Strollerderby

The autism was actually caused by a pre-existing condition that was exacerbated by vaccines. I've yet to see any "strong evidence" that thimerosol is to blame for autism -- in fact I've seen a lot of studies to the contrary.

Not to mention, notice that the vaccine in question was given 8-plus years ago. Why does no one ever mention the fact that  thimerosol is no longer used in most  vaccines? Ergo, this case has no bearing on current parents worried about vaccines.

Most of the experts I've read recently had been starting to believe that autism was, at least sometimes, caused by some kind of genetic predisposition that was activated by certain vaccines. This case would seem to validate that theory--it sure could lead to some great research in this area...

Wow, so they discovered what causes autism. It's related to a mitochondrial condition??? And did the government concede that the vaccine caused autism or that thimerisol did? Who cares what McCain said? He is wrong; there is no scientific evidence that thimerisol causes autism. I'm sorry, but this post is all over the place in terms of the science. Your analysis is far ahead of the facts.

Vaccines may be the trigger, but like the other point out not the thimerisol. It's a complicated and hazy situation and I think the justice system should not be making any medical determinations in these sorts of cases. How can the government be held punitively liable for something it can't have possibly known about or screened for at the time. Yes, I hope this child's family get support from the government, but it's not logical to expect the government to be penalized beyond that.

My daugther Marli was born with Mitochondrial disorder.  When she was a baby she seemed very much like any other baby mentally and emotionally.  She was starting to talk and was a very happy child.  When I took her in for her vaccinations I noticed a huge change in her shortly after.  She was extremely fussy and began exhibiting autistic traits such as waiving her hands back and forth in the air and she completely stopped talking.  She never spoke again.  I totally believe that the vaccinations caused her to develope autism.

My little girl will be 2 in April...she was diagnosed with Autism two weeks ago..she was a funny baby..she started everything on time, including talking at one she would say momma, dada, juice, and even taa-daa when we would put her shirt on..then a month after her first birthday it stopped..all of it..she stopped talking she would open and shut doors for hours..line up blocks over and over..walk with her head down, on her tip toes and seem to never stop..she stopped looking at us or even being aware of anyone around..the only thing that was different in the month was she had three shots- her mmr, pnu and varicella..i want answers and i want research for causes..i feel if my child was at risk of getting autism(i will never believe she was born with it), then it should have been told to me before the shots were ever given.

If you are the parent of a normal, even "precocious" toddler, who starts to regress after the second year of life, you will look for something or someone to hold accountable...you will want answers as you grieve for the child you once knew and for the difficult road ahead for your child and your entire family. Those who have not experienced should not make rash generalizations that this can't possibly be caused by immunizations/vaccinations. No one has the fight to trivialize this heartbreak! In other words...walk a mile in my shoes...

Mother of a brilliant, responsible, young man who is successfully living the "college experience" at a Big 10 university...oh yeah...by the way...he has Asperger's Syndrome (one of the disorders included in the Autistic Spectrum)

The emperical evidence that the vaccines ALONE are causing autism is so overwhelming that you would wonder why it's not happening to every child.  What you are witnessing are cohorts of the CDC, FDA, and other medical personal whitewashing this whole "debate."  Thermersol is 50% mercury and they are injecting it into infants with immature immune systems.  It's a banned substance, it's illegal, and they should be penalized.  They know they're in big trouble.  They are the ones giving the conclusions of the autism/vaccine results and they have a conflict of interest because they hold patents and stocks in the pharmeceuticals that make the stuff.  They claim they took thermerasol out in 1999, but that's not true!  They mislabled many of the vaccines.  They're afraid if there's a sudden drop in autism rates after removing thermeraso, it would prove their culpability.  Isn't that pretty audacious?  Anyway, right to the end, they're looking for loopholes to bury the so OBVIOUS evidence their vaccines are responsible for unnecesarily inducing autism in kids.

In the '40's there were 1 in 10,000 people who had autism.  Today, 1 in 150 kids get it, which directly corrolates with their multitudes of vaccinations they're shoving down the throats of Americans.  They even make it mandatory or the child is not allowed in school.  It's nothing but marketing that drives this and collusion with the FDA.

Their vaccinations are temporary with kids needing booster shots later.  If a child has the mumps, measles, or chicken pox, his immunity is permanent.  He'll never get that disease again.  And these are not life-threatening diseases!  Which do you think is better?

DON'T GET YOUR KIDS VACCINATED.  Do research before you allow those Frankensteins to touch your kids.

Evelyn, Kay, Leslie, and Heather,

I'm sorry you feel vaccines caused your children's autism, but the fact is, they didn't.  This issue has been studied and studied and studied and million of dollars spent now on trying to prove a hypothesis that is false.  It's time to spend the money on researching other causes and other therapies.  A conspiracy on the level of which Evelyn imagines would involve thousands of people.  Do you really think not one of them would come forward to protect children? There is no thimerosal in the standard vaccines given to children in the US and there hasn't been since 2002.  Why hasn't the rate of autism plummeted? Parents, please, please, please don't put your children's health in jeopardy over what a few well-meaning but mistaken parents may believe is true.

Here's an analysis of why this case isn't generally applicable to most autism cases:

www.wral.com/.../2538540

why is it never mentioned that the doctor responsible for making the autism/vaccine link has admitted he lied about the data that this study was based on?  his name is andrew wakefield. he invented the study.  as a result he lost his medical license, all the literature he published regarding this "link" was retracted, and every instition/doctor he worked with ended thier affiliation from him.  HE LIED ABOUT THE LINK.  HE MADE IT UP IN ORDER TO GET PUBLISHED. AS A RESULT, THERE HAVE BEEN MEASLES OUTBREAKS AND CHILDREN HAVE SUFFERED.

it's awful that your children are autistic.  but vaccinated or otherwise its just a coincidence that it's around 2 years of age when multiple vaccines are administered AND when diagnosis occurs.  of course very few children in the 40's were diagnosed as autistic....doctors didn't recognize the disease, except in severe cases.

evelyn--the mortality rate of measles in vaccinated populations is 1 in 1000.  measles can also result in permanent brain damage.  the mortality rate of mumps is 1 in 100.  are you willing to take that chance?  this is from the CDC regarding vaccinations (MMR) in africa......

The death rate from measles in Africa dropped by more than 90 percent between 2000 and 2006, the World Health Organization announced, describing it as a "spectacular" improvement brought about by a vaccination campaign that combined the know-how of global public health officials with a large dose of private financing.

The drop announced Thursday - from 396,000 deaths in 2000 to 36,000 in 2006 - achieved a World Health Organization goal four years ahead of schedule. In 2005, the WHO's Global Health Assembly set a target of reducing global measles deaths by 90 percent by 2010.

so yes these are LIFE THREATENING DISEASES. please be aware of these facts and get your kids vaccinated.  of course parents want a reason for thier child's illness, but vaccines aren't the cause. you're just being irresponsible with your child's welfare to withhold vaccines.

I'm delurking in response to this comment:

"In the '40's there were 1 in 10,000 people who had autism.  Today, 1 in 150 kids get it, which directly corrolates with their multitudes of vaccinations they're shoving down the throats of Americans.  They even make it mandatory or the child is not allowed in school.  It's nothing but marketing that drives this and collusion with the FDA."

While I can't say for certain that autism isn't on the rise, I think that it is unfair to say that it truly is.  Just like many, many diseases, the occurence of autism may appear much higher today than it did 60 years ago because of better diagnoses.  Cases of autism are more sensitively diagnosed today than in the past - we call it a "spectrum" to acknowledge the wide range of forms it can take.  In the 40's many kids who would be diagnosed today were likely categorized as merely "odd" or "fussy".  Also, teachers today are being better educated to spot signs of the spectrum to help in diagnosis and to accomodate (hopefully) these children with challenges.  Let's also not forget the power of the internet and broadcast media that has informed parents of the symptoms, empowering them to ask their physicians to test for autism.

Finally, as a scientist, I assure you that wide-ranging conspiracies are very hard to imagine.  One bad person could conceivably have a personal agenda to protect, but as pointed out, the government-FDA-scientist-research community involved includes thousands of people.  The vast majority of us are good people and ethical scientists who are exercising our critical thinking skills and expertise on your behalf.  And a lot of us are concerned parents, too.  

Trust me, I wouldn't risk my daughter for anyone's conspiracy.  I also won't risk my daughter's life by forgoing informed vaccinations to protect her from what we KNOW are deadly childhood diseases.

I think what disturbs me most about this case is what doctor would give an infant 5 vaccines at once ?  According to Recommended Immunization Schedule for persons aged 0-18 there are really only 3 immunizations recommended if the child did not have them  when they should have.  As a parent and a nurse I would never allow my peditrician to vaccinate my child with 5 vaccine at once.  I really think, especially that the mother being an RN and the father being a neurologist should have known better.  Did they know at that time about her underlying condition ?  Listen, if I had a child diagnosed on the Autisim Spectrum Disorder I would be looking for any and everything as to why they acquired autisim.....

Look what is going on in California with the measle outbreak.  A child that traveled to Switzerland was exposed to measles, brought it back to the US and there is an outbreak in San Diego and do you know why? California has a law that allows parents to refuse vaccine for personal belief!  

I am not anti-vaccinations..but i beleive there is a link.  We as parents need to know if our children have an extra risk when given their shots. I have two other children and my youngest has Autism, they all have had their shots.  But my youngest didn't show any signs of Autism until after her a set of shots, now that she has been diagnosed they want all this blood work to if she has fragile x or some other genetic contributor..why now, why not before, I could have been better informed of my childs risk.  Trust me I believe in coruption, big buiesness is full of it..but my childs right to a healthy life is my first priotity. Research is needed, new standards are needed, and trading one disease for another isnt worth it.

it's sad you believe there is a link between autism and vaccines, because there isn't. no one traded one disease for another. fragile X and other genetic conditions are the link, not the shots. there was no risk associated with the shots to inform you of in the first place. there have been THOUSANDS of studies showing no risk of autism with vaccination. if your youngest child is younger than 6 years, he/she was never even exposed to thimerserol.  it was removed from all childhood vaccines in 2002.  most importantly--THE MMR VACCINE NEVER CONTAINED THIMERSEROL.  EVER. EVER. EVER. neither did the chicken pox vaccine, polio vaccine, hepatitis B, IPV or influenza (live vaccine). so even if your child did get say, 4 shots in one day, they did NOT get 4 doses of thimerserol.  maybe they got one. and if that child is 6 years or younger, they've never gotten any.  please read about this on the CDC website.  you can see which (few) vaccines ever contained thimerserol, and when it was removed. i understand wanting to know the cause of autism, but ignoring what is fact won't help anything.

www.fda.gov/.../thimerosal.htm

Evelyn (& others)

Your intentions are in the right place, but you are wrong. Thimerosol was removed from all children's vaccinations years ago. STOP freaking people out unnecessarily. Studies have shown time and time again that autism is not caused by vaccinations. Vaccinations save lives.

A mother who proudly vaccinates her child.

The one most important fact I know is my daughter was completely healthy, completely normal child..then it stopped..the ONLY thing different was her shots.  I am not saying it is thimersol, I know that it was taken out years ago. All I know is my daughter will never be the same. If you have never watched your child slip into this unknown world, tried for hours to get them to look at you, sat and prayed,yelled screamed and  begged God for your baby to just say mommy, then you dont know how I feel. I have no answers.  I want answers.  My daughter may be 1 of 150 to you, but to me and my family, there is no other 150, she is the only one.

Don’t pay any attention to the patent rebuttals for vaccines.  These are patent answers people are paid to put out to keep “the debate” going.  They go through tremendous effort to distort statistics, cherry-pick pools of stats, “insert noise” into the stats, and other cover-up techniques to obfuscate the results to make the case that the vaccine connection is inconclusive.  There are memos from the CDC gotten from the Freedom Of Information Act that insinuate their vaccines caused developmental mental disorders and that no matter what they do, they just can’t make that “signal” (link) go away (“Evidence of Harm,” author David Kirby, p 192).  In the meantime they tell the public “there is no causal relationship between thimerosal and autism," their signature mantra.  

The pharmaceuticals love nothing better than to have repeat customers, such in providing insulin for diabetics or meds for those who suffer from allergies.  They don’t want to cure anyone; they just want to continually provide relief because it’s just good business sense.  Then someone came up with a new idea of repeat business:  vaccines.

I understand making vaccines for polio or smallpox mandatory as these are deadly or debilitating.  But measles, mumps, chicken pox?  These are not deadly and they have been around since the beginning of time.  So what if a kid is out of school for a week?  He develops permanent immunity and that’s the end of it (unlike the temporary results of vaccines).  So what if it’s contagious?  It’s part of childhood and we have lived with waves of children being absent temporarily from school for centuries.  Isn’t it far better to go through a week of the disease than have your child mentally disabled for life?

But you have no choice.  The pharmaceuticals lobbied to make these vaccines forced on us by using statements like it’s extremely contagious, etc. to sell the public and the government on the urgency and necessity of making them mandatory.

Research has found that when infants are bombarded with the live MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) viruses, some of them succumb to autism with the measles virus especially found all over the digestive tract.  It’s true this vaccine combo doesn’t have the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, because that compound would kill the virus.  But as proven, you don’t need thimerosal to cause autism.  You can do it by simply overwhelming the child’s immune system with their never-ending march of vaccines.

This is worse than priests molesting children.  This is the pharmaceuticals inadvertently inducing autism in children and not wanting to own up to it.  On top of that, after the 9-11 anthrax scares, the pharmaceuticals strangholded the government into not being held responsible for any damages their vaccines do, otherwise they wouldn’t provide vaccines for anthrax and other biological threats for the military.  This waiver of responsibility not only means for anthrax vaccines, but ALL vaccines, including MMR, etc. otherwise, the pharmaceuticals (Eli Lilly, et al.).  This gets them out of having to compensate parents for their autistic children.  The government succumbed.

That’s why this is such a record-breaking case.  Although the parents play the word game of saying it wasn’t the vaccines that caused autism in their daughter but vaccine-induced complications to a genetic predisposition (in order to finally win the case), we all know better.

I have a teenager with autism.  I also am the mom of a 5 year-old who was recently diagnosed as having aspergers.  My husband and I are carefully watching as some unusual behaviors are emerging in our 3 year old.  Matt had vaccines--lots of them.  Nate (our 5 year old) only had a shot a month.  People have to remember there is no one known cause or cure/treatment for autism.  I really don't believe my children's problems were caused by vacs.  I have a friend who swears that her son's autism is vaccination related.  Let's quit fighting and find out what causes this and find a cure.  

I think part of the problem, the reason there is not one known cause, cure, or treatment, is because it is not one disease. That's why people call it autism spectrum disorder. People with ASD are a group with varying but similar symptoms, in all likelihood caused by a multitude of things. It has been pretty well established that the increasing incidence of the disorder is tied to the broadening of diagnostic criteria and the popularization of the diagnosis. It's impossible to know if the "real" incidence has increased.

Is it possible that the autism epidemic is related to all of the routine ultrasounds that are given to all the pregnant women.  Some research seems to indicate this could be a cause, though it isn't widely reported.  It does make sense as the rapid rise in autism correlates with the widespread use of ultrasounds for all pregnant women, through various stages of their pregnancies.

5 words, people: post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Evelyn....

Are you kidding me?

P.S.  My father got Polio when he was 15 about one month before the vaccine came out. You ask him if he would have taken the risk to get a vaccine or polio?  The answer is THE VACCINE!  He actually tried to kill himself twice while in the hospital because he was in so much pain. To this day he deals with it on a daily basis. Just look around....do you see many people living with the after affects of polio? NO YOU DON'T because not many people lived through the horrible outbreak.  THINK PEOPLE! I choose life to my children and vaccinate!