This video is meant to educate the public and was created by Academic Earth, in an effort to debunk the fears that many parents face when confronting the topic of vaccinating their child. The views and opinions expressed in this video are those of Academic Earth and not necessarily those of Lost and Tired. All credit goes to Academic America for the video and written, quoted content.
Academic America has a ton of great information on the website. Please take a few minutes and check them out. 🙂 http://academicearth.org
What are your thoughts? Personally, I don’t buy into the whole vaccine causes Autism thing. I do believe in vaccine injury and that is truly a tragedy. Part of what I think this video is trying to do is address the almost paranoia gripping the parenting community. There is so much opinion being confused with scientific fact that many parents simply don’t know what to do. I would love get your thoughts and opinions on the information provided in this video.
Please keep this civil and treat everyone with respect.
Too Many Too Soon: The Anti-Vaccine Fallacy is a short educational video created by Academic Earth
Created by AcademicEarth.org
Academic Earth has also provided information about the video as well, that can be found at this link: Academic Earth
For your convenience and with permission from Academic Earth, I’ve quoted the information below.
The specter of autism is scary for any new parent, especially given the most recent estimates. Whether or not we’re looking at a true epidemic or can chalk the numbers up to more liberal diagnostics, an estimated 1 in 50 children has autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.1 Parents, doctors, and researchers are scrambling to pinpoint a cause, and hopefully, a cure or means of prevention. This desperate search has lead many well-meaning parents to scapegoat vaccines as the cause of their child’s illness.
In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, published a study claiming a causal link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. Parents of children with autism celebrated the research and began a wildly successful campaign against the widespread vaccination. In 2010, Wakefield’s UK medical license was revoked after it was found that he engaged in unethical research practices and falsified his findings.2 Despite subsequent studies that find no link between autism and the MMR vaccine, the damage has been done. A large swath of desperate parents is convinced that vaccines are to blame.
Early theories blamed autism rates on the vaccine preservative thimerosal, an organic mercury-containing compound.3 Parents were convinced that autism must be a result of mercury poisoning. When thimerosal was removed from vaccines and autism rates continued to rise, affected parents shifted the goal post and decided that the number of vaccines must be the culprit, or too many too soon.
Mounting scientific evidence disproves any link between vaccines and autism. This is cold comfort to parents raising children with an ASD, but it is important that people understand this. These well-meaning parents, who desperately love their children, have consequently put all children at risk in their successful attempts to curb vaccinations. Vaccines are perhaps the greatest public health success in history. It would be devastating to turn back the clock.4
1 Marks, Kevin, M.D. “Artificial and Real Reasons behind Autism Epidemic.“ The Register-Guard. The Register-Guard, 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 May 2013.
2 “Andrew Wakefield.“ Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 29 Apr. 2013. Web. 01 May 2013.
3 United States. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “Thimerosal in Vaccines.” Fda.gov. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 20 June 2012. Web. 1 May 2013.
4 United States. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Vaccines.gov. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d. Web. 1 May 2013.
Academic America has a ton of great information on the website. Please take a few minutes and check them out. 🙂 http://academicearth.org
This site is managed almost exclusively via WordPress for Android. Please forgive any typos as autocorrect HATES me. 😉
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Here I will try again, even though I will have to look up a million links again. To say that I am lying @JamesFill is very ignorant, unless you by chance have all the answers, in which case I would really really love to hear them.
Let me start with my sweet boy’s regression in case THAT is what I am lying about. Here is some VIDEO of before and after:
http://jackandnatesmom.blogspot.com/2012/05/natey-stuff.html
I have two sons with autism, one regressed one did not. I never every said NOT to vaccinate one’s child, I said spread them out. That is not making the world a more dangerous place. BTW, there are about 3 or 4 people that talk about similar issues below.
My little guy just participated in the same Hopkins study mentioned below testing his blood’s reaction to vaccine preservatives.
http://jackandnatesmom.blogspot.com/2012/09/hopkins-wants-to-test-my-kids-immune.html
http://jackandnatesmom.blogspot.com/2012/10/more-answersmore-questions.html
http://www.jpands.org/vol9no4/boris.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23653228
You can disagree with me, totally down with that, but do not call me a liar. I take major major offense to that.
jjean3940 there we go. 🙂 for what it’s worth, you aren’t a liar. Simply because two people don’t agree doesn’t mean one is lying. There is a whole lot a truth to what you are saying. However, at the same time, not everyone falls into that category. Overwhelming, vaccines are a positive thing. There are people though that are highly sensitive to them. We need to come up with a screening process that further reduces the risks of unknowingly triggering one of these responses.
agree. I believe that many of the people classified as having “autism” will be classfied as having some other disorder in the future. because there are many different issues causing similar symptoms. once again, just my opinion based on what I have read. There are people who are most greatly affected by GI issues, people who are born with autism symptoms, people who regress, and then of course those who “recover”. clearly there are many many factors at play.
We get much less vaccine agent today than even 20 years ago. The vaccines are just more separated by shots. I’m very sorry for your situation jjean3940, but please stop lying online. You are making the world a more dangerous place for children. Shame on you.
To say that I am “lying” is a pretty heinous statement. As Rob stated above there are many different theories out there and “academic earth” is by no means the primary authority on this subject. My son also just participated in the vaccine study being conducted by Kennedy Krieger mentioned below (aka Hopkins).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19455642
http://www.autism-pdd.net/testdump/test38397.htm
I “believe” that vaccines, along with many other toxins in our environment are CONTRIBUTING to the rise in the autism rate, because these things are affecting people with the MTHFR mutation. Same reason the incidence of crohn’s and celiac are rising. Check your facts. Also, I never suggested NOT vaccinating. I believe strongly that they need to be spread out. That is my belief. Thus, I can’t be lying. But I am not alone, that is for sure
Here are my previous blog posts on the issue:
http://jackandnatesmom.blogspot.com/2012/10/more-answersmore-questions.html
http://jackandnatesmom.blogspot.com/2012/09/hopkins-wants-to-test-my-kids-immune.html
And here is video of my son’s regression:
http://jackandnatesmom.blogspot.com/2012/05/natey-stuff.html
Now, go ahead and say you disagree with me, I am down with that. But DO NOT call me a liar.
JamesFill while I agree with you, it’s unfair to say that @jjean3940 is lying. Our pediatrician recommended against the MMR because of my son’s fever disorder. We didn’t want to muddy the water and risk making whatever he had going on, worse. While I question her claim of 95%,there is without a doubt a subset of the population that is genetically fragile, for lack of a better term. These people react very strongly to vaccines and can become vaccine injured.
I have posted a lengthy response with many links twice now and it has not appeared
jjean3940 just so that you know, I don’t censor comments. What’s probably happening is that they are getting hung up on the LiveFyre side. I’ve been noticing that myself as well. I’ll see if I can push it through.
never ever thought you did. I think I hit a wrong button bc it published above. just get riled when I am called a liar that’s all
our pediatrician has also recommended against vaccinating, even the flu shot at this point. both of my boys have the MTHFR gene mutation which reduces their ability to filter toxins. I do not believe that vaccines are harmful to ALL children, but I do believe that vaccines can affect kids with this issue. And over 95% of children on the spectrum have this genetic issue. I watched my now 3 1/2 yr old slip away. At his 18 mo appt he was still developing “normally”. He got that huge round of vaccinations and lost all words. You know by now that I am not a quack, I am a nurse. I think that if these vaccines need to be given, they need to be spread out and not thrown at an immature immune system that may be impaired to begin with all at once. What parent doesn’t feel like it’s wrong to give their kid 5 injections at once? In my mind, there is a reason for this.
I only recently started my own autism blog….last week:)
But, I have been following yours off and on for some time. Though I delayed my son’s vaccines a bit and spread them out, he was caught up by the time he was just over 4 and hasn’t had a booster since and hasn’t had a regression since either, interestingly enough. Though I knew that in some instances, vaccines did injure children and that it could cause autism, I didn’t buy into the whole Andrew Wakefield thing. I never considered having my son go unvaccinated. Even after his diagnosis, I didn’t really look to vaccines as the cause until the Kennedy Kreiger Institute did. That is right!!! At my son’s first appointment, they looked at his history and went straight for that possibility. That is John’s Hopkins Children’s Hospital, if you didn’t already know. I am certain Rob does know this already. They gave him genetic testing and it did not come back positive for the genetic problem they were looking for so they said we could give him vaccines. They weren’t emphatic about it. They seemed perfectly fine with us not giving him any more. His pediatrician on the other hand, was emphatic that he never receive another vaccination. I did my research and such and while we decided that it appeared our son was not capable of filtering toxins as well as he should and that, outside of a pandemic of some sort, that we should not vaccinate him, I was still unconvinced that the corralation between the uptick in Autism diagnosis and change in the vaccine schedule was equal to causation. I think my mind has finally been changed. I don’t think that the vaccine schedule is the only magic bullet but, I think it has definitely contributed to the epidemic rise in Autism. The science actually backs it up. Some of those studies used to say that they don’t have anything to do with it are very flawed and have been disproven by further study.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of politics and money behind protecting the pharmaceutical industry. I’m not gonna write a dissertation on it here but, I was finally convinced by a person from a powerful political family. He really has the science to back it up and will be using his information to force the pharmaceutical companies to clean up the vaccines or he will go public with it. I also saw a panel of congressmen from both parties who are fighting to have real proof out there about this issue.
People who think the vaccines are at least partially to blame are not a bunch of anti-vaccine quacks. They are mostly pro vaccine but, they want the truth to come out and for the vaccines to be safer with a more relaxed schedule.
It’s interesting that so many parents of kids with autism are effected by immune problems. For example, I also have fibromyalgia. Many of their kids also have immune dysregulation issues as well.
Maybe I will write a post about the science of the vaccine argument at some point in the future to try and explain it because it seems that most people want to put their head in the sand when it comes to an environmental trigger for autism.
My 7yo was assessed and proclaimed “normal” at 1, 18m, 24m, and 40 months at a major teaching hospital. He experienced a significant regression at 5 after getting a DPT after an accident (he was previously unvaccinated). His brother had a catastrophic reaction to the DPT at 4m. It’s not JUST the MMR people worry about, and just vilifying Andy Wakefield is ignorant.
Silachan AMDuser @First Lee @Jeanette MeaghanGood megskitchen thanks for your constructive feedback. I find it most intriguing that even those with Autism themselves don’t blame vaccines. I also totally agree that I would take my autistic child in a heartbeat over risking his life to a deadly disease. To me, that’s simple logic.
Vaccines ward against known potentially fatal- DEADLY- diseases children can become infected with. I don’t believe autism is “caused” by anything outside of genetics, but even if I thought you could be given autism by a vaccine, I would still take that chance. Why? Because I would rather adapt my life to include and care for a child with autism than pick out a coffin.
This video was ridiculous and did not prove anything. If you really believe that vaccinations don’t cause autism or other neurological disorders you really have been drinking the pharmaceutical kool-aid too long.
@just me And if you truly believe that the government is out to harm us all then you should learn to take a step outside and enjoy life once in a while. While I wouldn’t doubt that vaccines can potentially injure a person’s system, having autism is still way better of a “life sentence” so to speak, than some of these diseases that vaccines are created to prevent. Look at the first comment string on the bottom and tell me you want that over autism for your children. At least I can live a happy life as an autistic adult. I struggle in a lot of areas, but I’m not deathly ill with any of these diseases and I likely never will be, because I got my protection in the form of vaccines. And I’m glad.
Silachan Your courage is inspiring. Stand up for reason!
I didn;’t watch the video, there is a meltdown going on in another room and I could not hear it if I wanted to. But I have always assumed that autism, to have the significant rise in cases, had to have multiple factors playing into one another to happen. That said, I know from our own experience, with our son off cycle for vaccinations (we lost insurance and it took us a couple of months to get it back for him), that they had no effect on him. But there are so many things that seem to be factors, so how can I say for another child it didn’t have an effect? I suspect for us, gluten is an issue, just because my father and sister both have celiacs disease. But I know that is not true for all autistic kids so I really don’t know what to think anymore.
I have heard tons on this subject that they say vaccines cause Autism alot. I think even if they did better having an Aspie or Autism Child then a dead one. I have heard if you took facts to the Anti-Vaccine they will instantly kick and ban you because they strongly believe Vaccines are Dangerous, but the diseases that those prevent are even More Dangerous.
Hi,
I only recently started my own autism blog….last week:)
But, I have been following yours off and on for some time. Though I delayed my son’s vaccines a bit and spread them out, he was caught up by the time he was just over 4 and hasn’t had a booster since and hasn’t had a regression since either, interestingly enough. Though I knew that in some instances, vaccines did injure children and that it could cause autism, I didn’t buy into the whole Andrew Wakefield thing. I never considered having my son go unvaccinated. Even after his diagnosis, I didn’t really look to vaccines as the cause until the Kennedy Kreiger Institute did. That is right!!! At my son’s first appointment, they looked at his history and went straight for that possibility. That is John’s Hopkins Children’s Hospital, if you didn’t already know. I am certain Rob does know this already. They gave him genetic testing and it did not come back positive for the genetic problem they were looking for so they said we could give him vaccines. They weren’t emphatic about it. They seemed perfectly fine with us not giving him any more. His pediatrician on the other hand, was emphatic that he never receive another vaccination. I did my research and such and while we decided that it appeared our son was not capable of filtering toxins as well as he should and that, outside of a pandemic of some sort, that we should not vaccinate him, I was still unconvinced that the corralation between the uptick in Autism diagnosis and change in the vaccine schedule was equal to causation. I think my mind has finally been changed. I don’t think that the vaccine schedule is the only magic bullet but, I think it has definitely contributed to the epidemic rise in Autism. The science actually backs it up. Some of those studies used to say that they don’t have anything to do with it are very flawed and have been disproven by further study.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of politics and money behind protecting the pharmaceutical industry. I’m not gonna write a dissertation on it here but, I was finally convinced by a person from a powerful political family. He really has the science to back it up and will be using his information to force the pharmaceutical companies to clean up the vaccines or he will go public with it. I also saw a panel of congressmen from both parties who are fighting to have real proof out there about this issue.
People who think the vaccines are at least partially to blame are not a bunch of anti-vaccine quacks. They are mostly pro vaccine but, they want the truth to come out and for the vaccines to be safer with a more relaxed schedule.
It’s interesting that so many parents of kids with autism are effected by immune problems. For example, I also have fibromyalgia. Many of their kids also have immune dysregulation issues as well.
Maybe I will write a post about the science of the vaccine argument at some point in the future to try and explain it because it seems that most people want to put their head in the sand when it comes to an environmental trigger for autism.
Silachan @First Lee I have to say that I find your thoughts very interesting and I think that we, as parents, don’t listen enough to what you as autistic adults have to say. That k you for sharing that. 🙂
Personally, I think that you made a very, very good point and I completely agree.
Even if it WERE a cause of autism, I would rather be autistic than face the illnesses and diseases that these vaccines are made to prevent such as whooping cough. Anyone ever heard the first hand tale of someone who lived through it? It’s not pretty. That’s what I do’nt understand- why put your loved ones at risk for a disease so devastating and even life threatening?
Haven’t watched the video yet, will do when I have time. Also not trying to cause an argument, I’m seriously curious.
Silachan That’s the thing. I am autistic. I’d rather be autistic and alive than neurotypical and dead. My parents, I’m sure, would also want the same for me.
@First LeeSilachanSame here, definitely. I have had chicken pox, the flu, and I have mild asthma issues. I still found all of those to be WAY worse than my autism, and those were short term whereas my autism is forever. I’ve heard stories of people who had polio, or mumps, measles, whooping cough, etc. They’re horrible diseases and they’re making a comeback because more people are going without vaccines.
One blog I found describes her experience with Whooping cough. An excerpt:
“I was coughing so hard I would vomit and pass
out at least once daily for seven months…. I was on inhalers and a
cocktail of drugs and none helped, only time. There were times when I
very literally accepted that I was about to die – my throat
would swell shut and I would suffocate until I lost consciousness,
often vomiting while I was coughing or even while I was passed out. The
coughing fits were so severe that I would pull muscles and rupture blood
vessels”
I wouldnt wish that on anyone, not even my worst enemies. I would gladly take the myriad of sensory and communication issues day to day than to live with something like that. Even on my worst days when I can barely even get out of bed or function. At least I’m alive, and I can find enjoyment in things around me.
Silachan My grandparents were early anti-vaxxers and didn’t vaccinate their children. My mom got whooping cough at age nine and nearly died of it. Even diseases like measles which are usually not fatal, are no picnic. If a pregnant woman gets measles, her child can be born with serious birth defects.
Roald Dahl, the famous children’s author (wrote Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc), his seven-year-old daughter got measles and died of complications in 1962. She was feeling relatively okay, I mean okay for a person with measles, just a fever. Then she said she had a headache and she got all clumsy and couldn’t get her fingers to work right, and she lost consciousness, and a few hours later she was dead. It had spread to her brain and I don’t think there was anything they could have done. Dahl wrote an essay urging parents to make sure their children were vaccinated.
I wanted to say to the “no vaccines under any circumstances” people, So you think smallpox just went away on its own then?
Silachan I had whooping cough when I was a kid, had two different forms of measles, chicken pox etc. they were a bit of a pain in the butt, however that is all. my kid on the other hand does have autism, unlike you while he is making progress, we at this point do not expect he will ever have the tools to live on his own, he will never have a family, probably never have a job, he can communicate with his Ipad and is quite brilliant but he is also limited because of the severity of his autism.
We are not prepared to give up on him and push him to the limits of what he can accomplish, and yes I would rather have him alive, however, like I said I lived through all those diseases, same as every kid I knew growing up did (and I am only 40)
two of our kids have had chicken pox already (one even had a major case even though he had been vaccinated, they did double check afterwards because of how severe the spots were) while the autistic child had a real good solid dose of the chicken pox, it barely kept him on the couch for more then a day, after that he still bounced off the walls waiting till he could go back to school.
I agree there is stuff that really needs to be vaccinated against, I also agree that in the Majority of cases vaccines may not be the trigger to causing autism (I believe in the concept of genetic with an environmental trigger) I do however believe that some of the cases of autism are actually triggered by vaccines.
There is no one simple solution and I really think the truth is we need to do careful research to make sure we know the true answers instead of lumping the entire autistic community together and doing tests expecting to find a common cause, when the reality is that much like cancer autism seems to have many multiple causes that vary from person to person and from type to type.
CarlBainbridge Silachan I agree with you about multiple causes. I’m pretty sure there’s a strong genetic component — I mean look at the Lost and Tired family, all three of the kids had autism and I think Lizze is an Aspie. I’m on the spectrum and it turns out my Dad is too, though he went undiagnosed for the first 65 years of his life. But genetics can’t be all of it.
Question re: genetics. Has anyone hard of any cases of identical twins where one turned out to have autism and the other not?
MeaghanGood CarlBainbridge Silachan genetic component mixed with environmental triggers (various for sure) there is even the fact that things like mercury poisoning mimics the symptoms of autism (some say this means they were never autistic, however I look at it like this, if you have all the symptoms and the entire diagnosis is based on symptoms, then realistically no matter why you got there, you are still autistic)
So you have other things that can cause autism (some of which can be removed if they are identified) there are things that can affect the level of autism (gluten in some children, milk in others etc.) and there are those who have managed to push through and function normally, while there are others who will never care for themselves. It makes it difficult to point to any one thing and say it does or does not cause autism.
as far as the identical twin thing that is an interesting question. though I have no answers, I have heard of twins one with, one without but unsure about identicals.