Vaccinations Good, Measles Bad. Got It?

Good heavens, yes, and thanks for not waffling. There is no way any sane person could connect vaccines and autism at this point, no matter how many credentialed crackpots try to validate them. Vaccine rejectionism is nothing more or less than thinly-masked fear and hatred of science, technology, and rationality.

Thank you for writing this. Reading the same anti-vaccine pseudoscience over and over again in the mommyblogophere makes my blood boil. Sure there appears to be more autism in kids these days--but why blame vaccines?

Couldn't it be related to parents having kids at an older age, contaminants in our water, increased exposure to plastics? Or maybe it's just more frequently diagnosed? Many of the "special-ed" and "mentally retarded" kids of the 1970s could very well have been on the spectrum.

I vaccinate my children on the recommended schedule because it is the right thing to do ethically. I realize it poses a small risk to my kids, but I take risks with them every time I drive in the car, take them for a bike ride or drop them off at a friends' house.

Hi Cathy,
Agree, and thanks for putting this out there. I too have a personal reaction: my 2 year old was diagnosed with autism last month. And no, it wasn't the vaccines. As a parent of a newly-diagnosed son, I can tell you that the biomed crowd (who pledge allegiance to Wakefield) are ill-informed, cherry-picking flawed studies that support their paranoia, and ignoring hard science. They prey upon parents like me, who are scared and looking for answers. If you're not diligent, you get sucked in. It's insane.

Bravo! I have never understood some people's paranoia about vaccines. But attributing this to a small minority, I didn't think about how their hysteria could endanger me and my child. Thanks for spelling this out.

How many people DIE of vaccinations? One vaccination costs $11, and $8 of it goes into a fund to pay for injuries and deaths from the vaccinations! I call that pretty risky. I know people personally that have long-term health problems from the toxins in vaccinations! Mercury! Formaldehyde! Aluminum! Antifreeze! 2-Phenoxyethanol! Phenol! Methanol! Borax! Glutaraldehyde! MSG! Aborted human foetal tissue and human albumin! This is only about HALF of the toxins in vaccinations! Research these ingredients and see for yourself how they affect the human body and if you would put them in your children!!!!!!!!!!

"OK, no softpedaling in this post. I do not understand why any parent would not vaccinate their kids!!! Don’t hand me that line that vaccines might cause autism or some other unknown disease. If you do an iota, just a smidgen, of research into this issue (Wikipedia, for example) you will learn that such concerns are a load of crap."

I've done far more than "an iota" of research, and found that this statement is not only crude, but a load of crap itself. However if you want to continue to allow the big pharmaceutical companies continue to make gain off of risking your own and your childs health, and the governement force you to inject your bodies with chemicles you obviously are not fully educated on, then feel free. However I will not be joining you :)

You are going to hell

Get your facts straight.

"Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, 300 to 400 people died of measles in the U.S. every year."

In fact, here are the figures. Less than 200 people died in the UNITED STATES between 1954 to 1963. In FACT, measles mortality was on the decline well before the vacicne was introduced.
http://safershots.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/the-media-is-lying-to-you-about-measles/

In FACT, the MMR vaccine has killed 185 people according the VAERS govt. reporting site, which is shown to report only about 10% of adverse reacitons. In FACT, over 2000 people had an adverse reaciton to the MMR in the last year alone (remember it is groosly under reported).
The measles virus has no higher risk of death in a well nourished child. Most mortality rates from measles are caused by insufficient nutrition, poor sanitaiton, or immune compromised children.
You are a moron.
It is people like you who reproduce the ignorant reportings of other articles wrote by the media.

I dont know where i stand on this issue.
However, i know that high mercury content in your bloodstream is a main cause of neurological issues and i know that first hand.

Also, i am open to reading anyone's valuable opinion, but anyone who considers wikipedia as a useful source of information, should not be takien seriously

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7h-DPr_x2w

Vaccinated by force!!!

This article is full of holes back by zero facts!

Ask yourself why people who have been vaccinated are still catching Measles???

Look at the statistics for each disease (Measles, Mumps, Rubello). Look at when the disease was fading out and when they introduced the vaccine!!! Have a look!

You need mental help!!!
If vaccines work, Why are you crying about non vaccinated children spreading diseases.
Stop crying baby!

"Today, children need not fear whooping cough, and few people have even heard of it, because it is fended off by one of the shots in the standard set of vaccines given toddlers."

Seriously? There were 25,827 cases in the United States in 2004.

Quoted from an article on Pertussis..."Also, before the vaccine existed, the vast majority of children and adults kept up a natural immunity over their lifetime because the disease was so prevalent and they were constantly being exposed to it. Mothers were even able to pass on some of that immunity to their newborns. "

Ah, so we passed on an immunity that we now don't have due to the vaccination. So, when the vaccination wears off 10 years after it is given, we are vulnerable again. Great thinking... Morons.

Screw with Mother Nature and you get screwed.

Diseases were waning before vaccines were introduced. Health, cleanliness, and getting people out of slums were doing what is now attributed to the vaccines.

Cathy I am sorry, but you are far more than incorrect. You are either ignorant or are knowingly lying. I read that article on Wikipedia and more and found that vaccines harm people. There is now strong evidence that part of Gulf War Syndrome was caused by multiple vaccinations. MMR has been linked with autism and there is still a case to be answered here. There are many cases of brain damaged children following triple vaccine (diptheria, pertussis, tetanus). This research has been done by Dr. Sarah Myhill. The right thing to do to fight vaccines is to boost your immune system with a healthy diet and dietary supplements.The evidence that vaccinations reduce incidence of disease is pretty thin. Most infectious diseases have declined as a result of improved hygiene and nutrition. Doctors believe that vaccinations work and are reluctant to diagnose a disease in a vaccinated child because they do not want to prove that vaccines harm rather than help. So for example since polio vaccine, polio is rarely diagnosed, but there has been an increase in aseptic meningitis. Do not write about things you have not done adaquet research on yourself.

Cordelia--can you tell me more about your 2 year old's diagnosis? What "signs" were you seeing?

My brother is now 15 and when he was 4 contracted multiple sclerosis. our family doctor said that the only way that occurred was because of vaccinations. i think you are a little mislead in thinking that autism is the only thing that "could" effect someone, and even then you were extremely sarcastic. you haven't provided one ounce of information that isn't one sided. you have made vaccination seem like it should be a law and that people don't have a choice, and moreso, you use people who haven't been affected by vaccinations to strengthen your point of view. i suggest that before you start making rash statements like this, you should instead seek out people who have been affected first hand by vaccination, so then you can at least see that it isn't so one-sided. this is not one way traffic. this is opinion versus opinion, and since when have we lived in a world that allows people to dictate the decisions we make and the opinions we have in life. i refute this post and others like it, not because i want my opinion to sound right, but because you have forgotten that even God himself cannot take away our freedom of choice, like you are doing. each story has its own perpectives, and vaccination is not excluded from this.

It is so nice to see that the intelligent responses here come from people who have done their homework and don't rely on media and the false information from the CDC. The only way you would write something like Cathy has done here is by being misinformed and buying into the media brainwashing. How come Cathy isn't responding to any of the comments?

Here's one of the many, many reasons to reconsider vaccinations - do the research you owe your kids, so you can make an educated decision.

http://iansvoice.org/default.aspx

I've done a lot of research on this subject and the truth is that there's NO proof that vaccines actually work, and if u look at the ingredients for vaccines u'll discover that most contain aluminum, formaldehyde and mercury derivatives that are all harmful to the human body. I'm not saying they cause autism, kids these days are just programmed by propaganda, they're brainwashed into believing they need ipods and television, to me that'll make kids ignorant and autistic. But people do DIE from vaccines, but instead of it being reported as a vaccine death they call it SIDS, if u look into when infants suddenly die for no reason it's awfully close 2, 4 and 6 months, exactly when they give u'r kids vaccines. And if u believe in GOD at all, read the bible, it clearly says not to mix animal blood with human, and most vaccines have beef heart infusions or chicken cells. If u do do the research u'll find that vaccines never helped the decline of any illness, washing u'r hands, avoiding sick people and overall maintaining a healthy diet is what improved peoples health, as a mother of two i refuse to believe that shooting my kid up with aluminum, formaldehyde and animal parts is going to prevent them from getting serious illnesses, it's even been reported that even people who get vaccinated still wind up with measles, mumps, ect... God gave us everything we need, and man fucked it all up with chemicals. We've lived thousands of years without vaccines, why should we be FORCED to use them now?

Jenn, although I agree with you about the vaccinations please don't be so ignorant as to say autism is caused by watching tv and Ipods. as most children are diagnosed at 18 months after they recieve so many vaccines that their bodies and brains can't possibly recover from all those toxins, bacteria, fungi and viruses they give them at that time, it's like playing russion roulet with our children they keep on experimenting with different types of vaccines and just putting more and more into these poor babies. So please people stop saying things that you have no idea about unless you have researched it or experienced it first hand as it can be offensive to people that have suffered from vaccine injury in themselves or their loved ones. Spread the word that vaccines do more harm than good at this point it is all so these people can beoome filthy rich.

Thank you for this great summary of the implications of the anti-vaccination movement.

Everyone commenting on this is focusing on minute details and twisting them in their own hysterical interpretation. The Wikipedia reference, for example was to show how mainstream and accepted most vaccination science is. It's a starting point, not the science itself (duh?). Other details are nit-picking over this study or that study, rather than looking at the macro science. The logical end of the arguments all lead to abstaining from anything man-made or mass produced. Wake up, or move to the disease-stricken (but all natural!) jungles of Africa.

The negative comments beneath this post offer great illumination into the minds of the anti-vaccination crowd. Here are the traits I've noticed that lead to their paranoia:

1. A conspiratorial attitude toward big business, government, or anyone with money (this stems from envy, ignorance, greed, or a mix).

2. A desire for answers to a given problem, whatever they may be. This was mentioned in your article and other readers.

3. A "holistic" view that is hostile to any medicine that doesn't grow straight from the ground (hardly "holistic" in my opinion).

4. An ignorance of HISTORY, as well as science. You mention this in your article as well. If some of these mothers' had children whose classmates were all dying of diphtheria (like they used to), I think they wouldn't give a hoot about these wacky scientists.