Vaccine related autism study?

[spidergoat]

Who are all these innocent bystanders who are dying of measles? This is a typical scare tactic used to manipulate the public into demonizing the unvaccinated.

Total number of deaths due to measles from 2004-2015? ZERO!

Unless there is a legitimate medical reason not to be vaccinated, the unvaccinated should be publicly demonized and shamed.

 

[billvon]

Unless there is a legitimate medical reason not to be vaccinated, the unvaccinated should be publicly demonized and shamed.

Agreed. They clearly desire attention, with the proliferation of websites, fake studies and angry anti-vaxxer posts on forums. We should oblige them.

 

[spidergoat]

I've cited over 40 studies showing links between vaccines and autism. TWICE in fact. Now I'm forced to post the studies directly because people here refuse to consider them. So instead of floating along with the majority like you always do, why don't actually look at all these studies and decide for yourself?

I agree there are lots of shitty studies that appear to have been published somewhere. Just like there are mountains of shitty evidence supporting bigfoot and extra-terrestrial visitation.

 

[Magical Realist]

More studies:

Abstract
"The authors previously published the first epidemiological study from the United States associating thimerosal from childhood vaccines with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) based upon assessment of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). A number of years have gone by since their previous analysis of the VAERS. The present study was undertaken to determine whether the previously observed effect between thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines and NDs are still apparent in the VAERS as children have had a chance to further mature and potentially be diagnosed with additional NDs. In the present study, a cohort of children receiving thimerosal-containing diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccines in comparison to a cohort of children receiving thimerosal-free DTaP vaccines administered from 1997 through 2000 based upon an assessment of adverse events reported to the VAERS were evaluated. It was determined that there were significantly increased odds ratios (ORs) for autism (OR = 1.8, p < .05), mental retardation (OR = 2.6, p < .002), speech disorder (OR = 2.1, p < .02), personality disorders (OR = 2.6, p < .01), and thinking abnormality (OR = 8.2, p < .01) adverse events reported to the VAERS following thimerosal-containing DTaP vaccines in comparison to thimerosal-free DTaP vaccines. Potential confounders and reporting biases were found to be minimal in this assessment of the VAERS. It was observed, even though the media has reported a potential association between autism and thimerosal exposure, that the other NDs analyzed in this assessment of the VAERS had significantly higher ORs than autism following thimerosal-containing DTaP vaccines in comparison to thimerosal-free DTaP vaccines. The present study provides additional epidemiological evidence supporting previous epidemiological, clinical and experimental evidence that administration of thimerosal-containing vaccines in the United States resulted in a significant number of children developing NDs."===http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15764492

Abstract
"Universal hepatitis B vaccination was recommended for U.S. newborns in 1991; however, safety findings are mixed. The association between hepatitis B vaccination of male neonates and parental report of autism diagnosis was determined. This cross-sectional study used weighted probability samples obtained from National Health Interview Survey 1997-2002 data sets. Vaccination status was determined from the vaccination record. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds for autism diagnosis associated with neonatal hepatitis B vaccination among boys age 3-17 years, born before 1999, adjusted for race, maternal education, and two-parent household. Boys vaccinated as neonates had threefold greater odds for autism diagnosis compared to boys never vaccinated or vaccinated after the first month of life. Non-Hispanic white boys were 64% less likely to have autism diagnosis relative to nonwhite boys. Findings suggest that U.S. male neonates vaccinated with the hepatitis B vaccine prior to 1999 (from vaccination record) had a threefold higher risk for parental report of autism diagnosis compared to boys not vaccinated as neonates during that same time period. Nonwhite boys bore a greater risk."====http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21058170

Abstract
"The neurotoxic organomercurial thimerosal (THIM), used for decades as vaccine preservative, is a suspected factor in the pathogenesis of some neurodevelopmental disorders. Previously we showed that neonatal administration of THIM at doses equivalent to those used in infant vaccines or higher, causes lasting alterations in the brain opioid system in rats. Here we investigated neonatal treatment with THIM (at doses 12, 240, 1440 and 3000 μg Hg/kg) on behaviors, which are characteristically altered in autism, such as locomotor activity, anxiety, social interactions, spatial learning, and on the brain dopaminergic system in Wistar rats of both sexes. Adult male and female rats, which were exposed to the entire range of THIM doses during the early postnatal life, manifested impairments of locomotor activity and increased anxiety/neophobia in the open field test. In animals of both sexes treated with the highest THIM dose, the frequency of prosocial interactions was reduced, while the frequency of asocial/antisocial interactions was increased in males, but decreased in females. Neonatal THIM treatment did not significantly affect spatial learning and memory. THIM-exposed rats also manifested reduced haloperidol-induced catalepsy, accompanied by a marked decline in the density of striatal D₂ receptors, measured by immunohistochemical staining, suggesting alterations to the brain dopaminergic system. Males were more sensitive than females to some neurodisruptive/neurotoxic actions of THIM. These data document that early postnatal THIM administration causes lasting neurobehavioral impairments and neurochemical alterations in the brain, dependent on dose and sex. If similar changes occur in THIM/mercurial-exposed children, they could contribute do neurodevelopmental disorders."===http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21549155

Abstract
"The reason for the rapid rise of autism in the United States that began in the 1990s is a mystery. Although individuals probably have a genetic predisposition to develop autism, researchers suspect that one or more environmental triggers are also needed. One of those triggers might be the battery of vaccinations that young children receive. Using regression analysis and controlling for family income and ethnicity, the relationship between the proportion of children who received the recommended vaccines by age 2 years and the prevalence of autism (AUT) or speech or language impairment (SLI) in each U.S. state from 2001 and 2007 was determined. A positive and statistically significant relationship was found: The higher the proportion of children receiving recommended vaccinations, the higher was the prevalence of AUT or SLI. A 1% increase in vaccination was associated with an additional 680 children having AUT or SLI. Neither parental behavior nor access to care affected the results, since vaccination proportions were not significantly related (statistically) to any other disability or to the number of pediatricians in a U.S. state.The results suggest that although mercury has been removed from many vaccines, other culprits may link vaccines to autism.Further study into the relationship between vaccines and autism is warranted. To read the abstract click HERE."

 

[Trippy]

Total number of deaths due to measles from 2004-2015? ZERO!

It might be true in the US:

But the world extends beyond the US, last time I checked:

 

[Magical Realist]

It might be true in the US:

But the world extends beyond the US, last time I checked:

So you whine about antivaxxers causing death from measles in the U.S., but have to go to Africa and third world countries to find all these deaths. What, the antivaxxers are causing these deaths too? What a joke..

 

[Russ_Watters]

Arguing that there are no measles deaths in the US - clearly because of high vaccination rates - is not a good way to support your argument of eliminating vaccinations.

 

[Trippy]

So you whine about antivaxxers causing death from measles in the U.S., but have to go to Africa and third world countries to find all these deaths. What, the antivaxxers are causing these deaths too? What a joke..

Read for comprehension.

On the one hand, I said that might be true in the US.
On the other hand, the only thing I have commented on is the fact that the pro-germ movement un-neccessarily exposes individuals to an otherwise avoidable risk of death.

Once again your shrill emotional responses have led you to incorrectly summarize your interlocutors arguments leading you to summon men made of straw to slay.

As Rus says:

Arguing that there are no measles deaths in the US - clearly because of high vaccination rates - is not a good way to support your goal of eliminating vaccinations.

Clearly the current outbreaks of measles and mumps indicate that there are reservoirs of these diseases in the US.

 

[Kittamaru]

I already said it was. Don't you keep up with the thread? But it's still being used in flu vaccines. Hence the paper showing the effect of flu vaccine thimerasol on fetus brains.

Oh, perhaps you should check your facts then:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/vaccine/thimerosal.htm

Do the 2014-2015 seasonal flu vaccines contain thimerosal?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved several formulations of the seasonal flu vaccine, including multi-dose vials and single-dose units. (See Table of Approved Influenza Vaccines for the U.S. 2014–2015 Season.) Since seasonal influenza vaccine is produced in large quantities for annual vaccination campaigns, some of the vaccine is produced in multi-dose vials, and contains thimerosal to safeguard against possible contamination of the vial once it is opened.

The single-dose units are made without thimerosal as a preservative because they are intended to be opened and used only once. Additionally, the live-attenuated version of the vaccine (the nasal spray vaccine), is produced in single-dose units and does not contain thimerosal.

Seems like children should just get the thimerosal free ones then

I've cited over 40 studies showing links between vaccines and autism. TWICE in fact. Now I'm forced to post the studies directly because people here refuse to consider them. So instead of floating along with the majority like you always do, why don't actually look at all these studies and decide for yourself?

Indeed, and from the ones I've read through, all were either A) Retracted for being incomplete/inconclusive/outright wrong B) Attempted to imply causation from correlation (simple Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy) or C) Have cherry picked their information so as to provide the pre-selected (and desired) outcome (such as the "studies" done by these anti-vaxxer websites).

Who are all these innocent bystanders who are dying of measles? This is a typical scare tactic used to manipulate the public into demonizing the unvaccinated.

Total number of deaths due to measles from 2004-2015? ZERO!

Zero deaths from Measles between 2004 and 2015? Hm... I think the FACTS would disagree:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/

Measles
Fact sheet N°286
Reviewed February 2015

Key facts

• Measles is one of the leading causes of death among young children even though a safe and cost-effective vaccine is available.
• In 2013, there were 145 700 measles deaths globally – about 400 deaths every day or 16 deaths every hour.
• Measles vaccination resulted in a 75% drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2013 worldwide.
• In 2013, about 84% of the world's children received one dose of measles vaccine by their first birthday through routine health services – up from 73% in 2000.
• During 2000-2013, measles vaccination prevented an estimated 15.6 million deaths making measles vaccine one of the best buys in public health.

Hm... I would say the vaccination is pretty damn effective... or are you trying to solve overpopulation by allowing people to die?

Meanwhile:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...d-measles-outbreak-hits-59-cases-and-counting

Disneyland Measles Outbreak Hits 59 Cases And Counting

The measles outbreak that started at Disneyland and one other California theme park is expanding, with 59 confirmed cases in patients ranging in age from 7 months to 70 years. The California Department of Public Health has linked 42 of these cases to people who visited Disneyland or Disney's California Adventure Park.

Initially, cases were linked to people who visited the parks in mid-December, but health officials now say that other people with measles were at the parks in January while infectious and also have spread the disease.

The outbreak has spread beyond California with seven cases in Utah, Washington, Colorado and Oregon. Mexico has also confirmed a case.

Vaccination status is known for 34 of the California patients. State officials say that 28 were not vaccinated at all, one was partially vaccinated and five were fully vaccinated. Six of the unvaccinated were babies, too young to be vaccinated.

So, thanks to unvaccinated fools, at least six babies who are too young to be vaccinated have contracted this potentially lethal disease...

Imagine how it would be if that were your child, or a kid sibling...

Get your facts straight Magical Realist... because this garbage you are spewing is starting to stink real bad.

 

[billvon]

So you whine about antivaxxers causing death from measles in the U.S., but have to go to Africa and third world countries to find all these deaths. What, the antivaxxers are causing these deaths too? What a joke..

Now you are just embarrassing yourself.

 

[Russ_Watters]

Unless there is a legitimate medical reason not to be vaccinated, the unvaccinated should be publicly demonized and shamed.

Secondhand smoke was enough if a health risk to get smoking banned from most public places. Unvaccinated people are similarly risky and should also be banned from public places. Impractical? Enforce it in schools and the problem goes away. Indeed, the problem only exists in those states with weak child vaccination policies (allowing exemptions too easily).

 

[Kittamaru]

So you whine about antivaxxers causing death from measles in the U.S., but have to go to Africa and third world countries to find all these deaths. What, the antivaxxers are causing these deaths too? What a joke..

And why do you think this is, hmm?

Oh, right, because the United States PUSHES F****** VACCINATIONS! They are readily available! Our health care is also pretty decent all said and done, especially compared to third world countries!

However, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure - measles is HIGHLY contagious, especially as an airborne threat, and thus stopping people from getting it makes a LOT more sense than trying to cure/contain it once someone has gotten it, especially since someone can be contagious for DAYS before they show symptoms!

 

[Magical Realist]

And why do you think this is, hmm?

Oh, right, because the United States PUSHES F****** VACCINATIONS!

So much for your scare tactic. Can't blame deaths on antivaxxers if the deaths aren't happening. And once again, for the reading impaired, your risk of dying from measles is 1 in a few 1000. That's much lower than dying from an accident, or murder, or a car crash. Although Billvon reminds us it's more than dying from terrorists. lol!

 

[Magical Realist]

Six of the unvaccinated were babies, too young to be vaccinated.

Babies too young to be vaccinated are protected by their vaccinated mother's antibodies. But even that fails sometimes. So your pathetic baby-killing accusation is exposed. Besides, the unvaccinated at Disneyland are believed to have been foreigners. NOT antivaxxers. I've already stated this. You really should read the whole thread.

 

[Magical Realist]

Indeed, and from the ones I've read through, all were either A) Retracted for being incomplete/inconclusive/outright wrong B) Attempted to imply causation from correlation (simple Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy) or C) Have cherry picked their information so as to provide the pre-selected (and desired) outcome (such as the "studies" done by these anti-vaxxer websites).

Another unsubstantiated claim. Not one of these studies have been shown to be flawed or retracted or preselected for outcome. I just listed 4 more. Tell me how THESE are in error.

 

[Magical Realist]

Seems like children should just get the thimerosal free ones then

What should we tell all the mothers of kids who were injected with thimerosal containing vaccines prior to 1998? What should we tell the ones who had their kids injected with mult-dose flu vaccines. What should we tell the ones in other countries where thimerasol is still widely used in vaccines?

And then ofcourse thimerosol isn't the only problem. There's the aluminum adjuvants that replaced the thimerasol in vaccines and are now pushing our children's aluminum threholds to toxic levels. I've cited several papers on this. I can find more if you don't like those.

 

[Trippy]

And once again, for the reading impaired, your risk of dying from measles is 1 in a few 1000.

Nope:
Measles complications
Otitis media, pneumonia, diarrhoea 1/10–100
Encephalitis, probably resulting in brain damage 1/1000
Death 1–3/1000

So it's at least 1 in 1000, and can be more than that. Besides which, there's a point your missing in your argument.

 

[Trippy]

There's the aluminum adjuvants that replaced the thimerasol in vaccines and are now pushing our children's aluminum threholds to toxic levels.

DO you understand how toxicity works?

 

[billvon]

Although Billvon reminds us it's more than dying from terrorists. lol!

So you find both terrorism and deaths due to lack of vaccinations a cause to LOL.

A good article on someone who was brainwashed by the anti-vaxxers, but came to their senses. It also is a good description of what a cult the anti-vaxxing movement has become.
===================================
Leaving the Anti-Vaccine Movement

I can’t tell you how I became pro-vaccine without first telling you how I became anti-vaccine.

When my oldest daughter was about four months old, I discovered “crunchy” parenting. I entered a world full of cloth diapers, “intactivism,” and home birth. I made a lot of new friends who shared my beliefs about peaceful attachment parenting, and I started to notice a trend – many of these same friends also didn’t vaccinate. I discussed it one day with a real-life friend, who told me I should look up vaccine ingredients, read the package inserts, and check out the adverse events reported on VAERS.

So I did a Google search for “vaccine ingredients” and was shocked by what I found. Could there really be all of these nasty-sounding ingredients in vaccines, I wondered? I went to the CDC’s website and found package inserts. I didn’t understand much of what I read, but it did sound pretty scary. I looked up the prevalence of diseases today and realized that nobody had even caught diphtheria for years! I was confused, and my daughter’s six-month check up was coming up. I opted out of vaccines then, telling the doctor I wanted to do some more research before we went any further.

However, my research was very skewed. I was going into it with preconceived ideas – my anti-vaccine friends had put ideas into my head, such as not trusting government websites. I was forced to rely on whatever I could find while Googling, which were often websites like Mercola or whale.to. I even started “liking” anti-vaccine pages on Facebook – pages that I now understand masquerade as “information” centers. I got added to Facebook groups like “Great Mothers Questioning Vaccines.”

Even though all of my supposed research was coming from non-scientific sources, I trusted it.

Then I got pregnant with our second child and planned a home birth. My midwives were very supportive of my anti-vaccination stance. My second daughter was born at home, and for months I prided myself on the fact that she had never been “injected with anything.” I even bragged about how we didn’t take her to the doctor until she was six months old.

My friends, too, were supportive. They reassured me that my breast milk was protecting her from disease, and how she was a shining example of a healthy unvaccinated child. I was proud to have a sense of community with other mothers who shared my views and who cheered me on.

However, I’ve always considered myself a skeptic, and I began to notice how some of my anti-vaccine friends believed in some other things that I found, well, questionable. For example, several of my anti-vaccine friends posted about chemtrails pretty frequently. I’d never heard of chemtrails, so I did some research and quickly discovered it was just a conspiracy theory easily explained away by people who actually understood how airplane contrails work. I also noticed that skeptic pages I followed occasionally made jabs about “anti-vaxxers” and homeopaths.

It was a slow process, but I gradually began to question my own anti-vaccine views. I stopped posting about vaccines for several months and began seeking out real science that would show me the truth, either way. What I found shocked me.

Anti-vaccine people had told me countless times that safety studies on vaccines were extremely lacking, but I was able to pull up hundreds of studies with just a few PubMed searches. They had told me that better hygiene and sanitation had been responsible for the massive decreases in disease, not vaccines—but I was able to find graphs and information from the CDC proving this wasn’t the case.

I was told vaccines overload the immune system. “Too many too soon” was burned into my brain.

In the end, I couldn’t continue to deny the science. It’s hard to believe now how easily I bought into everything I was hearing from the anti-vaccine crowd. It seems extremely obvious now: doctors aren’t evil, scientists aren’t trying to kill your kids with toxins, and vaccine researchers aren’t just trying to scam you out of your money.

When my youngest daughter was ten months old, I had finally made up my mind. It was time to start vaccinating again. It had been a two-year journey that took me from one end of the spectrum to the other, but at least this time I’ve got science on my side. Both of my girls are in the process of catching up on their vaccines now. They’re getting immunizations in the same order they would have gotten them at a younger age.

Both handled their first round of shots just fine, without even a fever. If it weren’t for the tiny bruises on their legs, you wouldn’t even know they’d just gotten shots. I’m proud to be a vaccinating mom now, to be giving my children the best shot at a healthy life.

The fallout from changing my views was pretty extreme. Within two weeks of “coming out” on Facebook about my new stance, I lost over 50 friends. People who had cheered me on and supported me through my home birth, who had told me countless times that I was an awesome mother and an inspiration, just dropped me like we’d never been friends at all. I was removed from groups and blocked by people I didn’t even know. I was accused of being brainwashed and told that my girls were going to get autism and have terrible reactions. It hurt.

I now view the anti-vaccine movement as a sort of cult, where any sort of questioning gets you kicked out, your crunchy card revoked. I was even told I couldn’t call myself a natural mother anymore, because vaccines are too unnatural. That’s fine. I just want to be the best parent I know how to be, and that means always being open to new information and admitting when I’m wrong.

I was terribly wrong about vaccines, and I’m thankful my girls never caught anything. I feel like I’m being more true to myself, now, as well. I’m not blindly following what others say, just because we agree on a few other things. I’m putting my trust in science, and discovering who were really my friends all along.

Megan Sandlin is a 20-year-old mother of two. She, her husband, and her children live together in the Midwest. When not playing with her children, Megan blogs about motherhood and parenting.

 

[Magical Realist]

Arguing that there are no measles deaths in the US - clearly because of high vaccination rates - is not a good way to support your argument of eliminating vaccinations.

Arguing that antivaxxers are causing deaths from measles is probably not a good idea either. But then we all know they're selfish babykillers. Makes it so much easier to hate them doesn't it.