Lots of California parents refusing to vax kids

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http://www.kcra.com/news/investigates/m ... n/27945052

Just and double facepalm. Gee, having autism is the worst thing in the world, oh wow your kid WON'T be a hedge fund manager? Quick, call the waaambulance! Some people.

Having severe autism is not the worst thing in the world but facing a life where they may be 100% dependent on others, with no little means of communication isn't the best thing in the world either.

So yes facepalm at all those who have no idea how severe autism can get.

I don't think pezar was contesting how debilitating severe autism can be. I took the article as parents thinking it is better to have a possibly dead child rather than an autistic one (of any severity). Which makes no sense because vaccines do not cause autism.

You are free to take it how you want but parents having ambitions for their kids to become a hedge fund manager VS having ambitions for a child to be toilet trained at aged 40 is slight difference. Vaccine issue aside a judgement was made on parents that they are being shallow.

You know who else couldn't use the toilet? Those affected by polio and put in iron lungs.

Vaccines do not cause autism, there have been autistic people around for as long as there have been people on this earth. For all we know there were autistic cavemen and cavewomen, their shamans didn't have the means to diagnose them so probably blamed their behavior on bad spirits or some voodoo mumbo-jumbo. Fact remains: autism is not a recent thing. It's older then vaccines.

I will have all my children vaccinated because not doing so is putting them at risk physically. Autism is a disorder that affects the way the brain is wired but it does not, never has been and never will be caused by outside factors. The same way people are born gay, straight or bisexual, people are also born autistic, NT, ADD or dyslectic. Anyone who thinks vaccinations have anything to do with it lacks the IQ to reproduce in the first place.

What does someone being in an iron lung got to do with it unless you are arguing that someone who may end up with severe autism is justifiable to avoid someone else ending up with polio? I already said "vaccine issue aside". Autism is NOT always a good thing. If someone spends their lives not developing developmentally passed 4 years old that is not a good thing. It's not something to be celebrated and it is not just a matter of parents not getting to see their children become successful CEOs or something.

Please do not disregard the existence of those on the severe end of the spectrum.

No one is disputing that. What I, and I think the others are trying to say, is that personally we would rather have a severely autistic child (nonverbal, not toilet trained, etc...) rather than watch them die or be crippled by a preventable disease.

But this discussion is irrelevant because vaccines do not cause autism. End of story.

I think having a kid with severe autism would be stressful for me and not good for my anxiety and I can't imagine what would happen. Seeing how bad it is in the videos and how stressed out those parents were, imagine how I would be handling that too and I am someone who shuts down from stress. Some people get sick from stress, I get more anxiety and shut down and not function while other people get sick like upset stomach, vomiting, sleep issues. My mom got sick too from fighting with my schools and advocating for me and trying to figure out the system. So I can understand those parents fears and vaccines do not cause autism. I wish there was a law to get kids vaccinated. Most places require it anyway so I wonder how parents get around it. My son's school asked for immunization records.

As a native Californian I can say that Californians doing something stupid is about as mundane as the rain. Oh wait rain would be an improvement given our drought problem. Let's try a traffic jam, that works better.

Of course autism comes with challenges. I support accommodations and any scientifically-sound therapy that respects human dignity to help autistic people with the highest possible quality

The problem is that it isn't usually YOUR child that dies when you choose not to vaccinate. Most normally healthy kids can fair pretty well through most of these diseases. Deaths are usually in infants, seniors, and those with other disorders. So to the parents looking at a perfectly healthy, strong child, it isn't that big a risk at all.

What they are failing to see, of course (or just don't give a #&@*(!# about), is that vaccination is less about protecting your one, strong healthy child than it is about protecting the vulnerable in a community who cannot be vaccinated themselves. Infants too young for vaccination. Those with other disorders that cannot be vaccinated. And so on. When one of these diseases gets a foothold in a community, it is the babies that die, not the intentionally unvaccinated kids. That is the calculation these selfish parents are making, not death v. autism.

And, of course, there is the fact that vaccines don't cause autism ... but even if we can get them all to understand that, they STILL won't want to trust vaccinations. These are the same families that don't buy approved sleepwear that has fire retardant. That buy only organic and non-GMO foods. And so on. They truly believe that eliminating chemicals and living a healthy lifestyle is the best defense against any disease.

All schools have an exemption process. Among other things, the parents have to agree to keep their kids out of school at any sign in the community or in the child of outbreak of any of the diseases not vaccinated against. Pretty sure they sign a legal document on it all.

If I knew that vaccines cause autism, I wouldn't vaccinate my kids either, and home school them until vaccines got safer. But as we know there is no evidence for that.

Actually the ones that seem to be questioning it generally claim that they've seen their kid have already had reactions rather than being silly hippies who only buy organic.

I'm not going to call them liars if they claim their child had temps, seizures and claim their child regressed developmentally which is the same story I see repetitively. Encephalitis is one side effect which can lead to "autism like symptoms" but I do not think vaccines cause (severe) autism directly. Measles can also cause encephalitis so either way it could be a risk and if a kid is prone to getting very high temps that are out of control then the risk of brain damage is there no matter what the trigger. Ie. Not vaccinating could leave a child in the same situation if they catch measles or something else.

Instead of demonizing these parents which only serves to put them on the defense and cause further conflict, perhaps have more awareness of side effects and those that may be prone to them as I am fairly certain they are treatable if caught early enough. Awhile ago there was a vaccine called Fluvax that led to one death and mass side effects requiring hospitalizations in small children and had to be banned in their age group. That was ignored at first which led to more reactions, it was all of the news, a mass panic which scared the hell out of the public and people started questioning the safety of all vaccines. That was not the fault of "antivaxxers" or Wakefield or a playboy bunny. From memory one problem was the death not being reported as a possible vaccine event, and the the person who approved a triple flu vaccine (which included swine flu) said she thought it would be okay because the vaccines tested as safe in single doses but were not tested in the combination shot. It seems the strains reacted with eachother for whatever reason. Imo if they put a product on the market they need to test it thoroughly. The flu shots are difficult however as the disease changes very rapidly hard to keep up with it.. that is a very scary thought as we are getting to the point where we'll have no way of treating it. Sooner or later antibiotics will become as effective as sugar pills.