Controversy over autism eats at credibility of CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rarely the subject of public controversy, is facing an emerging credibility crisis on the emotional issue of whether old-style vaccines containing a mercury preservative caused autism in thousands of children.
The agency is being accused of cover-ups and scientific manipulations by vocal advocates of autism awareness. It also is facing questions from some high-profile members of Congress.
As the debate and controversy increasingly find their way into pediatricians’ offices, average parents of healthy children are questioning whether vaccines are safe, sometimes even refusing inoculations.
The CDC and other public health officials insist such questions lack a basis in fact or science. Their greatest concern is that the broadening debate holds the potential to put a new generation of children at certain risk of deadly diseases if confidence in the safety of vaccines is lost and they don’t receive recommended shots.
“I think it’s huge,” said Dr. Julia McMillan, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee that makes vaccine recommendations. “There’s no pediatrician in practice that doesn’t confront this on a weekly basis: families who are questioning the need for — and in some cases refusing — vaccines for their children.”
This is what happens when the government looses credibility. No one believes you even when you tell the truth.
Bottom line, it would be nice if the threat of large payouts, due to potential suits of CDC, would force congress to fund a major effort to find out why autism has been increasingly diagnosed.
Personal opinion, after 18 years in the field, is that there is an increase in cases, not just an increase in diagnostic recognition and reporting. Personally doubt its genetic, because of the distribution patterns, but could be at some level. The notion that there is an environmental factor has is the most likely area to pursue, simply because, if that’s what it is, then there is some action we can take.
Given the large number of drug effected babies showing up (thanks all the Meth Cooks out there) any place where we can get some traction in effecting new babies being effected is worth putting big bucks into, because the alternatives are finding ways to kill the kids who result, or paying for their care.
If you think it costs more to do research into causes of and prevention of developmental disabilities, than to pay for care of individuals as adults, I don’t know how to address your short sighted, self absorbed stupidity.
Did vacines cause the rise of autism cases folks like me are dealing with every year? Dont’ know. Possibly. But, not knowing, or, worse, guessing yes or no, doesn’t help. The worst part is that for about one tenth of the cost of the Politically-Optional-War-in-Iraq we could have had an answer by now.
My wife and I refused a the MMR shot because the of the large number of children who have come up with autisim. We found that the formula containing the large amount of mecury was discontinued but was not recalled. Therefore doctors are still allowed to administer the vaccine that had the high mercury content. We will be giving him this shot when he’s 3 because we recognize the value of the vaccine but it’s not worth the chance. We will also be having him checked out for autism before the shot. As he is now at 22months he displays no signs but I would like to be sure non the less.
It doesn’t take a study to prove that mercury is bad. I believe they’ve stopped putting it into dental fillings, even though it was never any problem according to “them”.
Science is having empirical evidence of an event.
Faith is believing in an event without, or in spite of, any evidence.
It is so easy to suggest that the mercury used in vaccinations is the cause of autism. There just isn’t any evidence though, only circumstantial instances. Remember a few years ago when the chief fear of smoking pot was that 80% of heroin users started with marijuana. But 100% had had mother’s milk or a substitute as children too.
If mercury is actually a cause, then there are so many sources of mercury available that even vaccinations would be low down the list. Mother’s milk would probably be a greater source then the vaccinations. Indian reservations in the northern states and Canada eat much more mercury contaminated fish then non-Indians, yet are not overwhelmed by autism.
I am not ruling out mercury as a cause of autism, but I urge strong caution. There are just too many other possible causes. The death rate and complications from the “childhood” diseases outweigh any current known risks.
A comprehensive study in the UK recently found no evidence that imunising your kids will lead to autism. Like a lot of things like cancer, we have to look no further than all of the petrochemical products w surround ourselves with these days to find the culprit responsible for all sorts of mental and physical illnesses.
Parents of autistic kids are just looking for someone to blame so they don’t feel bad about themselves. Understandable, yes. However going after an organisation responsible for saving thousands upon thousands of lives is not the way to go about it!
This is just like these sicko parents who keep their kids environments so totally sterile that the children are not able to develop immunity to all the things that kids regularly gets exposed to, and then form alergies to in later life!
This is the favorite issue of Don Imus’ wife and because of it Imus himself.
The beauty of the issue is that it is based on absolutely no proof, but a great deal of supposition that there MUST be a connection, therefore there is.
Unfortunately just saying it does not make it true, no matter how much you want it to be true.
Science is funny like that.