VACCINES SAVE LIVES

Well said pjmcguirk85. And with all the woo-woo found in Hollywood these days it's a delight to see someone like Amanda Peet supporting science and critical thinking. Way to go Amanda!

i was asked by someone in my class (yeah we were having a debate about this in my child development class)

"you don't know what its like to have a kid with autism"

to which i replied

"you dont have to know what its like to have a kid with autism if you want to find the truth behind the cause of the disorder. and if i did have a kid with autism, i would try to find the truth so more people know the truth behind autism. i wouldnt support a campaign against vaccines if my campaign had no scientific evidence. its when you allow your emotions to control your actions that you get parents who rally against vaccines. these parents need to stop being irrational and look at the facts. if they truly want to find a cure for autism then they need to open their minds and start looking at what the facts say so they can stop blaming a non cause and they can start researching into the truth behind autism."

here are some things to think about

1) if vaccines caused autism, then there would be ALOT more autistic kids in modern countries than there are

2) even if they were the cause, what is worse? having an epidemic of massive proportions that could wipe us off the planet? or having kids with autism (i know that sounds horrible but it needs to be taken into consideration)

and 3) how does mercury affect the brain? give me some specific chemical processes that show how mercury affects the developing brain. there is no doubt that mercury is poison, and poisons are exponentially more harmful for developing organisms, but there must be a clear link between mercury and brain deformation in order to have the basis of an argument.

~~~
Terry: You think this is funny?
Danny: Well Terry it sure as sh*t aint sad (Ocean's Thirteen)

And more simply, autism existed long before vaccination was invented.

I must point out that mercury has not been present in vaccines for a number of years, yet autism rates continued to climb, contrary to the claims of the anti-vaccination activists. And yet they still claim that vaccines cause autism.

There ARE risks involved with vaccination; no responsible doctor will deny that. But the risk is slim and the benefits far, far, far outweigh the risks. But autism is not one of the risks (we're talking things like allergic reactions and the like). Any given child is hundreds of times more likely to be hurt or killed in an auto accident, or a household accident, or drown while swimming, or be a victim of crime or violence, than they are of being in danger from a vaccination. I heard recently that the number of people injured every year by vaccines is roughly equal to the number of people who are injured every year by stampeding cattle.

It's pretty much accepted that the first major symptoms of autism typically show up at around two years of age, which is also the usual age when children receive their round of vaccinations. Parents who claim their children suddenly showed signs of autism after receiving vaccinations have no real assurance that the vaccinations actually CAUSED their child's autism, and there's no guarantee that the child would not have developed those signs if they hadn't been vaccinated.

Truthfully, all they can say is their child's autism showed up after they were vaccinated...BUT...so far nobody's ever been able to actually PROVE that the vaccines CAUSED the autism, and that it simply wasn't a coincidence. It's called "post hoc ergo propter hoc," a common logical fallacy in which thing A happens, then thing B happens, so people assume thing A was the cause of thing B, but it's not necessarily so.

In fact, over a dozen recent studies have found no connection between vaccines and autism, and suggest that autism is genetic. And studies of people's home videos have found that infants were showing the early signs of autism long before vaccinations supposedly "caused" their autism, and that their parents didn't recognize them or didn't notice. However, the antivaxers usually deny the new research or claim it's tainted by "big pharma and the CDC" and it's all a conspiracy and what have you. Sometimes they border on the deranged.

Unfortunately, it's common for parents of autistic children to wonder constantly, "Why?", and the vaccine thing gives them an easy scapegoat. And letting go of that easy answer is difficult for a lot of people. But people are dying because children are going unvaccinated. March 9 will be the one-year anniversary of the death of Dana McAffery, an Australian infant who caught pertussis from an unvaccinated child, and died. And there have been deaths from other outbreaks of pertussis and measles and other diseases that are normally vaccinated against. There was an outbreak of measles caused by unvaccinated children, and some of the victims recovered but also have a related form of meningitis that is untreatable and will kill them. And some of these diseases that aren't much to children can have serious complications for adults. Here in the US, there are very real fears of major diseases like diphtheria and polio making a comeback, thanks to stupid paranoid nutcases who don't vaccinate their children.

And yes, I think they're stupid paranoid nutcases. The conspiracy theories shouted by the antivaxers are amazing, and what it really boils down to is that they hate science and believe it to always be wrong, and any "alternative" treatment, no matter how woo-woo or stupid it may be, is the truth. And they are also typically very callous and uncaring about the lives lost because they're not vaccinating their kids. During the brouhaha in Australia over the death of Dana McAffery, an antivaxer was heard to sniff during a televised debate, "It was only one child!" They didn't care about the McAffery's grief or that someone died because of their teachings. And from what I've seen, that's typical of the anti-vaccination movement. It's all about them and their children, and they don't care how many die because of that.


"Value your education. It's something nobody can ever take away from you." My mom.