today in the news I heard...

[kippurbird]

NPR is such a fascinating listen to. You get good and My GOD they're stupid all on the same show.

Today while driving into work I heard a news bit where the cases of measles in the country so far this year is almost triple the number of cases there were in total last year. One of the reasons, the reporter said, is because parent's aren't giving their children the vaccinations. Thus their children get it and pass it on to others including infants. The reasoning given for not taking the vaccinations being that it would cause autism.

Let us think about that for a moment. You can A. give your child a vaccination that would protect them from a potentially deadly disease and has been proven over and over again that it doesn't cause autism or B. not give your child the vaccinations and thus leave them vulnerable to potentially life threatening diseases.

A child with autism is perfectly healthy. While often providing their parents with highly difficult and stressful situations, physically and health wise they are fine. They are just like any other healthy individual.

By not vaccinating their children the parents are increasing the chance of the children getting infectious and deadly diseases. This is why the vaccinations are given in the first place, so that they won't get sick. Mumps? Polio? All gone because of the vaccinations. So is small pox. All of these would be far worse than a child with autism. Polio often times crippling their victims for example. Or of course, killing them. Again, something I think everyone would agree would be far worse than a child with autism. You can get affection from a child with autism. You can't with a dead one.

In a way then, these parents are saying that they'd rather risk their children's health over a proven non-existent problem. And that is hardly good parenting at all.

Comments

[faded-enmity.livejournal.com]

Ignoring the huge possibility of death:

Were they to survive polio, the crippling effect of it (and several other diseases in children so young) could make the child just as high maintenance as one with autism -- and I don't simply mean "in the autism spectrum;" it'd be a bit farther than that, I'm sure.

Imagine if the immune system never fully recovered and was struggling to keep the body in check. The prospect of that alone is, I think, worth the alleged small risk of causing autism.

[kellicat.livejournal.com]

The problem is that people don't think things through. We get told all this garbage about how HORRIBLE it is to have a child with autism and how autism is like a living death for the "afflicted" child. Personally, I'd much rather have an autistic child than a dead one.

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* Autism is fast becoming the latest hot topic for hysterically-inclined people, isn't it?

There's much worse conditions, people!

[veriun.livejournal.com]

So...

How does a vaccine cause autism, again?

[liberationparty.livejournal.com]

because of thimerosal! thimerosal causes autism!

what, they've removed all thimerosal from vaccines? don't believe them! it's still present in trace amounts! that's why the autism epidemic continues to spread!

so what if there's more thimerosal in a caesar salad than there is in a modern vaccination?

okay, plan b. the current battery of vaccinations overwhelms children's fragile immune systems! it's too many, too soon. jenny mccarthy is always right. and jim carrey. who gets all his info from jenny mccarthy. yes.

until/unless we find alternate, proven causes for autism, it's unlikely the paranoiacs will let this trumped-up excuse go. it would be highly unethical for us to conduct sufficiently large-scale trials to demonstrate its idiocy. too many cute little kiddies dead of whooping cough.

i hate how the poling family is letting itself be handled in the media as a tragic cause of teh evol autism when hannah's issue is a super-rare mitochondrial disorder.

-random 1st-time-posting aspie twilight-hater

[j-ninjacat.livejournal.com]

The stupid! It burnsss!
Seriously, that's offensive that they think getting a possibly fatal disease is better than *gasp* the dreaded AUTISM! Especially since vaccines do not cause autism.
Oh...uh...hai! Random lurker here! I've been reading your journal since I discovered the brilliant anti-Eragon stuff.

Imagine..

[mad-troll.livejournal.com]

..that it's LKH shouting "But the vaccine makes children autistic!11one!".
Just because you and others are able to follow an argument (with logic) doesn't mean the vast majority of humankind can or will do so. =_='

[emily-goddess.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. Who wants an autistic child, when dead ones require so much less work?

[subieko.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, many people don't realize that study after study--and I mean actual scientific, all-the-bells-and-whistles of protocol studies, controlled for all kinds of stuff, the whole bit--has shown that vaccines simply do not cause autism. I think there's some condition that has symptoms somewhat like autism that IS caused by vaccines, but which is very rare and is NOT autism.

So...yeah. I think it's just that people don't bother finding the (readily available) information that would tell them that not vaccinating your children against potentially deadly diseases is really, really stupid.

Also, many people seem to believe that there's a 'normal' child somehow 'hiding' under their autism, and that if the 'illness' is 'cured', the 'normal' child will magically return. It is not entirely clear to me why this idea persists; possibly because of late-onset autism? Wouldn't really know...

But considering that I've actually met people who told me they would abort a child if they found out it had autism...I can't say I'm surprised by this. Disgusted, but not surprised.

[dumas1.livejournal.com]

Correlation, causation, post hoc, ergo propter hoc; in short, the human brain draws up patterns that lets it assign blame in whatever direction is most convenient or obvious. And when one's child is involved, that just gets all the stronger. Not easy to accept that sometimes shit happens and nothing can be effectively blamed and eliminated.

Bets on when people will start saying flu shots cause Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or strokes?