Politix

Prev Next
Featured Quizzes
Politix Daily Headlines
Featured Debates
Issues

See all 17 issues

People
White House

See all people

VACCINE VITRIOL

Congress Embraces Anti-Vaccine Fears

Do anti-vaccine movements harm children?

Next>

by PolitixMayday

Staff Writer t

Image: AP

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently held a hearing on the possible causes of autism and what the Center for Disease Control is doing about it. Vaccines were mentioned. Specifically, how politicians on both sides of the isle suspect the mercury in vaccinations accumulates in the brain to cause autism.

Extensive studies have gone into what causes autism. Vaccines have been ruled out, repeatedly, but that hasn't stopped committee members from suggesting that vaccines cause autism.

Two CDC scientists, Colleen Boyle and Alan Guttmacher, testified before the committee. Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) asked Boyle if the CDC had conducted a study comparing vaccinated children to unvaccinated children, among many other questions. Boyle replied that they hadn't.

But the reason such a study doesn't exist, Steven Salberg writes for Forbes, is because vaccines would have to be withheld from children. Doing so would be too risky. So why all the concern over the sudden increase in autism? As Salberg explains, it's thanks to a broadening of autism's definition, its awareness, and an increasing number of diagnoses.

Via Slate and Forbes
Like this article? B Vote Up
?

Should parents vaccinate their children?

View results

Comments (view in Forum)

  • PNWest
    !
    Ask any family physician. This should be a science issue not a political one. Vaccines have save hundreds of millions of lives. Yes occasionally someone has a bad reaction but the odds of having a seriously bad reaction to a vaccine are infinitesimal compared to odds of getting the disease that the vaccine protects against. Ask your doctor!
  • methinks
    !
    In our area we had an epidemic of whooping cough last winter, which didn't have to happen if booster shots were given. It's now part of the tetanus vaccination, so it should be a no brainer to get it.
  • PNWest
    !
    @methinks My family doctor insisted on the tetanus/whooping cough vaccination too. I've gotten so old that the vaccines I got as a kid have worn off!
  • martydotcom
    !
    Remember polio epidemic every summer. I recall 3 childhood friends who died and my brother in law ( 73 yr old) has a leg brace
  • dances-weebles
    !
    my brother and sister and i all had polio. my brother spent a year in the john hopkins children's hospital in baltimore with it. the ironic thing was that after we all recovered we were forced to go through the immunisation process at school the following year.

    not only that, if i want to remember what it was like, all i've got to do is to walk through the city here and look at all the beggars with stunted legs begging on the corners and from doorways.
  • View all 6 replies >
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    I serious questions about Autism, ADHD, and ADD. I think these ailments are diagnosed way too often and is just a way to keep children doped up to feed the pharmaceuticals industry. I could be wrong, I'm not saying that I know everything kirbstomp1, I'm just saying I'm quite skeptical. More tests need to be conducted before we can say there really is an increase of children being born with these ailments or not.
  • Keyjo
    !
    " I think these ailments are diagnosed way too often and is just a way to keep children doped up to feed the pharmaceuticals industry."
    Wow, a tint of anti-capitalist in that comment! LOL
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    @Keyjo - Not at all. I just don't like when a teacher sees a kid misbehave a little bit and then he's sent off to some specialist to label him with some type of disorder.
  • Capt_Morgan02
    !
    I tend to agree. It use to be that kids with to much energy were prescribed an extracurricular activity to help them burn off some of their extra energy. Now we load em up with all kinds of crap.
  • Keyjo
    !
    @Neo_NtheMatrix
    Yeah, I concur with that. I think that it's partly due to substance abuse by the parents. And that's both parents.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    So you see why I don't think there really is a rise in Autism, ADHD, and ADD cases? I think we have become a society that just wants instant solutions to everything. We find a pill to fix every ailment, even things that aren't ailments. I agree wit you Capt_Morgan, in the past we'd just find activities for children to do. Now we dope then up and just ruin them for life.

    A neighbor of mine has a child that was diagnosed as Autistic. He refused to have his son doped up on medication. That was well over a decade ago. Today, you couldn't pick him out as any different than any other teenager. I think we just need to slow down on ascribing every child that acts up from time to time as having an ailment of some sort.
  • View all 31 replies >
  • Keyjo
    !
    I think it's prudent to vaccinate your children. Of course, science is always discovering that what they thought was good yesterday, may not be so good today. But when I think that polio was almost wiped out by vaccine.
    I just got back from getting my annual flu shot. Exposed to so many ill people in my business, I prefer the security of the vaccine and the dry hands from the anti-bacterial hand sanitizer to the misery of the flu and colds.
  • WilliamWallace
    !
    There is a reason they call it "practicing medicine.". As insane as we think bloodletting is I wounder what our grandchildren will think of what we do.
  • Thegrif
    !
    I say yes, for now. The risk is to high not to get the vaccine for a child, at this point, but if this turns out that there is a connection made, then that will change things.
  • myp
    !
    Thimerisol has been removed (or is present in trace amounts) from all vaccines administered to children under the age of 6. And the thimerisol in vaccines is made of ethylmercury; the 'bad' mercury we all know about is methylmercury, a neurotoxin and a completely different compound.
  • myp
    !
    @SmedleyButler The paper you linked reported ethylmerury levels at an average of 150 times maximum dose in the blood, 47 times maximum dose in the hair and 2.5 times maximum dose in the urine. Vaccines do not contain these levels of ethylmercury, and vaccines for children under 6 (when autism is usually diagnosed) contain only trace amounts of it, if any.
  • View all 9 replies >
  • u
    seedtick
    !
    Vaccines are great tools to protect us all. But, if something is wrong in the industry that produces them, let's figure it out and fix it.
  • Denizen_Kate
    !
    Great. So, say your kid gets whooping cough, but before diagnosis, he goes to school and spreads it around. The kids who have been immunized will be fine, but they will take your kid's germs home with them. They can then share your kid's illness with younger siblings, even infants, who haven't yet been immunized. Your kid's lack of immunization could kill someone else's baby. Immunize them, or home school them. Please.
  • u
    34YOUDECIDE
    !
    @Denizen_Kate So, say my kid doesn't get whooping cough because of an optimal immune system; then the rest of your question would have never happened. And BTW vaccines do suppress the immune system so there is not a dramatic response to the virus in the vaccine. This suppression allows the body to build up antibodies while not having the physical symptoms manifest.
  • Denizen_Kate
    !
    @34YOUDECIDE - "So, say my kid doesn't get whooping cough because of an optimal immune system;" You could never guarantee that, I don't care what you feed them.
  • View all 9 replies >
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    If you want to know how stupid people can be just keep reading things on this web site, you will find you are correct, for there is no end to it...
  • jessejaymes
    !
    @PoliticalSpice No end whatsoever. I have spent my entire life lamenting the fact that I am just of average (perhaps) intelligence. But now I find I have wasted my laments for a lifetime because there are obviously those who make me look like one smart fellow. LOL
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  •
    jessejaymes
    !
    @PoliticalSpice This is why I left the GOP after so many years. It's become the Hillbilly party sheep shilling for the ultra rich. The largest number in recorded history of people cheering on their own demise.
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    @jessejaymes
    Well the crazy thing for me as on the left has been watching the teansition. I grew up (in terms of being of age enough to understand politics and form opinions) with now. I was a kid, far as i was concerned he was s fascist, now i eventually learned what the word meant and came to know that was silly, but that is not the point, the point is we thought that was far as things could go: southern steategy, kent state, watergate, etc. But when reagan became president all the programs he was curtialing, trimming ratger then eliminating, were thosd create by nixon/ford. An environmentalist and leftist, I watched in horror. Then bush got elected, ok he didn't move the needle much, but Cheney/ Rumsfeld, I thought this is bad as it geys, and then this crowd cane. W looks liberal, reagan ultra liberal, nixon a f&@kin commie. I mean where does it end. What about the leadership of their own party, didn't thry have insight worth considering. It's as if history started last week with this crowd. A fox soundbite and a wiki search. No books, no real debate, no clue of politics orveven critical thinking. I rant and rant, but I really can not believe the low intellectual level ov people on hete. What is really scarey, look at the test scores, 70, 80, 90 petcent correct on this site. In other words the golks on here are more intelligeng then the average person anout policy, politics and constitution. The only tjong stopping fascism is that most the pols still have enough attachment to some notion of liberty that they are not for it, but the American people can be led to ot and they eon't even know they sre going there until the gate to the concentration camp slams closed behind them. I just hope people wake up soon...
  • View all 10 replies >
  • DARSB
    !
    The "opt-out" laws many states passed are a concern among infectious disease specialists. It takes a certain percentage of vaccination to achieve " herd immunity'" which benefits everyone, even the opt-out folks, by reducing the number of active cases in a population. In areas with high opt-out rates, like northern California, whooping cough has made a comeback. Fortunately, medical care is pretty effective and few children die of pertussis (the fancy name for whooping cough).

    In some ways the anti-vaxxers are encouraged by the success of vaccination programs. Low-information parents will argue that because they have never seen a child with brain damage from measles the measles must not be a big threat. I suppose in one sense they may be correct: when it comes to threats to a child's health infectious disease is easily outclassed by low-information parents.
  • u
    34YOUDECIDE
    !
    There has never been "opt-out" laws in any State. The vaccine schedule has always been optional albiet heavily "reccommended" and seen as mandatory. California is the only State that has made vaccines mandatory, which was passed last year.
    And if I understand you correctly, you are tying the anti-vaxxers, as you call us, to the low information parents? The threats of aluminum salts, MSG, mercury (in the form of thimersol), and formalydahyde worry me much more than the measles.
  • DARSB
    !
    @34YOUDECIDE Here's why I used the phrase "low- information parents" - thimersol had not been used in vaccines since 1999. There are no federal vaccination mandates, but all 50 states require public school children to be vaccinated subject to medical exemptions, and 48 states allow religious exemptions as well. And the best example of a " low-information parent" I can point to is the occasionally amusing Jim Carry. http://goo.gl/EuPF2
  • u
    34YOUDECIDE
    !
    @DARSB You are somewhat right about thimersol. It was not to be in the end product, however it is still used in the manufacturing of the vaccines. The CDC states that thimersol is to be filtered out of the finshed product, yet traces acceptable to the FDA, still remain. Keep in mind that mercury bio-acculmilates in the body; so multiply the traces of thimersol by the 20 shots given. There are over 40 vaccines given to children but most of them are grouped together such as the MMR vaccine, which does contain trace amounts of thimersol.
  • DARSB
    !
    @34YOUDECIDE Well, no, the "bio-accumulation" thing isn't really real, according to the FDA: "[research centers] examined levels of mercury in blood and other samples from infants who had received routine immunizations with thimerosal-containing vaccines.[Pichichero ME, et al. Lancet 360:1737-1741 (2002)] Blood levels of mercury did not exceed safety guidelines for methyl mercury for all infants in these studies. Further, mercury was cleared from the blood in infants exposed to thimerosal faster than would be predicted for methyl mercury; infants excreted significant amounts of mercury in stool after thimerosal exposure, thus removing mercury from their bodies. These results suggest that there are differences in the way that thimerosal and methyl mercury are distributed, metabolized, and excreted. Thimerosal appears to be removed from the blood and body more rapidly than methyl mercury."
  • myp
    !
    I couldn't agree with your comments here more. Anti-vaccine parents either are missing key scientific information or are blatantly choosing to ignore it. Either way, it's irresponsible.
    Have you read The Panic Virus by Seth Mnookin? Very interesting. Clear presentation of heartfelt beliefs of anti-vaccine proponents, along with why their beliefs are unfounded. I'd reccomend it to anyone wanting to know more about the science behind the mercury scare.
  • u
    classychazy
    !
    Vaccines have saved countless numbers of people. They have yet to be proven detrimental on any level. Those who opt out are not only risking their child's life, but everyone they come in contact with throught a days time. I believe it to be selfish and irresponciable not to vaccinate your child.
  • u
    34YOUDECIDE
    !
    The risk, selfishness, and irresponsibility you see is based on the opinion of inevitability. Making an uninformed choice based on fact sheets and doctors who know nothing of the ingredients they causually inject into children, in my view is much more irresponisble and much more selfish, based on convenience, than not vaccinating.
  • u
    SmedleyButler
    !
    They should embrace the fears of parents. Before 1983 the autism rate was 1 in 5-10k, now it's 1-88. What changed? the age and amount of vaccines. I know, two of my boys, and most of my cousin's boys born after 1983 have it. It was never in the family.
    I moved to an area heavily populated with Amish. They don't have our problems with autism. Research the alternate media questioning it .

    .
    Vaccine bombshell: Baby monkeys given standard doses of popular vaccines develop autism symptoms
    http://www.naturalnews.com/035787_vaccines_au...

    So the studies say it's safe you say? That's nice. the elites know it's bullshit
    German Chancellor, Ministers Get Special Vaccine Without Soft Kill Ingredients
    http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread511...
    "The revelation that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well the cabinet, including the Health Minister Ulla Schmidt are planning to take a "swine flu" jab without mercury and squalene is fuelling fears in Germany that there is a two tier vaccination system planned; a safe vaccine for the global elite and their agents in national governments, and a lethal vaccine for the rest of the population. Wolf Dieter Ludwig, head of the medicines commission of the association of German doctors, called the decision by the government to take a different vaccine from the untested and toxic swine flu jab destined for the rest of the population a "scandal" of a dimension that can hardly be communicated to the general public. "The health authorities have fallen for a campaign from the pharmaceutical companies, who just want to earn money with an illusory threat," Ludwig said. Vaccines with adjuvants have not been tested on pregnant women and children even though the German govenrment has said these are priority groups. Among the government officials to get the "swine flu" jab without mercury and adjuvants will be the employees of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, the government drug regulator which ordered "swine flu" jabs with mercury and squalene to the rest of the population."

    well, enough said for me, don't like it? Too bad
  • PayThatCEO
    !
    How can you be certain vaccinations are the cause of the rise in autism? We could say that autism, in general, is more widely recognized and diagnosed now, thereby raising the rates. How do you account for the hundreds of millions of children, myself included, who have been vaccinated over the decades (including smallpox) with no ill effects? Could our focus on vaccinations actually be leading us off track when, in fact, another environmental hazard is the cause?

    I was born in 1958. Let's compare the changes that have come about since I was vaccinated. The use of plastic is one of the biggest. It is widely used to package our food in. We microwave it and dishwash it and never imagine the chemical compounds could ever break down with time, heat and usage.

    What about the chemicals in food itself. Read the back of a box of cereal or frozen dinner. No one knows that half that stuff is. While it doesn't kill us outright, what does it do over the course of time...especially in terms of genetics?

    What about the chemicals used in construction? Formaldehyde in carpets and furniture. Fiberglass insulations. What about water? It's full of flouride. What about the air we breath inside and outside? Ever wonder what happens to all those skin creams, shampoos, make-up, tanning solutions, laundry detergents, cleaning agents, etc. when they are absorbed through your skin and into your body?

    And what about people themselves? We have a few generations of people now who have, at least, experimented with recreational drugs. Not to mention, we have millions of people taking every kind of prescription medication imaginable. We have a very promiscuous society...could autism actually be silently passed from person to person waiting to take up residence in a future child?

    And remember, NONE of these things I've mentioned would have an affect on the Amish, so using these people as a comparison study is moot. We live in a different environment full of chemicals and hormones and pesticides and lifestyles and God knows what else that the Amish do not have in their lives. We can't even begin to imagine how it all affects us physically, mentally and genetically. To simply blame vaccines for unexplained illnesses is narrowing the pathway to exploration and the possible real solution.
  • u
    SmedleyButler
    !
    @PayThatCEO Born in 1958? Go look at your vaccine schedule as an infant, What was in it, when it was given, and compare it to today's infants. IMHO, you've lost the ability to observe and question, one of the reasons mankind could be doomed.

    BTW, those Amish have businesses and use harsh chemicals all day. MethylMercury is a neurotoxin. It's the same neurotoxin in areas where they ban shell fishing, the amount in the vaccines was 100 time worse that was injected in the bodies of infants. What's Methylmercury? http://toxics.usgs.gov/definitions/methylmerc...
    What is Squalene? http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/ar...
    You want to be a sycophant of big pharma, be my guest.
  • PayThatCEO
    !
    @SmedleyButler

    Observe and question? Hell, I was observing and questioning everything in our daily lives, not just one particular thing. Wouldn't it be something if all these years we've been blaming vaccines for certain childhood illnesses, but all along it was something as simple as the mosquito repellent you used at your last picnic or the fumes given off by your new carpet. There is so much of this crap in our lives I'm surprised our kids haven't grown a third eye.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  •
    txgurl001
    !
    I am for vaccination. I don't think that vaccines have any link to autism at all. I would never chance my children getting any of the horrible diseases that can be prevented by vaccination. Every child in my family (including extended family) have had vaccinations and NONE of them have autism. The worst thing I have seen from being vaccinated is a slight fever because the immune system kicks in when the shot is given.
  • Politic-n
    !
    From a purely biological perspective, vaccines are good for the human species as whole, but often at a cost for the individual. When the good outweighs the bad, then it's prudent to immunize in the least harmful way. That is an oversimplification of course, but there is little sense in writing a dissertation on the subject since most on here would not have the background to understand it. We are over-vaccinating in regards to the number of illnesses however, and that will set us up for some longterm catastrophes in the future. The strong will survives.
  • jessejaymes
    !
    I'd be interested in your expounding further on this subject. For instance, which diseases do you think we over vaccinating?
  • myp
    !
    There are no documented cases of vaccine-related or -induced autism. There isn't even a link between vaccines and autism, other than the one falsified by Andrew Wakefield. There is, however, a serious threat to public health from people choosing to opt out of vaccination for their children. For Congress to even entertain the thought is irresponsible and potentially dangerous.
  • u
    no_sense
    !
    I read an article the other day that linked mothers flu or high fever during pregnancy to autism. To me that might be possible since we have seen in the past that measles and other illnesses during pregnancy can impact the unborn child.
  • R Load more comments...