Parents make many
decisions when it comes to their kids. One of the first medical choices they
make is to give the recommended vaccines to their children, or not. Historically,
vaccines are widely viewed in a positive light. They protect against
preventable diseases, serious illnesses with life-long side effects, and
provide a “healthy herd” effect that protect children who may not be strong enough, or are too
young to receive certain vaccinations (1). The most famous of these vaccines
include; polio, measles, and smallpox. These diseases that plagued past
generations are no longer a threat to recent and future generations because of
the development of preventive vaccines.
If vaccines only
provide good things, why are parents choosing not to vaccinate their children?
The answer to this
question is largely lead by physician-parents of autistic children suspecting
that vaccinations may be one of the condition’s triggers (3). Based on parental reports over 40 years, the Autism
Research Institute has shown that early onset autism vs. regressed autism have
reversed in proportion in recent decades. Regressed autism appears around age 2
and is identified when children start exhibiting abnormal behavior, failing to
make eye contact or recognize their name, and playing with toys in unusual ways
(2). New vaccines, such as MMR, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenza are new
environmental factors that were introduced during this period of changing onset
(3). Could these new vaccines be responsible for the rise is regressed autism
diagnosis? Long-term prospective studies of the behavioral and
neurodevelopmental effects of vaccination do not exist. However, each vaccine
ever put on the market goes through at least six general levels of testing
before allowed to be mass produced (4). Moreover, as medical technology
advances and strains of diseases change and mutate, researchers and drug
companies are asked again by the CDC to submit sample vaccines for testing. The CDC has also stated that there is no correlation, despite this, the conversation still exists.
So, what, if anything, are we
missing?
The data provided by
the Autism Research Institute and other independent researchers, there is at
least some correlation between vaccines and autism. Now we must ask the
question; is it one of the recently introduced vaccines? Or possibly the way
they interact on a chemical basis? This possible interaction could cause
reactions that are affecting a child’s essential brain
development during their first years of life. The debate will continue to wage
for parents about whether or not to vaccinate their kids. Each parent had the
right to make their own decision, however, more
research is needed into the effects of vaccines on brain development, and the potential
interaction of one or more vaccines within a human’s immune system.
- http://www.vaccineinformation.org/vaccines-save-lives/
- https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/diagnosis
- http://canaryparty.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/708.full.pdf
- https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/basics/test-approve.html
This is a very interesting article. I was reading another article about this topic that stated the increase in autism could be because of the presence of ethyl mercury that is in these vaccines. One question that I have concerning this would be why not give kids shots over a longer period of time? I know that as a child going to the doctor to get a shot was the worst thing in the world, so why poke children several times when they could receive one vaccine over time and reduce the amount of mercury that they are receiving? This is such a hot topic currently and a very fascinating one as well.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the article: http://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1187&context=essai
I'm actually very interested in the correlation between vaccines and autism. There may be some correlation between the two, but correlation doesn't equate to causation. I'm wondering if these parents really have any right to be worried for their children getting vaccines as they have no hard evidence to prove that because X, Y. When I took microbiology my teacher told me that there was once a scientist who spoke of this “link” but he later rescinded his paper due to p-hacking/ lack of validity. Also, upon researching this topic myself, I found that the CDC says that vaccines do not cause autism (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html). Who exactly are these independent researchers, and is their research significant?
ReplyDeleteI also learned in microbiology that such a thing exists called “herd immunity” whereby those who haven't been vaccinated have a make shift vaccination because their peers are vaccinated. In essence others being vaccinated protects those who aren’t. So should other parents of vaccinated children really be scared? Is the health of our nation really at risk? I don’t think so. I think only if the rate of those not getting vaccinated increase would it be a bigger problem. But, it is truly sad that if the kids of these parents do get sick and die from a disease that there are vaccinations for, they would die of an entirely preventable disease at the hands of their own parents.
This research topic is very interesting especially since it is so controversial today in our society. I have to wonder what correlation the Autism Research Institute finds between autism and vaccines. Looking at the CDC website for their regularly tested vaccines, they do not show any correlation. More than 9 studies have been completed by the CDC in which none came up with evidence that vaccines cause autism. A specific ingredient thimerosal-a mercury based component in vaccines was widely thought to cause autism because of the mercury exposure. This being said thimerosal is used in very minimal amounts and is only found in flu shots. Also it is difficult to determine what actually is the cause of autism especially since there is a high genetic basis.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the article I found with the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html
Very interesting topic that has received much debate over the last few years. I took a class in the summer called learning differences in children and for part of the class we focused on Autism and this very debate. It is surprising to see some parents not vaccinating their children to "avoid" Autism. This only decreases herd immunity and children can become primary vectors of certain diseases without vaccines. This can lead to death and outbreaks. However, I also see the other side of the argument. If there has been no major outbreaks of certain diseases like polio and smallpox, why vaccinate some things at all? After all some of these vaccines contain traces of mercury, ether, aluminum, formaldehyde, formalin, and thimerosal. Why would you want to inject your child with any of these things? I guess at the end of the day it is up to the parents to chose and weight their chances of having a child that may develop Austism from a vaccine or the chance of their child dying from a certain disease because they were unvaccinated. Here is a AWESOME documentary by PBS that highlights this very debate.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/vaccines/
This topic has been circulating for awhile and, unfortunatly, does not seem to be going anywhere. While there are many things to be considered, what really seems to be the source of this controversy was Jenny McCarthy using here stardom to reach the masses with inaccurate information, citing a minority population of physicians in the 1980's who raised concern about certain vaccine components. While your point about increased incident of ASD coinciding with new vaccines like MMR is valid, I think there are many things to be considered. For instance, children get their first MMR vaccine at 12-15 months, the age at which autism symptoms are generally noticed. The same is true for DTap between 2-6 months, the age which children are most likely to die from SIDS. Having children later in life is also associated with increased risk of ASD, something we are seeing more and more often. The unfortunate reality is that children are going to have adverse reactions to vaccines but the benefit far outweighs the risk. The CDC reports that 1 in 30,000 children will have issues with reduces platelet count and clotting due to the measles vaccine. However, 1 in 2,000 will die from the measles itself. The diseases that DTap prevent (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) are fatal in 1 in 20 cases, 1 in 10 cases, and 1 in 1,500 cases respectively during ages of highest susceptibility. Dose and duration are two important things to considered when talking about teratogens. If people are worried about vaccine components, I think spreading them out over time is a viable option. However, by doing so you are leaving your child susceptible at the time when they are most vulnerable.
ReplyDeleteMany child care centers will be closing their doors immediately, but some child care centers will have a time frame on when they will have to close their doors. Learn more about autistic child care from coronavirus on this website.
ReplyDelete