Measles v. Autism in the Vaccine Wars
More people had measles infections in the first seven months of this year than during any comparable period since 1996, and public health officials blamed growing numbers of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.The Times goes on to note that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, has been largely removed from vaccines with no decline in the number of autism cases. While that's certainly true, it's completely irrelevant in the case of the MMR vaccine, since it never did contain thimerosal. In fact, the reasoning behind an MMR/autism link doesn't relate to mercury at all, but rather to a fairly complex theory which is also highly controversial.Many of these parents say they believe vaccines cause autism, even though multiple studies have found no reputable evidence to support such a claim. In Britain, Switzerland, Israel and Italy, measles outbreaks have soared, sickening thousands and causing at least two deaths.
...Public health advocates have become alarmed in recent years over a growing number of people who contend that vaccines cause illnesses, particularly autism. The number of parents who claim a philosophical exemption to mandatory vaccine laws has grown.... Because it is virulently contagious, measles is often the first vaccine-preventable disease to reappear when vaccination rates decline. In the decade before the measles vaccination program began, each year nearly 4 million people in the United States were infected, 48,000 were hospitalized, 1,000 were chronically disabled and nearly 500 died.
Autism and antivaccines advocates are unapologetic about the return of measles.
...“Most parents I know will take measles over autism,” said J. B. Handley, co-founder of Generation Rescue, a parent-led organization that contends that autism is a treatable condition caused by vaccines.
Setting all that aside, though, I'm not sure why no mention is made of the illness that I had always thought was far more problemmatic than measles: rubella. If you're as old as I am, you'll remember the ads for the "rubella umbrella" - the vaccine that essentially ended rubella in the United States.
Rubella is not a serious problem for the children who catch it: it's relatively mild, and easily treatable. The problem lies in the fact that rubella, when caught by pregnant women, can cause serious problems for an unborn child. Those problems can include damage to the heart, eyes, and ears - as well as mental retardation and even mental illness. Surely, even if J.B. Handley is correct and most parents would prefer to measles to autism, few parents would find it easy to choose between congenital rubella and autism.
As a parent, I knew nothing of these controversies when my son was vaccinated in the late 1990's. Even when my daughter was vaccinated, a few years later, there was less awareness of vaccines as controversial medicine. Today, thanks to the internet and broadcast media (along with the involvement of celebrities), the concern is everywhere.
I suspect, were I to make decisions about vaccinations today, I would be far more careful. I'd probably forgo certain vaccines; check bottles carefully for ingredients; and even consider splitting up the MMR into three separate vaccines. I'd do all this not because I believe that vaccines caused my son's autism, but for two very different reasons.
First, I now know that vaccines are not always harmless. In fact, there's a vaccine court in existence specifically and entirely dedicated to compensating parents for vaccine injuries. Before autism, the vaccine court was buried in the mists of bureaucracy; today, it's front and center.
Second, while I may not be able to protect my children from everything, I want to know that I did my best. God forbid that my child - or any other child, for that matter - should develop a problem or suffer an injury that I could have prevented with a few relatively simple precautions.
But with all the issues and questions now facing parents as they consider vaccines, I still find it hard to believe that any parent, Mr. Handley included, would feel comfortable with a resurgence of rubella. Surely there must be a middle ground - a way for us to protect our own children without risking the welfare of future generations. Careful scrutiny of vaccines and the vaccine schedule, along with informed parental decisions, may be the answer - but clearly, for many American parents, this isn't enough.
What are your thoughts on this very thorny issue? How do you respond to the possible resurgence of measles in America?
Comments
113 cases is an ‘outbreak’? What percentage of those cases lead to death? I understand that at least 10% were vaccinated. Both of my parents had the measles as children, and chickenpox, not a big deal. Who’s really ‘worried’ here? Pharmaceutical companies. Good thing they own so many media interests.
ok yea that explains alot but what about our queations like: is it normal for autistic children to rock back and fourth all day!
My little borther is 5 and he was diognoised with autism when he was six months and ever since then he has rocked back and fourth all day everyday and i want to know is that normal?
I blame it all on ivar lovaas and the way that behavioral therapy was dishonestly marketed in claiming his results showed it to be effective without physical punishment. This and allowing the classification autism in 1991 under the IDEA and The Shannon Carter court Decision in 1994 allowing noncredentialed personnel to be reimbursed resulted in the surge of autism diagnoses and the perception of an autism epidemic caused by MMR and other vaccines.
Just some really thoughtful comments so far
You are right in that it is a complicated issue. I think most parents want to do the best possible thing for their children. I think long ago people trusted the agencies and companies in charge to do the same. I think so much evidence has been uncovered indicating that these entities do not have “your” child’s interest as the primary goal and there are other competing interests in which “your” child may be an “acceptable loss”. This puts well researched parents in the difficult position of not knowing what is the best course of action, but also knowing for sure the old route of “trusting” the doctor and the agencies that educate the doctor is no longer a prudent course of action. A difficult position indeed…
PS. I am most interested in and encourage jounalists to investigate how these stories are pushed into the media and picked up. I am facinated by the selective inclusion of facts versus the actual reports they propose to report on and the propaganda like tone of the sometimes anonymous initial articles which are taken up and repeated over and over in lesser news outlets. It would be an interesting study in how a particular interest can influence media and public opinion…
I am concerned about the lack of vaccinations. When I was pregnant with my daughter, a community within the same province had an outbreak of rubella, and my rubella titre was negligible despite having had my vaccination as a child.
It’s a rather small world, with the ability to travel from one side of the world to the other in a matter of days. When the *world* is free of a virus, then maybe we can let down our guard.
There have been outbreaks of measles in my hometown as well. It’s not just the United States, it’s not just Canada. One of the important things to note is this isn’t just about measles – it’s rubella, it might be polio, and who knows what else. I understand being reassured by not knowing a neighbour kid who died from whooping cough – but if it’s in the world, with global travel we are *not* safe in isolation.
What about pregnant woman who many be exposed to children who recieved the MMR, since it’s a live vaccine it’s plausible that they are exposed to rubella every time they encounter a child who just received their MMR….Just a thought..
My son had his MMR at 15 months, 48 hours later 105 degree temp, 3 days later full rash. The night of the MMR he stopped sleeping, started screaming in digestive pain, gained new food intolerances, started staring episodes, etc. After the 18 month vaccines with mercury (2001), he stopped playing with his older sister, avoided his father, started loosing all skills, pointing, eye contact, etc, and by 2 all verbal skills gone an in it’s place repeatitive jargon and spinning….autism….Still considered non verbal at 8years, still wont poop in the toilet but we’ve made some progress with repeating phrases, learning to read, much improved behavoir and finally sleeping again with the help of biomedical treatments.
What I told Gardiner Harris, and what he didn’t print, was that it is shameful they don’t break down MMR into its three component parts so women can get the Rubella vax prior to child-bearing age and those worried about measles can have access to just a measles vaccine rather than a triple live virus vaccine implicated in so many injuries.
JB
I must confess I wasn’t very impressed with the NY Times article. There is potentially more going on than just a matter of more children being unvaccinated. They failed to mention the fact that for some unknown reason as of yet, the MMR is declining in it’s effectiveness against measles. Research it carefully and you will discover that to be so. I think that to be fair to the subject, they could honestly admit that to the general public as well. As a parent I know it is one extremely tough decision to make. I really don’t want to loose a child to measles or have any permanent brain damage from such a disease. But given the fact that at this point in time we really don’t understand how the immune system develops and what the long term results of vaccination are I’m skeptical. There has never been a long term study done comparing the general health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children so we are trying to make a tough decision with not a lot of good science to guide us. While we simply do not know if vaccines play any role in autism, so far the biological evidence uncovered in autism is suggesting that the immune system is dysfunctional. Check out for yourself what the UC Davis MIND institute has discovered about the immune system when they examined the blood of autistics and NT’s. Also John Hopkins Researchers have discovered elevated cytokine levels in spinal fluid of autistics which indicates chronic inflamation of the brain. They along with the NIH are currently conducting a study to treat these children with Mynocycline. Given what we do know thus far I think it is a credible theory that vaccines are indeed causing some children’s immune systems to malfunction causing autism. Most likely though in only a subset of autistic children.
“not a big deal” ???
Jypsy – your comment suggests that you’re questioning the idea that chicken pox and measles are no big deal. But you’ve linked to a site that appears to be showing pictures of children who are vaccine damaged.
To be honest, I suspect it’s perfectly possible to create “dueling horror” pages, showing on the one hand victims of measles, polio, TB, and other diseases which are presently managed by vaccines – and on the other hand children who were damaged by the vaccines themselves.
While I know that it’s possible to move people to tears with these kinds of photos, I don’t think there’s a clear “winner” in this type of competition. What’s worse – being brain damaged by measles, or by a vaccine reaction?
For those who are statistically oriented, it seems clear that vaccines do provide protection for more people than they injure (thus providing the greatest good to the greatest number). For those who are focused on individual children, this kind of argument may feel positively immoral.
As a student of ethics (I actually hold a Masters in Divinity degree!), it seems to me that both perspectives can be seen to hold the moral high and low ground. I suppose I’m a relativist (and I’ve been told this is a bad thing) – but honestly, there are legitimate arguments to be made on both sides.
Interestingly, NONE of what I’ve just said relates specifically to autism at all, but rather to the reality that every now and then the vaccines themselves are far more harmful to individual children than the disease they’re intended to prevent.
Lisa (autism guide)
It’s very frustrating to have to make choices for my children regarding vaccination as there aren’t very good statistics to compare. It seems the science and reporting behind vaccine side effects isn’t very accurate at this point. So it’s the fear of the unknown versus the chance that they will come in contact with the disease, actually become infected, AND suffer serious complications from it. There is plenty of political push for vaccinations but I’m not willing to base my children’s health choices on politics. So far we’ve only vaccinated my son with tetanus after he got a deep cut in his foot. I guess in the end we just hope they are strong, healthy, and lucky enough to sustain the vaccine or the disease. We also try to keep track of reported outbreaks. We have been trying to obtain a religious exemption for my son to enter public school (he’s been home-schooled)but it probably is not possible since he had the tetanus shot. We are not religious but it is the only option in NY for an exemption. Interesting that our society is still so lost in an archaic belief system and I find my way knee deep in it trying to muddle through.
Actualy, I thought jypsy’s link was showing the causes of these diseases, not vaccine injury. The photo’s are credited to ‘Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Thank you to the Immunization Action Coalition’.
Many people don’t know what some of these things are, or looks like. Even if one doesn’t die, many times they’re painful. It’s a choice for each to make for their own family.
One of the aspects of the vaccination debates (and it is plural, since autism/MMR is but one) is the way people on both extremes present their arguments as though there were only two choices on any given question.
In regards to the rersurgence of rubella because of fear over the MMR, the choices re not limited to blindly trust the vaccinologists or place your fear for your own child’s best interests against herd protection.
There is more than a little evidence that supports the tie-in between the MMR and autism; the Madsen Study (Denmark) actually shows the increase in occurance that came following Denmark’s use of the MMR when you undo his careful statistical manipulations. And though Wakefield has been abosultely crucified for daring to hint that a vaccine was involved in his patients’ bowel disorder, his findings have in fact been independantly replicated by credible researchers in other locations, including Krigsman and Buie.
If the problem truly lies in the triple virus vaccine overloading susceptibile children, we could see a reduction in autism cases by avoiding the MMR and reverting back to single virus formulations. So the threat of a resurgence of congenital rubella syndrome would actually be a completely non-issue, except that the people in charge of the vaccination programs refuse to entertain the available option, namely having Merck produce rubella vaccine as a single shot, using the patented and approved formulation that they hold.
Once again, we see that rather than dispel parental fears, the CDC is actually throwing gas at the fire by their paternalistic arrogance and blind refusal to enact true workable compromises to honestly increase the trust people have in their vaccination program.
I understand the reasoning behind the “break up of multiple vaccines” idea: common sense dictates that spreading out the vaccines over time will allow the body to manage the “insult” better. But I’ve also learned that common sense and science don’t always go together. Often, our intuition is simply wrong.
Here’s my question, therefore: can anyone cite research comparing the relative impact of single versus multiple vaccine injections? I’m not aware of such a study – and it seems to me that such a study would need to eliminate outside influences on the subjects (such as exposure to airborne mercury, or pre-existing conditions such as mitochondrial disorder).
Without studying the relative impact of single versus multiple vaccines, we can intuitively say that one is safer than the other – but we don’t really have any kind of proof. Of course, I can’t imagine it could HURT to break up the vaccines, assuming that they’re actually administered in a timely manner, but pediatricians tell me that the period during which children are not immunized can be much too long…
Lisa (autism guide)
Hi Lisa -
Here’s my question, therefore: can anyone cite research comparing the relative impact of single versus multiple vaccine injections?
There are likely some preliminary studies available; by way of example, the combined MMR + chicken pox vaccine was found to cause seizures much more frequently than those shots given broken apart; the mechanism remains unknown.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of vaccine safety studies do not look for neurological outcomes; instead, more simple to measure metrics like seizures, fevers, or rashes at the injection site are used as mechanism for evaluating safety. As far as efficiency, I believe there are likely several studies that show that children are able to develop and retain anti bodies following multiple shot sessions.
I could be wrong, but in countless requests for someone to provide me with a vaccine safety study that properly evaluated for neurological differences in the children, no one has responded. Go figure.
- pD
…but honestly, there are legitimate arguments to be made on both sides.
I can’t remember the last time I read a legitimate argument from the anti-vaccine side. Most of their arguments start with faulty assumptions – autism is an epidemic, mercury in any form or dose is dangerous – and it’s all downhill from there.
If anti-vaxers want to be taken seriously, they need to stick to real evidence. And they can start by throwing out the green t-shirts that tell us vaccines contain anti-freeze and ether. They don’t.
Please refer to Dr. Yazbak’s research regarding women receiving the MMR vaccine surrounding pregnancy:
http://www.vacinfo.org/researchers.htm
I received the MMR prior to pregnancy, after my OB/GYN measured my titers, and I truly believe this led to my son’s autism. If the rubella disease can lead to “mental retardation”, so too can the rubella vaccine, as obviously it is a live virus.
Diane
I agree there are pinpointed arguments on each side. I feel the shots can cause havoc in a fifteen month old. I my case, i have twins. One developed autism and the other didn’t, only mild developmental delay. They had the shots the same day. My twins are idendical. My gut feeling is that one twin was predisposed to develop the signs, and the other, whom had a stronger immune system did not. Somedays, i think if they hadn’t had the shot until they were at least three, their small vunerable immune systems would have been stronger, and the devasting outcome possibly could have been non-existant.
As the mother of four children two boys that had the MMR shot they both have Autism and once I wised up and said no to shots I have a son and a daughter that are developing wonderfully and ahead of most there age. So I say “SAY NO TO SHOTS” they need some Real research there. Your children could get hit by a car, struck by lighting, blow away in a tornado and you can do nothing adout it. But I can say no to shots and say yes to my children living the best life they can. My family is a perfect example that the shots have SOMETHING to do withit.
Lisa
We should all be very worried about vaccinations, I have two children with autism spectrum disorder and learning disabilities and I feel it was caused by the vaccinations they rcvd. I did split up my vaccines for my daughter and when she went for her first mmr vaccine she spiked a fever of 104 and ended up in the hospital for 2 days until it finally went back to normal. Her specialist said he couldn’t prove it but he as sure her severe reaction was due to the rubella part of the vaccine and to watch for any abnormal things in the future.
I have a friend in Europe and she said when she went to vaccinate her children the vaccines are much more spread out that ours are and not given at such an early age. Also if parents are concerned about Autism or Learning Disabilities they will hold off on the rubella part until the child gets older. Our country says there is no link but why is Europe taking so many precautions??
Our goverment is covering up the the drug companies here and helping them make money. They have no concern if your child is damaged for the rest of their lifes
I simply don’t understand. The articles I’ve read sight 131 cases of measles last year up from what 42 cases in 2007 while autism is 1 in 150 up from 1 in 10,000 10 years ago. Why isn’t the medical community as concerned about the rise in autism as they are about the measles? Could pharmaceutical lobbyists have anything to do with it? The gross neglect for the rise in autism clearly shows there are more influences here than the general public is really aware of and the medical community has their priorites wrong.
My child, after receiving his first MMR vaccine came down with a rubella type rash, had a fever, ran around screeming and started losing his eye contact with us. I believe that was the start of his autism symtoms and he contracted atypical rubella from the MMR vaccine.
Every vaccination series he received after his twelve month series, added to his behavior deterioration
The Mailman School of Public Health’s study on MMR and autism will be released on Sept. 3. Researchers looked at the gut tissues of autistic and non-autistic children. The study’s conclusion, that no evidence exists that links MMR and autism, is consistent with other studies. It also fails to replicate Wakefield’s 1998 study that claims to have found measles virus particles in the gut tissues of autistic children.
It doesn’t really matter if you “feel” that MMR causes autism. The fact is, there is no proof. That point needs to be made over and over and over. Feelings have nothing to do with it. Ignoring the mountain of evidence that exonerates MMR is not responsible parenting, let alone responsible journalism.
I had a “feeling” this is once again another flawed study. This is the statement released by the National Autism Association today regarding same:
CDC Misses Target With Flawed MMR/Autism Study
NAA says: Wrong Question Asked. Wrong Children Studied. Wrong Conclusions Reached.
Nixa, MO – A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released today claims there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The National Autism Association (NAA) says this study does nothing to dispel the growing public concern over a vaccine-autism connection and raises several questions concerning design and methodology.
For years, parents have claimed that MMR triggered their child’s subsequent GI (gastrointestinal) disease and autism. In a 2002 paper where the majority of autistic children were found to have measles in their intestines, the children examined showed a clear temporal link between MMR exposure and regression. The CDC’s attempt to replicate the 2002 study fell far short of proving the safety of the MMR vaccine.
The CDC study was designed to detect persistent measles virus in autistic children with GI problems. The assumption being if there is no measles virus at the long delayed time of biopsy, there is no link between autism and MMR. But NAA says this underlying assumption is wrong. The questions should have been: Do normally developing children meeting all milestones have an MMR shot, develop GI problems and then regress into autism? Do they have evidence of measles and disease in their colons compared to non-vaccinated age and sex matched controls?
In the current CDC study, only a small subgroup of children was the correct phenotype to study. From page 7, “Only 5 of 25 subjects (20%) had received MMR before the onset of GI complaints and had also had onset of GI episodes before the onset of AUT (P=0.03).” The other 20 autistic children in the study had GI problems but the pathology developed before the MMR vaccine. Additionally, the controls all received the MMR vaccine and had gastrointestinal symptoms. The controls should have been free of exposure to vaccine measles in order to make a comparison relevant for purposes of causation.
Inflammatory bowel disease in the absence of MMR RNA does not mean that MMR shot didn’t precipitate the GI disease and didn’t precipitate autism. A similar example would be rheumatic fever where the infection is cleared quickly but damage to the heart and/or brain last a lifetime.
Public confidence in the safety of vaccines is at risk until safety studies are performed that are required by law, ethics, and science. NAA calls for a vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated study comparing all health outcomes including autism. The CDC is in charge of vaccine safety, owns patents to vaccines (according to a UPI Investigative Report from 2003) and is in charge of promoting vaccines. The public should demand that vaccine safety be taken away from an agency with such conflicts and support HR#1973, the Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act.”
For more information, visit http://www.nationalautism.org
-30-
Think Autism. Think Cure.
As far as the debate on vacine vs. autism. My son has autism. I used to blame the mmr shot on his autism as well. Then when I got his paperwork for school I was shocked to notice that he didnt receive the MMR shots until after I noticed the Autism Symptoms starting. I personally believe that focus on treament of autism is more useful than the constant debate of where autism comes from. Whenever there is a developmental delay, we want to blame it on something instead of just accepting that this is the way our child was born. If people over the past 10 years have been refusing to have their children vacinated, then why is the autism rate still growing? Why to countries that never had vacations have the same rate of growth of autism in their communities. I know I am focusing on getting my son better rather than rallying on why he is the way he is. Personally I feel that is energy well spent.