If the owners of the media have their way, then yes, you are. And as such, there's something I need to get off my chest so it doesn't explode. If you've watched the news in the past few days, you've heard about a measles outbreak in this nation and, thusly ,a renewed panic over nonvaccination. And how so many of us have presumably been misled that vaccines can be linked with autism.
The truth is, we have not been misled. There is plenty of good evidence that more care must be taken when it comes to how we vaccinate our kids. This does not mean we should not vaccinate. It does mean, among other things too numerous to go into here, that the measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox vaccines might not be such a good idea mixed up in one vial.
I'm begging everyone who can hear me. Please don't buy into the hype. Do you think it's a coincidence that this propaganda is being scattered around during autism awareness month? Does 120-something cases of measles (an outbreak? really?) across the entire U.S. concern you as much as 1 in 68 children with autism?
As usual, what the media will say about us "vaccination phobes" is inaccurate. Because most of us are are not afraid of vaccines. We like that modern medicine can help protect us from diseases that used to kill or maim us. What we are afraid of is a vaccine machine that has blown up into a monster that's out of control and that sanity has left the building.
Just this one thing I'm about to bring up should be enough to raise your eyebrows. Just this one. Let's just take the MMR, or MMRV if that's what they're giving again these days (the MMRV is what my kids got before it was temporarily discontinued, who knows why, believe me I wasn't informed that for some reason the potion injected into my kids was deemed unsafe and taken off the market, this was a piece of info I stumbled upon on my own when my own child's health blew up in my face).
But back to my point, there's this measles and mumps and rubella and chickenpox vaccine, all in one shot, which is incidentally the only way you can get it because it's the only way Merck will sell it. It is given, for the first time, between ages 1 and 2. Then, in New York State, in order to be admitted to kindergarten, the kids must get a "booster." Of the MMRV. Just a little side note that you may or may not know--it so happens that the only vaccine dose that's requred by New York State law is the measles component, but you can't get that by itself, so what the hell, boost them all. Why not. I mean, if you just wanted to take penicillin, but the only way you could get it was in a formula that combined it with Prozac, Tylenol, and, I don't know, Celebrex, you wouldn't mind, right? I mean what the hell, it won't kill you. Maybe.
So why not give a quadrupal vaccine when just the single component is required. No worries. And if you've heard or read anything about how there are doctors, here and in other countries, doing research that suggests that combining all those vaccines in one vial makes each individual virus more virulent, and therefore dangerous, maybe even causing bowel damage, that some autistic kids have been found to have the vaccine strain of measles in their diseased lower intestine, just put that out of your mind. Keep your eye on the ball, here, there's been an OUTBREAK of measles.
Except get this about that kindergarten booster thing I mentioned above. Most of the time the kids still have immunity to these viruses from the first shot, and need a "booster" like they need a few ounces of arsenic in their juice boxes. You know how you find this out? Simple blood test. It's called "checking the titers" to see if the immunity is still solid. I found a pediatrician that doesn't blink an eye about checking this out before re-vaccinating. Those doctors aren't easy to find. His words were "I check my dogs' titers before revaccinating them, why wouldn't we do it for kids too?" Good question. Maybe the answer has something to do with how well the people who make the MMRV are doing when every child entering public school kindergarten is required to get this booster.
Except that they're not necessarily required. If the child's blood shows immunity to measles, at least in NYS, they're good to go. Maybe you haven't heard this. The doctor I know who doesn't object to checking titers, on children as well as dogs, told me that in his decades of practice there has only been 1 kindergartner who didn't show immunity after the first shot. Sure, that's a small sample. Anecdotal evidence. It's the best we're going to get, because if those with the big power and the big money don't want us to know stuff, do you think that their big power and their big money is going to be put toward helping us gain this knowledge? With huge double-blind scientific controlled studies blah blah blah? Um, no.
So when we're told that there's no incontrovertible evidence that vaccines are related to autism, there's some truth to that. If by incontrovertible evidence you mean "expensive funded study." It's like the old joke about looking for your keys under the lamp post when you lost them in the bushes. Because the light's better over here.
So there you have it. Want answers? We need better lighting. And for that, friends, we're on our own.
