My aunt will never forget that day in 1975, when her 20 month old daughter woke up from a nap, crying petulantly. The child seemed to be having difficulties supporting her body and couldn't walk. The following day, the left side of her sweet little face had become strangely contorted, and she was completely unable to move her left arm or leg. Terrified, her mother took her to the hospital where the family spent the next five weeks in agony and fear until doctors finally discovered what ailed the child. Little Kristín had mumps, which in the 1960s before vaccination was available (in Iceland not until 1989), infected millions of children every year. The virus usually causes a chipmunk face and fever, but occasionally it penetrates the brain and spinal cord linings, causing seizures, meningitis, paralysis, and in some cases, death.
In Kristín's case, the mumps virus had infected her brain, leaving the left side of her body paralyzed.
The agony caused by mumps, measles, polio and other diseases that science had, until recently, largely succeeded in eradicating with vaccines is unimaginable only because we haven't had to know these diseases existed. But thanks to anti-vaccine zealots like Jenny McCarthy, we will sooner than later become familiar with the horrors of viruses that spread faster and surer than even lies and propaganda.
Measles have now become endemic in the UK as a result of the decline in vaccine coverage, 14 years after the disease had practically vanished. In Dublin in 1999, the year after Andrew Wakefield's "trial-lawyer funded, an incompetent, and quite likely scientifically fraudulent 1998 Lancet paper," more than 100 children were hospitalized with measles. Three of them died. In 2006, rates of whooping cough - a highly contagious, and for babies and young children, potentially fatal, bacterial infection of the respiratory system - were almost 90 percent higher in US states where parents can exempt their children from vaccinations for personal beliefs than in states that allow exemptions only for medical or religious reasons. In 2008, five Minnesota children became ill after an outbreak of the bacterial infection H. influenza type b (Hib, Haemophilus influenzae type b, a bacterium that causes meningitis and other serious diseases. Hib vaccine became available in 1990; before that Hib infections resulted in about a thousand deaths every year) three of these -- including one who died -- were infants whose parents had refused to vaccinate them. All these diseases will come back in greater numbers with mounting casualties as more parents choose not to vaccinate their children.
McCarthy doesn't seem to care about the plight of children like Kristín and that of thousands of other children who will face illness and death because their parents bought into outrageous anti-vaccine lies and fear mongering. She has said as much: "It's going to take some diseases coming back." (As if she were talking about dandruff.) But parents should care. They should at least try to envision the reality of parenting a severely handicapped child -- or even not parenting at all, in the very real cases of death -- before accepting McCarthy's logic, which is a snakepit of neurotic aberrations, conspiracy theories, childish outbursts ("that's a lie and we're sick of it"), profanities ("it's their [vaccine companies] fucking fault"; "bullshit"; "it's [vaccine] a shit product"), and outright lies: "our own government clearly acknowledges that vaccines cause brain damages in certain vulnerable kids", which it does not at all. Neither the government nor the courts have "acknowledged" that vaccines cause brain damage or autism. The government has conceded that in specific cases, vaccines may have been responsible for exacerbating a condition with symptoms that are similar to those of many autistic disorders.
The courts agree. The Vaccine Court (The Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims) has rejected any relationship between autism and vaccines. In the Poling case, which is listed on the Gen. Rescue's page of "court cases" the child had an underlying condition, mitochondrial enzyme deficiency, which consisted of a metabolic disorder called encephalopathy.
McCarthy claims that "other countries give their kids one-third as many shots as we do," but a comparison of European and US vaccination schedules reveal that they are largely identical; with some countries even out-vaccining the evil USA.
She writes "There is something wrong with this generation of kids. They aren't healthy." Speak for your own offspring, but studies (in which she of course is not interested) indicate that probably no generation of children in the world's history has enjoyed greater health than the current one. Life expectancy for newborns in the US has increased from 57.1% for babies born in 1929 to 77.8% for babies born in 2004. During the period between 1990 and 2004, childhood cancer death rates fell sharply among both sexes, all ethnic groups (except American Indians) and in every census region of the country.
What primarily threatens this generation of children in terms of health risks - in addition to anti-vaccine crusaders' lies and willful ignorance - is obesity, inactivity and resultant diseases, the fight against which would be a truly worthy cause for McCarthy to transfer her enthusiasm, although given her allergy to the truth, one is hesitant to recommend any such moves.
In true quack fashion of fabricating controversy, McCarthy talks about "the hundreds of doctors who specialize in autism recovery," having thus, according to her, accepted "the loss of mainstream status in their field." Apparently having instead gained pariah status, they also "know better" than to "speak to the press." What on earth is she talking about? As a parent of two children with ASD, I have met many, many doctors; not one of them has ever maintained that autism is a "hopeless condition," let alone "made a career" out of propagating such statements. On the contrary, every single doctor I have met for my children's condition has given useful advice and referred me to countless beneficial resources that have been of great help and benefit to my kids. Of course, I don't seek out the services of quacks, which may very well be the "doctors" McCarthy is talking about. But we all know who in this debate has made a career out of spreading misinformation about autism, and it is not the "diagnosticians and pediatricians."
Who is afraid of the truth about autism? Who indeed? Could it be the denialists in the anti-vaccine movement and people like McCarthy, who've made a career out of promoting misinformation and half-truths?
I'll venture that McCarthy has no less a financial stake in the vaccine wars than Big Pharma and the evil "diagnosticians and pediatricians." There is a lot of money to be made in snake oil pitching and crockpottery -- long known lucrative side industries for aging celebrities -- as she knows from personal experience selling books and the false cures on her website where her sponsors peddle hyperbaric chambers and useless supplements -- in the US, a $24 billion industry annually -- to desperate parents of autistic children. When you have a whole industry -- books, TV appearances, supplements, merchandise -- and the adulation of religiously devoted followers riding on your theory, the stakes are high. Having to admit you're wrong is intolerable. (How's McCarthy's "quantum prayer wheel" working for your kid's autism?) It is much easier to simply reject the truth, which as we know, the vaccine denialists don't care about; it is irrelevant to them. Their attitude is that of Lord Molson: "I will look at any additional evidence to confirm the opinion to which I have already come."
At least parents can take comfort in the knowledge that McCarthy and her fellow denialists have financial resources that can be targeted in damage suits before the courts. This will be relevant for families of unvaccinated kids brain-damaged and paralyzed for life because their parents bought into the anti-vaccine movement's fear mongering.
My cousin was fortunate. With extraordinary effort and determination and support of resolute parents fortunate enough to have adequate time and resources to devote to their child's rehabilitation, Kristín was able to regain some of the movement in her limbs. At an early age she turned her rehabilitative swimming into a career that has earned her and her country multiple golds in the Paralympics Games.
Kristín is now pregnant with her first child. She is ecstatic, but also a little anxious; because of the pregnancy, she is unable to take her medication for seizures, another legacy of the mumps virus. "We'll just have to hope for the best," she says. When the time comes, she, of course, has no doubts about having her own baby vaccinated. "That's a no-brainer. Of course! Absolutely."
Looking back, her mother says she cannot understand why parents would knowingly expose their children to the unnecessary risks of a multitude of dangerous, wholly preventable diseases: "I just wish the vaccine had been available back then."■
About the authors:
● Icelandic journalist and writer Íris Erlingsdóttir, MTOM (Master of Traditional Oriental Medicine), is the mother of two children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).
● Svanur Sigurbjörnsson, MD, received his certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine in 2001. He is an attending physician at Iceland University Hospital, Emergency Department in Reykjavik and at Mosfellsbaer Health Care Center. He can be contacted at svanurmd@gmail.com.
Follow Iris Erlingsdottir on Twitter: www.twitter.com/elluskott
Ms McCarthy isnt afraid of the truth, she is seeking it out, and wants people to do the same.
Love your reporting on the Icelandic financial crisis, more of that please. Also, who is watching your president, so that he does not take payoffs or cut backdoor deals with the bankers? The newfound silence after the referendum leads this experienced and realistic observer to believe the dirty deals are underway. Be wary. godin daginn to you :-)
Really?
Antifreeze is usually ethylene glycol, however a non-toxic version of antifreeze is available, and the chemical composition of that is propylene glycol. (HOCH2CH2OH or C2H6O2)
http://www.informedchoice.info/cocktail.html shows no ethylene glycol or propylene glycol in any of the vaccines listed.
I wonder where that concept came from?
But the nonsense that is being spewed by Jenny McCarthy and her ilk is just that: nonsense. It's completely baseless. There is no science-based evidence for any of the claims that they make. It's all just wild conjecture and conspiracy theories.
You say you want parents to be informed, and so do I, but not all information is equal. Jenny McCarthy spreads misinformation that only serves to confuse people and cause great harm to children, autistic and neurotypical alike.
In addition, the notes explain the study design is flawed in that it relied on subjective questioning of mothers about events that occurred years ago and could not be verified. The results are insignificant (too small) to draw a meaningful conclusions either way.
Parents should be educated about the risks and benefits of vaccination. The scientists, doctors, and administrators of the CDC are misleading parents and should be educated in proper research methodology and statistics.
Is this a simple oversight, incompetence, or intentional manipulation? I know from first hand experience how the lack of reliable information causes great harm to children, autistic and neurotypical alike.
I relied on my pediatrician to tell me the truth about vaccines. As a proud father of an Autistic child and having lost my perfectly healthy son 18 hours after his four-month vaccinations, I have spent countless hours reading everything I can on this subject and wish I knew back then what I now know. Parents must take the time to critically evaluate all of the information in order to make the best decision.
McCarthy is no doubt heartbroken over her own child's condition - as anyone would be - but her latching onto the bogus anti-vax hysteria and the real danger that is DAN! and Generation Rescue is sad.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-sauer/10-lesser-known-ailments_b_510402.html
Boy is this funny...................................................Ha..........................................Ha....................Ha
1) There is no demonstrated statistical correlation between the changes in the vaccine schedule and the changes in the incidence of autism diagnosis. (Ie. we don't see jumps in the autism incidence that correlate with any changes in the vaccine schedule)
2) There is no demonstrated statistical correlation between the onset of autism and the timing of vaccine administration. (ie. on a population basis, there is no evidence of a clustering of onset/detection of autism that correlates to the timing of the vaccine schedule)
Boy, I wanted to respond on the way to go get your info you say we "never address these two fatal flaws" in our arguement....
Both of the "fatal flaws" you mention have been in fact prooven, and in fact, addressed so many times its actually funny to me that you would bring it up, ESPECIALLY since your #2 is actually one of the 'facts' that your side continues to use 'against' us parents asking for more safety info....if I had a penny for everytime I heard someone on your side say "its only a coincendence that the onset of Autism is happening at the same time as the vaccines....and then go on to say that timing doesnt mean anything other than a coincedence..' ...so how can you say both things at the same time, that you have never seen any information on the onset of Autism at the same time of vaccines, AND that its merely a coincedence that all of us parents of children who have had severe vaccine injuries, only see the injury relating to the onset of their Autism as a coincedence???
..off to get links right to the info that you seek, going to post the links so that it eliminates the next usual/typical arguement "well, we dont believe that because where is the direct information'...however, you can easily find it yourself by reading at the CDC's site themselves, not even having to go to any of 'our' sites...
In itself correlations or not of this type are not usually scientifically convincing, and when antivaxers have tried to use similar points in their favor when it suited them, they have been rightly criticized.
There are far bigger flaws in their arguments than these, as apparently "fatal" as they might appear.
That is not to say that correlation cannot form part of a coherent argument to show causation (but there has to be plausibility and additional evidence supporting the direct nature of the correlation)
Next.
...shame on you for that, its only fueling a debate that instead we could all be focusing on what really needs to be done here, the health, all around of our nations children is terrible, and if all parents had the attitude that any/all people who are a 'professional' whether, doc/teacher/researcher/nutrionist/etc only has the BEST intentions 100% individual to your own child, just as you do as a parent, is blatently naive and actually pretty ignorant...whether the ignorance is purposeful or not, remains to be seen, but making 'translations' like this commenter did, well, plain silly and laughable.
What amandastories is saying that it is up to each individual parent to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY of the health of their child, their family into their own hands to be fully informed...simple as that...and if you choose to go blindly into anything, health/education/financial matters, then so be it, when something bad happens, if it happens, then you can easily place blame on others and play naive/ignorant...BUT if you take the responsibility as a parent and ASK the questions you should ask, whether it be healthcare/vaccines/education/clothing/food/etc, THEN you have the CHOICE as a parent, knowing the fully known consequences of your decision and make the best possible choice with the information that you have available to you at the time of the choice...plain and simple...
To say she is saying that she is anti-vax or saying that vaccines DO cause autism from her post here, that is plain silly...
Why o WHY would ANYONE, anti-pro-whatever be against parents having the full information about ANY decision they are making at the time? To me, the comment just continues to make the people who continue to use 'anti-vax' when talking about 'us', continues to just solidify the fact that they will turn anything into an arguement trying to 'proove' we are ANTI vaccine
Encouraging them to do so is a strategy to discourage them from vaccinating their children based on the inadequacy of the research they will do and their ability to understand the information they receive. I would have less problems if so tell parents to investigate the ingredients guided them to information that would provide the background for them to understand the specifics ---- but they don't. They just want others to be as mixed up as they are when it comes to the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.
We are simply NOT the ones who continue to use drama and scare tactics, I only could read to the first few paragraphs before I stopped reading, because of the lack of REAL information you use here to discuss the 'endemic' of the Measles and other diseases/illnesses. 100 children hospitalized and 3 passing away from the Measles within one year...you are trying to compare it to what? How many out of the 100 or 3 kids had previously been fully vaccinated against the Measles...how many of the cases of Whooping Cough you mentioned have been fully vaccinated against Whooping Cough? My son, fully vaccinated and he was hospitalized and had a loooong bout with the Whooping Cough, hospital stay didnt last longer than 4 or 5 days, however he was sick with it for MONTHS and MONTHS. You can not even begin to have a SERIOUS comparison without ALL of the information, especially if you are trying to 'blame' us PRO SAFE and FULLY STUDIED Vaccines and a FULLY STUDIED Vaccine schedule parents for the increase of these illnesses!!!!
Your believe that vaccines can give a child the disease they are supposed to protect against.
I am sure you have heard this before. There are two types of vaccines, inactivated (dead) and attenuated (weakened but live. Inactivated vaccines CANNOT give anyone the disease.
Acellular pertussis vaccine cannot give anyone disease. Look at what this one vaccine maker does to it.
I copied this from a product insert.
3 pertussis antigens (inactivated pertussis
toxin [PT] and formaldehyde-treated filamentous hemagglutinin [FHA] and pertactin
[69 kiloDalton outer membrane protein])
There are a lot of vaccination opponents here. Almost all of them would agree that inactivated vaccines, whatever else they may do in the body, do not cause disease.
Where did I or anyone in this thread say anything that the vaccines CAUSE the disease that they are meant to protect, if this is a reply to any of my posts, I never said or even insinuated that, please reread carefully...
...thanks!
On the other hand, you must realise that vaccination helps prevent distressing illnesses just like your son suffered. Without any vaccination, many thousands would suffer as your son did. And who knows, perhaps without some degree of vaccine induced immunity his illness may have been even worse?
When outbreaks of disease occur, the unvaccinated are mfar more likely to become ill.
For whooping cough, unvaccinated kids are 23 times more likely to come down with infection than vaccinated children. This means that illness might still occur in a vaccinated child, and your son was very unfortunate to be one of these few. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/unvaccinated_kids_23_times_as.html
According to my son's battle with Whooping Cough, despite being vaccinated, does NOT Mean I said, or insinuated that vaccines do not work...can you quote where you think I said that, its possible I was writing super fast and didnt explain what I was trying to say to make you think I do not believe in vaccines working or not...???
The second paragraph here;
"On the other hand, you must realise that vaccination helps prevent distressing illnesses just like your son suffered. Without any vaccination, many thousands would suffer as your son did. And who knows, perhaps without some degree of vaccine induced immunity his illness may have been even worse?"
I actually agree with the first few sentences here, and SURPRISE so do most of the people you call 'antivaccine' ...PLEASE you guys have to stop putting us Autism parents into an extremist community who do not believe in vaccines. period.....there are extremes in every way of thinking, there are on your side as well....but the majority, 99% of the community that I have experienced , including Jenny McCarthy, all along DO BELIEVE that vaccines DO prevent disasterous diseases/illnesses...GASP! REALLY WE DO...its just often overlooked because anyone on the 'other side' of us, read the word Autism and Vaccine within a post/article/etc AUTOMATICALLY read us to be crazy anti-vaccine people! cont..part 2
Like I have said in a couple of other posts here in this thread, if anyone were to say the same things I have been saying, and the rest of our Autism Community has been saying, if we took out the word 'Autism' from the posts/studies/articles/etc, it would get read and read with less judgement...but simply bring in one word, ONE WORD, and the WHOLE tone/judgement/posts all change...and its sad, because ALL of us want healthy children and families, isnt that why your 'side' fights so hard FOR vaccines and the schedule today? To keep the Nation healthy, right?
WE WANT THE SAME, we should all be able to discuss/debate/etc without name calling, judgement, or scare tactics/fearmongering...unfortuneately, it hasnt been able to be done...and I really believe that is WHY there IS so much controversy STILL...otherwise we would be able to work together and make sure everything is as safe as it can be and MOVE FORWARD....why do you think this isnt happening?
Thanks!
What does pharma have to loose? the CDC? tons! LOTS OF money...with money comes greed. And if I hear one more time 'oh why would any government be in a conspiracy/etc over something like this' I will scream. Seriously, that isnt even an arguement that can be sustained, just look at Big Tobacco, look at the Wall Street debacles,, its sickening.
Ok, back to this paragraph discussing the 'increased' numbers of these maming and deadly diseases ,like Measles and Whooping Cough and Chicken pox...without the FULL numbers ,including how many of the children who were ill had other health problems when they got sick, also how many had been already vaccinated against that illness. I can guarantee that it is impossible for you /anyone to find the numbers of those cases who had been previously vaccinated against those illnesses....and the fact that those facts havent been, and continue to NOT be kept track of, is a HUGE RED flag!
What is wrong with wanting INDIVIDUALIZED medicine for our children, and your children? NOTHING is 100% ok for 100% of people for 100% of the time, and even if a vaccine is given, 100% immunity is HIGHLY unlikely! So, instead of continuously putting us down for caring for OTHER families, and YOUR families, for taking the time and energy to spread the word that there just is NOT the proper amount of studies done here. Whether or not you want to connect vaccines and Autism or not, there just are NOT, even close to enough, safety studies done on both the vaccines, their ingredients, proper follow up and future testing of the manufacturers, as well as on the vaccine schedule itself.
But to protect vast numbers of kids from horrible diseases like your own cjhild suffered is surely a worthy goal, even if it is not 100% effective and vaccines sometimes have problems.
By all means let's see safer vaccines - medical science is attending to that as it advances. The vaccines used today are safer than earlier versions. No doubt in the future there may be even safer ones.
Concern about vaccines is a symptom of a much larger issue .. a loss of trust in the medical establishment:
• a medical establishment unable to provide parents with a cause of autism. Currently the CDC site says: "There may be many different factors that make a child more likely to have an ASD, including environmental, biologic and genetic factors."
• an industry that spends an enormous amount of money to influence government.
• an industry where the amount of "conflict of interest" between those employed by the industry and those employed in government and university positions would be laughed out of many other academic areas.
• an industry that has had repeated issues with unsafe products and coverups.
Gnashing teeth at concerned parents is not going to restore public trust. Issues like this are not going to end until that trust is restored.
Because people who peddle snake oil and fear tend to be very good at peddling snake oil and fear, especially when they go on Oprah.
This conclusion doesn't really follow. The assumption is that if the vaccine was given to a large number of children in one time and place, all other times and places and circumstances are identical and all is well.
In Finland at the time of this trial:
How many other vaccines were being given during babyhood?
At what age was the MMR given?
Was the MMR given to children who were ill or recently on antibiotics?
Is the diet and lifestyle of Finland identical to that in the U.K. or the U.S. or any other country in the world?
Science or a dogma?
Science involves comparing like to like.
I provided evidence it is not, quoting a detailed, prospective survey of 1.8 million infants pro-actively followed up after MMR with case finding on every child to see if in the aftermath of the vaccine they had any neurological problem.
There were 4 cases following 3 million MMR vaccine shots, 3 of which were labelled as possibly being due to the vaccine, giving a risk of one case per million MMR doses.
Dobyia, I suggest you read the study to answer your questions like at what age and what other vaccines were given. I am not going to tell you, I want you to try and read the paper yourself.
Whether other vaccines were given, whether kids had other illnesses or antibiotics makes NO difference to the study's findings as to the risk of encephalitis after MMR.
Now, as to the question about applicability to the US, I cannot say the risk would be identical, but I cannot see any rational reason to suppose it will be materially different.
Just to note, the rate of encephalitis following MMR would have to be over 1200 times greater than that reported in Finland for the rate to even approach the risk of encephalitis following measles, mumps and rubella.
I doubt establishing whether the kids had a Krispy Kreme for lunch would alter the risks in the US to that extent.
And are you aware that US routine kids vaccine 0-6 years can be taken with zero thimerosal or at most the thimerosal in flu vaccines?
Thanks for the good info.
Instead, I'm going to ask for more info.
I have always argued that for those of us on the side of truth, justice and the Canadian way, we should always be honest and accurate. That way, people can see if what we right is what is true,rather than what we want to be true.
Iris Please! Wake up and smell the science! This might give you a more informed perspective:
http://www.wellnessresources.com/health/articles/top_10_nutrients_of_2009/
I don't think they're going to convince me to start hitting bovine colostrum (number 5 of the top 10 nutrients of 2009!) anytime soon.
For example, babies in the U.S. are vaccinated against Hepatitis B at birth, unless the parents go out of their way to refuse the vaccine. In many other countries this vaccine is only given if the mother tests positive for the disease.
The U.S. also mandates a chickenpox vaccine. A lot of countries skip this one, too.