injected at one time.
Why the fear mongering? Of course you’re anti-vaccine when you purposely get those kinds of facts wrong.