There is no more intensely argued debate this upcoming decade than the vaccination vs. autism debate currently ongoing. Not since Roe v. Wade, has a a subject (then it was abortions) successfully polarized the nation. On one side of the argument we have health care practitioners and health care researchers who assure us that the causality link between certain childhood vaccinations and nuerodevelopmental diseases like autism and Asperger’s (an autism spectrum disorder that causes social interaction problems and repetitive behavior with the difference being Asperger patients retain their linguistic skills and are not as cognitively challenged; some doctors have suggested dropping the Asperger’s diagnosis and defining it as mild autism). On the other hand we have dedicated parents (some of who are celebrities like Jenny McCarthy) who will swear by the hand of god that the symptoms of their children were the direct result of having a certain standard vaccinations like MMR – measles, mumps, rubella. With the news that the HPV vaccine is being mandated to high school females has reignited the debate.
First let us get out of the way the notion that vaccines don’t work. I don’t think there is anyone who will disagree with the fact that the introduction of inoculations by DR. Edward Jenner in 1792 (a man with the epithet of saving the most lives in history) eradicated the smallpox vaccine, which was a deadly pandemic killing millions worldwide. Before I reiterate Jenner’s story let me say he is not the first to introduce inoculations. They had been doing this in ancient China and India, and the knowledge was actually brought from the Ottoman empire around 1716 by the wife of an English ambassador Lady Mary Wortley Mantagu. Jenner found studies that noticed that milkmaids working with cows with cowpox seemed to be immune from smallpox. His 17 recorded, but most publicized patient was an 8 year old boy. They took pus from a milkmaids hand, scraped it off onto a wooden board, then injected it into both the left and right arms. The boy produced a fever, but no serious maladies and was consequently immune to smallpox. Two things are significant: 1) the makeup of disease changed in our world seemingly overnight. The greatest indiscriminate killers, the many viruses that decimated 3rd and 1st world countries alike. 2) We have our first recorded case of an immunogenic response to a vaccination. A fever may be not much at all considering the lives that particular vaccination has saved, but that there is a fever at all shows that the immune system must invariably respond to the inoculation/vaccination. What happens when the immune system is triggered to react in a negative way because of the introduction of viral particles.
Let us be clear, a vaccination is comprised of live attenuated viral particles or inactivated vaccines. So what’s the diff? Attentuated viral particles have been treated in such a way as to say they are less virulent (meaning they make it harder for the virus to become active in the body, however it is alive. As opposed to the inactivated vaccines where the viral particles have been cut up, so to say, like stir fry. However like stir fry, the vaccine needs added chemicals so the body can more easily absorb them, also the vaccines like any product have a shelf life and so substances are introduced needing preservatives. In comes the mercury, aluminum, thimersol debate.
The majority of doctors and medical researchers will tell you there is enough medical literature to say there is absolutely no causal link between vaccines and autism/Aspergers. They contend that those children who get autistic symptoms immediately after a vaccination were already “predisposed” to having autism. This is a funny way of saying that those kids were damned already and the medical community is somehow doing you a favor by triggering it earlier. These same researcher will tell you that their medical data shows that commonly babies will receive their first immunogenic response with their first inoculation, meaning they don’t doubt that vaccination will cause your baby to have it’s first fever.
Why should we trust an industry that is married to the pharmaceutical industry. Let’s take the case of Cutter laboraties in 1955. Their supposedly killed Salk vaccine ended up actually and accidentally having live polio virus. This caused 40,000 cases of transient polio, 51 cases of paralytic polio , and 5 deaths. Once outrage was heard the vaccine was discontinued, of course, but through to 1960 they were still adminstereing the Cutter product. Why?
This is from the Oschner journal article titled “Childhood Immunization Controversies: What Are Parents Asking?” by Daniel R. Bronfin, MD
“Since the introduction of OPV by Dr. Sabin in the early 1960s, it was known that roughly 4 or 5 children in the United States per year would acquire vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP). In the early 1960s, this was felt to be acceptable based on the superiority of the live vaccine in that it provided greater herd immunity, eliminated the carrier state, proved more cost effective, was easier to administer, and exponentially reduced transmission compared to the less effective killed vaccine (IPV). These infrequent cases of VAPP need to be considered in the context of the late 1950s prior to polio vaccination, when more than 16,000 children per year in the United States were afflicted with natural paralytic polio.”
Here is evidence by a known medical researcher that states it for every 4000 children vaccinated that 1 would have paralytic polio, and that this is an acceptable rate. I have no contention with this point, however, how do we then explain the great leap of the autism spectrum conditions in the last 10-20 years. Autism is now at a high 1/1000 children and that I believe is a conservative estimate, 1/500-750 seems more appropriate, though I am no epidemiologist, but I probably wouldn’t have trouble finding statistics to support those numbers.
How do we continue to trust researchers who say, “your baby was genetically predisposed to having autism” because that doesn’t change the fact that the trigger was a state sanctioned vaccination. Additionally, I argue that if it is assumed that vaccinations save millions of lives, but also increase the rates of autism then what does that do financially and for quality of life of those families. One cannot put a price on life, but it may also be possible that the cost of having an autistic child may strain the quality of life of the parents and other family members. Please do not misunderstand this statement to mean that unequivocally an autistic child may cost more to care for than a healthy baby. Babies are expensive enough as it is.
MMR have definitely correlated to a decrease in measles and mumps in the population especially when looking at the data, withdrawal of the vaccinations have led to correlated increases in those conditions. Diptheria and tetanus (DPT shot), one we commonly get as babies and adults (if you get cut and the doctor asks you DPT shot last ten years?) have known side effects including sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS. Diptheria and tetany are uncommon in modern cities, but do we thank DPT shots, the group DPT, Distraught Parents Together might have something to say.