Vaccine-Autism link is rejected

I have had so many conversations with my friends about autism and vaccines over the past few years. So, whenever anything is in the paper, I make a note of it.

This morning, in the Baltimore Sun, this was the title of an article. The gist of it is that basically there were three test cases brought before a special federal vaccine court seeking payments because the families believed that it was the MMR vaccine that caused their children to become Autistic. The court concluded in all three cases that there was no evidence showing a link between autism and the MMR vaccine.

Most scientists, public health officials, and pediatricians (in addition to the main medical societies) say there is a great deal of evidence that vaccines are safe. My pediatrician and the other doctors in her practice won't actually accept patients who don't get their vaccines. She explained to me that the only reason people are able to not get the vaccines is that they are benefiting from the vaccinations of others. But, in communities where a large number of children are not getting vaccinated, there have recently been outbreaks of the disease that children now are supposed to get vaccinated fro. My pediatrician does not mind if a parent chooses for the course of vaccinations to be slowed, but not halted. The reason that the pediatricians in the practice don't accept patients who don't get vaccinated is that they do not want to put their other patients at risk. I appreciate this--because these diseases are very contagious! I have appreciated all of the discussions about this that I've had with my pediatrician.

A few months ago, there was a case where it was found in favor of the family in the case. Interestingly enough, the father of the little girl was a Johns Hopkins trained Neurosurgeon. His daughter had a very rare condition (which I can't remember) that would have been identified very shortly after birth--the signs of it appear at birth if not shortly after. Because she was ill when she was very young, she was given too many vaccines at one time and it did produce a reaction in her. So, her parents sued. But, and this is a big BUT her father said in the article that he would still give her the vaccines--just much more spread out. I think that is very important to note. That he would still do that. He is a well trained doctor and his child has had complications from the vaccines and yet he still believes they are vitally important.

Interesting. Hmmm...

Oh, and of course, the article was somewhere around page 12 of the Baltimore Sun--buried in the paper. But, I'm glad I found it =)