AAARGH! Childhood Vaccines Do NOT Cause Autism!
While I realize that this topic is going to get a lot of comments, both pro and con, I think it is important to discuss. I do not shy away from controversy, especially when I do not feel the subject is controversial in the first place.
When I was a child, the Public Health Department apparently had the right to give us vaccines at school without our parent's permission. I think the parents had to send in a note if they did NOT want their child to get vaccinated; otherwise they lined us up like cattle and just did it. Of course, that was when we had polio, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, German measles, and other kid-killers in our communities. It only takes one child with polio in a small town to get people lining up for their sugar cubes (the oral vaccine used to be given on a sugar cube). Not any more.
Perhaps, this is because this new generation of parents has never experienced these terrible childhood diseases, or perhaps because the Internet is just scaring people. Nothing in life is 100% safe; but vaccines are pretty darn close, and in my opinion, they are the best defense we have to keep these diseases from making a comeback.
Some of my patients decided that it was the "combination" of vaccines that caused autism, so they wanted the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines given separately. While they are available separately, our group does not have them, nor do we have any intention of buying them just to appease this unsubstantiated belief. Some parents were so convinced that they bought their OWN separate vaccines. Separate measles vaccine comes in ten dose packages and costs about $1500. The child needs just one dose; the other nine will go to waste. The vaccine can deactivate unless it is kept at very precise temperatures. Unfortunately, medical offices have no idea how this vaccine was stored after the parents obtained it. If stored improperly, the vaccine may be ineffective. Legally, medical offices would be a risk to administer any vaccine to a child if we did not have knowledge of its validity. A few years ago, one of our storage refrigerators went on the blink and was actually too cold. The result? Our medical group had to scrap about $20,000 worth of immunizations; and spend ump-teen more bucks re-vaccinating children that may have received improperly stored vaccine. We now have some higher-tech, computer monitored refrigerators so this never happens again. Basically, if parents choose to buy their own vaccine, they are going to have to administer it themselves. Not a good idea, folks.
Now, a comment about the mercury preservative: Mercury can be deadly and cause brain damage. Of course, when I was a kid, we played with it. Maybe this is why I had problems with math or memory? We used mercury to our pennies and we rolled it around like some mysterious silver liquid. We used mercury thermometers. If the broke, we just salvaged the mercury to play with it. There was mercury in our medicines, and there was mercury in the creek we swam in. Did I tell you that I had problems with math?
In vaccines, thimerosal - a mercury derivative - was used in very trace amounts as a preservative. Currently, the vast majority of vaccines (just the flu vaccine) do NOT have thimerosal, but there is a public perception that they do, and that thimerosal and the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, and rubella) is directly linked to autism. Even though there is ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE that thimerosal or the MMR causes autism, there are thousands of Internet sites that dispute it. The Institute of Medicine published a review of data on autism and vaccines, and no casual relationship was found. Another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that thimerosal had NO EFFECT on development. The study also found that there was no evidence of the measles virus in the blood of children with autism. The rates of autism are even increasing in countries that do not use thimerosal.
So, what gives? Are we just getting better at diagnosing autism, or is there another cause yet to be discovered. Personally, I think there are other factors, but as of today, no one has been able to find them. This week, I had about six children in my office that had autism. If there is a discoverable cause, I hope someone finds it...soon. My heart goes out to those families caring for a challenging child with various degrees of autism. If parental love could cure this disease, there would be no autism.
People do not trust their government to tell them the truth. Maybe it is because we keep catching our government in lies. People do not trust their doctors as much anymore, either. But, is it a good idea to trust the people at the health food stores or your chiropractor's office on this important public health issue? People should trust our educational institutions, however. When you research information on the Internet, make sure of the quality of the information. Who actually is "Concerned Doctors Against Immunizations" or "Autism and Measles Vaccine Conclusively Linked"? (Incidentally, I made those up. Hopefully, they aren't real sites.) Some anti-immunization sites can certainly appear to be legitimate; quoting scientific studies, etc. Try looking up those studies and try digging deeper into who is sponsoring those sites and you will get an eye-opener.
In the end, people believe what they are going to believe. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the trace mercury preservative, the vaccine, or even the measles virus itself is NOT the smoking gun for autism, people still have the right to choose what diseases they would like to risk in their children. Did I vaccinate my own children and grandchildren? You bet. Do I recommend vaccines for my patients? Definitely.
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: autism, vaccines, thimerosal, health and wellness
252 Comments:
I really liked this post. I am studying to be a teacher in Autistic classrooms. I do not believe the vaccines cause it. I believe we have better ways to diagnose it and once a child is given the diagnosis of autism people believe that it is the most severe case. A child could have a mild form of it like Aspergers, but no one would know because they say my child is autistic. There is a difference. Thanks for a great post!
You are crazy! Why is it that children become autistic after vaccinations. It has been proven that mercury causes autism. It is much more prevalent downwind of coal-fired plants, which have mercury in the coal.
In Australia about 30 years ago, one out two died aboriginal kids after getting vaccinations. A doctor decided that was unacceptable, and injected vitamin C in the butt 24 hours before the vaccine was injected. Not a one died. He wrote an article about it, and his medical license was revoked for 20 years. He wrote a book about it. I think the book was titled One Out of Two.
I look at it this way. I am going to vacinate my children. I can deal with an autistic child IF it does cause autism, but I can't live with myself if my child dies from a disease that could have been prevented from a vaccine!
No, I am not crazy....although, I feel I have the right to act that way from time to time.
There is absolutely no scientific evidence that autism is caused by the vaccine or vaccine preservatives. I wish we did know the cause of autism.....
Again, you can believe what you want to believe. I have to rely on evidence-based, scientific studies.
Diseases are scary and, as such, we spend countless hours and dollars fighting them...and rightly so. So how about taking a look at health; that is, how the body is designed to work. If we want to get stronger we stress our muscles. If we want thicker bones we need to stress them. If we want better cardiovascular health we must stress the heart. Every system in the body responds to stresses with improved function. In fact when we don't use a system the way it was designed it lets us down. Take steroid abuse. Those who inject fake testosterone risk shrinkage of the testes because they no longer have to do their job. Astronauts of old would come down from orbit with diminished bone density from not stressing them in their anti-gravity environment. The examples are endless. Why then do we believe that kids will be healthier when we give them so many shots end up preventing their immune system from working as it was designed? Following the CDC's recommended vaccination schedule the average child will receive 74 vaccinations by the time they enter kindergarten. MMR and DPT for example are one-needle shots with 3 different antigens (germs). The prevnar vaccine contains 7 different antigens, the influenza shot has 3 antigens, etc. Some kids get 3 needles (9 vaccines) in one "well child" visit. The doc says trust our educational institutions. Every medical book I have ever seen has said that immunity from a naturally occurring disease is better and longer lasting than immunity from an artificially injected disease. That is why we keep running back for boosters. We can't just pick and choose which chapters of the books we like and discard the rest. As the good doctor mentioned there was a lot of money lost when his refrigerator was on the fritz. There is a lot more money to be lost if we make immunizations optional. I can buy stock in Merck, Sonofi, or any of the other drug makers. If I buy stock in their company they better make me money! I am not convinced of the MMR-autism link. However in 1970 an estimated 1 in 10,000 kids were diagnosed with the disorder and at last count the number was increased from 1 in 166 to 1 in 150. We are doing something different to our kids now than we were 30 years ago. At last check the US ranked 34th in the world in infant mortality (surviving past the age of one year). Isn't it amazing that with our cash and modern medicine that 33 other countries have a better chance of their kids reaching their first birthday. I vote to treat kids as individuals and give the shots to the ones that need them. Leave the healthy kids to develop as they were designed. If you were a hospital patient you sure as heck wouldn't want the same treatment as the guy next to you although when it comes to the kids that can't stand up for themselves we give them all the same thing. A focus on health and how a healthy body responds to disease may be more fruitful than trying to kill the dreaded germ. The more germs we kill the stronger they come back. If you don't stand up for your kids who will? The doctors? Remember you are not getting their opinion for free! This message was NOT brought to you by the same people who bought your doctor's lunch, supplied them with free literature and office supplies, and paid for their continuing education in Cancun.
Lets just say that vaccines do not cause autism, you still can't convince me that injecting all those different toxins into your body has no adverse reactions on children and it trips me out that as DR's you all want to tell people that vaccines are 100% safe and that they save lives..100%? Yeah I highly doubt that.
One of the ingredients the FDA spoke on was formaldehyde and if I am not mistaken when I took my son to get his vaccinations and I saw the inserts that was in his vaccines. The FDA talks about all the things that this can cause just by inhaling this into your lungs(because this is something that is used in alot of house cleaning products) what about injecting this into your blood? Wouldn't you think that's even worse?
So for doctors to tell me that vaccines are 100% safe for EVERYONE is complete horsecrap to me considering nobody is the same.
And DR's you can say what you want about the parents who notice slight changes after that MMR you can't convince me that EVERY PARENT is a idiot that notices changes after that shot. It's just that you guys don't want to tell the truth. I also find a hard time believing even if there is a proven link between autism and vaccines that you guys will tell the public because you all will lose out on millions of dollars plus there will be so many lawsuits(whether they pay them or not).
I TRULY do NOT see you guys telling the truth vs. losing millions of dollars.
"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."
well my son was diagnosed w/ autism at 13 months old and had already been showing signs for 2 months..he hadn't received the MMR yet. Regardless, these diseases are not around because of vaccines and if people continue not to vaccinate their children they will return w/ all the traveling people are doing. And if the vaccines do cause autism, then why is it only this generation bombarded w/ it, it would be effecting more people in their 20's and older. Even though nothing has been scientifically proven, so what if it can cause autism..its better than the diseases that the vaccines prevent.
You may be right that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism but who do you think you are trying to push the standard vaccine onto parents by refusing to use the alternate seperated vaccine..It is the parents job to do what THEY feel is best for their child and if a parent is willing to pay for the more expensive seperated vaccine then who the hell are you to refuse to give it!!
You can find each of these ingredients on the cdc's website for vaccine ingredients. Tell me they arent toxic. You must be joking.
Ammonium Sulfate
Suspected gastrointestinal, liver, nerve and respiratory system poison.
Beta-propilactone
Known to cause cancer, suspected gastrointestinal, liver, respiratory, skin and sense organ poison
Genetically modified yeast, animal, bacterial and viral DNA
Can be incorporated into the recipient's DNA and cause genetic mutations.
Latex Rubber
Can cause life-threatening allergic reactions
Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Being studdied for mutagenic, teratogenic (developmental malformation and monstrosities) and reproductive effects. A neurotoxinAllergic reactions range from mild to severe.
Aluminum
Implicated as a cause of brain damage, suspected factor in alzeheimers, dementia, seizures and comas. Allergic reactions can occur on skin.
Formaldehyde
Major constituent of embalming fluid; poisonous if ingested. Probable carcinogen; suspected gastrointestinal, liver, immune system, nerve, reproductive system and respiratory poison. Linked to lukemia, brain, colon and lymphatic cancers. (So toxic that when working with it, you must have your face covered so you dont breathe in too many of the fumes... and we're injecting ourselves with it.)
Micro-Organisms
Live and killed viri and bacteria or their toxins. The polio vaccine was contaminated with a monkey virus now turning up in human bone, lung lining, brain tumors and lymphomas.
Polysorbate 80
Known to cause cancer in animals
Tri(n)butylphosphate
Suspected nerve and kidney poison
Glutaraldehyde
Poisonous if injected. Causes birth defects in experimental animals
Gelatin
Produced from pieces of calf and cattle skins, de-minerialized cattle bones and pork skin. Allergic reactions have been reported.
Gentamicin sulfate and polymyxin B
Allergic reactions can range from mild to life threatening.
Mercury (Thimerosal)
One of the most poisonous substances known. Has an affinity for the brain, gut, liver, bone-marrow and kidneys. Minute amounts can cause nerve damage. Symptoms of mercury toxocity are similar to those of autism.
Neomycin Sulfate
Interferes with Vitamin B6 absorption. An error in the update of B6 can cause a form of epilepsy and mental retardation. Allergic reactions can be mild to life-threatening.
Phenol / phenoxyethanol (2-pe)
Used as an antifreeze. Toxic to all cells and cabable of disabling the immune system's primary response mechanism.
Human and animal cells
Human cells from aborted fetal tissue and human albumin. Pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain, guinea pig, dog kidney, cow heart, monkey kidney, chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg, calf serum, sheep blood and others.
" A major cause of the roman empire's decline after 6 centuries of world dominance was its replacement of stone aqueducts by lead pipes for the transport and supply of drinking water. Roman engineers, the best in the world, turned their fellow citizens into neurological cripples. Today, our own "best and brightest" with the best of intentions, achieve the same end through childhood vaccination programs yeilding the modern scourges of hyperactivity, learning disabilities, autism, appetite disorders, and impulsive violence."
-Harris L. Coulter, Ph. D
If you take a ten-pound baby in, and it gets four shots on that one day, which is a common practice - that's equivalent to giving a 100-pound person forty shots in one day," said mercury expert Dr. Boyd Haley.
Using the Calculator to see how much murcury your baby is geting
This mercury calculator will help you determine how much mercury a child received at previous vaccination visits or could receive in an upcoming visit. The products are listed by brand name and manufacturer. Some vaccines have two company names because over the past several decades there have been many company mergers.
Just enter the weight of the child and click on the brand name /manufacturer of the vaccine. A number will show at the top and tell you if it is over the EPA standard of 0.1 mcg per kilogram of bodyweight.
If you want to calculate your child's overall exposure to mercury containing vaccines on multiple visits, you will have to enter each visit individually, using the weight of your child at the time of the visit and then add them all together.
The dose thought to be safely allowed on a daily basis by EPA is 0.1mcg per kilogram of body weight per day. At 2 months of age a baby will have received 62.5 mcg of mercury from 3 infant vaccines. According to EPA criteria, his allowable dose was only 0.5mcg based on his weight. Thats 125 times the babies allowable exposure on that one day. These large injected bolus exposures continued at 4, 6, 12 and 18 months to a total mercury exposure of 237.5 mcg. I also discovered that the injections that I received during the first and third trimesters of my pregnancy and hours after the delivery of my son to prevent RH blood incompatibility also contained mercury.
A single broken feaver thermometer contains 0.05 to 1.5 grams of mercury which is enough to create a healh hazard in a small room
SO anyone that feels that all vaccines are safe is high
Autism and Mercury....I feel strongly about those 2 having a connection because until they started adding those ingredients we didn't have such a high amount of children getting autism. Since 1982 25 yrs there has been about 30 other vax's made for our children
For those of u who do Vax and think its safe stop being lazy asses and read more about them, they're not proven to work or for their safty and most times they cause more harm then good, beides you dont have life long immunity to them anyways
So if you look at it this way
U and most adults out there basically are not immuinized, vaccines last 10 yrs not alife time!!!!!
Last time I checked, Chicken Pox was NOT a deadly disease. Neither is Measels, mumps or rubella. Polio hasnt even EXISTED in the US in over 12 years. how about we start focusing on promoting health rather than running away from sickness. Illness is NOT BAD... it's your body functioning properly and you get over it.
One more thing. OF COURSE THEY AREN'T GOING TO FIND ANYTHING IN THEIR JUNK RESEARCH LINKING AUTISM AND VACCINES!!!! Do you realize how much money they'd lose? Not just in sales of vaccines but also in compensating the hundreds of thousands of families living with an autistic child?
Did you know that the CDC defines a "long-term study" as 14 days? 14 DAYS, PEOPLE! THe flu incubates for 14 days before any symptoms show up. Come on here. If you dont want to get burned, dont stick your arm in a furnace. If you dont want to get sick, dont shoot up with diseases laced with deadly toxicity.
Common sense is seriously lacking in this country.
to the person above me who said common sense is lacking in this country:
Please see this page which is a historical timeline of outbreaks of infectious diseases such as measles, polio, influenza, smallpox and cholera. Please note how often the term "kill" is used.
Measles is absolutely deadly and absolutely preventable. If you walk through graveyards in the midwest you will see entire families who died of it during the outbreak in the 19th century. Civil War soldiers, particularly those who were held in Union prison camps were particularly hard hit.
Yet you say it is not deadly. You are sadly mistaken.
And if you're lucky enough to survive, you might be blind as a result.
Mumps can kill and it can leave men infertile. Rubella was one of the number one killers of unborn children before the vaccine.
And then laughably, you say "Polio hasn't even EXISTED in the US...".
Why do you suppose that is? Right. Vaccinations.
Here's the problem, of course. Measles, mumps, rubella and polio all exist in other countries. Japan, for example, is the number one importer of measles. Despite having instituted a vaccination program, there have been measles outbreaks as recently as April of this year at Japanese universities.
Polio still exists, too, though it is mostly eradicated as a result of a world-wide initiative to vaccinate.
You say: "...start focusing on promoting health rather than running away from sickness. "
There is no better or more effective way to promote health than to PREVENT infectious, deadly disease. None. Zero, zip, nada.
You want wellness education, start by protecting your kids from blindness, sterility, disability and death.
There are a lot of things you can accuse pharmas of, but not making big bucks on basic vaccines. That's just a whacko conspiracy theory that's untested, unproven, and borne out of ignorance.
You'd think that if the anti-vaxxers were so concerned about this, they'd fund their own study, but I've not seen one to date that credibly links the two.
When you say common sense lacks, we agree. It is an utter lack of common sense for any parent to risk their child's eyesight, health and life on a whack-brained theory that vaccines are evil causes of autism.
As the mother of a son with autism, I have done a great deal of research on the subject. Although I do believe that the vaccination was a catalyst, I do NOT believe that the vaccination alone caused this condition in my son.
After the one year MMR shot, my son's temperature rose to 105 and shortly afterwards, his regression began. The research that I have done suggested the possibility of a connection between long term antibiotic (Augmentin) use in the first year and its effect on the body's ability to eliminate the mercury.
Let's think about it- vaccinations with Thimerisol have been around since the 1930s. Why is autism on the rise? Why now? What is different than in the 1930s? 1940s? 1960s? Extended antibiotic use.
My son was on Augmentin from the time he was 5 months until shortly after his first birthday (chronic ear infections). I think that more research needs to be done on a variety of combinations so we can stop blaming everybody for the epidemic and start focusing our attention where it belongs- curing our children.
Thank you for listening.
Dr. Moser, check out this link
http://www.campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/100702/20,000vaccinechallenge.htm
Will you tell me if you would do this? I would love to know why or why not. Thank you
To the above poster.. Good post. I agree with you, my son was antibiotics for the first 3 days of his life(maybe 5 cant remember). But what if you spoke to the Dr. about that, I wonder if they would have taken that into consideration or just brushed it off.
As a concerned mother to an unvaccinated child, I can see where your concerns are legitimate. The internet brings a plethora of information, both true and false, to a person's fingertips in seconds. And the average short attention span will likely skim what is read without absorping the true meaning of the words. That, I can agree with.
However, the majority of concerned unvaccinating parents that I speak with (Seattle houses a large community of non-vaccinated families) didn't rely solely on the internet for their information. Nor did they rely on chiropractors, or grocers in their local health food stores. Most of us studied this issue from early in our pregnanies, reading books, speaking with doctors directly, and researching the ingredients of the vaccinations individually.
I'll use myself as one example. I began my quest for knowledge of vaccinations before I was 20 weeks pregnant. With both of my brothers on the autism spectrum, and the floating "link" between mercury, vaccination, and autism, I felt compelled to make informed decisions as my child's well-being seemed at stake.
As a former history major, I understand the finer points of how to properly research an issue. I pulled census records from the last century, researched the diseases and their likelihood in our areas, and finally, researched the ingredients themselves, one by one independent of the term "vaccination". It took me over a year to form a solid opinion.
I fielded accusations of child abuse from concerned relatives, doctors that made condescending remarks (but gave no real reasons for vaccinating), and lots of personal doubt that the decision I made was the right one. But a concoction of dead (or live) virus, formaldehyde, ether, detergent, and hard metals, none of which should be placed in the adult bloodstream outside of vaccination, hardly seemed healthy or appropriate to place in my infant's immature body.
Yes, you don't agree with my decision. But when I made every effort to come to a decision and the best I could get out of any doctor was "we vaccinate because those diseases are deadly" without a single thought being given to 1)continuing efficacy in adulthood, 2)longterm studies of direct and indirect effects of the vaccinations on the human body, 3)discussing the outbreaks of vaccinated diseases and whether vaccinated children/adults came down with them as well, etc. There was considerable difficulty obtaining the vaccination insert from the doctor (which, legally, should be OFFERED, not requested)and I was all but threatened about my decision. You can understand my absolute shock that someone that should be the most trusted professional in my child's life offered nothing but threats and sidestepping statements.
Sir, truly, the nonvaccinating community isn't as stupid as you'd think at first glance. We are, for the most part, well-educated and caring parents. We are making decisions that are best for our children, considering the information and discussion being offered to us.
If you truly want to make a case for vaccination to us, don't brush off the mothers that say "my child shut down literally within the week of recieving XY vaccination", encourage discussion, explain the effects (or lack thereof)of heavy metals on the infantile immune system, encourage us to truly research, offer us every resource you know of. In short, care as much as we do about the life we're protecting.
I'm sure you're a wonderful doctor, a kind and caring soul. But others in your profession would be wise to step off the high horse and come down to the level of the mere mortals. We need information, respect, and a listening ear. Doctors that brush mothers off and deny us the simple answers we request are partially responsible for the rise in non-vaccinated children. If you truly believe that not vaccinating leads down a dark path, help educate your community to be more inviting to parents.
Thank you for your time.
A concerned mother
sweet.pea.passion@gmail.com
I love that all of you have the guts to go against the norm and challenge what this doc has said. All of you who have are perfectly right. Having these diseases that they innoculate for is SO much safer than getting a vaccine - for A TON of reasons. Please log on to my "Choosing not to Vaccinate" group at CafeMom! I would LOVE to have you all there to share your insight and wisdom and to learn a whole lot more about vaccine dangers. We have almost 1000 members in just a few months and we also have tons of links and information!!
http://www.cafemom.com/group/antivaccine
So, why is it that every other country in the world calls it "vaccination death" rather than SIDS?
Polio was NOT erradicated because of vaccines. It was almost erradicated naturally before we started vaccinating. In fact, we are KEEPING THE VIRUS ALIVE by culturing it artificially with a vaccine. AND, less than 1% of polio cases actually cause paralysis. The majority of the time, polio feels like a bad flu. Polio vaccines were originally made with SV-40 which is now showing up as a cause for countless kinds of cancer. And they are predicting that its going to take 5 GENERATIONS to get SV40 out of the human race. Really safe. 100% of the cases of polio now WORLDWIDE are in the vaccinated community. 100% is a pretty significant amount.
And the measels does NOT equate with sterility. That occurs in less than 2% of the population that get the measels. Most of my family had the measels as children and they are just fine. My chiropractor actually went out of his way to make sure his kids got rubella so they wuold have lifelong immunity to it. They survived just fine.
And you will NEVER convince me that the chicken pox is deadly. I am not that stupid.
I believe this: the truth will come out eventually. The truth is that vaccines are harming children and adults alike. When it does, the vaccine makers will say, "We told you they had adverse side effects." ANd they'll say that they told you this all along.
You know that the CDC and the FDA have members that vote on the vaccine schedule that OWN PATENTS FOR THE VACCINE! That is a conflict of interest, my friends but it is alowed. I personally am not going to shoot up my baby with a bunch of diseases that have NO PROOF OF ACTUALY IMMUNITY, and are FULL of chemicals that are PROVEN to be hazardous to your health because some corporate mucky muck with junk research and a financial stake at hand says it's "best for my baby." Common sense again...
Cal-Oregon Unvaccinated Survey
Background
"We surveyed over 9,000 boys in California and Oregon and found that vaccinated boys had a 155% greater chance of having a neurological disorder like ADHD or autism than unvaccinated boys." - Generation Rescue
- Read our press release discussing the survey here.
- Read an article from UPI Investigative reporter Dan Olmsted Discussing the survey: Study Sees Vaccine Risk.
If you are interested in learning about alternative vaccine schedules, please read our section titled On Vaccines.
Methodology
Generation Rescue commissioned an independent opinion research firm, SurveyUSA of Verona NJ, to conduct a telephone survey in nine counties in California and Oregon. Counties were selected by Generation Rescue. Interviews were successfully completed in 11,817 households with one or more children age 4 to 17. From those 11,817 households, data on 17,674 children was gathered. Of the 17,674 children inventoried, 991 were described as being completely unvaccinated. For each unvaccinated child, a health battery was administered.
Generation Rescue chose to use telephone interviews with parents to gather data on children, so as to closely mirror the methodology the CDC uses to establish national prevalence for NDs such as ADHD and autism through their national phone survey of parent responses. Generation Rescue chose to focus on children ages 4-17 to match the age range used by CDC.
Are parent responses a reliable indicator of a child's diagnostic status? According to Dr. Laura Schieve, co-author of the CDC's national phone survey study, in discussing the CDC's two phone surveys on autism prevalence, "the consistency of prevalence estimates across the two surveys supports high reliability or reproducibility of parental report of autism and reliability is one important component of validity."
SurveyUSA is a well-known national opinion research firm with unique expertise in canvassing local communities. SurveyUSA has no vested interest in any outcome this or any survey might produce. You can see a copy of the questionnaire used in the survey here. The data the survey intended to capture included:
- Households with a child or children aged 4-17
- Whether or not that child had been vaccinated
- Whether or not that child had any one (or more) of the following diagnosis: ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, Autism, Asthma, or Juvenile Diabetes (the final two of which were added to consider other health outcomes).
The results of the survey allowed us to compare the prevalence (what percentage of children have a particular diagnosis) to see if there was any meaningful difference between unvaccinated and vaccinated children.
The most common way to measure prevalence differences is through a calculation known as relative risk or the Risk Ratio, where we compared prevalence amongst unvaccinated children to prevalence amongst vaccinated children. So, if 5% of unvaccinated children have asthma, and 10% of vaccinated children have asthma, that represents an "RR" of 2.0 (10%/5%), or a difference of 100%. We were also able to look at the data by gender, age, and county.
Results
SurveyUSA gathered data on 9,175 boys and 8,499 girls. Counties surveyed in California included:
San Diego
Sonoma
Orange
Sacramento
Marin
Counties surveyed in Oregon included:
Multnomah
Marion
Jackson
Lane
The results of the survey can be accessed as a pdf file here. This is the primary data we received from SurveyUSA and it can be used for anyone to independently analyze our results.
Generation Rescue analyzed the data provided by SurveyUSA, and a copy of our analysis can be found here. The most notable results of our survey are with the boys, which is not surprising considering boys represent approximately 80% of total cases of NDs. Namely:
All vaccinated boys, compared to unvaccinated boys:
- Vaccinated boys were 155% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.55)
- Vaccinated boys were 224% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.24)
- Vaccinated boys were 61% more likely to have autism (RR 1.61)
Older vaccinated boys, ages 11-17 (about half the boys surveyed), compared to older unvaccinated boys:
- Vaccinated boys were 158% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.58)
- Vaccinated boys were 317% more likely to have ADHD (RR 4.17)
- Vaccinated boys were 112% more likely to have autism (RR 2.12)
(Note: older children may be a more reliable indicator because many children are not diagnosed until they are 6-8 years old, and we captured data beginning at age 4.)
All vaccinated boys, removing one county with unusual results (Multnomah, OR), compared to unvaccinated boys:
- Vaccinated boys were 185% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.85)
- Vaccinated boys were 279% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.79)
- Vaccinated boys were 146% more likely to have autism (RR 2.46)
All vaccinated boys and girls, compared to unvaccinated boys and girls:
- Vaccinated boys and girls were 120% more likely to have asthma (RR 2.20)
- No correlation established for juvenile diabetes
All vaccinated girls, compared to unvaccinated girls:
- No meaningful differences in prevalence were noted for NDs (which may be due to the smaller sample size of the study because girls represent about 20% of cases.)
Commentary
Generation Rescue is not representing that our study proves that the U.S. vaccine schedule has caused an epidemic in neurological disorders amongst our children. We are a small non-profit organization. For less than $200,000, we were able to complete a study that the CDC, with an $8 billion a year budget, has been unable or unwilling to do. We think the results of our survey lend credibility to the urgent need to do a larger scale study to compare vaccinated and unvaccinated children for neurodevelopmental outcomes.
It is also the opinion of Generation Rescue that we are over-vaccinating our children, and we encourage parents to use caution in how they choose to vaccinate their children, particularly boys. In the vaccine section of our website, we provide additional detail on vaccines and vaccinating safely and provide three alternative vaccine schedules parents may want to consider for their children.
Background:
In 1983, the Centers for Disease Control ("CDC") recommended a total of 10 vaccines for our children up to the age of 5. In 2007, the CDC recommends 36, an increase of 260%, or 3.6x. (See a comparison here).
During this time period, we have witnessed an epidemic of childhood neurological disorders ("NDs"). Today, the CDC estimates that 1 in 13 U.S. children has been diagnosed with ADHD and 1 in 150 has been diagnosed with autism. In the 1980s, ADHD was almost unheard of and autism was estimated to affect 1 in 10,000 children. Boys are significantly more affected by NDs, accounting for approximately 80% of all cases.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media still misreports that the explosive growth in NDs is the results of "better diagnosis" despite the considerable published scientific research to refute this position. As one example, Department of Developmental Services in California, known for keeping the best autism data in the country, issued this report regarding the growth of autism rates in California where they stated:
"There is no evidence that a loosening in the diagnostic criteria has contributed to increased number of autism clients...we conclude that some, if not all, of the observed increase represents a true increase in cases of autism in California...a purely genetic basis for autism does not fully explain the increasing autism prevalence. Other theories that attempt to better explain the observed increase in autism cases include environmental exposures to substances such as mercury; viral exposures; autoimmune disorders; and childhood vaccinations."
Many parents blame vaccines for their children's ND, and many published biological studies seem to support this position, because vaccines contain ingredients capable of causing neurological damage. Yet, no studies have ever been done to compare ND rates of unvaccinated children to vaccinated children. Until now.
(Note: Neurolological disorders include ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, and Autism.)
Brief commentary:
There is a lot of misreporting that would lead parents to believe that vaccines have already been scientifically proven to be unrelated to the epidemic of NDs. This is simply not true.
- U.S. children have been analyzed to compare those who received some mercury in their vaccines with those who received more mercury in their vaccines for the outcome of autism (not ADHD). The conclusion of the study was neutral, meaning a link could neither be confirmed nor denied. This study, conducted by the CDC, is the only study ever done using data of U.S. Children.
- Children in several European countries have been analyzed to compare those who received mercury in their shots with those who received no mercury in their shots for the outcome of autism. The conclusions of these studies was that no association was found, although these studies have been disputed. See www.putchildrenfirst.org for more details.
- Further, in 2006 the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, at the request of Senator Joseph Lieberman, issued this report which effectively conceded that both the CDC study of U.S. children and the "Danish Studies" were of poor study design and not reliable in determining whether or not Thimerosal causes autism. As this article from UPI reporter Dan Olmsted noted following the report's release: "For three years, the CDC has used a study conducted on its own Vaccine Safety Datalink to reassure parents that mercury in vaccines does not cause autism. Now a panel of government-appointed experts says there are "serious problems" with exactly the approach the CDC took." Olmsted interviewed the Chairperson of the NIEHS Committee who was quoted as saying:
"It's an 'open question' whether anything about vaccines -- timing, dose, preservative -- is related to the rise in diagnoses [of autism]. Some studies are stronger than others. The Verstraeten [Pediatrics] study was an improvement on other studies including the two in Denmark, both of which had serious weaknesses in their designs that limit what we can learn from them."
- No studies have ever been done to compare ND rates of children who received vaccines with those who received no vaccines, which is what our survey accomplished. Moreover, no studies have ever explored a link between vaccines and ADHD, despite the fact that 1 in 13 U.S. children have this diagnosis (versus 1 in 150 for autism).
- Even the Institute of Medicine, which is often cited in the media for issuing a 2004 report refuting the relationship between mercury and autism, held a 2007 workshop on "autism and the environment" that featured "presentations and discussions on strategies for research focusing on the potential relationship between autism and an array of environmental exposures."
The glaring absence of a study to compare vaccinated and unvaccinated children for ND rates caused Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) to introduce this bill to compel the National Institutes of Health to do such a study.
Potential Criticisms
The question of whether or not vaccines have played and role in the epidemic of neurological disorders is an explosive topic with many passionate voices on both sides of the debate. Our survey results will most assuredly be challenged and criticized. Some of the more likely challenges (and our responses) include:
Criticism: Parents who do not vaccinate their children are less likely to seek an ND diagnosis, which explains the difference in prevalence you found.
Response: We think the data disproves this, because we found no meaningful difference in prevalence for NDs between vaccinated and unvaccinated girls. If this was simply an issue of parent behavior, the girls would have shown wide discrepancies in prevalence, too, and they did not.
It's also interesting to consider a study completed by the CDC and published in Pediatrics, Children Who Have Received No Vaccines: Who Are They and Where Do They Live? The study noted:
"Unvaccinated children tended to be white, to have a mother who was married and had a college degree, to live in a household with an annual income exceeding $75,000, and to have parents who expressed concerns regarding the safety of vaccines and indicated that medical doctors have little influence over vaccination decisions for their children."
And, it continues:
"Why do some parents avoid vaccinating their children? Our results indicate that parents of unvaccinated children are much more concerned about vaccine safety than are parents whose children receive Your browser may not support display of this image.1 vaccine dose. In a survey of parent's beliefs and practices regarding vaccinations and autism, siblings in families in which there was an autistic child were 3 times more likely to be unvaccinated, compared with siblings in families in which there was a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In response to concerns about the perceived risk of autism resulting from vaccinations, parents might have avoided having their sons vaccinated at a higher rate than their daughters, as a result of knowing that they have risk factors for autism and knowing that the rate of autism is 4 times greater for boys than for girls."
Criticism: The ratio of diagnosed to undiagnosed children in this survey may be too high, indicating a potential response bias.
Response: The survey does not attempt to newly establish the prevalence of autism in the general population. The survey attempts only to shed preliminary light on any relationship between vaccination status and diagnosis. It is not surprising and not unexpected that parents with children who have received a diagnosis may have been more willing to complete the health battery included in this survey than parents of children who have not been diagnosed. However, that does not make the parents who did participate in this study likely to lie about, or forget about, the vaccination status of their children. The only way a possible "response bias" in favor of those households with a diagnosed child would invalidate the results of this research is if asking about vaccination status of a child independently produced a bias and that bias interacted with the bias caused by asking about NDs. For the concern to be valid: somehow, the main group of vaccinated families would have to be more likely to respond if there was an ND in the family, without also affecting the response of unvaccinated families in the same way. While such an interaction is possible, this criticism can be addressed by further, more elaborate research. Such a potential interaction does not invalidate this research.
It's also worth considering that if there was response bias, we should have received a disproportionate share of our responses from parents of boys, who represent 80% of NDs, and we did not. Boys were 51.9% of responses and girls were 48.1%. (We hope there was some response bias, because our numbers show a prevalence of autism of 1 in 43, far higher than the CDC's reported number of 1 in 150.)
Criticism: Parent responses is not a reliable way to gauge either a child's diagnosis or whether or not a child has been vaccinated.
Response: We would point to our "Methodology" section above and cite the CDC, who also uses a parent phone survey to gauge prevalence of NDs in children. We generally mimicked their approach.
Final Thought
Why hasn’t a larger scale study comparing ND rates of vaccinated and unvaccinated children already taken place? We don’t know. We credit Dan Olmsted, a reporter for United Press International, with giving us the idea to do this study. At a press conference in the summer of 2005, Mr. Olmsted had a chance to ask Julie Gerberding, the Director of the CDC, a simple question. Mr. Olmsted asked:
"Has the government ever looked at the autism rate in an unvaccinated U.S. population, and if not, why not?"
Ms. Gerberding's answer:
"In this country, we have very high levels of vaccination as you probably know, and I think this year we have record immunization levels among all of our children, so to (select an unvaccinated group) that on a population basis would be representative to look at incidence in that population compared to the other population would be something that could be done.
But as we're learning, just trying to look at autism in a community the size of Atlanta, it's very, very difficult to get an effective numerator and denominator to get a reliable diagnosis.
I think those kind of studies could be done and should be done. You'd have to adjust for the strong genetic component that also distinguishes, for example, people in Amish communities who may elect not to be immunized (and) also have genetic connectivity that would make them different from populations that are in other sectors of the United States. So drawing some conclusions from them would be very difficult.
I think with reference to the timing of all of this, good science does take time, and it's part of one of the messages I feel like I've learned from the feedback that we've gotten from parents groups this summer (in) struggling with developing a more robust and a faster research agenda, is let's speed this up. Let's look for the early studies that could give us at least some hypotheses to test and evaluate and get information flowing through the research pipeline as quickly as we can.
So we are committed to doing that, and as I mentioned, in terms of just measuring the frequency of autism in the population some pretty big steps have been taken. We're careful not to jump ahead of our data, but we think we will be able to provide more accurate information in the next year or so than we've been able to do up to this point. And I know that is our responsibility.
We've also benefited from some increased investments in these areas that have allowed us to do this, and so we thank Congress and we thank the administration for supporting those investments, not just at CDC but also at NIH and FDA."
Is Ms. Gerberding genuinely interested in getting an answer? We will let the reader decide.
Generation Rescue
June 26, 2007
Rachel,
Since you offer absolutely no empirical proof for your claim that vaccines for polio caused its eradication, let me offer you proof that your claim is incorrect and baseless.
Columbia University Polio Timeline
N.B. the following quote:
Once the Sabin and Salk vaccines were proven effective, the disease was rapidly eradicated throughout most of the industrialized world. The economic effect has been enormous; it has been calculated that the polio vaccine pays for the costs of its development approximately every three weeks. The benefit to the United States alone for this single breakthrough runs into the trillions of dollars. The social impact has been incalculable. The crutches, wheelchairs, and iron lungs of polio victims have at last been banished from children's and parents' nightmares, at least in the developed world.
Recently, the World Health Organization embarked on a campaign for the worldwide eradication of polio. If this plan is completed successfully, it will conclude the second deliberate destruction of a virus by humans, and stand as the final victory in Roosevelt's other war.
It really annoys me when people shout out things as "fact" that are unsubstantiated and trumpeted as continuing rumors around the Internet.
Question: Isn't it true that the reason parents can get by not vaccinating their children against diseases that can be deadly or very disabling is that they count on most other parents vacinating their children? I we all stoppped like they have, what would be the ultimate outcome? Their unvaccinated children are safe and they are reasonably sure that countries will not change their policies anytime soon.
http://www.generationrescue.org/survey.html
Please check out this web site! Also I am 30 with no vaccines how on earth have I survived?????
Boy are you iggnorant! I have actually WATCHED little childern become autistic because of their immunizations. That is what I do for a living. I do respite care for these autistic children, many of which also develop seizure disorders as well. You can't tell me that one day your two year old is just fine, and then right after his immunizations he becomes autistic? I've even seen people wait until their children are much older to immunize them because older sibling became autistic after immunizations. Guess what happened. This seven year old became autistic. I've seen it multiple times. Parents know their children. You can try to convince a mother otherwise, but if she knows what happened to her baby, SHE KNOWS, and how dare you try to tell her that she doesn't know her children better than YOU do.
to nikkilenz06: You survived these past 30 years because others around you were vaccinated against these diseases. An aggressive campaign to eradicate these diseases has successfully insulated you from them. That's wonderful. Just don't travel.
To anonymous above:
You watched them become autistic? Before your very eyes? You saw the doctor insert the needle and Poof! They transformed?
I somehow doubt it.
If what you say is true with regard to the older children, how do you explain that in light of the modification to the immunization to eliminate thimerosol? And how do you explain autism that emerges in families before these vaccinations were even available?
Question: Isn't it true that the reason parents can get by not vaccinating their children against diseases that can be deadly or very disabling is that they count on most other parents vacinating their children?
I don't count on my daughter avoiding the diseases due to herd immunity. I count on my daughter having a strong, effective immune system due to a healthy diet full of vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and lots of fiber. I also make sure she only drinks water. I also make sure she is well-rested. I also make sure she's not exposed to too much stress in her life. I make sure she washes her hands frequently and doesn't put dirty things in her mouth. She doesn't share water bottles or food with other people. And when sickness is rumored, we supplement her diet with vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc, all of which naturally boost the immune system.
All in all, my daughter has been sick a small handful of times in her life, and none of her illnesses were any worse than a mild flu. I'm interested to have a RAST test done when she hits puberty to see what illnesses she's been exposed to and received natural life-long immunity to. It's not as cut-and-dry as herd immunity. If it were, there wouldn't be measles or mumps outbreaks.
ROFL I have lived in 8 states and 13 cities, traveled all throughout the United States. I have had chickenpox ( a useless vaccination causing shingles in older recipients) and nothing else, except a cold here and there. I do not travel out of the country to third world countries or where these diseases are prevalent because of lack of need for me to go there! Luckily I live in WI where anyone can choose to not be vaccinated for pretty much any reason. I could care less if your children are vaccinated, my kids will not be and in the long term my children will be better off! Do some researches instead of yelling at people you know nothing about you might find out something and have intelligent points to argue! Most of these diseases have been eradicated due to our parents not us or our kids, a lot of them were on their way to eradicating themselves before we introduced the vaccines. Most of the diseases we vaccinate for can be treated if myself or my children were to get them and the treatment side effects or far less dangerous than the vaccines. But if you want formaldehyde, fetal tissue and the hundreds of other random chemicals found in vaccines in your child’s blood stream more power to you!
Is this a HOT TOPIC or what? I would love to have all of skeptics in a room with some renowned immunologists from the CDC, and a few infectious disease experts from the World Health Organizations. Bring your studies for critical analysis...bring your anecdotal stories...and bring your unimmunized children, and open mind. Let's hold this seminar in sub-Sahara Africa where measles is still the #2 Killer of Children worldwide. Not many, just a million or so per year die. While we are in the seminar, the kids can play outside.
During my childhood, families were being devasted by polio, and children were dying (yes, dying) of measles. In the 1950's, the US Public Health Department didn't give you a choice...you were vaccinated. Now, you do have a choice, so please make it wisely.
In the end, people will believe what they are going to believe. All of the scientific proof in the world will not change the path of stubborn people. May your life's journey be safe, your exposures cursory, and your luck, good.
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
This is an emotional topic. However, please limit your comments to the topic at hand. Personal attacks will be deleted according to our terms and conditions.
Dr. Moser, did you seriously thumb your nose at "anecdotal stories" and then proceed to tell us about the families devestated & dying during your childhood from polio & measles? Does the suffering of those families count for more than the suffering of the families of children who have been permanently damaged or who have died (yes, died) as a result of vaccines? Well, like you said, people will believe what they are going to believe...yourself included, I guess. I wonder if it ever occurred to you, and those like-minded, that most parents who choose not to vaccinate or vaccinate according to their own schedule never considered NOT vaccinating until they started doing the math based on studies from sources like the CDC and WHO. I guess since most of those parents aren't MD's, they can't possibly be intelligent enough to come to the "right" conclusions.
I believe that Africa is still the only place that is affected by these illnesses because of their lack of water, food and sanitation.
Illness and death have developed throught history because of human "Progress" and unclean unhealthy conditions.
I don't see how sheeps blood cells, ether, mercury,antifreeze and aluminum could possibly be healthy....
RE: I would love to have all of skeptics in a room with some renowned immunologists from the CDC, and a few infectious disease experts from the World Health Organizations...
I think that is a fantastic idea! We can talk about the vast difference in nutrition, sanitary water supplies, and available medical knowledge in subSaharan Africa, as well as the much lower Autism rate. I'll even let my child kiss *gasp* one of the little African children.
The medical community is so quick to dismiss natural as lesser and ignorant, but in so many areas, Western medicinal knowledge seems to be taking a brutal beating (obstetrical care, infant nutritional knowledge, etc). Why is it so hard to believe that the vast majority of non-vaccinating parents boast of extremely healthy children, nary a runny nose. Why isn't anyone even taking the time to explore the *remote* possibility that these mothers aren't lying when they say they saw overnight changes in their children after a vaccination?
Good luck to you, in your life, as well, Doc. For when the other shoe drops, and something is conclusively proven to support a more natural approach, I hope you can live with your conscience.
The reason there is so many cases of autism in this country and still on the rise is because of the to brain altering ingredients in our children's vaccines.......Mercury and alunmum.
FOr a long time Immunizations have been a natural factor......U have a baby you rise them you get their shots, believing they're safe efficient ect.
Yet now days its because a very big debate. Why because most ppl are starting to find out hey are all these vaccines needed; they are also starting to find out that they are truley not proven to work and that they are not proven effective in any means.
If so many ppl out there still vaccinate anyways then why are so many children still dieing, still becoming autistic and mentally retarded and still getting these diseases they are suppose to be protected against.
Most of the disease they vax for are from very long ago and we in the USA dont have a problem with.
YOU dont have to be an MD to know whats best for your child, and for those mothers out there who think that a doc knows everything that is best for your child expecally when they tell you Vaccines are safe and effective then that mother really needs to get her head out of her A$$ and view reality!!
It really cracks me up about ppl who vax and eat organic healthy food. Ppl who eat organic is because of no pesticides right? RIGHT!!! BUt yet they inject their new babies with Mercury like whats in a thermometer, formaldehyde....what they put in dead bodies, Aborted baby tissue....UMMMM EWWWW. Antifreeze.....ummmm yummy.... some even have horse urine tasty......LOL I don't know about you but that really sounds harmful epically when a baby-toddler gets excessive amounts.
Vaccines go straight to your blood stream where as Pesticides you can wash off with soap and water just like u clean your dishes.
As we live in a "free" country with the power of personal choice, I have trouble with this issue being a mandated thing. This is a very personal issue and I believe there are key points to both sides of it.
What we should be pushing is education for parents to make an EDUCATED and UN-BIASED decision for their own children's health. If no one can mandate what a woman can do with her body, then how can it be mandated what parents must do with their children's bodies? No one but the parents are ultimately going to be left with the consequenses and responsibility of either choice--they alone should have the right to make it.
Yes, there are plenty of vaccinated children that have had no adverse or long term reactions or damage. But the same is true on the other side. I have done years of research for myself concerning my own children and because of that, have chosen not to vaccinate them (3). I don't regret or question my decision at all. My kids haven't had more than the 24 hour flu in the 10 1/2 years i've had them. No ear infections, asthma, allergies of any kind, nothing. I do strongly believe in the new evidence and studies saying that vaccines could be, and in some cases, likely are, at fault for health problems in kids. I will not say vaccines are evil, but I think it's irresponsible to label them as 100% safe and to not encourage parents to be as active as possible in the decisions regarding their children's healthcare.
I hope you all don't feed your kids salmon or tuna, which has a far higher mercury content than any vaccine.
What scares me the most about these comments is the belief on the part of some of you that because these diseases don't have outbreaks as frequently, there's no need to vaccinate against them.
There IS a cause and effect in place, but it's not autism/vaccines; it's vaccines/less disease. You're arrogant if you think otherwise.
I have to comment on this. My uncle is severely autistic he now lives in an institution, because my Grandma is too old to take care of him. He was not immunized as a child he was just born that way. My grandma cannot blame the government, the school, or the health dept. for his autism. Fortunately she never tried to find the cause...SHE JUST LOVED HIM. Now saying that I was never immunized as a child and I am not thankful for it. I spent my childhood sick all the time, measels, mumps, chickenpox, and probably a whole lot more that I am unaware of. no It didnt kill me but it stalled my education drastically, both socially and academically, I missed between 24 to 80 days of school a year until 8th grade, by then friendships were made and I was so far behind in my subjects. Did I vaccinated my children? heck yeah, And they have been healthy throughout the school years missing 0-2 days of school a year. I honestly don't know about the connection to autism I know that before the 1940s families hid disabilities things like retardation, invalids, and autism either at home or in an institution. that was my grandmas fears that the state would take him and put him in an institution. so maybe its just that people are more accepting of disabilities and the true fact is that autism has always been present, in the same amount back then as it is now.
I am autistic, and my vaccines did not cause it- no one really knows what the cause of it is.
Autism isn't a death sentance! I have lead a very good life, and am very high functioning. You wouldn't guess that I am autistic- if you saw me. But I am!
kayte
To the person who said something about tuna.......U r far wrong! It all depends on how much you eat.
Just like salt if u eat to much it can kill you like at one sitting anyways.
Its not just the Mercury in the vaccines its all the other crap. Besides i don't see a baby eating tuna anyway
I don't count on my daughter avoiding the diseases due to herd immunity. I count on my daughter having a strong, effective immune system due to a healthy diet full of vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and lots of fiber. I also make sure she only drinks water. I also make sure she is well-rested. I also make sure she's not exposed to too much stress in her life. I make sure she washes her hands frequently and doesn't put dirty things in her mouth. She doesn't share water bottles or food with other people. And when sickness is rumored, we supplement her diet with vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc, all of which naturally boost the immune system.
How nice it must be for you not to have to worry about your child coming down with something that needs to be treated quickly? What about all of the kids that don't have access to good or prompt care and vaccinations are the only preventative medicine they get? Vaccines are 100% effective so what if the vaccine is not effective in these less well off, unable to afford organic, vitamin rich food kids, and your carrier kid comes along and infects them? Then they don't get care until it is too late and they are left dead or permanently impaired? Oh well, at least your kid had his grass smoothie and is going to make it. Maybe this isn't realistic because your kid never interacts with somebody that doesn't have the resources to get good care promptly.
From post above, supposed to be a "vaccines are NOT 100% effective"
UMMM LOL to the person who said Vaccines are 1000% effective.....Are u a doctor? Nurse? Pedi? WHere the hell did you get that information??
LOL you dont even know how wrong you are.
Vaccines are not good care. If they were so effective then why the autism, why so many crib deaths that docs just write off as SIDS to save there asses!!!
LOL - read the comment 2 minutes after with the correction of the vaccinations being 100% effective. LOL you would think from the context of the sentence that you understood the meaning that vaccines are not 100% effective. LOL are you a literature professor / english teacher.
It's really funny how almost all the comments are from people who disagree with Mr. Moser's statements about vaccines. I know there are pros and cons to both sides of the issue, but until the states stop requiring vaccinations for admittance to public schools and state universities; we will have to vaccinate our children. I know how hard it is to get into school without all my vaccinations. I am missing my measles vaccine. I had the 1st one when I was an infant and it made me very ill. My doctor told my mom that I was probably allergic to something in the vaccine. I then had to get a note from him to finish high school and to enter college.
My kids have had all vaccines except for chicken pox. It wasn't available until after they had had chicken pox. I have two very intelligent, honor student children and both have learning disabilities. My son is dyslexic and my daughter has a very mild form of autism and hyper-activity. I don't blame any of this on the vaccines. I feel it is genetic. ADHD is prevelant in my family and the form of autism my daughter has is seen on my husband's side.
I have also seen what happens when a vaccine loses its efficacy. My son contracted whooping cough when he was 17. No, this wasn't a killer disease in a teenager, but; the coughing and vomitting were awful and it lasted for 6 weeks. So when my daughter's doctor suggested giving her a booster vaccine for whooping cough, I was all for it. I did not want her to go through what her brother did.
I know that I will not sway anyone's opinion, but I thought I would give you my experience with vaccines.
How about the invitro effect or the fact that women are having children so much older? Has anyone studied any of these issues? Im just asking as a curios bystander. You people are so angry? Why? Why do the non-vacs seem so vicious about proving there point? Maybe if everyone stopped attacking each other than someone would listen to you?
Vaccines are a big issue, so many people out there vaccinate thinking its great its wonderful, their effective, they don't cause autism and other neurological problems. They believe what doctors tell them no matter what specifically when it has to do with the health of their child, some of them so much that I wonder if a doctor told them to give their child crack and it would make them immune to everything bad in this world, if they'd do it!!
Where as us parents who don't vaccinate such as myself, have done plenty of research to back up an argument. But people,some anyways are to hard headed and don't even take into consideration that maybe us non vaxers are not wrong. I've been doing research for over 2 yrs now about them. I'm still debating on weather to give my daughter the polio shot and tetanus shot. As of this moment probably not. Ik now my brother couldn't walk for 2 yrs after his MMR shot and i got extremely sick after i had mine after my daughter was born. A doc i see has 5 kids all older teens and adults are not at all vaccinated!! She never had a problem with them being sick either.
A friend of a friends baby died at 4 months 2 hrs after her shots, do u know how devastating that would be. IF you catch a disease of some sort there is always ways to take care of it!! U have to use common sence!
Doctors think that Drugs and Vaccines are the solution to every thing, when really most times it causes more harm then good
I think Vaccine your child expecially so early in life is just laziness so u don't have to take care of your child when they get sick.
Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund (Trust Fund) provides funding for the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) to compensate vaccine-related injury or death claims for covered vaccines administered on or after October 1, 1988. The Trust Fund is funded by a $0.75 excise tax on each dose of vaccine purchased (i.e., each disease prevented in a dose of vaccine). For example, the excise tax imposed on a dose of trivalent influenza vaccine is $0.75 because it prevents one disease, whereas the excise tax imposed on a dose of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is $2.25 because prevents three diseases. The taxable vaccines have also been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for routine administration to children.
The Department of Treasury collects the excise taxes, and oversees and manages the investing activities for the Trust Fund. As of January 31, 2007, the Trust Fund balance was nearly $2.5 billion. The Trust Fund monthly reports are available on the Treasury’s Bureau of Public Debt Website.
WEB SITES!!!
www.thinktwice.com
www.vaccinetruth.com
www.mercola.com
www.909shot.com
http://www.rense.com/health/avoidvaccinations.htm
http://allnaturalhealth.us/june_russell_vaccinations.htm#Effectiveness%20of%20Vaccines
http://www.ghchealth.com/vaccinations-the-hour-of-the-time.html
http://www.vaclib.org/legal/stateresource.htm#c
http://www.vaccinetruth.org/fetal_tissue.htm
http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/life/stories/051006.html
http://www.naturodoc.com/library/public_health/vaccine_who_how.htm
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0044.html
http://www.immunizationinfo.org/vaccine_components_detail.cfv?id=32
http://www.deepdownwellness.com/althealth/vaccination.html
http://www.newswithviews.com/Tenpenny/sherri9.htm
http://www.vaccinationnews.com
www.mercola.com/forms/vaccine_teleconference.htm
www.mercola.com/2004/oct/30/mercury_vaccines_medicine.htm
www.mercola.com/article/vaccines/index.htm
www.mercola.com/article/vaccines/legally_avoid_shots.htm
www.mercola.com/2004/sep/22/blaylock_vaccine_coverup.htm
http://www.juiceguy.com/Vaccinations-linked-to-Autism.shtml
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/
Books:
Immunization Theory vs Reality by Niel z. Miller
The Truth About Vaccines by Dr Richard Halvorsen [(pub Gibson Square Publishing) order a copy for just £9.99, post free, contact the YOU Bookshop, tel: 0870 162 5006, you-bookshop.co.uk]
Vaccination The Hidden Facts by Ian Sinclair
Raising A Vaccine Free Child-Wendy Lydall
A Shot In The Dark-Harris L. Coulter & Barbara Loe Fisher
(Why the P in the DPT vaccination may be hazardous to your child's health)
The Sanctity Of Human Blood: Vaccination Is Not Immunization-Tim O'Shea
"Vaccination: A Thoughtful Parent's Guide to Childhood Immunizations" by Aviva Romm
"How to Raise a Healthy Child, In Spite of your Doctor" by Dr. Robert Mendelsohn
"Evidence of Harm" by David Kirby
"What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Childhood Immunizations" by Stephanie Cave
“Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parent's Guide: How to Make Safe, Sensible Decisions about the Risks, Benefits, and Alternatives”
Natural Baby and Childcare by Lauren Feder, M.D.
Lots Of Links:
http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/vaccine_awareness/contradictions.htm
http://www.909shot.com/state-site/state-exemptions.htm
Here's a link (youtube) to a series of lectures on the Polio vaccine by Dr.Sherri Tenpenny. Admin. highly recommends them:
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=dr.+tenpenny
National Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/
Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
http://vaers.hhs.gov/
HRSA - National Vaccine Injury Compensation Stats
http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/statistics_report.htm
This one is all abut making an informed choice
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8148/vac.html
This one's pretty good and written by a Dr.;
http://www.whale.to/vaccines/mendelsohn.html
Alternative Health info
http://www.deepdownwellness.com/althealth/vaccination.html
Vaccine Ingredients
http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html
http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/vaccine_awareness/ingredients.html
and a number u can call to
1888-249-1421
I think it is important to note that although I haven't come across any scientific findings that link autism to vaccinations, there is a greater occurance of auto-immune diseases than there ever were in past generations. I don' t have children, but if I do, I'm unsure of whether I will vaccinate them. Our systems need infections and diseases to make itself stronger; perhaps a little infection isn't so bad.
This is so interesting to me. I can think of a ton of external factors which are not vaccinations which could just as easily be blamed:
1) More artificial colors/flavorings/chemicals in processed foods
2) Nuclear fallout from the bombs dropped in WWII and subsequent testing
3) Pollution of our natural resources; particularly the air;
4) Drug and alcohol use by one parent or the other in their youth, even if they didn't touch the stuff in adulthood
Yet the one to blame is the vaccine for some reason.
And to person who hypothesized that the reason parents want to vaccinate their kids is because they're too lazy to take care of them when they're sick, just know that you will never win anyone over to your way of thinking with that kind of invitation for them to even consider it. In fact, you really undid whatever shreds of credibility some of the o