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Autism & Vaccination - apophenia (false connections) or truth?

category international | health / disability issues | other press author Friday June 22, 2007 20:07author by apophenia

the current issue of eSkeptic tackles "Autism & Vaccination"

On June 11, 2007, nearly 5,000 parents of autistic children filed a lawsuit against the [U.S.A.] federal government, claiming that childhood vaccines (specifically the mercury-containing thimerosal in the vaccines) caused their children’s autism. The previous year The New York Times ran a column that was skeptical of the claimed link between autism and vaccines, which generated this comment on an internet message board that is typical of the anecdotal thinking that perpetuates this myth: "You say, ‘There is no proven link’ between mercury and autism. There also is ‘no proven link’ between going outside in the rain and cold without a hat or coat and getting the sniffles. Look at the data: the epidemic of autism mirrors the administration of vaccines with mercury. Now that they are off the shelves (more or less), the cases are going down."

n this week’s eSkeptic we address one of the hottest topics in the news this week: vaccination and autism, considering the best scientific evidence to date on the possible connection. As you shall see, the scientists considering the link, Matthew P. Normand and Jesse Dallery, provide an excellent summary of what we know and do not know. Despite the lack of scientific evidence for a connection, however, do not expect this controversy to disappear, as the power of anecdotal thinking cannot be dismissed. Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning — in this case, the parents of autistic children are understandably seeking a causal link that provides them with an opportunity to right a wrong, in this case fixing the problem through changing the body’s chemistry, diet, nutrition, toxin load, etc. Sadly, it appears at this point that the causal vector(s) probably lie elsewhere..,

Read whole article at link
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-06-20.html#feature

Related Link: http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-06-20.html#feature

Comments (2 of 2)

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author by debatepublication date Sun Jul 08, 2007 16:54author address author phone

February 1998 Dr Andrew Wakefield published research in the Lancet (the British Medical Association Journal) proposing, for the first time, that there may have been a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Since then Wakefield who encouraged other health professionals against administering the MMR vaccine had to leave for the USA (where the class action alluded to above is taking place) & now in today's British "Observer" newspaper has given his only interview.

"I told the truth all along, says doctor at heart of autism row"

: In his only interview before he appears in front of the General Medical Council to face serious charges of malpractice, the campaigner against the MMR vaccine tells Denis Campbell that he has no regrets
read more at link - http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2121522....html

also in today's "Observer" & by the same journalist is an article which reports "the number of children in Britain with autism is far higher than previously thought, according to dramatic new evidence by the country's leading experts in the field. A study, as yet unpublished, shows that as many as one in 58 children may have some form of the condition, a lifelong disability that leads to many sufferers becoming isolated because they have trouble making friends and often display obsessional behaviour. Seven academics at Cambridge University, six of them from its renowned Autism Research Centre, undertook the research by studying children at local primary schools. Two of the academics, leaders in their field, privately believe that the surprisingly high figure may be linked to the use of the controversial MMR vaccine. That view is rejected by the rest of the team, including its leader, the renowned autism expert, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen......"
read more at link - http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2121521....html

author by altoidspublication date Tue Apr 06, 2010 13:25author address author phone

The mercury/autism link is like the fat lady who overeats chocolates, cake, ice cream, and cookies. She gives up eating vanilla ice cream and moans about not being able to lose weight. Because every time she gives up one food, none of the weight comes off!

The mercury studies all ignore the aluminum and other toxins in the vacines.

All vaccines cause ministrokes in the brain. Dr. Andrew Moulden has done ample research. Watch his videos on youtube or at brainguardmd.com. He has pictures of children taken before and after being vaccinated. Before being vaccinated the children's eye focus properly. After vaccination one eye will be off or they will tilt their heads in the pictures. This shows brain damage just like after a stroke in an adult only a milder stroke. He has live video of the white blood cells rolling along the side of the artery (after a vaccination in an animal). When the large white blood cell gets to a capillary, it blocks the red blood cells and this is what causes the ministroke.

Also many autistic children also have severe food allergies. This is due to trace amounts of food protein remaining in the vaccines. There is a new book out "The History of the Peanut Allergy Epidemic by Heather Fraser.

Heather is a historian and mother of a child who has the "deadly" peanut allergy. For those of you who are unaware of this epidemic: 1 in 17 children under the age of three have a food allergy and 1 in 125 children now have a severe peanut allergy.

The FDA in all its wisdom decided that refined peanut oil is GRAS and made it voluntary for the pharmaceutical firms to put it on the package insert. They haven't volunteered...

And you cannot find out which vaccines contain peanut oil because that is a protected trade secret.

It's all in her book which you can buy from her website:

http://peanutallergyepidemic.com/

or at amazon.com

I read a study about measles and mumps that basically said the vaccine put the public at a bigger risk. Getting the measles gives livelong immunity. The vaccine does not. In the long run, it is better to have the majority of people having lifelong immunity.

If the lifelong severe food allergies are directly caused by vaccines (kids can die if they smell peanut butter cookies baking) and the incidence is what is reported 1 in 125 children, this makes the risk of getting vaccinated worse than the risk of not getting vaccinated.

At the very least, drug manufacturers should be required to disclose ALL of the ingredients in pharmaceuticals. I think you can agree with that even if you do not buy into the argument that vaccines are causing the peanut allergy epidemic.

Related Link: http://peanutallergyepidemic.com/

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