Vaccines and autism

Dear Dr. Gupta,

Thank you for reporting on this issue. I have a 9 year old son who is one of the "susceptible" children to develop autism following vaccinations. Parents need to be aware of what might make a child susceptible to autism, namely a family history of autoimmune disorders or nuerodegenerative disorders. Please read the package inserts with the vaccines, most of the warnings are already there. Predisposition for an autoimmune disorder is contraindicated for live virus vacccines. Please, parents, check your family history and read the vaccine package inserts.

Dear Dr. Gupta,

My daughter, her husband and their 1 year old son live with me. Before my grandson received his vaccinations, he was a robust toddler, just learning to walk and starting to express himself in words. He made eye contact and dearly loved to be with me, giving kisses and waving hello and goodbye. After his vaccinations, he ran a high fever which his mother gave him Tylenol for. My concern is that since that time, he has changed drastically. I have made comments to my daughter, but she just says he is fine, He no longer gives kisses, or waves, he falls when he tries to walk. He also will not make eye contact. I am very concerned, he doesn't seem to be interested in anyone as he was before. He just seems to be "distant". I don't know what to do to convince my daughter to have him checked. They do not have insurance, just medicaid for the baby. What can I say to her, without being pushy about this? Her husband has insulin dependent diabetes, I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Please, if you could, give me advice to calm my concerns, I would appreciate it.

I think we can safely say that vaccines can cause autism. They did in Hannah Poling and they did in my son. He got 4 HepB shots all with 25 mcg of thimerosal and is diagnosed with mercury poisoning. As we pull out the mercury and repair the damage done by it and other vaccine toxins that piled up after 4 shots at 2 months, 4 months and 6 months each, he is doing great.
There are yahoo chat groups with thousands and thousands of parents who have the same story and are learning from each other how to better their children because the medical community has been so slow to respond. The truth will come out eventually, no matter how hard they try to cover their you-know-whats.

They may have taken thimerosal out of the vaccines but it is still used in contact solution. There are many more people now who wear contacts than ever. All of that solution goes down the drain. Look at all of the drugs that were recently discovered in peoples drinking water. Does it also contain thimerosal? That would sure explain why autism numbers are increasing significiantly.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for providing media coverage showing that there are in fact respected and influential doctors who believe it is biologically plausible and necessary to investigate further. (Does the blog really need to qualify them as "arguably legitimate" doctors as if they might not be legitimate?) The one-sidedness of official positions and media coverage tends to provide a self-fulfilling sense of confidence in a version of truth and what is considered a legitimate thought. It seems that the fear of being ridiculed for thinking differently goes to the point where very few doctors would dare (even to themselves) to even think about scientifically plausible explanations and do research on them. In reality, the scope of research on autism and vaccines has been quite narrow, but no one has gone beyond this narrow scope because they have already dismissed the whole topic as folly before any investigation.

There is research in all stages in all different areas of medicine and biological sciences. Sometimes people in a seemingly unrelated research specialty could be working on research in progress in their own specialty that sheds light on how such a thing as autism and vaccines being related could be biologically plausible. Collaboration, discussion, and teamwork between interdisciplinary, inter-organizational, and inter-regional research groups is needed on a higher level than it has been so far in medicine. Discussion of opposing ideas should be constructive, putting things together, rather than approached with ridicule and dismissiveness in the mind.

It has been shown time and time again that things like this eventually get proven to be true. The Nobel Prize in Medicine 2005 lectures (on the discovery of H. pylori as the cause of peptic ulcers) are a very good example of this. These doctors knew what they needed to prove even before having the experiment done, and even after they had produced clear evidence, it was about 20 years before the medical community was convinced and stopped ridiculing them.

I highly recommend reading the lecture by Dr. Barry Marshall where he talks much about the formidable opposition and disbelief he faced from a scientific community that is entrenched in a way of thought that allows it to get stuck on authoritatively false beliefs while rejecting progress to truth:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2005/marshall-lecture.pdf

Truth eventually prevails.

"but I am curious – what do comments like Healy’s say to parents and scientists?"

Perhaps it says that, as in all examples in life, we can find exceptions to the rule. The fact remains that vaccinations are a safe and effective means of preventing infectious diseases, and their continued use is paramount in the effort to save lives. All parents are concerned about their children, but the issue of infectious diseases involves ALL children (as well as immunocompromised adults and the elderly), not just ours. As a scientist, I would say Healy's comments remind us that there are always details to consider, but citing rare and unusual circumstances should not be used to foster the perception that there is a credible rationale for a knee-jerk reaction which will cause for more suffering in the community.

I would also like to add that Maggie's advice is exactly the type of responsible perspective that concerned parents should heed, especially when discussing the possibility of adverse reactions with their pediatrician.

RJ states: "The fact remains that vaccinations are a safe and effective means of preventing infectious diseases".

I suggest that vaccines are safe and effective only if they do not damage your child. Once that happens, you tend to look at vaccines as somewhat less than safe and effective.

As the rate of autism is now more than 1 in 150 (where twenty years ago it was 1 in 10,000), I also suggest that the circumstances are not as "rare and unusual" as you indicate.

No one here is looking for a "knee jerk reaction", what we are looking for is making sure that vaccines are safe for ALL, not just MOST. I believe that my vaccine damaged child is just as important as the children protected by vaccines. So should all scientists, pediatricians & government officials.

Dr. Gupta,

Thank you for discussing this topic. Unlike many who have written prior to me, my son was "off" from the day he was born – before his MMR regimen. He couldn't be comforted when he cried, his "colic" never occurred at the same time of day – with NOTHING working – baby swings overstimulated him and he constantly had to have a pacifier in his mouth; even when sleeping. He also loved visual objects and loved mobiles, and I mean, LOVED them. I can tell you point of fact of where my son obtained his autism: his father, who has non-treated, adult Asperger's Disorder. (And, yes, he is an engineer!) – who, interestingly enough, received it from HIS father. My daughter, after years of frustrating trips to doctors and countless medications has now, also, been declared to have Aspberger's Disorder. My youngest son: ADHD. I have no autism on my side of the family.

I truly believe in the safety of immunizations. My mother had me have them, supposedly when they were dangerous, and I am fine. I have seen the reports where people have had their children forego the immunization regimen altogether – only to have cases where there are pockets of diseases that would have been prevented had they had the vaccines. Their point of delaying them – that's fine. You can do that in most states because of the autism "link" concerns. People have to realize that they must advocate for their child from the moment of birth – if they don't want a shot to take place until later or want them separated, they need to say so. If the doctor won't go along, find another one. The parents know the child and their needs far more than the doctors do. It isn't a one size fits all approach. A good doctor would know that.

Diet – there was no way I was going to change my family's diet to satisfy one, now two, autistic kids.

What has worked for me was education and....acceptance of things as they are.

I think, tragically, that many parents are looking for a cure or a cause to pin on their autistic child when they honestly don't know the true nature of the cause. I don't blame them. However, it isn't the end of the world – it is a matter of understanding how your child processes information and how they view the world. Look at Temple Grandin who is an associate professor at Colorado State – and is autistic. My Aspberger's son is in a normal, mainstream middle school with no supports in place, and is thriving because he was found at 18 months of age. He is one of the most popular boys in school – he is often swamped with invitations to parties, etc. My daughter is in a special education middle school district and is flourishing. I enjoy the company of all three of my kids – we have fun together. They have their "quirks" but I have learned to live with them. I realize that it isn't the case for all parents, but it is for me.

And, yes, I am exhausted!

When my now 16 year old son was 15 months old, he received the set of immunizations that changed his, and our lives, in the most devastating way. Our sweet, beautiful only child had started talking and met all his developmental milestones at each well-baby check until that day. Thereafter, he stopped talking, couldn't look us in the eyes, and never again met his milestones. My husband and I were both military officers with masters degrees, no psychological problems, no autoimmune problems on either side of the family, and now own a multimillion dollar business. It is extraordinarily insulting to us each time some idiot-I mean researcher-floats some theory that it was somehow our fault/our faulty genes/our greed that is causing us to blame the vaccines. It WAS the vaccines!

I have commented before so I won't repeat but what I liked most about this lady (especially given her previous experience perhaps on the other side working for tobacco science) is her willingness to call that elephant in the room out for what it is. Lots of reasonable people have expressed dismay at the type of quality of research that has been funded in this area. At each new pronouncement of "No Link" a parent slaps their head and says "Well no wonder that is the answer they found, they were never looking for any other possibility!" this exasperation leads to parents sounding like nuts when in reality many parents and respectable MD's in this country are seeing the same thing, which is that in a subset of children vaccines may not be safe and effective. I also hope that people will give her the credit she deserves in a sense that she is far above "arguable legitimate" as can be evidenced here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernadine_Healy

Thanks for keeping an open mind Sanjay! The truth will be revealed with the power of an open and inquisitive press! Whatever that truth is...

- MikeBTexas

As the mother of two children, a typically developing 7 yr old girl and a 3.5 yr old boy on the autistic spectrum I was thrilled to read that Dr. Gupta is going to follow this scientific debate closely. I don't know for sure whether vaccines were the toxic tipping point for my son. I do know that at his 15 mo. Ped visit, the day he was given the MMR I told the Nurse Practitioner I had no concerns about his development and three months later at his 18 mo. Ped visit my Ped raised the question of the diagnosis of Autism. My son had been sick for the past 3 months, on anti-biotic the entire time with unremmitting ear infections, croup and bronchitus. My son has always been more physically ill than neurologically impaired and although we follow all the behavioral guidelines in terms of 30 hrs a week of ABA, speech, OT, PT, etc...it is the biomedical interventions which are making the profound difference.

Dr. Gupta, I am disappointed that you have not investigated the connection between vaccines and autism. I am a great-grandmother and concerned for my three great-grandsons. Being old enough I remember having the measles, mumps and chickenpox. I lived through all three and have no brain damage. Are you sure people die from such childhood diseases or is this a pr event for drug companies?
I have been disturbed by the collective evidence that more autistic children are appearing in America. Surely, there is a connection that can be traced to mercury or some other damaging part of our vaccines. What really disturbs me is the likely hood that the drug companies have bought people, etc. so they are not accountable to these devastated parents who are dealing with this unexplained brain damage of our children. Please use your power to help solve this problem. You are very respected and with it comes responsibility. Thank you for your service to humanity.

I am a mother of a 14 year old daughter who is suffering with autism. We have all known (parents of the children) that our children have been vaccine damaged. This really isn’t about who is right or wrong. The CDC, FDA and AAP needs to take some responsibility and stop trying to hold their ground, it is going to be quicksand before they know it.

STOP the insanity and STOP damaging more children. Please stop all the talking and start doing something to help prevent further damage to children. It is not safe to vaccinate all kids, mine for example. So to say that vaccine a safe it is a lot of double talk. MAKE VACCINES SAFE or have a safer schedule.

Finally The Autism community is being validated! But a little to late for me and at how many more children‘s expense. These are our children for god sake! No animal testing, how about no more child testing!

"Arguably legitimate"? The media spin on this is UNREAL. Dr. Gupta, I applaud you for continually covering this topic but I could do without biased comments like that.

This is such a sad commentary on the state of public health in this country. Dr. Healey states the obvious, that real research has not been done because public health officials don't want the answers.

If no one wants to look to see what happened to our kids that WHERE vaccine injured, how can anyone feel safe that it won't happen to thier kids?

I am grateful that she had the guts to go against public health dogma and tell it like it is. There may be just the slightest glimmer of hope for public health in this country if more speak up.

Vaccine injury must stop being a taboo subject. Decades of silence... far too long.

The key point of discussion is to prevent further injuries - to one's own children, and to others'. Some parents of ASD kids are so zealous about protecting self-esteem (whose?) that they even attempt to block other people's public discussions of vaccine injury.

I appreciate hearing that families love and accept their autistic children, but some of them have not looked closely at the possibility of vaccine injury. No lab tests, nothing. Many of our kids' medical reports show measles in the gut, antibodies to myelin basic protein, high levels of toxic heavy metals, hyperimmunity and allergies and sensitivities....

At a state autism conference a man on the spectrum showed me his doctor's typewritten notes from the early 1970s. As an infant he'd suffered encephalopathy after his measles vaccination. He described the difficulties he's had in society since coming of age. Not his choice.

This has gone on for decades. What a waste of health and happiness and money and lives. We need more people like Dr. Bernadine Healy to admit the painful truth, and make vaccine injury prevention a priority.

No child should be written off as collateral damage in the war on disease.

To RJ and others who like to cite the "vaccines have prevented multiple diseases" mantra:

Promoting vaccine safety has absolutely nothing to do with the issue of whether vaccines are successful in protecting against infectious diseases - they are two separate issues.

It's only when safety issues are ignored that parents are eventually forced to weigh the risk of safety against the risk of infectious disease and the two issues merge.

With 1 out 150 children diagnosed with autism in this country, is it any wonder that parents are opting to *pass* on injecting their children with vaccines for non-life threatening diseases when they've got the possibility of autism staring them in the face???

Kelli Ann Davis
Washington, DC

We have a 9 year old son with vaccine induced Autism. Autism is caused by vaccines. No child is born with Autism. There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic. Our son was born healthy and met all his early milestones. By the time he was 2 he had 26 vaccines. Please do not make the same mistake I made. I trusted the medical community, never questioned what ingredients were in the vaccines and the side effects the vaccines cause. We have a silent holocaust going on. We our poisoning our children. It is madness. This madness must stop now!!!
http://www.myspace.com/nomercury
http://www.0mercury.blogspot.com

Thank you for the awareness Dr.Sanjay.My kids were given some kinds of vaccinations between 07/2007 and 09/2007 at the instructions of the U.S.Department of State in Lagos,Nigeria as part of the immigration process, by the embassy's panel of Physicians.Few days after the last vaccination,the kids fell ill with terrible high fever,and the result afterwards is now disfigurement of their legs.
Anyway,the kids are now in the U.S. with the due process being followed.
Once again,thank you for all the awareness.
Dayo B-NJ.

Dr. Gupta,

I thank you for keeping the lines of communication regarding the Autism-Vaccine link open. I believe there is a valid connection and it has not been adequately addressed by the CDC or the FDA. Vaccines are extremely beneficial, life saving tools, but we must be certain they are safe. We must also consider very carefully the strain so many vaccines given at one time can put on the immune systems of infants and young children.

I am so glad to see that this issue is finally receiving the attention it
justly deserves. Now if we can get our Federal agencies like CDC to actually state a preference for mercury (thimerosal) free flu vaccines for pregnant women, infants and children and to conduct the necessary science regarding vaccine safety and efficacy prior to the deployment of mandated vaccines, instead of relying on a passive surveilance system (VAERs) that at best only detects 3-5% of advesrse vaccine reactions, our country will be a safer place.

I have a 15 month old son. He is due for shots this month. So far he has been given all of the recommended shots. I wish I knew more about the saftey of these vaccines. How can I allow him to be immunized ? Will the choice I make disable him for life, or prevent tragic diseases? It's heart-wrenching!

"What do comments like Healy’s say to parents and scientists?"

This is the most rational voice on the subject that I have heard in the media so far, and she has an impressive resume.

One point is that thinking there is a plausibility of vaccines causing autism has little actual relationship to being "anti-vaccine", although that is how people who do are painted through the media. Actually if you listen carefully to what Dr. Healy says in the video clip, this is even more "pro-vaccine" than those who argue that there is no link. What she and others are saying is, find out how to make vaccines and vaccination programs safe for all children. We don't need to overlook or sacrifice anybody to the "rare" adverse event for the benefit of the majority. We can work to eliminate those adverse events. This is looking for a win-win situation.

Another point that is made indirectly is that the biological plausibility of vaccines causing autism does not mean that all cases of autism or even a majority of cases of autism are caused by vaccines. The hypothetical numbers she uses to illustrate the idea, 1 in 1000 children experiencing some kind of adverse event from a vaccine, is a plausible order of magnitude. That amount would be hypothetically an upper limit of 1/6 of autism cases. By analogy, mental retardation has many different possible causes including genetic (such as Down syndrome), infections during pregnancy (such as rubella), infections after birth causing meningitis or encephalitis (such as measles), and many others. You wouldn't use the fact that Down syndrome causes mental retardation to disprove the idea that rubella during pregnancy can cause mental retardation, nor would you do a meaningful study by lumping them all together under the umbrella term "mental retardation".

Healy's comments say exactly what they say: the vaccine-autism connection is plausible. It also says parents have a right, no an obligation, to thoughtfully consider whether they want to risk their child contracting a disease vs. the risk of autism. No pediatrician or government leader has a right to ridicule a parents for choosing one over another, particularly when Dr. Healy said what many of us have known: they have been told to intentionally not find a susceptible group, and that should be as offensive to the scientific community as anything. Why is the science community not talking about that as much as fearing someone may not get an immunization?

what do comments like Healy’s say to parents and scientists?

It says the moms and dads who sepnd hours upon hours combing through medical research to understand their child's condition have done more homework than those in the medical community that brush them off.

It say the scientists and medical practitioners need to stop being insulting and arrogant to parents striving to help their children.

It says the industry of vaccine production and distribution is more diligent than they were with the live perussis vaccine in keeping the bad news away from the public, regardless of the cost.

We are seeing history repeat itself. As with the DPT shot in the 80's, something has gone terribly wrong with the vaccines that are forced upon us. But I do disagree with one point – it is not the side effect of the vaccines that is entirely responsible for undermining any vaccine program. It is almost entirely the fault of the medical and vaccine industry for lying to the public and continuing to inflict the damage without taking responsibility for spacing out or determining if a child could be damaged from them.

There really is nothing new under the sun. We have seen tragedy come from vaccines before. We are seeing tragedy come from vaccines again. Many kudos to Dr Healy, Dr Poling, and the doctors associated with the Autism Research Institute for telling the truth – alone in a sea of collegues who want only to be right or profitable at the expense of so many young lives.

Many thanks to Dr Healy for framing the discussion as it always should have been framed, "What have we NOT studied, before we draw our conclusions?"

Now we have the answer.

Thank you Dr. Gupta, for whatever it is worth. Thank you, no matter how this turns out, what science proves or disproves, that you continue to probe it out. I too believe that my son is vaccine injured and I also believe that the quality of the vaccine is as questionable as the mercury preservative. There has got to be a better way to keep the population safe without crippling an entire generation of children. Now there's an abstract showing plausible links between acetomenophen and autism. If acetomenophen actually does reduce glutathione levels for up to 30 days, then it is no wonder so many of our kids, who may have lower functioning immune systems to start, would have a hard time detoxifying and that the "wiring" in these very immature nerve cells could be eaten alive by the mercury, aluminum, AND the viruses themselves. Moms are instructed to give their children pain relievers just before we have them vaccinated. What a huge mistake. Thank you for turning over those rocks and looking under them to see whom or what is hiding under it. There are people in the science community whose consciences will sooner or later get the best of them and they will say what they knew and when they knew it and will not care if it means losing a job. Carry on and again, we thank you.

This message is for Debbie whose daughter has a 1-year-old.

Debbie said "He no longer gives kisses, or waves, he falls when he tries to walk. He also will not make eye contact. I am very concerned, he doesn’t seem to be interested in anyone as he was before. He just seems to be “distant”. I don’t know what to do to convince my daughter to have him checked."

Each state has an early intervention system that has what is called "child find," and the state is suppose to try to find children who are at-risk for delays or disabilities. This is provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It doesn't matter whether the family has insurance or not. You might ask the child's pediatrician to make a referral to the early intervention system, and explain your concerns to the doctor. If your daughter won't seek help for her son, you really ought to try.

I wish you luck in your efforts. Early intervention is so critical, particularly if your grandson does have autism.

It is shocking and disturbing the medical studies which this respected doctor (and former head of National Institutes of Health) expected have
not been published. How can authentic research be publically funded if there's no reason?

Its's times like this when I wish the medical (and scientific) community would publish the names of people and institutions whom impede basic research.

I am so happy to see Dr. Healy say publicly what many researchers and people in the medical profession talk about amongst themselves. The quality and breadth of research into the possible link between vaccines and autism has been very limited. Anyone with a basic epidemiology or medical research background knows this. Behavioral epidemiology is incredibly difficult, and it becomes even more difficult with an illness like autism, which has a spectrum of overlapping symptomology and historical changes in diagnostic frequency and accuracy. Vaccines alone are most likely neither necessary nor sufficient to cause autism. Where there is a relationship, it is likely a drug-by-gene (by-autoimmune susceptibility, etc) interaction, like there is with most illnesses. Although so little is known about autism and its causes, what’s clear is that not all kids will get autism from vaccines and not all cases of autism are caused by vaccines. That’s not to say there isn’t a link in SOME cases, however, since there have been studies showing hypersensitivity to thimerosol in certain human populations and gene-dependent negative autoimmune reactions to thimerosol in animal studies. Unfortunately, the current state of research and government reporting tends to take an all-or-nothing approach to vaccine safety and the Ecological Fallacy is pretty rampant on both sides of this debate. The deplorable popular media reporting has only contributed to the perception that it's Parents versus Science. That is not the case at all. Worse yet, now we have LAWYERS deciding for the public what the science says or doesn’t say. I find this issue to be yet another tragedy in the field of public health, but I am thrilled to see informed and non-condescending opinions being voiced by people like Dr. Healy and Dr. Greenland at UCLA.

While autism is a devastating diagnosis, I believe that a disservice is being done to public by placing the blame for this condition on vaccinations, especially when all the research done proves the contrary.

Speculation as to the causes of autism has been going on for years. "Refrigerator mothers," or cold parents, were actually once also thought to be the cause of autism. Now vaccines are thought to be causing this childhood disorder. Yes there is correlation, but that could be due to the fact that autism is often (and according to DSM-IV must be diagnosed prior to age 3) diagnosed around the age that child receive these vaccinations. Also, doctors are becoming better informed about this condition and maybe allowing them to make the diagnosis easier than before. Does correlation prove causation? No. If that were true we could say seatbelts cause cancer. More people are wearing seatbelts today, thus saving lives and now more people are dying of cancer than accidents.

Also, there is speculation that the thiomersal (the preservative in these vaccines) may lead to these disorders. Thiomersal contains ethylmercury, which is different from methylmercury. Methylmercury is the compound that has been studied as having toxic effects. The effects of ethylmercury have not been proven. Not only has the toxicity not been proven, but thimerosol has been removed from many of the vaccines today.

There have been studies done as to whether or not children that receive the MMR vaccine (with or without thiomersal) have an increased incidence of autism. There has not been any statistical significance found. In Japan they have done a study looking at the monovalent forms of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines (as opposed to the trivalent MMR vaccine with thimerosol) and the incidence of autism has actually increased.

It is a shame that parents are deciding to not vaccinate their children. It is becoming somewhat of a "fad" to avoid vaccinations. Not only does this place the child at risk of contracting diseases that are deadly, yes measles can kill, but it also places the public at large at risk. There needs to be about 85% of the community vaccinated to provide herd immunity to the people. If more people decide not to be vaccinated they risk carrying the disease and passing it on to others. In order to keep diseases that we have worked so hard to try to eradicate out of the population, individuals need to continue to be vaccinated. For example, in 1989 there was an outbreak of measles; over 50% of the children that contracted measles were not vaccinated.

I know many parents are concerned that the risks of the vaccine outweigh the benefit. This is untrue. If the risk was more severe than the benefit doctors would not continue to vaccinate children. I think many parents may not see the benefit-since measles, mumps, rubella and polio are not common occurrences in the States-they may not be aware of the risks. As a medical student volunteering abroad these are diseases that you do not want your child to contract if you can help it.

I am definitely not an expert on this subject; however, I hope people will become more educated about the benefits of vaccines and not take lightly the decision to vaccinate their child or not. I also hope that CNN will do a good job of presenting both sides of this issue instead of placing blame on something that has not been proven.

Also, I think this goes to show that more research needs to be done. Vaccines may be a confounding variable in some children's development of autism; however, it seems unlikely that it is the direct cause. If vaccines directly caused autism every child that got vaccinated should develop autism and every child that was unvaccinated should not develop autism. This is not the case. Hopefully one day we will know the cause of autism. In the meantime, parents should be exposed to all the information.

Vaccines can cause autism.
VAccines can cause death (SIDS).
They can cause all sorts of disabilities.

But they also can be lifesaving.

They are not a panacea.

In typical fashion, the medical profession and public health officials have way oversold their position on this and created an incredible amount of harm and distrust out of something which could be used, with some care and common sense, to prevent disease in some instances.

Numerous vaccines have had to be pulled from the marketplace because they caused too much damage.

And the medical profession and public health officials, relying on black magic, rather than scientic testing (safety and efficacy) simply provides more distrust. Their historical stupidity on this issue, their total error on this and their intransigence that they are correct speaks volumes about why medical care is such a disaster in the United States.

It's not suprising that medical error is the greatest cause of death in the United States and the so-called pediatrician's "wellness" visit amounts to a toddler being subjected to a toxicology experiment in violation of ethical canons.

The question is simply when the public health officials will start to honestly tell the truth about this issue, restore confidence in the immunization programs and allow parents to make health decisions for their families after receiving bona fide information which relates to adequate safety and efficacy studies done by unbiased scientists.

Continued lies and intransigence will simply force families to recoil in horror away from the allopathic approach to medicine and that would be a terrible thing, given the many benefits which can be realized, when used intelligently, in combination with good nutrition and naturopathic approaches.

Thank you Lord for Dr. Bernadine Healy. Pediatricians and doctors everywhere have refused to question the vaccines and the schedule in any way shape or form. As a parent of an autistic child who was developing normally until his mmr, I have been stunned and dismayed by reactions from the medical community who have staunchly refused to question any aspect of vaccines. We know vaccines save lives – trust me when I say parents want their children to live free of infectious diseases but developing autism is not a good trade off. This is a heartbreaking life-destroying condition and will eventually lead to the end of the whole human race in my opinion if the rates keep increasing like they are now.

This post is irresponsible and only fuels the fears of the ignorant!

Dr. Healy's point is that the link between vaccines and autism was biologically plausible. AND that that plausibility led to investigation of the link. All of that is good. Scientists and researchers around the world jumped in quickly to investigate.

What you fail to mention - and I think that is reprehensible and fear-mongering on your part - is that the link has been investigated rigorously time and time again and it has been proven *not* to exist. The evidence strongly points to coincidence. It is a *coincidence* that the symptoms of autism emerge *after* vaccination. Coincidence does mean cause.

When something as tragic as autism occurs in a family, it's a parent's natural inclination to want to understand "why" it happened. So, it's easier to glom onto bad science and conjecture, and that's just want articles like this enable.

More importantly, the focus on this - on continuing to use resources to look for a link that isn't there - takes away from searching for the true causes of autism. Resources spent on the autism-vaccine link at this point would be better spent on looking at other causes – genetic, environmental, etc.

Dr. Gupta:

There is credible research that indicates that at least one biological or genetic component of autism is an inability to effectively process out neurotoxins such as mercury. (Mady Hornig – Columbia University) This would obviously explain why it is some children and not others. However, it appears as though the medical establishment and the government are intent on dismissing any connection between vaccines and autism, and refusing to consider evidence that does not support their version of the "truth." However, as is often the case, it is not the fact that a mistake may have been made that is causing harm to an overly-vaunted vaccine program. It is the apparent effort to avoid dealing with the truth and admitting mistakes that is causing parents across the country to lose faith in government-mandated vaccination programs. (Not to mention the VERY cosey relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government which creates an obvious appearance of a conflict of interest.) It is also the refusal to even engage in a cost-benefit analysis. Given the choice, I would have taken my chances with measles, pertussis, etc. over autism any day of the week, since the likelihood of long-term complications is relatively low in comparison to the 1 in 150 chance of developing autism.
As the parent of an autistic child, I think it comes down to a matter of trust. I can accept mistakes. I cannot and will not accept a cover up.

Thank you, Heather, for providing the side of this debate that has been frighteningly absent in the comments so far.

The immediate reaction among people who lack the necessary scientific knowledge to understand things like the difference between methylmercury and ethylmercury is, naturally, to be afraid that mercury in vaccines has harmed their children. However, as you pointed out:

Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, which is different from methylmercury. Methylmercury is the compound that has been studied as having toxic effects. The effects of ethylmercury have not been proven.

I'm not sure why this is not common knowledge. Thimerosal has been used in a large variety of preparations from contact-lens solution to mascara. It's not as if there is no other way a child could come in contact with the stuff, -even if- ethylmercury had any proven toxic effects.

The dangers of denying vaccination to children are not limited to the individual child. There are long-term public health concerns associated with a population lacking immunity to specific disease. At the moment, we live in a world where many of the diseases that used to kill people–to kill -children- –are all but unknown, due to vaccination. It's both frightening and depressing to see how few people take the time to learn the whole story before making a decision that can seriously affect the health not only of their family but of their community.

While correlation does not imply causation, there are far too many cases of "My child was fine until they had XX immunization." Obviously there is some connection, whether as a root cause or trigger of some underlying and undiagnosed condition. I caution all parents to sit down and have a serious discussion about the risks involved with giving a tiny baby with an undeveloped immune system a dose of something if you don't really know what's in it.

Make them give you the package insert and explain it to you. If they won't or can't, find a medical pracitioner who can. If you have doubts or have a family history (as one previous commenter mentioned) of immune or neurological disorders, think about delaying.

The last thing I have to say is this: Until enough parents and doctors speak out about the toxins that pharmaceutical companies are allowed to put in these immunizations, nothing more will be done.

The US Vaccine Program AS IT STANDS NOW is crumbling. The Centers for Disease Control needs to take IMMEDIATE ACTION to recommend a safer schedule for all children, especially–or until–the susceptible group can be carefully and completely separated out. Instead of "Every child by two" the CDC motto should be closer to "No child UNITL two"!

The government as been sandbagging on this issue for At LEAST Eight LONG YEARS, while thousands of precious children have been lost to autism and other neurological disorders.

The CDC knew about the very plausible association between vaccines and autism as early as 2000 when they held the private 2000 Simpsonwood conference (officially entitled Scientific Review of Vaccine Safety Datalink Information). A study by Dr. Thomas Verstraeten showing a link between thimerosal and severe developmental and neurological impairment was presented but it was never published and was later altered to show no association.

The following are direct quotes from the meeting (easily obtained through the Internet due to the FOI Act):
Dr. Verstraeten: “We have found statistically significant relationships between the exposure (to thimerosal) and outcomes for these different exposures and outcomes. First, for two months of age, an unspecified developmental delay, which has its own specific ICD9 code. Exposure at three months of age, Tics. Exposure at six months of age, an attention deficit disorder. Exposure at one, three and six months of age, language and speech delays which are two separate ICD9 codes. Exposures at one, three and six months of age, the entire category of neurodevelopmental delays, which includes all of these plus a number of other disorders."
"When I saw this, and I went back through the literature, I was actually STUNNED BY WHAT I SAW because I thought it is plausible .

"the number of dose related relationships [between mercury and autism] are linear and statistically significant. You can play with this all you want. They are linear. They are statistically significant." – Dr. William Weil, American Academy of Pediatrics. Simpsonwood, GA, June 7, 2000

"the issue is that it is impossible, unethical to leave kids unimmunized, so you will never, ever resolve that issue [regarding the impact of mercury]." – Dr. Robert Chen, Chief of Vaccine Safety and Development, Centers For Disease Control, Simpsonwood, GA, June 7, 2000

"Forgive this personal comment, but I got called out at eight o'clock for an emergency call and my daughter-in-law delivered a son by c-section. Our first male in the line of the next generation and I do not want that grandson to get a Thimerosal containing vaccine until we know better what is going on. It will probably take a long time. In the meantime, and I know there are probably implications for this internationally, but in the meanwhile I think I want that grandson to only be given Thimerosal-free vaccines." – Dr. Robert Johnson, Immunologist, University of Colorado, Simpsonwood, GA, June 7, 2000
And I am very concerned about that as I suspect that it is already too late to do anything regardless of any professional body and what they say…My mandate as I sit here in this group is to make sure at the end of the day that 100,000,000 are immunized with DTP, Hepatitis B and if possible Hib, this year, next year and for many years to come, and that will have to be with thimerosal containing vaccines unless a miracle occurs and an alternative is found quickly and is tried and found to be safe." – Dr. John Clements, World Health Organization, Simpsonwood, GA, June 7, 2000
Shockingly, CDC received letters in July and September 1999 from Merck and SmithKline Beecham, respectively, letting CDC know that full production of Thimerosal-free vaccines for Hepatitis B and DTaP could be made available almost immediately. To SmithKline, CDC responded with a tepid letter thanking them for the offer, but not taking them up on it. Thimerosal would remain in the vaccines on the Childhood Immunization Schedule for (at least) three more years…

TO MAKE MATTERS MORE ABSURD, despite recommending the removal of Thimerosal (mercury) from vaccines in 1999, THE CDC TODAY AS ADDED THE FLU SHOT to the recommended vaccine schedule for infants, pregnant women, and young children annually. The MAJORITY OF FLU SHOTS ARE LOADED WITH MERCIURY, and this poison is creeping back into our kids at disturbing levels. The CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics are actually fighting state bans of Thimerosal, how can this be happening? The CDC is in charge of administering our vaccine program. They are also responsible for vaccine safety. TO EXPECT THE CDC TO STANDUP AND SAY , "THIS WAS OUR FAULT, this should have never happened" is asking a lot, it would probably represent the greatest case of self-incrimination in the history of mankind. They won't come clean without a fight. 

ITS TIME TO END THE FIGHT!!! Chilren in America and throughout the world deserve no less!!!

Dr. Gupta, Thank you for covering this issue. It is remarkable to me that the infectious disease "expert" was so troubled by Dr. Healy's comments that she felt the need to call you twice. Let's look at a couple of facts, shall we?
- Rotavirus is transmitted by the fecal-oral route, and is extremely rare outside daycare centers.
- Hepatitis B is a bloodborne pathogen and is chiefly transmitted via sexual contact and intravenous drug use.
- Chickenpox is an extremely mild childhood disease that most Americans older than 15 experienced without any serious issues–some itching for a few days, and maybe (maybe!) an acne-like scar or two.

The infectious disease "expert" who called you, as well as Dr. Gerberding and the other defenders of the current vaccine schedule, seem unaware of these facts. Human beings have a weird tendency to want to eliminate all possibility of things that they perceive as bad, even if the possibility was incredibly remote already. Proper hygiene is the best thing parents can do to protect their children from rotavirus–and if the children are cared for in the home (by parents, grandparents, or nannies), then there is virtually no chance that they will contract rotavirus. Hepatitis B is not a risk to children born to Hep B-negative mothers, yet the current vaccine schedule mandates a dose AT BIRTH. It's not clear that chickenpox should be eliminated from circulation–it's better for children to experience this disease when they are young, and gain lifetime immunity, than to be vaccinated against it, then have the immunity wear off, and get it when they are older and it can do more harm.

Heather's comment that "it is becoming somewhat of a 'fad' to avoid vaccinations is just the kind of propaganda that the pharmaceutical industry loves. The truth is that more vaccines are on the schedule than ever before, and parents are FINALLY thinking for themselves (Does my child have any exposure to bloodborne pathogens? No? Then let's not give him the Hep B shot when he's an infant.) and making smart decisions that take into account the REAL risks–which include not only autism, but also Guillain-Barre Syndrome (paralysis from vaccines) and other disorders.

Heather also cites the frequency of diseases such as measles in other countries, and claims that this frequency is a good reason to vaccinate all children on the current schedule here in the US. Nothing could be further from the truth. In other countries, people do not have access to the clean water and indoor plumbing that we have here in the US. This is the major difference that leads to a greater incidence of infectious diseases in developing countries. Think about it for a moment–before the rotavirus vaccine was developed, were you aware of massive deaths from rotavirus in the US? Were you even aware of a massive incidence of children contracting rotavirus? Probably not. That's because we have indoor plumbing and clean water, not because of some magic shot produced by Merck.

Parents need to continue to think for themselves, and doctors like Dr. Healy should be applauded for pointing out that vaccines are not without risks, that the current vaccine schedule and ingredients have not been proven to be safe or even adequately investigated, and that doctors don't always do things in the best interests of their patients. Heather says, "If the risk was more severe than the benefit, doctors would not continue to vaccinate children." The truth is that most pediatricians are just following the shiny charts sent to them by the CDC and drug manufacturers, and are not bothering to question what has been force-fed to them for so long.

The phrase "biologically plausible" is yet another highly sophisticated way of saying "I don't really know".

Measles can kill or leave you severely neurologically impaired. Mumps can make you sterile. Rotavirus which gives you diarrhea, kills MILLIONS of children worldwide each year. Pertussis (whooping cough) can kill. HiB used to be a huge killer of infants until it was successfully eliminated via vaccines. Polio and the disgusting iron lungs? Ask any doctor who practiced before these immunizations and they can tell you how frightening any of these diseases were. Hell, ask the parents of the children who had them. We have become complacent from the success of the vaccines in terms of an infenctious disease standpoint. But, due to decreasing vaccination rates, measles, mumps, pertussis and a host of others are on a rise (do some research and you'll see it's not hidden).

Are vaccines perfect? Not by a long shot. Like any medication, there can be side effects, including death (although very rare). Anyone remember the small pox vaccines? The illness was so terrible that the benefits of eradicating the disease far outweighed the rare but not uncommon terrible side effects (many people died). Now that it has successfully been eradicated (the only virus to be elimnated completely by vaccines), we no longer give the vaccine due to the side effect profile.

One, not the only reason, but one reason Autism is on the rise is because the medical community is more vigilant and more aware of the disease and therefore there are fewer missed diagnoses. Is it possible that there is a link? Medicine is EVIDENCE BASED. Until a few solid studies with replicable results prove the link, doctors cannot act like the link is there. Like any decision doctors make, the benefits must outweigh the risks. The risks of getting the diseases that these vaccines cover (for which there is no cure or treatment for any of them. If you contract the disease, you must beat it on your own) outweigh the risks of side effects. Autism is a terrible disease. My cousin has it and I see the toll it takes on his parents first hand. My children will still get each and every vaccine until some scientific study tells me otherwise.

My son was diagnosed with Aspergers at 9 years of age, (he is now 10) and I have no idea if he was affected by immunizations or if it is genetic. It is refreshing, however, to read this, as I am in the collecting information stage of this disorder.

My personal view is that the vaccinations could have triggered something that was already there in his genetic code. I applaud all the people that are looking into this, because as parents, this is a heartbreaking and exhausting disability.

Jennifer I do agree with you that the pediatrician should take the time to go over the vaccine risks and benefits with parents. That way parents will have the facts and can make an informed decision.

It is sad that children develop autism, but it is unfair to say "My child was fine until they had XX immunization." That implies that it was directly from the vaccine, when that may not be the case.

Often times when an individual develops an illness they are prone to have recall bias because they are trying to find a cause post hoc. We want to be able to pinpoint something that may have caused this terrible illness. So after the fact one will go back to look at exposures that may have lead to the disease or illness, but how can that person be sure they have picked the right exposure? It could have been any number of things to cause the outcome.

Obviously more research needs to be done to determine the cause because there are many theories out there.

So many have mentioned that research has not been done on the immunizations and a link to autism. It has been done, and so far a link cannot be proven. The research is ongoing, the medical community is not ignoring this!

As to the rate of autism increasing to 1 in 150, this is a result of awareness. Before autism was so well known many children were misdiagnosed or missed completely. Autism begins affecting children around 15 months of age. The timing around immunizations is a coincidence.

Immunizations have saved millions of lives, but they are not without risks.

Finanlly someone has stepped up to the plate. It is about time. I am very proud of Dr. Healy!!!! The comment made by Dr. Healy is right on target which is what I have been saying to schools, teachers, parents, family and anyone I can talk to advising that there must be a link with the vaccines and certain types of children. Depending on your body make, immunity etc... it may be that certain children can not expel mercury or any other metal from their body and therefore the result "Autism". Science can not dismiss the need for a clear and true investigation! We owe it to everyone who lives on the planet and particularly to those affected with Autism (including the families). Even if the percentage is small, it is our responsibility as PARENTS, DOCTORS, and SCIENTIST to rule out any possibility.

I echo the comments of "A Reveur". This has been investigated thoroughly and the results of the currently-available data are that there is no link. Science (and scientific medicine) cannot prove a negative, but it is irresponsible for leading health professionals to suggest that a causal relationship may exist when controlled studies have failed to identify such a link. There is obviously sufficient concern that future studies should be funded and this question should be asked in different ways - perhaps there are subtle flaws in the previous studies that biased the data in a consistent manner. However, in the absence of such data (which are unlikely to ever arrive), it is simply not scientifically accurate to believe there is a link. You may believe it, but that's not science - it's faith, politics, or something else......... And you can choose whether you want the fate of your children resting on that process.

Dr Healy's additions to the debate are quite remarkable for a public health official. Her finding a biological link plausible is all well and good but where's the evidence that this is so? By what reasoning are we supposed to judge this link plausible? In her interview with Atkinsson, she raised the bulletproof idea that no one had looked for causation for cases where vaccine damage had occurred and followed that idea up with the again bulletproof notion that it would be a good idea if health officials would screen for those likely to be compromised by particular vaccines, the current schedule of vaccines and/or underlying metabolic propensities to be compromised by vaccines. This proposed rather drastic public health strategy is based on nothing more than conjecture. A fundamental question for Healy – how are you supposed to screen for something when all the metrics are unknown? How are you supposed to link autism to vaccines when it seems that 'autistic features' are now the same thing as 'autism" Witness Hannah Poling. It might be nice for lawyers to pick their own definitions but it doesn't really work for Science. What economic cost-benefit analysis are you using here given the vanishingly small number that this might be applicable to? And might be is all that it is. While the notion that the Government isn't investigating because the results might be embarrassing is plausible, so is the equally plausible notion that 90% of the small number of claims paid have been rather nice examples of the logical fallacy: correlation equals causation. There is no evidence one way or the other.

The Science such as it is points to no link, a point that from a public health perspective just might be worth emphasising.

I also have a question for the epidemiologists out there. As far as I know, the power of epidemiology to find associations (never causes) is limited solely by the size of the sample. Given the sample sizes in the hundreds of thousands on which the 'no link' conclusion is partly based and also given that associations have been detected for incidences as rare as 1:38,000 why do people keep repeating that epidemiology cannot detect a subset of the autistic population? Is that subset less than 1:38,000?

I am continuously amazed at the blind faith that so many people have in the medical "leaders" of this country, such as the FDA, CDC, and majority of MDs. Some of the facts that these medical "leaders" do not openly share about vaccines:

They contain neurotoxins like thimerosal/mercury, aluminum, and MSG
They contain Ethylene/propylene glycol (antifreeze)
They contain Formaldehyde
They are cultured on aborted fetal tissue
They are cultured on chicken embryos
They are cultured on monkey kidneys

I don't understand why somebody would knowlingly inject themselves with such poisons at the POSSIBILITY that the vaccine MAY prevent them from getting xyz disease. Then again, most people do not know this stuff. But yet they blindly follow the MDs recommendation of taking a vaccine. People need to start taking control of their own health.

Vaccines do not guarantee protection. It is widely known that vaccinated people can contract the very disease they were vaccinated against. This means that the fundamental theory behind the success of vaccines, antibodies, must not be 100% accurate. So much for herd immunity that the CDC and doctors talk about.

Vaccines are just that – vaccines. They are not immunizations because they do not guarantee immunity, nor do they provide lasting immunity. Stop and think about who funds all the research that claims how effective and necessary vaccines are – the government and pharma companies. Be objective and follow the money trail.

Vaccines should be completely optional. Even though states have exemptions, they are not all the same. Furthermore, try to get your child into school without the correct exemption paperwork and see how much resistance you face. The law says they are optional, but people do not treat them as such.

Dr Gupta,
Can you explain further what the "susceptiple group" is? (What we’re seeing in the bulk of the population: vaccines are safe," said Healy. "But there may be this susceptible group. ")
Thank you,
Kathy

Dear Dr Gupta,
Thank you for bringing this issue to light for so many people. I am the mother of an adorable 10-year-old boy with mercury poisoning, immune system dysfunction, and autism. He was developing normally until his 12-month vaccines containing thimerosal, and he went further downhill following his 18-month shots. He is now very impaired and will most likely never live a normal life, but he is being treated with chelation therapy and IVIG in hopes of providing some healing.

It is wonderful to finally hear a voice of reason in Dr Healy. We can only hope and pray that the higher-ups at the CDC will finally realize that there are THOUSANDS of kids for whom vaccines are not safe.

Thank you,
Brett's Mom

Too many of our children are falling ill. While my children may be affected by autism, ADHD and food allergies – many others are plagued by asthma, juvenile diabetes, cancers, childhood autoimmune disorders, etc.

It would be easy for us to look at one disorder – autism – and make comments and opinions related to our current vaccination program. What happens when we start to look at ALL of the childhood disorders that we're now facing? Do we all stand behind the idea that other named diseases are all just being "better diagnosed" or are only "genetic in nature" – thus not worth our time and energy in locating a cause? This would be pure rubbish! These disorders ARE increasing! To deny this is outrageous.

It may be scary for us to entertain the idea that our vaccination program could now be causing more problems than it's solving, but for the sake of our children, our society and our economic security as a nation – we really must start honestly looking at what is in our vaccines and what happens when they are inside the human body!

Dr. Healy needs to do her homework before making such inflammatory remarks. If she needs some help reviewing the research that she claims the medical community has not done, maybe these references will help.

Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and Autism
Spitzer W. O., Mullins M. E., Wakefield A. J., Noble K. K., Miyasaka K., Madsen K. M., Campion E. W.
N Engl J Med 2003; 348:951-954, Mar 6, 2003.

No effect of MMR withdrawal on the incidence of autism: a total population study
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Volume 46 Issue 6 Page 572-579, June 2005

Continuing increases in autism reported to California’s developmental services system: mercury in retrograde.
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2008 Jan;65(1):15-6.

Autism and thimerosal-containing vaccines: lack of consistent evidence for an association.
Am J Prev Med. 2004 Jan;26(1):91; reply 91-2.

Thimerosal and the occurrence of autism: negative ecological evidence from Danish population-based data.
Pediatrics. 2003 Sep;112(3 Pt 1):604-6

Pervasive developmental disorders in Montreal, Quebec, Canada: prevalence and links with immunizations.
Pediatrics. 2006 Jul;118(1):e139-50

MMR vaccination and pervasive developmental disorders: a case-control study.
Lancet. 2004 Sep 11-17;364(9438):963-9

Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and bowel problems or developmental regression in children with autism: population study.
BMJ. 2002 Feb 16;324(7334):393-6

Time trends in autism and in MMR immunization coverage in California.
JAMA. 2001 Mar 7;285(9):1183-5

MMR vaccine and autism: an update of the scientific evidence.
Expert Rev Vaccines. 2004 Feb;3(1):19-22

Michael Melgar, MD

Please stress the difference between vaccines and autism as opposed to vaccines and other vaccine injuries. Since 1986, the Vaccine Court has ruled that certain children have been injured by vaccines causing children to suffer encephalopathy, anaphylaxis, etc. Just last year, the Vaccine Court ruled that my 19 month old client was seriously harmed by a DTaP vaccine and awarded her significant amount of money for damages. Please don't let your so called experts to say that there has never been a documented case where a child has been vaccine injured because it isn't true.

I see folks going on and on about this issue and I have to say this...does anyone think this Dr. and her associates may be trying to profit financially from all of these added therapies etc?

We have an autism "private school" near me and parents come from all over the world to pay thousands of dollars for all of these therapies. I wonder how many of these food allergies, special needs, autism, ADHD children have parents who suffer from munchausen's by proxy.

My children got their shots. Does that mean because my son is dislexic and my daughter runs 16 hours a day that I should medicate them over and over?

I see "helicopter moms" who think medicating their children is the best solution. Parenting, patience, love and exercise are the best solutions.

I recently read Scholastic magazine and I SHOCKED by the blatent advertising directed to mothers of small children. It was very, very disturbing. We are medicating too many of America's children.

Ryan, there is no "antifreeze" in vaccines. Feel free to share a reference for this claim if you'd like (i.e. package insert). You are correct that vaccines are not 100% effective. For example, the MMR has been shown to be about 95% effective after one dose. Therefore, if coverage is high enough, that 5% for which the vaccine was ineffective are unlikely to be exposed to the disease. This is the concept of herd immunity. Would you prefer outbreaks of deadly but preventable diseases? I believe the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks for both the individual and society.

And a note to those of you subjecting your children to chelation therapy: this can and has been deadly. Good luck.

I am scared to death of the immuzations and austism. Everyday I read something new , I have a 6month old and a 2year old and I have now
ordered my kids mmr to be given indivially not all at the same time.
These are our children and we dont get a 2nd chance.

Dr. Healy's comments really got my attention as has the Poling case. Hopefully they will help lead us to answers very soon.

For those discusssing the ethyl vs. methyl mercury, I see the words "The effects of ethylmercury have not been proven". Well that's re-assuring. Let's inject it into small children and see what the "unproven effects" are. Also, using it in mascara and contact lens solution (products not typically used on developing children) is quite different than INJECTING it into babies. I may not be a scientist, but I guess common sense just tells me this is not a good idea.

I don't see the real danger in denying the HepB, given at birth. I don't have it and my children will not be having sex at birth or sharing needles...so why do they need this shot they day they are born? Any maybe this is the trigger for those parents who believe their children were "born this way". How can you know it wasn't this vaccine given on the 1st day of life?

Someone needs to study at the schedule, the ingredients and the sub-sets of at-risk children. Until this is done, you'll never convince me vaccines are not involved in someway in dramatic increase in ASD diagnosis. And stop already with the better diagnosis argument. No one who can do math believes that the doctors 15 years ago were so incompatent that they missed 1 out of every 150 kids who couldn't talk, weren't potty trained, spinned their toys, banged their heads, didn't make eye contact, stared at flashing lights, didn't play wiht toys etc. If anything the doctors back then spent more time with the kids and would have been more likely to notice developmental delays...now its 5 minutes and out the door, lucky if the ped knows your kids by name.

Vaccines do not cause, nor have they ever cause autism. We already know this for a fact. I expect more from CNN than this hysterical nonsense.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but why don't all vaccinated kids have autism?

I think there should be more consideration and examination on possible links between fertility drugs and autism. More and more I learn about cases in which fertility drugs were used to conceive the child with autism.

>I think we can safely say that vaccines can cause autism.<
No, we can't and hence the need for further studies. The research has not shown that "mercury" builds up I children. What we do know is that ethyl mercury from the vaccine preservative thimerosal leaves the blood 10 times faster than methyl mercury, on which current risk assessments are based. The fact is that every major study has shown there is no link between the trace amounts of ethyl mercury found in thimerosal and autism. People who have convinced themselves otherwise don't want to hear that, but those are the "facts" as we know them to be with the current body of research. The definitive statements to the contrary are both reckless and scientifically unsupported. Should studying the link between the two stop? Of course not, but by studying only this link we run the risk of studying others areas that may be responsible. The truth is, that most people study autism have suggested that there will never be a signal smoking gun.

Dr. Gupta,

If the parents get their way, they will benefit from a huge payout from the government. I think that's all you need to know.

Dr. G, I feel that people should be aware of the existence of such a problem. I see why there is some concern about this; however, without the awareness of such plausible problems, there can not be enough research done to avoid these from recurring.
Also, the message should be spread with greater effectiveness that no drug/ vaccine/ foreign agent that makes its way into one's body is risk-free. This would encourage people to think for themselves and take calculated risks (which should essentially be the case with vaccines since the risk involved is much lower and this is where the statistics would play an important role).

Dr. Gupta,

I am pleased to see you are willing to keep digging into this issue but hope that you will continue to do so with an open mind. My late husband, Alan D. Clark, M.D., was a triple board certified physician. I spent many years as a nurse working in Family Practice and OB/Gyn offices. It was only after our son, developed severe neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral symptoms after his flu vaccine at 7 1/2 years of age that we began to question a causal relationship between mercury in vaccines and "autism." But we did not come to that conclusion lightly; it was only after extensive research and investigation. I should also mention that I have been active in politics and served as an elected official so I had a unique perspective in understanding the world of bureaucratic decision-making. I also have a strong background in forensic accounting...i.e. if you want to know if a crime has been committed; follow the money. My husband was very a conservative, logical man who practiced "mainstream" medicine; active in the local, state and national medical societies, etc. What we found as a result of our investigation was horrifying to us. Shifting that paradigm from "vaccines are safe" to "vaccines need further safety studies that are done without financial conflict or professional bias" was not easy one for either of us, but when the evidence was studied, it was a conclusion we could no longer deny or escape. There is a problem and continued denial by the medical community will not solve it! You need to dig MUCH deeper and do so with an open mind. A small fraction of the information we uncovered can be found at http://www.nomercury.org/science.htm. But perhaps my husband's own words, rather than mine, will have more impact with you. A letter to his medical colleagues can be found at http://www.nomercury.org/medical_professionals.htm or his words before the IOM in February 2004, which can be found at http://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/Clark_IOM_2-9-04.pdf

Regarding your observation that many of Dr. Healy's colleagues continue to deny a link between "autism and vaccines" then you should remember one thing..."it is difficult to get a man to understand that which his paycheck depends upon him NOT understanding!" There are none so blind as those who will not see. The question now Dr. Gupta, will the medical community finally be part of the solution or continue to be a large part of the problem. It is basically a moral and philosophical issue...government health officials, the medical community and the pharmaceutical industry believe it is more important to protect a "government program" ( The National Immunization Program) while parents believe it is more important to protect the best interests and health of children?

Your position as a physician in the media has great impact, and with that comes great responsibility. I hope you use it wisely and with moral conscience.

Lujene G. Clark
President
NoMercury

Chair, Board of Trustees
Alan D. Clark, M.D. Memorial Research Foundation

**NoMercury is a philanthropic based venture whose mission is to educate policy makers, physicians and the public regarding the dangers of mercury in vaccines.
NoMercury does not solicit funds nor do we accept donations.
NoMercury does not endorse or sell any products or services.
We are not “anti-vaccine” rather we advocate for safer vaccines.

Dr. Gupta,

Thank you for taking a serious look at the issue of vaccines and autism. Like antibiotic use, there can be negtive consequences to a great and life-saving idea. My 15 yo daughter is one of the susceptible children who regressed prior to age 2. Please continue to report on this as there are still children who are at risk and if we can figure out "who" and "what" is triggered, we may also be able to help those already injured.

I believe the biggest mistake is that vaccines as well as drugs are created based on the mentality "one fits all". But, as we learn more and more about genetics and what our bodies are more at risk of, companies should develop vaccines that tailor speficic genetic codes. The body of a baby is not well developed to receive that many chemicals into the liver and the blood cells.

If your stomach doesn take fish very well or soda, it doesn't mean there shouldnt be fish. Rather, there are other types of food you can eat. Maybe it is a bad analogy, there my point is that the evidence is too big to ignore and the solution must be to do more research and tailor vaccines based on genetic analysis. Or do dna analyis to see if the body of a baby is at risk.

I have a ten year old son with Aspergers, and yes this is the hardest most exhausting "journey" I have ever dealt with. I never had what some other parents describe as a change in their childs behavior, therefore I believe that the damage was done , or started with the first Hepatitis shot given to my baby at just 24 hours old. I can't believe that I allowed this little precious baby that I just gave birth to and protected for nine months to get that dam shot that he did not need. Now are lives are so different than others that some days I can hardly bear it. Why did I trust our government and yes just like others have said when will the madness end. Doesn't anyone care about all the human suffering that is going on with the diagnoses. One in 94 is on the spectrum in NJ. My God what will we do when all these children grow up and can't function on their own. God help us.

Dr. Gupta,
I'm glad that you are continuing the dialogue on Autism. My son is almost 18 and was diagnosed when he was 6 with Asperger's Syndrome, so we've been dealing with his autism and associated chronic illness for a long time. I've heard a lot of theories, read a lot of articles, tried a lot of therapies. I've cried a lot and have foregone any retirement (single mom with no child support and little coverage from insurance to assist) to financially fund the best possible outcome for my child.

In time I believe that Autism will be found to be a multisystem response to environmental and medical toxicity with the degree of affect dependent upon genetic predisposition. It all plays a role – toxins in the home, our food, clothing and medicine, none of which are required to undergo rigorous long term testing before mass production and consumption.

Recent findings published by Dr. Raymond Palmer, Stephen Blanchard and Dr. Robert Wood in their article, "Proximity to Point Sources of Environmental Mercury Release as a Predictor of Autism
Prevalence" support a causal link between the presence of mercury in the environment and the incidence of Autism in the community. It's difficult to understand what financial gain would justify the injury caused or even potentially could be caused by the presence of this toxic substance in any medicine.

I also believe that in time this will look very similar to what happened in the tobacco industry who once claimed that smoking didn't cause cancer AND it wasn't addictive! We certainly know better about that now.

In the meantime, I will continue to find some solution that will keep my son healthy enough to complete high school, go to college and sustain gainful employment as well as figure out how in the world I'll also be able to figure out how to put away any amount of money for my own retirement. God help us.

All you pro vaccine people out there go right ahead and vaccinate your kids. I just pray you don’t have to eat your words like I did. My friend told me not to vaccinate and I called her a hippy and assured her that our medical community would not do something to harm our children. Now my child has to live with the side effects, and I had a niece who died from the polo vaccine. And yes the pharmaceutical companies gave the parents a settlement. No proof, the Polling Family proved it. Like my bothers family and many more have too.

It is so amazing how easily people are pro vaccine. I myself did not want to believe it could have anything to do with my child’s autism. Google a few things it don’t take much to figure it out. Mercury poisoning’s side affects are the same as Autism symptoms. Look up the testing done before approval of vaccines. We live in the information age, just scratch the surface and it will blow your mind. Go to
http://www.nvic.org there is astonishing information out there if you want the truth.

Dr. Gupta,
My son is 8 years old and has autism. This is what I know, he was developing fine then at 1.5 years old he was behind on his vaccinations and the ped. said we will get him caught up today. He told me that he needed 4 compiled vaccinations to get back on schedule. My husband and I protested that telling the ped. that we will spread it out. We believed that would be far too much for him to have to endure. When the nurse came in with the shots, she stuck him with all 4 shots before we could stop her. We were angry. We did not know about autism then but we sure do now. My son has never been the same since then, he had a high fever for days after. He stopped doing all of the things he did before. We had no idea what this was about, why he was behaving so strangely. His ped. told us not to worry, that this was probably just a phase and it will pass. It took until he was 3 years old to find out for sure that he had autism. This was our "seeing is believing" proof that what happened in the clinic was what caused our son to develop autism. This did not happen over time, it was a night and day situation.
I am so glad to hear Dr. Healy tell the world that this should be addressed. This is long overdue. Thank you for your report on this matter.
I, like thousands of other parents, want to know what happened to my son, why did this happen? I want to know so we can do something to help our kids join us in our world and leave the autism world behind. These kids deserve to have normal lives, they deserve a cure.
Thanks much, Lindy Smith

Autism is a serious disease; however, the diseases that are prevented by vaccines are much more so. If one must weigh autism versus those other diseases, then the obvious choice is to have the vaccinations. Parents should look back at the times before vaccinations and then realize how many lives could have been saved or improved.

“but I am curious – what do comments like Healy’s say to parents and scientists?”

Here's what those comments say to parents and scientists;

1. We (doctor's) are NOT God. We have no explanation for the dramatic increase in Autism diagnosis (1 in 150) that has taken us by storm. We are in NO position to state 'Vaccinations are Harmless' to the many concerned parents we see.

2. We (scientists) have not succesfully proved that vacinations do NOT cause Autism. We must finally do the necessary research to absolutely confirm or deny the assertations.

3. We (parents) who have intentionally delayed or refused vacinations for our children have valid concerns. Those of us who have questioned, researched and followed our 'gut' would LOVE to be proven wrong. Perhaps now the effort will be made by the medical community to do so.

I have 4 typically-developing children aged 6 – 16. Not one child of mine received a vacination prior to the age of 5 when I believe their bodies and immune systems were strong enough to deal with the vacinations without harm. I have fought both the schools and the doctor's for the best interest of my children. None of my children have Autism.

As anecdotal evidence, my closest friend who lives in the same neighborhood, goes to the same schools and even works at the same company has 3 children – 2 of whom are severly autistic. The 3rd child is not Autistic – the only child of hers that she did not vacinate until the child was 5.

I'm very thankful that the 'converstation' is occuring as it may lead to a cause and a prevention. It's about time the medical community 'caught up' with the rest of us.

Autism, expressed in varying degrees, is a genetic disorder primarily characterized by a “leaky” epithelial layer. Specifically, spaces between cells admit significantly more molecules across their barrier than is normal. Driven by concentration gradients in passive diffusion, the active transport mechanisms in the gut are overwhelmed, leading to malabsorbtion of key vitamins, and hyperabsorbtion of toxic heavy metals. Autism is characterized by “leaky gut syndrome”. Further, high environmental levels of heavy metals, which in nonautistic people would be excreted with no real effect, here are transported across a “leaky” epithelial blood-brain barrier, to selectively bind with certain neurons and sheaths. The heavy metals, primarily mercury in the form of thimerosol accompanying multi-use vaccines, kill selective neural pathways in the developing infant, leading to expressed autistic symptoms later in life. Although chelation removes the metals, for the most part the neural structural damage appears to be irreversible. Similar to PKU, it is highly suggested that all newborns undergo an epithelial permeability test at birth. Abnormal values detected would trigger a highly restrictive diet for any source of metal contamination, as well as a hypervitamin regimen. Other therapy would include an increased awareness for necessity of antifungals.

Wow! Thank you my mother is a teacher who works with autism kids and I never knew that their could be a vaccine but I hponestly believe that our society today needs to look into things like this becasuse it seems more and more children are getting autism

Jeff, you are a sheep. Do you believe everything the doctor tells you? Do you believe everything anyone tells you that has a piece of paper indicating they spent a couple of years in some med school. The real work is done not by doctors, but by scientists. Unfortunately, most research is done by the drug companies. Think about the larger picture. Who spoon feeds the stuff to the CDC, who profits off of vaccines, who has our country's children on more meds than the average adult.

I'm glad there is so much dialog on this subject. It's incredibly important and it is extremely encouraging to see someone so active in the medical community as Dr. Healy at least acknowledge that there could be a link between vaccines and autism, because that's more than we've seen, to date.

To add to Ryan's post about how some of the vaccines are cultured, if anyone would do more research, they would find that there is a concern that vaccines cultured on monkey kidneys may be associated with the development of various leukemias.

I did loads of research when I was pregnant and had debated about vaccinating our child. We decided to do a delayed schedule, but our daughter had a "moderate" reaction to her 2nd Pediarix (DTaP, Polio, Hep B) vaccination. She developed a 105 degree fever, and was taken to the emergency room (it's horrible to watch a 4 mo. old infant have an IV put in, and have a catheter put in for a urine test). The dr.'s there concluded, much to the disblief of her ped.'s office, that it was definitely a reaction to the vaccine. I have not proceeded with any further vaccinations (we passed on Rotavirus, and she did not receive HepB at birth), until she sees her ped for a wellness visit in June. We are very seriously considering not continuing with any vaccinations.

My husband and I are well educated people who possess a lot of common sense. Common sense is telling me that vaccines represent tremendous revenue to pharma companies. The more investigating one does, the more connections one sees between many prominent doctors who are vaccine proponents and pharma companies. Some of these doctors stand to profit from the patents that exist on some of these vaccines, and they are the ones who are most outspoken about mandating that every child be vaccinated, and suggesting that parents be penalized for choosing not to vaccinate. Pharma companies are financing the "research" that's being done on vaccine safety and efficacy. There is far too much money at stake for any real objectivity here. Merck was cited recently, by the FDA, for not having hygienic conditions at their manufacturing plant in Philly, where several of the vaccines for children are produced. Why aren't we seeing more visible reporting of things like this by our media?

I think it is a horrible, ignorant mistake to place blind trust in the government organizations (CDC, FDA) and the medical community. Every one of us must be our own health advocate, and an even heavier responsibility is placed on those of us who are parents, and are entrusted with the welfare of our child(ren).

I disagree that the autism rate is due to better identification and diagnosis......I was born in the mid-70's and I do not ever recall encountering a single person in my age group who was autistic. I can think of maybe two kids who I knew, offhand, who may have had ADHD. What our society is now dealing with is an epidemic of children who are suffering with autism, development disorders, chronic diseases and unprecedented allergic conditions. It is shortsighted to not look at some causal relationship between children receiving double the number of vaccinations that they received 30 years ago, and all of these health crises.

No matter whether we decide to continue vaccinating our daughter, or we stop, my husband and I will struggle daily with our decision, wondering if we made the right choice, wondering if we did the best as parents, with the wonderful gift God has given us. A previous poster is right....this is heartbreaking. Our government has an obligation to ensure that the most innocent, helpless members of our society are not being harmed in the interest of pharma companies lining their pockets.

Parents, do your research. Do your best to make an educated decision, for the well-being of your children.

I think that research should be conducted to help improve vaccines and possibly determine who might be susceptible to any adverse reactions. The bottom line is that vaccines have dramatically improved the overall health of everyone in the world. I have talked to a number of relatives who survived outbreaks of the diseases that vaccines prevent, and parents would indeed be up in arms if their children were lost to preventable diseases.

The problem with the whole vaccine argument is that the internet is both a source of information and disinformation. While some parents are making informed decisions, others are not taking needed measures to protect their children. Toss in a fair amount of conspiracy theory, and you really create problems. It would be unfortunate that a pandemic results from misinformation.

Finally, everyone points to increases in various childhood conditions like Autism and other disorders like ADHD and attribute them to vaccines. People generally are quick to identify patterns, so parents of children who receive vaccines and then get sick quickly latch on to this as a cause. However, the pervasiveness of chemicals in our environment including mercury, lead, and even medications which cannot be filter out of our water supply is something that children get from day one (or even before they are born). It is equally likely that we will find that some chemical in the environment affects certain brain developments that can eventually lead to autism. Focusing on vaccines which do more good than harm isn't the right approach. We should focus on eliminating all the environmental pollutants that have been building up and affecting all of our lives.

As the parent of 3 children & a former research scientist at a pharmaceutical company, I know that these companies have and continue to test vaccines extensively before market introduction. And this includes for several years now, looking at possible neurological effects and not just antibodies to the organism being targeted.
There may be links to children with undiagnosed conditions, which predispose to the development of autism. However, as to the comment that no child is born autistic, I do not agree. I myself have seen premature infants display characteristic traits shortly after birth (i.e. not turning head toward mother, lack of interest in human face) that cannot be blamed on vaccines as these children are incubated for weeks and the schedule does not start until much later.
I have a son, 7, diagnosed with ADHD. He has received all of his vaccinations. Since 2000 my pediatrician has used mercury free innoculations (except for the flu which he has only received 2 out of his 7 years) as have many in the area I live, but the autism rate is still increasing. In fact it is increasing in all developed countries, even the UK where vaccination rate has declined considerably. So there are places where this so called correlation is not occurring.

Another note: in years past you did not see autistic children because they were institutionalized during their school years. This goes for children who were Down or otherwise mentally or physically challenged. Believe me, those children existed but were kept out of sight and public schools.

I am currently more concerned about the estrogen like compounds in plastic my son very likely ingested from his (probably China made) bottles for 13 months and sippy cup and various toys he chewed on for another 2 years. I think we will find that high level exposure of plastic derivatives may have lasting neurological effects. I would prefer more research into causes other than vaccines alone as those studies, although small, do exist in the US and even more outside the US.

Common sense says that you just should not expect to inject a human with all sorts of known poisons and toxins without any side effects. Notice how those strongly in favor of vaccines use such scare tactics, like death. This is a common practice in the medical field.

For a look into the truly criminal and nasty history of vaccines, one simply has to do a little research. A good place to start is a book by Dr. Tim O'Shea titled "The Sanctity of Human Blood: Vaccination Is Not Immunization." Dr. O'Shea is not funded by any government or pharma agency, so you will be getting honest and straightforward facts. His claims are fully referenced as well. He is easily found with a Google search.

To those that believe that vaccines have saved the world and are the greatest thing since sliced bread, continue to vaccinate. But please do not try to force me or my kids to be vaccinated. That is my freedom of choice. Vaccine proponents should not be so concerned about others getting vaccinated. After all, as long as they get their vaccinations religiously, then there is no need for them to worry about contracting all these deadly diseases. Right?

why is it so unreasonable to link the timing and number of these shots (as opposed to the ingredients necessarily) as an assault on a developing immune system? Could it be that in giving so many shots at one time the body launches an immune response which causes the body to react in a negative fashion ? On a personal level, I support immunizations, however, I also made the decison to limit my child's shots to no more than two at a time. Yes, it was inconvenient for the staff as I had to come back for additoanl appointments, yes it cost more money for dose administartion fees, and yes, I do beleive it decreased the potential for an over-response of my child's immune system. Why do so many people seem to have a vested interest in avoiding the obvious- more research, more listening to parents who have suffered this tragedy, and less adherence to the idea that somehow "doctors know best".

May 16, 2008

As the parent of a young man with autism, it would be easy to jump on the bandwagon of skeptics about the several studies that have failed to show a connection between vaccines and autism. But, as a physician, I also have a deep respect for science. One very convincing study from Denmark showed that the incidence of autism remains unchanged despite the elimination of thimerosal from vaccines. Moreover, as Dr. Offit writes in this weeks New England Jounral of Medicine, children with a global developmental impairment, are very likely to have impaired social and communication skills which may be conflated with autism. And there is nothing more global than a mitochondrial disorder affecting brain cells. Epidemiologic and genetic studies have reached a consensus that the heritability of the susceptibility to an autism spectrum disorder is very high. The exact cause of autistic regression is not known but the paradigm is seen in several other disorders with behavioral regression in early childhood. The developmental sequence, including the acquisition of social skills, is genetically programmed and mutations are known to affect critical genes. One example in the autistic spectrum is Rett syndrome. This is not the time to abandon a respect for good science,

Keep up the good work Dr. Gupta! I'm both a doctor and a parent of an autistic child. I'm uterly impressed that most of the stuff printed in our medical literature that we use to confront our daily patient challenges is far from evidenced based despite the new formats all of our colleges have adapted. None of it captures the true schism of what we parents see, feel, and in a very experiential sense know to be true: that we have lost once normal children after vaccinations, whatever all the cofactors may be. I'm all for "disease prevention and vaccination", but the CDC and AAP, in my opinion, need to get out of the denial mode and participate in sorting out how to cnfer reasonable immunity without "First causing harm".... the trust is already lost and I think saying the same thing only renders them more ineffective

What I don't get is why a pediatrician would trust a parent's instincts when it comes to watching out for things like allergic reations to antibiotics, etc., then, just blow off their observations that their child acted very specifically different following the administration of a vaccine. I'm not a parent, but most of my friends are, and as one of 7 kids, with 12 nieces and nephews, all I can say is, there's too many parents out there saying the same exact thing for too many years for the scientific community (not to mention the scientific method) to discount this particular observation!

Sir,
The logic is simple. If more smokers get Cancer of the lung, more alcoholics get cirrhosis of the liver and more vaccinated children regress to autism spectrum disorders compared to general population then the medical fraternity ought to show an open mind and acknowledge – Vaccines do cause troubles. Increasingly vaccines are becoming a prevention dangerous than the disease which it is supposed to prevent.
Death from most of the viral infections of childhood are due to secondary infections like bacterial pneumonia. Modern medicine has no clear answer to viral diseases and hence use unnecessary antibiotics in such viral diseases which force secondary infections upon a weakened individual and hence the high death rate. Decrease in infectious diseases is not entirely due to vaccines. First and foremost it is due to the understanding that these infections are caused by microorganisms, which made it possible to identify the ways of spread of the disease. Secondly increased sanitation – good drinking water – better nutrition. But vaccines robbed all the credit. If we had enough funds to provide – Safe drinking water – sanitation and good nutrition then we can surely reduce the number of vaccines and number of autistics. It is the policy that has to change

I so glad Doctors might actually have to consider the link between the vaccines and Autism AND other disorders. My 13 y.o. son has Tourettes Syndrome which started the WEEK of his vaccines. We know another couple with the same age daughter and she developed Tourettes also. Way too coincidental!!!

Dr.Gupta,you should read this book :
The Protective Shell in Children and Adults.
by Frances Tustin Ed.Karnac Books – London 1990
0-946439-81-8

Thank Goodness, this Dr. finially spoke out, the media, has never really took this problem on, even when the parents had a march in Washington it was like a split second on TV. These are our children and a whole generation is having a problem and around the world because we send them our drugs. The reseach has not been done,
I believe the news should just report facts and saying there is no
scientific eveidence to back up the mercury (thimsersol) claim, is completely incorrect and also who on the FDA also has tries to the pharmacial, someone has to take responsiblilty. Please do more on
Austism so the young mother's can be aware, and always go on the
side of caution.
Thank you

Dear Sanjay,
I watch your program almost every week and would like to comment on the Autism story. I am in my early 60's and when my children were small, I had never heard of Autism. I believe that there could be a connection between the growing number of children with Autism and the large number of young adults who use or have used illegal drugs. My children had all of their immunizations and I didn't know of anyone who had a child with Autism.
Has anyone looked into that possible connection?

Sincerely,

Mary Skarzenski

Dear Dr. Gupta,

The way I read Dr. Healy's comments and responses is that the reason the CDC, NIH, IOM, AAP and others have not pursued the vaccine/autism connection better is that they're very much afraid of the answers. If parents were presented with an honest set of facts about vaccines and their proven side effects–let alone their speculative side effects–many would still choose to immunize but NONE would choose to adhere to the current, absurd schedule of vaccination.

Best,

Jay Gordon
drjaygordon.com

An autistic child is a child that stops to communicate and there is always a reason why a child refuses to communicate.
I have LIVED autism thru my nefew's story and I 've helped him A LOT(we've been VERY CLOSE)

My boss is the father of two autistic children. He is also the genius behind the lawyer refferal hotline in Florida 1-800-ask-gary...because of Garys success he now sits on the bored of directors for NASA and sits on a new task force made by Gov Charlie Crist passing laws to benefit families with autism. He, Dan mareno, the head of autism speaks among others recently saw a bill passed so insurance companies will pay for autism treatments.It is a start in the right direction. I know God gave Gary these children for a purpose, and raised him up financially to be able to be a front runner in promoting autism research and helping these needy families. 1 in 150 children have autism. Shocking statistics that are increasing. The divorce rate among these families is 90 percent. Now perhaps there is more hope for these families. Autism is a lifetime debilitating disease. The cost are enormous. The research is minimal. People like Dr.Gary bring us one step closer to helping these children.

Ryan, you probably never had a heart attack. When,God forbid,you have one and you go to the ER, doctors will inject you with a drug called r-TPA or another thromolytic (unless you get a primary angioplasty, in which case you will recieve equally dangerous blood thinners. All of this meds have the potential to cause a brain hemorrage and bleeding from possibly all the orifices in the body.
And they are effective in dissolving the clot that caused your heart attack. However, there is also a chance that your own body, without any drugs, would dissolve the clot by a process called spontaneous thrombolysis.
Similarly, chances that a pateint with pnuemonia will recover without antibiotics or a patient with AIDS will survive 10 years without antiretrovirals are also there. And why do we even bother to give dangerous chemotherapy to cancer patientswhen almost all of them would develop life threatening fall in blood counts or kidney failure or heart failure because of the chemotherapy?? Bear in mind that often times the sole purpose of the chemotherapy is only to prolong life by 6-8 months(and it may even fail at that).
The gold standard study design in epidemiology is most probably a case-control prospective study. Even after you have done all your lab research on multiple generations of multiple species of animals, unless you have the data from such a study, you cannot derive any definitive conclusions. Now is it ethically possible to do such a study for vaccines??You would have to create a control group of thousands(or atleast hundreds) of children. This control group would not get any vaccines and their outcomes would be compared with children of the
case group(who recieved the vaccines). By doing this, you are exposing the children of the control group to deadly or debilitating "Vaccine preventable diseases". Would this be ethical or advisable?? Here is what the results may look like: Of the control group 2 children died from severe HiB, 3 developed permanent learning disability from the meningitis, 1 was left paralysed by polio,
2 had to be kept on respirator because of diptheria induced acute airway obstruction(one of whom developed permanent hypoxic brain injury). 5 suffered from Tetanus and 3 of those recovered completely as a result of antitoxin and Immunoglobulin therapy( I hope the irony is not lost because ultimately what would save an unimmunized child with tetanus is something very close to a vaccine..if the tetanus vaccine is killed tetanus bacilli, the antitoxin is the product of the same bacilli).
I hope you would agree that creating such a "control" group is almost impossible. So how do we get such a group??? We already have this group..in developing countries a vast majority of children are unimmunized and I hope CNN will depict the outcomes in this unfortunate "control" group.
Please dont accuse doctors of "blindly "trusting pharma companies, the goverment or other agencies. My trust is reinforced whenever I see a patient's clot getting dissolved in "real-time" by blood thinners and when I see a patient's brain fluid cleared of bacteria by antibiotics(in real-time, even though under a microscope). Thus, my trust is also reinforced when I see and hear that there were only a 100 cases of measles last year in the U.S, while some countries in the world had 160,00,000. And that trust will only get stronger with time as the incidence of cervical cancer drops dramatically in the coming decades. Will my faith waver if I or somebody else develops a serious adverse effect.? No, because nobody gave me a 100% guarantee. Words like very effective with some risks are enough for me to make my decision in favor of vaccines.
And how can we conclude that the goverment or FDA or CDC is doing nothing?? Remember the time when these very agencies recalled the rota-virus vaccine, even though it caused only 15 cases of intusseception among 15 million shots that were given(0.001%)
Some people above are also concerned that diseases as such are on a rise. Well this is not supported if you take mortality as the most important criterion. 22 of 1000 children born in 1960 died from various causes. In 2000, the number was 5.
Some people have also concluded that Thimerosal is the cause of all vaccine related complications. Wasnt thimerosal removed from all vaccines in 2001, except Flu?? How come the annual incidence of autism didnt fall?? infact it continued to climb, didnt it?? So where are the people who shouted at the top of their voice in 1999 that thimerosal was the devil. Infact, thimerosal was used I believe in Denmark during the 60s and 70s and the incidence of autism there rose in the 90s(after thimerosal was removed)

I would like to see some coverage of the new studies from L. Hewitson at the University of CT. She studied the effect of the full vaccine schedule on primates which apparently shocking results. As a parent of a child on the spectrum who does a lot of research, I have come to believe that the number of vaccines and the schedule alone were harmful to my child.

Women should also be wary of the flu shot which is part given to pregnant women. My OBGYN basically told me that I was a bad mom-to-be if I opted out of that shot. At that time, I did whatever my doctor said – I regret that decision every day.

Dr. Gupta:

I have been following you blogs for sometime now (and love your insight) and was wondering your thoughts on the new study that discusses a link between Thimerosal Vaccines And Autism published in Journal of Neurological Sciences –
http://www.pharmalot.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/thimerosal-vaccine-study.pdf

Keep up the great work.

okay if it did cause that every child i would no would have it and they dont why are we so sure that is what it is it cant be and you know it..its sad but there is nothing any where they says nothing is going to happen to my child no matter what i do..and how do you know its not something like autoimmune one day you are fine and the next you are not...and some one comment once you got a child like that you blame and go after so you do that what happens when you kid get cancer who can we blame for that its sad but lets stop and look its getting worse now maybe its something else...

This is post is really a disservice to parents. As the Institute of Medicine reported in 2004, there is yet to be any credible evidence for a causative link between autism and childhood vaccinations, specifically the MMR vaccine and those containing Thimerosal. Vaccines save lives and save billions of dollars in healthcare-related losses and expenses. It is certainly a tragedy when a child develops ASD and we all want desperately to find a "cause" so that we might find a cure but the science says that we need to look somewhere other than to routine vaccinations.

My daughter was born in Dec. 1980 and was a vibrant and active and outgoing child who had all of her baby shots. Then there were more shots we had to get for her before she started Kindergarden. She started Kindergarden at 4 1/2 years old. We and the teachers started to notice that she was “catatonic in school” and they asked us if there was anything wrong or abusive going on at home. Then they recommended therapy for her. We took her for therapy to this place called New Hope. They couldn’t do anything for her and found no trouble within our household and they didn’t know what it was. She went all through school like this eventually graduating with an IEP diploma. She had two jobs, each of them lasting only two weeks, because she couldn't respond to her employers and they were critical of her and she was fired from both jobs. While she was in her 20’s she unfortunately was walking the dog one night and became a RAPE VICTIM. They still have not found the slime till this day. She is now 27 and has a boyfriend. The weird thing with her is that she does not mix well in an environment with many people. While she is aware of her surroundings and what is going on and she is able to carry on normal conversation, there is that part of her that is still very much like a 4 year old child..After she was raped the DA therapist interviewed her and told us that she is socially retarted. She has gone through a lot all of these years since she had those shots so long ago, and so have we. Life for her and us changed almost immediately after those damn shots. She is going to be 28 years old the end of this year and is still trying to put her life together. While she is independent and functions in many academic ways — her mind is like that of a child in the outside world. Eventually and as a result of the rape trauma she was able to get SSI. Unfortunately they fail to recognize that she has had social retardation disability all of her life. I hope one day that this beautiful flower will blossom and that she will get all the professinal attention and the good things in live that she is really deserving of. And I hope all of the other children out there are getting the help that they need now. Years ago, doors were shut and my daughter was just thought to be weird or abused. How sinful is that and what a shame we have a system that we have. She has definitely fell through the cracks. Do what you can for your children and don’t take no for an answer — because if enough people start to bang on doors then maybe our government will listen. As for me, my wife and our daughter — we thank God every day that she is alive, safe, healthy and functioning the best that she can. And we also pray everyday that they catch the slime that took advantage of our beautiful flower. He will get his day for sure. God doesn’t like ugly. At the end of the day I would say it was all related to the baby vaccines. I never wrote about this nor do I address it on a daily basis, but I am very mindful that this is a serious problem that our government and all health professionals need to address. Every day that goes by with another child getting a shot — is another day that the lights can quickly go out for them and their family. May God Bless all of the parents out there living with a child like ours and may he always bless these children and keep them in his care.

I don't think that 'belief' is a good way to study whether or not the autism/vaccine link is real... We need to look at the scientific data... and history. It is apparent that the number of children on this spectrum has increased stratospherically within the last decade or two... as have the required immunizations. Further, it is a known fact that mercury causes neurological damage. Thimerasol, containing MERCURY, was used as a preservative in many childhood vaccines. These correlations are too obvious to dismiss. While I believe that immunization for very dangerous diseases should be an absolute, many of my generation survived the measles, mumps, rubella, and chicken pox... They are inconveniences for the majority of children and their parents... A child's mental health should not be put at risk in order to avoid contracting so many of these old diseases, that were basically not life-threatening.

It is a sad but true fact that the medical community is often the LAST to acknowledge medical realities. For proof, one need only look at how long they anaesthetized women in labor, and advocated for formula over breast milk. How many years did women's advocacy groups have to be treated like hippie nutcases before the "establishment" acknowledged that anaesthesia was harmful to mothers and babies and breast milk was better?

I agree with the posters who say that there are far too many claims of "my child was fine until (s)he) received X or Y vaccination." Where there's smoke, there's fire. After my first child was diagnosed with speech delay, I slowed down my second child's receipt of vaccinations. No more than two at any given time, MMR alone, and only after she reached two years old (without anything else it is already THREE vaccines), and NOTHING WITH THIMEROSAL. Period. I think there is something wrong with introducing 25+ toxins into a baby's system over a period of just 22 months. It's unsurprising that some children simply cannot handle that much. Furthermore, why would we ever introduce mercury – IN ANY FORM – into a baby's body? We don't need preservatives in this country; there is no reason why vaccinations cannot be shipped and stored in single doses.

I have read extensively on how thimerosal can cross the blood-brain barrier, particularly in children with "leaky gut syndrome" – or who have had gastrointestinal issues – chronic constipation and/or diarrhea. These often persist after the vaccinations – particularly MMR. A British researcher published in the Lancet some years ago his findings that a disproportionate number of children on the autism spectrum had lesions in their intestines, with measles titres concentrated there as well. These findings were explosive at the time.

I would strongly encourage anyone whose child has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum to read "Children With Starving Brains" for help with diets that can heal the gut, and literally everything written by Dr. Stanley Greenspan. A combination of nutritional and behavioral therapies has helped countless parents of children in the spectrum. DON'T GIVE UP!

my son had terrible fevers (103.5 and up) after both of his first two vaccines. i had delayed a bit because he was 5 weeks premature–against the a advice of the doctor who thought prematurity was irrelevant to starting the schedule. after his second and more severe reaction, we've stopped vaccinations. after he turns two, we'll reassess. take charge of your children's health, and responsibility for your choices. above all, trust what you see and know to be true in your particular situation.

chirag – "When" I have a heart attack? It really is funny to me that your rhetoric includes words such as "ethical." What is not ethical is intimidating people into vaccinating their children and twisting the truth and facts to make them believe vaccines are required. What is not ethical is injecting a flood of poisons and toxins from the vaccines into an undeveloped immune system of a newborn. Thimerosal is only on piece of the puzzle. There are other toxins in vaccines, like formaldehyde and aluminum. Aluminimum is widely used in vaccines and is a known neurotoxin. Do you think this is disputable? What happened to "First, do no harm?"

And for your information, thimerosal is still used in vaccines today, other than the flu vaccine. All it takes is a little research to find the package inserts, like here: http://www.vaccineshoppe.com/US_PDF/ActHIB_5122_08.03.06.pdf.

http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/package_inserts.htm has a good list of package inserts for various vaccines.

The words you use to describe the certain disasters of not vaccinating are well placed, and they are all too common by vaccine proponents to scare people. You use words such as "deadly" or "debilitating" to describe the terrible side effects of “Vaccine preventable diseases”. Why is it that people in favor of vaccines, such as yourself, do not discuss the "deadly" or "debilitating" side effects of receiving a vaccine that in no way is a guarantee of not getting xyz disease? As for control groups, I don't think it would be accurate to compare children of developing countries to children of this country. Developing countries do not have the sanitation, cleanliness, and hygiene of this country. These are key factors to the decline of diseases, not vaccines.

Don't get me wrong, my opposition to vaccines does not mean that I don't think drugs are beneficial and life saving when used properly. But trusting the FDA to ensure the safety of these drugs is a joke. My faith goes away when FDA members sit on the Boards of the very pharma companies whose drugs they approve. I lose trust in the FDA when it allows for the deception of labeling of Trans Fat as 0g, despite the fact that hydrogenated oils are listed on the ingredient list and in spite of the fact that the Institue of Medicine says that there is no safe level of trans fat in the diet. By the way, I don't eat trans fat so I can mark that off of the list of possible causes for my pending heart attack.

A Reveur: what do you mean coincidence doesn't mean cause. coincidence is ruled out when the numbers go from 1 and 10,000 to 1 and 150. That's not coincidence, that's genocide.

Michael Melgar: the references listed are nothing more than distorted under researched biased opinions. I'm not sure why everyone is acting like the U.S has a wonderful track record in health and medicine. These are the same people that injected syphillis into black men during the Tuskegee Experiment. The same people (Merk) that put a pill out on the market a few years back that did absolutely nothing. It was used to raise profits! These are the same people that have yet linked AIDS to a viable source (you don't even want hear my thoughts on that). The same people that have only come up with "treatments" for diseases and no cures in over 50 years! And lastly, these are the same people that come up with diseases like lazy leg syndrom which have never been issues in America before. It's truly sad how corupt and decietful this industry is. WAKE UP AMERICA!

A Reveur is right.Just, that it is not genetic either or due to environmental

It is critical that health care providers consider the impact of collective environmental exposures and their negative impacts on human health. Incomplete data does not mean safe.

Bill Couzens Founder, Lesscancer.org

Dr. Stephanie Cave testified before the the Committee on Government Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives and Congressman Dan Burton July 18, 2000 regarding the link between Mercury and Autism. Burton, who has an autistic grandson, has held several hearings since then on vaccine safety and more information and documents about the government knowing about the risks of thimerosal are being uncovered. Through the Freedom of Information Act, SafeMinds recently recovered the transcripts of the "Simpsonwood Meeting" in which doctors from the CDC and FDA appear to be very aware of research showing links between Thimerosal in Vaccines and neurological disorders, but agree not to acknowledge it. Now a new University of Pittsburgh study with primates – the kind of research Dr. Healy says we need to do to show causality – indicates that Rhesus monkeys given thimerosal in doses equivalent to those received in childhood vaccinations developed symptoms of autism. Transcripts of all of the above as well as Healy's CBS interview can be found on the Healing Arts website at:
http://www.healing-arts.org/children/mercury_in_vaccines_autism_research/thimerosalinvaccinationslink.htm

It seems these doctors are acknowledging there could be a link between vaccines and autism. However, just because there could be a connection there does not mean that children should not be given their vaccinations. I do think it is very possible that something in the vaccines may trigger the onset of autism in someone genetically predisposed to it. With that said, the benefits of the vaccines, I think, far outweigh the potential of developing autism. As one of the previous posters said, parents should definitely consult their family histories. And parents may also want to consider spacing out the vaccines, so their children still get them but they are spaced out a bit more than the current vaccination schedule. There is a really great debate about the vaccines and autism subject at http://www.opposingviews.com/questions/are-autism-and-vaccines-linked Experts from both sides debate the issue and make some thought-provoking point. Great read on the subject!