Vaccines and NT hysteria?

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Does anyone else get offended whenever people or the media suggests that vaccines are a cause of autism? Not just because countless studies have proven it false and claims that it has have lead to multiple outbreaks of various diseases, but because you personally take it as an insult to your personhood? To me, when these parents neglect to give their children vaccines thereby increasing their children's likelihood of contracting many deliberating diseases for fear of them developing autism, they're essentially saying that they would rather impose a greater risk of them catching potentially lethal illnesses than live like me and many others. I realize that at heart these people want what is best for their children, but it's still quite hurtful to me.

I cannot even fathom how someone could come to believe that an increased chance of their children catching diseases like measles, mumps and rubella would be preferable to an increased chance of developing autism. So they would rather possibly risk their child's life and perhaps others (due to the spread of illness and a lack of herd immunity) than have them grow up with atypical neurology? Sure it can be hard living with autism spectrum disorders, but that doesn't mean that we can't have our needs provided for us and go on to live rich, happy lives. I don't even think even the most severe cases of autism are capable of disabling someone so much that their life isn't worth living. It seems like a terribly ableist, insensitive and dangerous position to take.

I haven't seen many sources of news take autistic perspective into account when discussing this issue. So I just thought I could ask here. Do you take offense when people neglect to vaccinate their kids because they fear they may develop an autism spectrum disorder? Do any of you sympathize with them? I'd really like to hear all opinions. Thank you.

I both empathize and take it personally.

I've been there-- My third child had no vaccinations at all until after her fourth birthday because, for a while, I subscribed to the idea that having an autism spectrum disorder made one, in effect, subhuman. I lived as a subhuman, and I did not want to take that risk with any more of my children.

I now feel very foolish for having done that-- not for having believed that there might be a link between autism and vaccines, but for having ever believed that autism could be worse than, say, measles or diptheria or infantile meningitis.

That's the empathy. As for the offense?? It's the fact that the media, and certain "advocacy" groups, make lots of headlines for themselves painting autism up as a fate worse than death. I was called lots of things as a child-- weird, bad, selfish, nasty, spoiled-- but "diseased" and "broken" were not among them. I didn't hear those things until I reached my early to mid 20s and started paying attention to what was said about ASDs in the mainstream media.

The parents mean well. They are only responding to the "information" they receive. I wouldn't be so offended if it were rags on the radical fringes disseminating this shit-- but it isn't. The idea that autism is a tragedy, a dehumanizing condition, a fate worse than death-- that is promulgated by the most mainstream of media outlets. It's everywhere, at least in America and western Europe.

It really, really annoys me. There's no science behind it, just a lot of fear and selfishness and lack of logic. It's people who act on feelings without checking the facts, people who ignore a big risk in order to satisfy themselves that they've eliminated a tiny risk. It's scare tactics, hype, bad science, and bad ethics, and it's killing people.

I wouldn't have to be autistic to be seriously annoyed at people who don't get vaccinated. They're putting other people in danger, either their own kids, or immunocompromised people, or people who are too young to get the vaccine. Don't they remember back when it was totally normal for parents to bury their babies because of diseases we can now vaccinate against? Do they really want that to happen again?

The risks of vaccines are small but real. The risks of the diseases they prevent are extreme and just as real. For parents of healthy children, the decision should be easy.

Vaccine hysteria kills people. Totally preventable deaths. People who had families who loved them. People who would have had futures. There is enough tragedy in the world--why are we creating more?

I don't take any offence to that. I don't blame anyone for wanting to minimize their kids' chances of being Autistic. Further, vaccines can make people sick with the very things they're supposed to prevent. Also, in some rare cases they can kill people. There are plenty of articles and tons and tons of contradictory info about them out there.. so much conflicting info & conspiracy theories that I don't blame anyone for simply not wanting to vaccinate their kids for anything because of all the potential negatives. If I had a kid to make those decisions about I would lean towards not vaccinating them for anything & would require an extensive amount of information about the safety track record of each vaccine in order persuade me otherwise.

That extensive amount of information exists, actually. Vaccines are being constantly tested and re-tested. Research is being published, both theoretical and practical.

You should also research the effects of getting the actual diseases--what happens when you don't vaccinate.

Compare the risks of vaccinating a population versus the risks of not vaccinating a population... the conclusion is pretty obvious. Some people do want to free-ride on others' immunity, but we're at the point now that every person who refuses vaccines for their healthy child might be the one that lowers the threshold enough that we get a breakout... or even an epidemic. If my refusal to get vaccinated killed my neighbor, I couldn't live with myself.

I don't know enough about the MMR vaccine to have an informed opinion about it. I will say this though. Vaccines are potentially dangerous. What you are told is in something is not necessarily the case.

There is no doubt the MMR vaccine did reduce measles, mumps and rubella cases but do we really know what is in each vaccine?

Most of them may be fine but what if someone puts too much of something in one of them? Suppose a machine in the factory malfunctions? Or someone feels sleepy or is thinking about what to say to their wife that evening while measuring or mixing the ingredients. It happens in car assembly factories so why not in pharmaceutical ones?

If you can buy a cereal box with the wrong cereal in it or an apple with a worm inside... what makes you so certain the vaccine hasn't been altered by human error?

My position is generally the vaccine is a good thing - but are there enough checks and balances?

I have no problem with it. Vacinations are still an uncomfortable subject for me. I don't think they cause autism. Nor do I believe that autism is some horrible tragedy that must be prevented. I do wonder though if autistics have a more sensitive system that is more vulnerable to environmental toxins that could increase co-morbidities and problems than would in an NTs' system. And that could include toxins contained in vaccinations.

My youngest son is autistic with neurological pain issues. He also was either the second or the sixth [heard both] minor in the state of Colorado to receive the pink cannabis card, [getting a card for a minor is not easy] MJ helps him ALOT, but it has to be flushed longer than most cannabis, must be organic, and it better not have a speck of indica in it or my son will react very negatively to it. It will increase his pain though it will not bother other people at all. I am not sure if it is because of being autistic, but he is so sensitive and I suspect that being autistic is what makes him so sensitive to the slightest lack of purity in his medicine.

I don't find it such a leap to wonder if autistics in general are more likely to react negatively to all sorts of toxins, including vaccinations. Also, it was the U.S. government who determined that vaccinations does not increase the liklihood of severe co-morbidities in autistics. I do not trust anything the government says.

Is there any vaccine for which the chances of safety of the vaccine is even close to that of the diseases that they are designed to prevent? I'd be surprised if there were any routine vaccinations for which the chance of dying from the disease is not at least a hundred time greater than the chance of dying from the vaccination.

vaccines dont cause autism. my mother says I didnt recognize my father when i was a year old. I think most vaccines are given after, not before, that age.
children can become paralyzed from childhood polio and infect others. no one has any evidence that vaccines cause autism.

I don't get offended and I don't feel like it insults my personhood because I am not autism. Autism is a condition. I am a person that has a condition, but I am not the condition.

I don't think vaccinations cause autism and if I had children I would get them vaccinated. But many people are not properly informed and the cause of autism is still unknowm and therefore some people still think it is caused by vaccinations. I know that in my case it is a genetic thing because mental disorders (autism included) run in my family. But people who don't have any other known case of autism in their family might blame their child's condition on vaccinations and tell friends not to vaccinate their children. Of course if people were told that vaccinations cause autism they would get scared, expecially if they have only seen people with severe cases of autism, i.e. people that can't speak/live independently. If I didn't know that it runs in my family maybe I'd believe it was because of vaccinations as well. Who knows.

I believe being vaccinated caused me to have symptoms of autism. I don't think this applies to everyone. According to my mom I was completely normal before I was vaccinated. My sister was not vaccinated and she is completely NT.

I am working extremely hard to be NT like I was supposed to be. Fortunately I have outgrown a lot of my symptoms. Supplements and good nutrition help. Whenever I get rid of one symptom another one pops up. It's like I'm constantly playing whack-a-mole. I wish I was not vaccinated so I could function like a normal human being.

If I have kids I probably wouldn't vaccinate them until they are five or six. I probably won't have kids because I probably will never have the energy to properly raise kids. Especially if the kids end up like me. I am probably a burden to everyone around me. I often think they would be better off without me. Too bad I'm not brave enough to commit suicide.

The 'autism claims' are why my mum will not let me have any kind of vaccine, let alone the MMR one, in case the vaccine makes my autism more severe.

My parents say the same about my brother. They say he developed the symptoms of LFA after having been vaccinated and that he didn't have any before.

It's not the same for me and my father. My grandmother told my mother that my father had those characteristics even before being vaccinated (but she didn't think it could be a condition because my grandmother probably had some form of Asperger's herself and thought it was perfectly normal since she was the same) and my mother said that the same goes for me.

I'm not trying to change your perspective, but I think that you can accept having autism without accepting that it completely defines you. It is a pretty big part of our lives in that it pervades our ability perceive, understand and interact in the world. It doesn't have to completely define your being to be a part of you. Some autistic people are content with the way they are and wouldn't change themselves by seeking a cure. To them removing their autism would be like changing their gender, their sexual orientation or race. These things may not entirely define us as people, but they can be accepted as something that is a part of us which they value to some extent.

No, I do not.

There is clear proof that they put a lot of bad things into vaccines. There have been many scandals swept under the rug with vaccines. They want modern INFANTS given more vaccines in their first year then was considered safe when I was an infant. They have created many vaccines for things that ARE NOT life threatening and could be administered later in life.

Whether you believe the autism/vaccine link is legitimate or not, you should take care against what you allow to be put into your body and that is doubly-so for your children.

I don't regard medical journals saying vaccines are safe. The FDA is a "paid for" agency run by people with strong ties to Big Pharma and it routinely approves drugs on cherry-picked studies selected by the drug company, and often has to recall drugs they gave their seal of approval to. This does not bolster my confidence in the word of the FDA on if a product is safe for consumption or not. The FDA says mega-doses of vitamins and minerals don't make you healthier...well, I know a lot of people who are healthier because they do just that. The FDA is a mouthpiece, not a trustworthy source of medical information. Medical journals are about as bad. Their editors decide what gets published, and there have been scandals there as well.

Whenever there is monetary or political interests involved, you have to be careful what you are willing to believe. If a holistic remedy really could cure cancer...or at least substantially improve your odds of living a long cancer-free life after treatment, who benefits? Not Big Pharma, and they can't manufacture and patent anything that's natural to lock out competition. That's why there's a push to mandate prescriptions for any vitamin X times over the RDA limit.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, a vaccination is essentially a controlled graze in which the child is exposed to a few deactivated viral particles. Its the same process that occurs thousands of times every day, each time a child scratches himself, or eats food, or inhales.

The bad stuff you've heard about is a tiny amount of mercury, about the same amount you'd find in 3 tins of tuna. It's no longer used because people found it scary.

Measles, mumps and rubella can all have serious consequences including brain damage and death. In fact MMR was introduced in the UK after 13 kids died during a measles epidemic.

There are no vested interests. Vaccines are cheap, and big pharma would rather we didn't have them.

On the one hand we have the Daily Mail, a gutter rag with a vested interest in creating sensationalist news. On the other we have the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, and the entire medical establishment.

And yes, it is offensive.