Court rules vaccines not to blame for autism

Peter my son has autism and I do believe that the vaccines are to blame for his autism.
This is why: Have you ever taken a medication for High Blood Pressure or an infection, have you read the information packet that comes with the medication. All medications have a risk for a possible side effect. So why do they continue to say that the vaccines have no possible side effects, I find that hard to believe. No amount of money will give me back my child so I will never put my sons name behind a law suit.
All I want is for them to find a way that no other parent will have to go thru what my daughter and I go thru on a day to day basis. Having a family member with autism is not an easy life.
Somebody has to stop this. If not for my family but for the family who is today being blessed with the most precious gift of all a son or a daughter.
Thank You For Letting Me Have My Say On This Matter
Proud Mom,
Gloria Rosario

As an Early Intervention Special Education Teacher, I wish: That pediatricians would step up to the plate and aggressively screen for ASD and diagnose so that the children could get the prescribed treatment for ASD....ASAP! When speaking to my pediatrician, she said that they "go by what the parents say (developmentally); whether they are concerned or not. and if we see something that stands out, we will refer them to Child Find and then to KKI for a diagnosis". Diagnosing ASD is not that difficult...especially for a pediatrician. The timeframe for iintense ntervention is small...most times I get them late and it is very frustrating. Parents need to see these deficits, come to terms with them, and get their children help. The time for denial is ultimately their demise. We can make up to a 20pt difference in their IQ in a lot of cases if we can get them early. How can we get the message out to Ped's and to the parents????? I'm tired of hearing about the causes, let's deal with the issue NOW so we can make these kids functioning, independent members of our community. It's all about the kids, not the parents.

Gloria, no one says that vaccines are free of side effects. If they were the vaccine court would not exist. What this ruling (and all available evidence) says is that Autism Spectrum Disorders are not one of these side effects.

I think the problem is not that there are no side effects, just that there aren't the ones people claim. For instance, while my aspirin can cause bleeding and ulcers, no amount of wishing would allow me to say it could cause my knee dislocation. I feel a lot of sorrow when I see families dealing with this problem, but I think focusing on something that has been shown not to be the cause distracts us from spending resources on other things that may actually be causing autism.

Our son regressed and lost the language he had developed between the ages of 15 and 20 months. Prior to that he had met all developmental milestones and was engaged with others. By 24 months of age, his language levels regressed to that of a 6-9 month old and he was diagnosed with autism.
The evening he received his MMR and DTaP, he developed a fever of 105. During the subsequent months, he would develop fevers of unknown origin, lasting 10 days once, and ear infections/upper respiratory infections.
He was fully vaccinated until age 2. Even though he did not receive boosters at age 5, his titers to measles are 3-4 times the normal range eight years later.
So, if we were to look at the regressive subset of kids with autism and their vaccine titers, in particular to measles, I wonder if there would be any interesting findings? Could they have measles in their cerebral spinal fluid? Personally, I think my son reacted to his MMR and it set off a chronic inflammatory cytokine response in his brain.

There are side effects for vaccines but autism is not one of them. The false thought that vaccines cause autism is creating a rise in the diseases that they prevent which puts people who ligitmately can't take vaccines like those with a comprimised immunity at risk. If the rate of vaccination falls too low the herd immunity will cease to exist and the rate of preventable diseases will go up. I feel sorry for your difficuties but by telling others to not use vaccines you are putting the ENTIRE WORLD at exteme risk

If it wasn't for these vaccines, entire cities would be crippled by deadly diseases. We would all live in fear. IF the vaccines are to blame, then I'll take the risk of having my children getting autism over my entire family dying from an epidemic.

"They" don't continue to say that the vaccines have no possible side effects. Vaccines have been shown to cause multiple side effects. Autism is not one of them.

Gloria,

I'm sorry to hear for your difficulties with your son and I'm glad that your family has had the strength to provide him with what sounds like a loving and caring home. But I have to take issue with the criteria you're invoking to support your belief. What makes you think that vaccines are the cause for your son's autism? That "medications have a risk for a possible side effect" and therefore it's wrong to say that "vaccines have no possible side effects." But no one ever made the latter claim, or rejected the former. The side effects listed on the side of blood pressure medication (or anything else) are the result of clinical trials that reveal statistical tendencies to produce effects. The tendency may be weak, and the benefits of a medicine may outweigh them, but they're usually observable. So far no study has been able to find any such connection in the case of vaccines. Why is it so hard to believe that, in a world full of factors, genetic and environmental, that one in particular is _not_ contributing to this condition?

Medicine contains a lot of uncertainty, and undoubtedly will continue to for the rest of our lives. But we have no good reason to simply reject the findings that have now shown us, repeatedly and from numerous sources, that the link you're looking for is not to be found.

The vaccine-autism link is, to me, a matter of common sense. The link is abundantly clear, but is masked by the pharmeceutical industry, and protected by an extremely corrupt FDA.

Autism is incredibly similar to heavy metal poisoning. Vaccines contain heavy metals. The number of vaccines administered has grown extraordinarily over time, and autism rates have increased in parallel.

Some argue that identification of the ASD's has improved, or that more, lesser versions are now included in the totals. This is a farce, as the number of cases throughout the spectrum has increased. It isn't happening by magic.

There is FAR too much vaccination which happens in this country (and others), with very little benefit. Of course there are some benefits, but do we REALLY need vaccines for chickenpox and influenza? The childhood vaccines have gotten out of control as well, and the drug companies have far too much power, destroying lives by the thousands for profit.

When I have children, they will be opted out of most vaccines. If we could trust the FDA, it would be a different story, but for anyone who believes them, I have a bridge in Alaska to sell you...These are the same people who, under pressure from one Donald Rumsfeld, approved Aspartame as a food additive after it was thoroughly decried as a dangerour neurotoxin by their own scientists.

The reason that they can say that the vaccines don't cause this is because in no trial EVER have there been a case of a child developing Autism as a result of these vaccines.

See your High Blood Pressure medicine went through medical trial and when it was doing so there were a few patients that developed whatever side effects are listed that information packet. It might have been as little as one person (depending on the statistics of the trial), but the side effects were deemed low risk in comparison to the reward of the medicine.

In the case of the MMR vaccine there have been no _credible_ results that show that there are Autism effects from these vaccines. This is after the original trials and when the first poorly done research came out, they were rigorously retested for effect and found to have none.

I would also like to say that I am sorry for your child's condition and I wish that there was something to do for them that would correct the problems. My sister has a mild form of Autism so I have a small idea of how trying it can be.

With that being said, the diseases that these vaccines are preventing are _FAR_ _FAR_ worse for extremely large numbers of the population. EVEN if there was an autism trigger in these (and there isn't, there just isn't), in my opinion the millions of lives that the vaccines save outweigh the costs of having less than 1% of the children taking them develop Autism. I am sorry to say that, but I feel it is the truth.
If all parents were forced to watch a video of what these diseases do to children before they were allowed to not give their child the vaccines, the number of parents that choose to not vaccinate their children would be almost zero. These are horrible horrible diseases, and to willingly allow them to have a chance to _KILL_ your child should be a form of child abuse.

"Nowadays thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines that are routinely recommended for children six years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine."

Thank you Sanjay for your balanced piece.

Fortunately, children today don't receive the amounts of mercury in their vaccines that my son did in the early 90's; the irony is it’s mostly due to parents (like the Cedillos) whose children were injured that the message *got out* and the pressure to limit the amount of mercury in today’s vaccines was achieved so other children wouldn’t suffer the same fate as our own.

Unfortunately, for the children that *sounded the alarm* - like my son - justice was denied today.

Bottom Line: We will never go away or stop sounding the alarm. And for anyone who thinks otherwise, I’d say, “Think again.”

Kelli Ann Davis
Mom to Miles
D.C. Political Liaison for Generation Rescue

These articles are pathetic, and so is that kangaroo court's ruling. We're swimming in evidence that vaccines=autisim. Just google "vaccines + truth" or even 'vaccines' .
All this reeks of desperation... and it seems the gov/science establishment is having a hard time with it all, lol

It's hard for me to understand why some parents of autistic children continue to insist that there is a link despite numerous large studies showing that there isn't. You hear statements like "I still think that my child's autism was caused by a vaccine."

I'm sorry to say that what you think is completely irrelevant. There are people who still think that the earth is flat, despite the fact that we have pictures of our planet from space. Thinking something doesn't make it so.

Why hold on to these beliefs when scientific studies (other than the discredited study that caused all of this nonsense) have shown no link? Future generations of children will be far better off if you take all of the resources you are wasting on a false belief and work toward finding out what is really causing autism.

To deny objective evidence accumulated over decades and conclude that vaccines cause autism has been gone over and over for many years. There are no studies that have shown a link. Do you really think that if autism was caused by these vaccines, that they would be in general use, and that all the doctors with children would allow them to be vaccinated? All of my children were vaccinated as soon as the vaccines were approved.

We have a good friend with an autistic child. his parents are full professors at the Ohio State University. He and his brother and sister were vaccinated. Medical evidence is the standard. The level of evidence was essentially anecdotal. That means that is not evidence.

Dear Gloria, I have a daughter with autism. And I am not convinced by your casual linking of autism with vaccines. Vaccines have saved countless lives. The side effects you are talking about for other medications are something found in clinical trials. Autism-vaccine link on the other hand is extremely tenuous, totally unproven and in some cases outright fraud, like Dr. Wakefield's.

I will venture to say that given the number of lives saved by vaccines, it is irresponsible to even suggest without any bases that vaccines cause autism. It exploits the valid fear of one of the rapidest growing medical conditions (autism) to irrationally raise fear (or in some cases unwarranted compensation) about something (vaccines) that prevents millions from dying every year.

Ms. Rosario,

First and foremost, you are to be commended for being such a hard-working and engaged-in-the-process mother of an autistic child.

That said, the whole point of the court ruling is that what you personally believe isn't the same thing as credible evidence of a link between vaccinations and autism.

Autism deserves serious scientific investigation, and for the sakes of your child and the families I know who have autistic children, I hope _real_ medical progress is made soon.

I have a son with autism and while I can't say with 100% certainty what caused it, I do point strongly to the MMR vaccine. Demonstrating exact causality is difficult, because the doctor that gives your child the shots typically tells you that you may see a fever post-vaccination or other symptoms. So, what parent thinks at that time that this is a slide into such a devastating condition? Who documents the symptoms experienced and looks for changes in behavior just in case you might have to prove causality three months, six months, or a year or more later? All I can tell you is this: post vaccination with MMR, our son developed fever, a rash and bowel issues. He went from a child who would come to the door every day I came home from work to a child who, when he was sitting alone in a room, you could come up to him and scream at the top of your lungs and he would not react at all. No flinch, no tears, no nothing.

Gloria –

I'm sorry that your son has autism. It's a crippling disease and I can only imagine what you must go through every day.

That said, the scientific and medical community have been researching the autism-vaccination "link" for *years*, and there has not been a proven link. Testimonial evidence and sentiment have no place in science. To date, all evidence "proving" a link between vaccination and autism are simply "My child got a vaccine, and now he has autism!"

It's a typical logical fallacy – correlation does not imply causation. It snowed in Tucson a couple days ago, and since then my car broke down. Clearly, the snow in Tucson did not cause my car to break down. This is as illogical an argument as "my son got a vaccine and now he's got autism!" It's like saying "my son picked his nose and now he's got autism!" Correlation is NOT causation.

Isn't it true that autism numbers have increased despite taking out the thimerosal from the vaccines?
I am also curious to know if these children are or were ever on a gluten-free casein-free diet? It works for so many children - I don't understand why there are autistic children who have not tried the diet. I have met parents of autistic children who have never even heard about it!

I believe you have understated the scientific evidence against any link between thimerosal and autism.
Furthermore, much of the 'evidence' offered as supporting any link has either failed to be replicated, of poor quality (small sample sizes, poor controls), and in some cases, discredited.
Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor on whose work much anti vaccine propaganda is based, has had his 1998 study linking MMR to autism rebuked by the very journal that published it. He is also, thankfully, being called on the carpet for scientific fraud, and for failing to disclose conflicts of interest: He was being paid large sums of money by trial lawyers who were suing vaccine manufactures. He also had applied for a patent for a 'safer' measles only vaccine, which he stood to profit from by defaming the MMR vaccine.

Dr. Gupta, as a reporter, you obviously feel bound to report both perspectives on this issue, but as a doctor, you are duty bound to provide the public with a more objective analysis and let your readers know just how strong the scientific consensus is on this issue.

Why there is no alternative to this type of tri-vaccine with thimerosal.?
When I was a child in a different country and continent , my mother told me the doctor gave my vaccines one after other with some time between the appointments, there wasn't one vaccine for all these three diseases combined. I also believe those vaccines were less safe from the secondary(thimerosal) component point of view, there were times when the vaccine was barely taken from fridge just before administration, according with my mother's memories. As a child the only thing I remember was the pain and tears, but on the other hand, just by having this alternative of separate vaccine appointments would create a possibility to prove the safety / the connection between modern vaccine with thimerosal vs. old way. Nevertheless it would give those very concerned parents the possibility to protect their young against diseases and the peace of mind of not taking the risk of autism. I understand the increase of cost just by multiplying the appointments, but given the opportunity, most concerned parents will probably be more than happy to cover extra cost...

It is tempting to believe the arguments about these vaccines and autism, but they are really based on unrelated statistical evidence, not good causal analysis.

A similar example of drawing an incorrect conclusion can be drawn from the birthday statistics of professional hockey players. They are overwhelmingly born in the first few months of the year. Are we to conclude that being born in the coldest months of the year can give you a leg up in playing hockey? Well, it's tempting, but the real answer has nothing to do with weather, it's simply the January 1 cutoff date for eligibility in youth hockey. For each year's crop of young players, those born in January are the oldest, and therefore the biggest and strongest, of the bunch. They get the best coaching and they get into the elite squads.

Rather than concentrate on trying to get the legal system to name a scapegoat, everyone should understand that there is a biological cause for this. The vaccine theory is attractive for some, because there is someone with deep pockets who can be blamed, but genetic abnormalities or pre-natal development issues are probably a more realistic cause. Resources have been squandered in this rush of finger-pointing. These resources would be better applied to an open-minded approach that looks for the cause rather than a payback. Sorry, but there's no big payday for lawyers at the end of this tunnel.

While certainly not qualified to provide expert opinion on this topic, I am currently involved as an undergrad in an Analytical Chemistry research group at Brigham Young University and have spent a moderate amount of time looking into this vaccine-autism issue.

As per my readings of the published studies to which I have access, I understand that no plausible biochemical mechanism has yet been identified to link the MMR vaccine with brain damage resulting in autism, whether acting in combination with the thimerosal preservative or not. Likewise, statistical studies demonstrate no connection between said vaccine and childhood onset of autism.

Granted, individual cases vary greatly and one child's specific genetic or biochemical makeup could make him prone to adverse reactions following exposure to a vaccination, however in my experience observations based on large data pools are much more likely to provide an accurate understanding of biological processes. Therefore, I am convinced that the Special Masters found correctly in this case, and that no substantial connection between the MMR vaccine and autism exists.

Vaccines do not cause autism. That is what the science tells us. Period. End of story.

Parents who do not vaccinate their children aren't just endangering their kids. You not giving your kid a flu shot because of some ill informed opinion on their safety could result in my Grandmother dying. That's not acceptable.

Although I do agree that families dealing with autism have it rough and that it can be challenging at best at times, being a pediatrician, I firmly believe there is no link between autism and vaccines. As to Gloria's response, nobody has argued that there is no side effect to vaccines. Anything we choose to put in our body has the possibility of a side effect. Autism is the one thing there actually is alot of scientific data for, and none of it supports a link between the two.

Vaccines generally have one important possible side effect: The disease might catch and you might get sick. Thimoseral was used from the '30s until about 2001. The autism rate has climbed independently of its use.

Of course, that means we don't know yet where autism comes from. I agree with the statistically intriguing idea that TV viewing plays a large role in causing autism- but I'm sure parents won't want to hear that! It has to be the doctor's fault, right?

Not that I blame anyone... since nobody knew that watching TV at such a young age could have such an effect, no parent should feel responsible for autism, any more than they should if their kid caught the chicken pox.

The TV theory isn't proven yet, but it hasn't been disproven like the vaccine theory has. So we let our own little girl watch a little TV, but we make sure to keep it to a few minutes a day, at least until she starts going to pre-school. Just in case.

Nobody says that vaccines are risk free – the entire first paragraph of this page lists the possible (but very rare) complications that can occur with vaccination. What has been said by the overwhelming majority of the scientific and now legal communities is that there is no link between vaccination and autism. Autism occurs just as frequently among non-vaccinated children as vaccinated. Although the appearance of autism can occur around the same time as childhood vaccination, there is no biologically plausible mechanism by which autism can be caused by vaccines. Whatever side effects vaccines have, autism is not one of them. That any medication has side effects does not mean that they can cause any possible side effects. For example, aspirin can cause fatal intestinal bleeding but it does not cause autism. I welcome this ruling as it will hopefully persuade those who do believe or trust scientists that the vaccine-autism link does not exist. When too many children are taken out of vaccination programs over fears of non-existent risks it can eventually compromise the immunity of whole populations.

Vaccines do have side effects. They are listed in the literature when your child gets a vaccine. Autism is not a listed side effect because there is no evidence to support that it is true.

The fact that you say that vaccines caused autism in your child just because you think for some reason that vaccine manufacturers claim there are no side effects is not only terribly logic, but just flat untrue. I wonder what non-reputable website gave you such an impression?

Dear Dr Gupta

Having read some of the ruling (it's pretty heavy going!), it's clear this case was specifically addressing a claim for vaccines causing Regressive Autism and not so-called Classic Autism. Without being a lawyer (thankfully!), it certainly looked like a very difficult case to prove beyond reasonable doubt.

I think this case was unfortunate because it has taken the attention away from vaccines possibly triggering (not causing) Classic Autism. I am a father of an autistic boy and know several other families with children having a similar condition. What is so commonly heard is how the children reacted poorly immediately (within hours) after having their MMR or DPT vaccinations. And in many cases, they never recovered and rapidly (within days) went on to full-blown autism.

This is very different to this case of Regressive Autism, where in theory, the vaccine left elements of Measles within the body which caused brain damage and the corresponding problems with the condition some moths later. I am talking instead of cases, like mine and many others, where effects were seen IMMEDIATELY after the vaccination, meaning that the vaccination was the ONLY possible variable to have caused the deterioration into autism.

Most of the impressive and highly qualified experts that testified in this case would be almost useless in explaining away this deterioration of the child so close in time to receiving the vaccine.

I have yet to see a study that looks at those children that deteriorated immediately after getting their vaccines, and that then went onto develop into full Autism. I know several such families that would testify to this happening. This doesn't mean that vaccines definitely cause autism, but to me, it shows that there are a group of children that are susceptible to autism being triggered – and that certain vaccines do the triggering – not the causing per say.

Where I believe the medical and drug industries have failed badly is to suitably research that specific triggering possibility. Instead, too much effort and money is spent on proving vaccines do or don't cause autism.

As you know from your research of families with autistic children, it's a tough life for all concerned. If there had been a way to test the possibility of autism being triggered prior to getting his vaccine, we could have possibly avoided what happened to my son thereafter.

Keep up the good work.

Regards
Cliff Court
Cape Town

Just because a court refuses to acknowledge a link between autism and vaccines does not mean that there is none. The courtsof our country have historically ignored facts and testimony to protect the government. Isn't it strange that a normal infant suddenly shows signs of autism after receiving massive doses of vaccine? Could it be that the child's immune system could not handle the invasion of chemical vaccines? There will never be a cure for autism until the medical community looks at all the evidence, not just what it wants to accept.

I took an aspirin this morning and then wrecked my car. Did aspirin cause me to wreck my car, no. Just because you take product X and Y happens, does not mean X caused Y to happen. Just as vaccines do not cause autism. There is NO medical and/or scientific evidence of it.

Just because you see warning does not mean they are part of the drug, but that people that took the drug reported them. I bet if you read deeper you would see people on a placebo also reported side effects, while taking nothing. Try and think for a minute before you try and blame someone and/or something else. Maybe that cigarette you smoked, drink you drank, not taking your vitamins, etc… has a bigger chance and has been proven to harm a fetus then vaccines.

The medical research has shown that there is no medical link between Autism and these vaccines.

I believe that despite this research, some parents still cling to the idea that it was the vaccine that caused their child to be different. Right now, there is no known cause of Autism. It is likely that there might never be a specific indicator or link as to what causes this. It is very hard for a parent to internalize the idea that pure randomness caused their offspring to become so different. It is much easier to attempt to blame it on something. Right now that somethine is a vaccine.

I do feel for the parents who have to raise children with Autism. But the ones blaming it on vaccines, they need to come to grips with reality.

My son has a form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome. Looking at it with the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, he displayed symptoms of this disorder as early as 6 weeks old, when his pediatrician told me he was having problems with sensory overload and that no amount of walking him or rocking him would comfort him, because it provided too much sensory stimulation. He needed to lie in his crib in a dark, silent room with as little sensory stimulation as possible until he was able to calm himself. His physical symptoms also began well before the bulk of his vaccinations.

The peer-reviewed medical studies on autism and other ASDs indicate that there is a genetic link to autism. The few studies out there that link autism with thimerosol and/or vaccines with autism have not been verified or duplicated. I do not like one bit that all evidence is that I and my husband passed "autism genes" to our son, but we did, and he has it.

Now it's time for people in the autism community to move on. We need to focus on finding the best treatments for our children, and in assuring that insurance covers those treatments.

I have followed these studies for quite some time simply out of interest. I studied genetics and biology in college and have often wondered if anyone has ever considered a possible genetic link to these vaccination correlations? Is it not possible that the vaccinations are responsible for causing this side effect due to a possible genetic mutation in certain children that causes a deficiency in the way these vaccines are transmitted through their systems? Perhaps the vaccinations are not to blame in general, as the mass of the populous has recieved them and not had these responses; however, perhaps the vaccinations in combination with a genetic predisposition to a faulty reaction in some children is causing the link that many parents are witnessing. I am curious if it wouldn't be beneficial to begin a study of autistic children by mapping their DNA and searching for similar gene variants that link them to each other, and then perhaps compare to other children and try to find a processing link between the two. If the faulty gene can be identified perhaps children can be tested prior to recieving vaccinations to determine if there is a higher chance of autism developing. Then the parents would have the choice as to how to proceed.

What other decision can we expect as this country is run by corporations. Greed, no care for anyone.
My only solace is that there is a universal law of karma. What Goes Around Comes Around.

Biological plausibility is a terribly standard because it will allow people to get millions just because something sounds "plausible" rather than being proved. Autism symptoms are usually noted in early childhood. There are so many vaccines given in early childhood that it is almost certain to be the case that parents notice autism symptoms close to a vaccine date. It's not just autism, but there are people out there trying to get money for all sorts of childhood disorders claiming that many other common childhood illnesses were the result of that vaccine two weeks ago.

People think that there is somehow an increasing epidemic of autism. While we can't say for certain that autism is not increasing in the population, it has always been the case throughout medical history that when a disorder is described and initially separated out from a broader diagnostic category, that the specific newly described disorder will show a huge increase in diagnoses over the next ten years. Before people thought of autism as a discrete disorder with a specific symptom pattern not a lot of thought was given to these people diagnosed as "insane" in the worst cases, or retarded, or neurotic. But as we have parsed these ancient categories and found more specific classificatory systems that have proven useful in treatment and prognosis, we have inc reasingly come up with new constructs that go through the same pattern of explosive growth in overal diagnosis of a disorder that was previously unrecognized. We have had autistic children for millenia and they are well described by galen, but never given much thought until this last 50 years or so.

All I can say is for decades the smoking lobby provided scientists that found no link between smoking and cancer or heart disease, no link between passive smoking and cancer or heart disease and that cigarettes weren't addictive.

They didn't prove anything, claim to have proven anything, but rather said they had failed to find a link and therefore it probably wasn't the case that cigarettes were harmful or addictive.

None of us believed it. In fact I'd go so far as to say we've known otherwise for centuries.

I don't know if this is the same with these vaccines and autism, but if this is a coincidence, then it's a coincidence on a scale that most people would find abnormal. It may be that autism just occurs at around the same time kids are vaccinated for the first time. It maybe that something we normally put in the diet of children that age contains something that doesn't affect older kids or adults.

Maybe cable tv is the problem or telephones or power lines over our homes. I doubt it, but I bet you could create statistics that appear to prove it.

My problem is that when things are tested, it's impossible to test for all outcomes especially those that are just plain silly. We eat meat that comes from livestock injected with steroids and stimulants. We eat vegetables sprayed with pesticides that have been "proven" safe.

We clean ourselves with chemicals and we brush our teeth with toothpaste laced with antifreeze.

There are millions of ways this could occur, but the vaccine theory is one that has been around for decades and appears to be a dirty little secret no one is admitting to.

Does no one else find it horrific that a team of "legal experts" determine this rather than medical professionals? It's frightening.

I'm not a medical expert but I have kept up with autism research and it seems pretty clear from all the science that vaccines really aren't to blame. There's definitely a genetic root to the disease, though there may still be an environmental trigger (like a vaccine). Still, there just doesn't appear to be any correlation between vaccines and autism. The debate on that seems to have ended already a few years ago - the courts are just now catching up to it.

I have never seen an issue that has generated such an outpouring from parents and others on blogsites and in the news. Believe the parents! Most are the most dedicated parents imaginable, they are not wrong in the fact that the autism followed the shots in so many cases. The problem is really with the cover-up that has been going on. Where are the whistle blowers? The few who are brave enough to speak out seem to have their research immediately dismissed...The govt sponsored research and the BIG PHARMA research are held up to be accurate no matter what the criticism might be. "Read, Robert Kennedy Jr.s White Paper on this subject, Read David Kirby's "Evidence of Harm"...The potential liability of the Pharma Industry and whomever else that might have any involvement with the cover-up has potental vicarious liability, The issues being debated and the facts that this debate has reached this point is as vast as how affected some children and adults are that have Autism. Just as courts ruled in favor of Big Tobacco, other Pharmacetucal Lawsuits, auto industry lawsuits, etc.

Gloria: No one is saying that vaccines can't have side effects. Read the insert or the CDC website, and there is a list of possible side effects printed right there. However, study after study has concluded that autism is not one of them. I am sorry that your child has autism, but the court ruling was based on evidence and science, not belief and sentiment.

This whole controversy represents the decline of and need for robust scientific education and respect for the scientific method. The scientific method is about developing testing falsifiable hypotheses, conducting an experiment, and then analyzing the results. The proposed link between vaccines and autism has been definitively, conclusively, and repeatedly falsified. Having lost the scientific grounds, the plaintiffs and their cause are reduced to illogical and emotional arguments. They would have us all believe that there is a vast pharmaceutical-sponsored cabal of established physicians, reputable researchers, and other medical research practitioners conspiring to purposefully harm children in the "profitable" industry of vaccines. Perhaps their money is better spent on etiological research to identify the environmental and genetic factors that contribute to autism, rather than trying to debunk reams of scientific data and engaging in endless malpractice litigation.

"So why do they continue to say that the vaccines have no possible side effects, I find that hard to believe."

That's your scientific explanation for believing that the vaccines caused your son's autism? You've got to be kidding me.

Gloria, that reasoning makes no sense at all: because some other drug may have some other side effect, that means that vaccines somehow cause autism? As they used to say in school, you need to "show your work" on how you reached that conclusion given that premise.

The real problem with this "debate" is that we are not seeing a whole suite of possible causes being evaluated in parallel and then backing the one that is the most plausible and seems to fit the observed data the best. Instead, the backers of this hypothesis have latched on to one concept and are unwilling to consider others, no matter what new data comes in that disproves theirs or supports others. If they did that, they might see that, so far, the bulk of the evidence most strongly supports a genetic basis for autism. For example, studies in recent years have found that the parents of children with autism are much more likely to have Asperger's syndrome themselves, or other Autism spectrum disorders, than the general population. That relationship holds even if you factor in whether or not the parents also received vaccinations when they were kids.

Most of the time, the chief observation that I hear backers of the vaccine hypothesis mention is that autism seems to occur shortly after vaccinations are received. That's a common logical fallacy called "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" and the scientific method provides a simple tool for determining if there really is some cause/effect relationship between 2 events: the control experiment. Basically, do we see the same effect in a control group who don't experience the proposed "cause". The vaccine hypothesis fails miserably on this test: kids who don't receive vaccines have a similar rate of autism, and develop it at around the same age as those who do receive vaccines.

Both of my sons have received the vaccines, and one has an autism spectrum disorder. As much as I would like to have something (or someone) to blame for his condition, there is simply no reason to believe that these two facts are related in any way. It makes about as much sense as blaming the vaccines for the fact that both of my sons have blue eyes.

While I can't lay my son's difficulties at the vaccine's door, there are consequences of these vaccines that are quite clear. Neither of my kids has ever had measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, or chicken pox. Because they and the vast majority of their classmates are immune to these diseases, the small minority that cannot take the vaccines will probably never be exposed, and can be protected by proxy. If we give parents a reason to not vaccinate their children, this proxy protection will vanish and these very dangerous childhood diseases could quite likely return to the United States.

My son's disorder is quite mild, as autism spectrum cases go. Nevertheless, it has disrupted our family and continues to complicate our lives every day. I feel for those families with more severe cases of autism to deal with, but blaming vaccines for their problems doesn't help if it isn't true.

Gloria, I'm sorry that your son Peter has autism. But there are millions of other children who do not have autism who were vaccinated. It has been shown over and over in study after study that the MMR vaccine does not cause autism. We will see in the coming years what damage will be caused by this alleged link (by the faulty research of Andrew Wakefield, that was faked from the start) in the UK where vaccination rates have plummeted. Indeed, the deaths are already starting to occur as children come down with these diseases.

Have your children vaccinated.

@Gloria Rosario:

Your post is exactly the type of faulty non-science stuff which was confronted in this law suit. This is not about whether or not 'you believe'. It's about drawing a statistically significant correlation between vaccines and specifically autism. It's not there, and nobody has ever been able to demonstrate it. The vacines at issue here do not contribute to higher rates of autism. That means that you daughter had the same chance of getting autism before and after the vacine, and that you simply got the unlucky draw. The other hundreds of thousands of kids did not get autism.

Our perceptions of our own circumstances are biased. You believe there is a link, because you are smack in the middle of it. But it's a bias. And that is why have science, to remove the bias.

it's one thing to have a belief. It's another to back it up with data. Before we start handing out settlements to people, things need to be backed up.

@Gloria Rosario:

I meant to say 'your son'. Just my faulty human brain.

I think that vaccines are important for obvious reasons...but I also believe that most of these children were completely normal and after that visit to their doctors slowly sank into autism. Some people may be allergic to the mercury-based preservatives or any of the combined drugs giving them abnormal reactions to the injections and ending up in this terrible state...for both them and their parents. It's like people allergic to bee stings. It's a little bit of poison that gets into your system and most of us just get a lump or a little pain from it, but to those allergic to their venom it's instantly life threatening and they can die very quickly.
The main problem, much like anything else boils down to money. Can you imagine the law suits that would be filed if they actually admitted that these vaccinations caused or contributed to their state. It's the same with mal-practice suits where the people judging the doctor are a panel of doctors. A little rediculous if you ask me.

Statistical thinking is an unnatural act for human beings. In fact, if it weren't so useful for gambling, I doubt that humans would have thought of it at all! So I understand why any parent who first noticed the telltale signs in autism in their child after they had received their childhood vaccinations would be inclined to believe that the vaccines had caused the condition. But as Menkin noted, "There is always an easy solution to every human problem–neat,
plausible, and wrong." I think the evidence suggests that is the case here.

I must admit to a certain bias on this question. I grew up in an age when many of these vaccines didn't exist. I contracted measles and mumps and several other "childhood diseases" that modern vaccines have mostly banished to medical history, and my correlative observation is that I am shorter and less healthy than my younger brothers (who received the vaccines, rather than the diseases) as a result. When I was a child, a significant number of kids died of measles each year, and a significant number of kids were left permanently damaged.

I am all for continuing to improve vaccines. But it's important not to lose track of the (statistically demonstrable) good that they do, or to let our human sympathy for families dealing with autism interfere with objective analysis of medical data.

Dr. Gupta
I worked as a clinical research specialist for about 10 years back in the 80's and early 90's. At that time, I was working for a world renowned immunologist, Dr. H. Hugh Fudenberg. He was treating some 30 autistic children in whom he'd discovered an immune deficiency, and all of whose symptoms had manifested some 7 to 10 days after receiving the MMR vaccine. They were all children residing in Virginia. Their parents filed a class-action suit against Merck and the FDA claiming that the rubella portion of the vaccine was responsible for their neurological damage and they indeed won the lawsuit. Is the fact that in this high profile case monetary awards were given, and fault and responsibility was found in a court of law and placed squarely on the shoulders of Merck and the FDA, no longer highly significant in these subsequent cases? It was at that point in time a proven fact that the rubella vaccine, the live-viral portion of the MMR, was the culprit. Why is there any need for further discussion and now, 20 years later this fact is being hidden from the public and swept under the carpet?

As a pharmacist and attorney, I don't believe that any vaccine is labeled with product information that says there are "no possible side effects."

The KNOWN side effects in fact appear in the package insert, which the health care provider has access to and is responsible for knowing. But things get murky when there is an alleged association of a vaccine (or any drug, for that matter) as to whether the manufacturer must disclose an unproven association.

NO drug or vaccine is risk free. It's the balance between the risk of taking the vaccine/drug and the risk of contracting the disease that needs to be discussed by the patient and their health care provider.

Bob, Pharm.D., Esq.

Thank goodness this ruling came out the way it did. I am a physician with two children who have a mild form of autism. After our first was diagnosed we paid careful attention to the second one during her development and markers for autism such as increased brain size were present very early on. Her development seemed to progress then regress around the usual time between 1 and 2 years which happens to be a time when certain vaccines are given. But we were fairly sure this regression would occur based on what we saw in tests from as early as 6 months of age. I have reviewed the vaccine studies, and I have been educated how to properly interpret them from my medical training. At first i had hoped that a link would be found like everyone else. But when the large and much more highly powered studies came out showing no link whatsoever to autism I quickly realized vaccines were a dead end. Unfortnately many people don't understand how to interpret studies and recognize when quality studies are showing no link and they have not given up on this notion. Unfortunately this idea is a hazardous one. If people don't vaccinate their children, not only they, but other people's children may become ill and even die as a result of a preventable disease. If your child catches a preventable disease and doesn't die, he or she may still pass it along to another child who might then die of the disease or they may pass it along to other children. There have been some recent articles indicating that the autism fueled vaccine hysteria is in fact having this effect and children are dying of preventable diseases not just in western nations but around the world who weren't before.
Hopefully the court ruling will put an end to this behavior and irrational thinking. Since what happens in a courtroom does not always reflect the scientific reality, I was worried about an aberrent decision that would further fuel the hysteria. Fortunately in this case the court got it right. As a parent who had two children develop autism I have no doubt whatsoever that I did the right thing by allowing the routine vaccinations to take place. Now it is time to stop wasting effort time and money on the disproven vaccine theory and get to work finding the real culprit(s) causing autism. There have been some positive results with regards to pesticides and there are many untested organic industrial pollutants in the environment that may well be responsible.

Just because this court ruled this time it was not responsible, it doesn't mean it wasn't. Doctors are not God although many think they are. Story after story is printed where parents listened to the doctor even though their gut feelings and some personal experience says the doctor is wrong. Alot doctors even later apologize for not listening more. Hmmm. Science changes their opinions even more than people who change clothes several times a day, based on the scientific evidence, which is usually used in dismissing claims that medicines cause more harm than good. So who pays for medical school and the drug research? Drug companies who make billions of dollars each year off of the drugs they sell. We believed RJ Reynolds for over 40 years that smoking is not hazardous to our health, so why not the drug companies. Have we failed to learn from the past? The fox, drug companies, is saying vaccines are not harmful to us chickens, people.
While I will agree medicines are very helpful, we still have to be vigilant to not trade one problem for two others.

Autism is a heartbreaking tragedy for each child and every family member and I understand how the need to find an explanation leads people to draw conclusions that are not supported by science. But, we cannot let heartbreak interfere with truth and there is simply no evidence of a true connection between any aspect of vaccine use and autism. Conflating legal opinion with scientific evidence does this goal a disservice, and is a disappointment.

The weight of evidence clearly shows there is no link. 1) Large epidemiological studies clearly show that there are no significant differences in the rate of autism in vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated kids 2) If thimerosol were the cause of autism, we would expect to see a drop in the number of new cases of autism. That is not the case, the rates of autism continue to rise 3) The "scientist" who started all of this furor with a small "study" of autistic kids is now under investigation for scientific fraud. 4) Neuroscientists think that the roots of autism occur during prenatal development. It is clearly possible that mercury compounds are to blame, but if so it is probably via Mom's diet/water/air/soil NOT the vaccines.

My heart goes out to parents of autistic kids. I cannot imagine the pain you are suffering and I understand the desire to prevent other parents from suffering in this way. But, diverting funding from more fruitful lines of research toward investigating vaccines will make things worse, not better.

The link between autism and vaccines has been tenuous and correlative at best. And as most of those in the scientific community know, correlation does not necessarily mean causation. This is not to say that there may not be a link between the two, but that there needs to be more conclusive studies to determine the link, if any.

The fact is, vaccines have been around for a long time, my father has one of the huge scars from the combo polio vaccine they used to give out. As a researcher with a graduate level degree in the biomedical sciences I feel like many of these parents and news sources are jumping to conclusions without having an intimate enough knowledge of the pure science behind these things. The fact of the matter is, in terms of data, it just does not support a definite causative link.

I and many others were vaccinated and turned out fine. As Gloria pointed out, yes vaccines can have negative side-effects, usually sickness, inflammation, or pain. However, it has not been proven that autism is caused as a direct side-effect.

In fact most of the data is based on the trend that autism and vaccination have both been on the rise in the past couple of decades. Many do not stop to think that detection of autism and the addition of and detection of ASDs has become more well documented and is more sensitive to detection. Whereas in say, the 50s autism was mainly considered retardation or learning disability. As detection becomes more sensitive and more spectrum disorders are added, of course the prevalence of this disease would go up.

Autism is a horrible disease, I have family members that are effected by it and I truly feel for anyone who has to go through the pain of having children, siblings, or anyone in their family suffer from this disease. However, the data is just not there to support a definitive claim to banish vaccines, the health risks without them vastly outweigh the risks of having them.

Joe S., M.S.

In response to Gloria Rosario:

You are correct in saying that most (if not all) medications have side affects, but the reason these side effects are listed in the package inserts is that their occurrence has been documented in controlled trials.

Vaccines do have side effects. Most can cause pain and/or tenderness at the side of the injection, some can cause temporary and mild cold-like symptoms. Anyone who's gotten a tetanus vaccine is probably aware of the muscle soreness that is a common side effect.

But all of this does not, by any stretch of the imagination, imply that vaccines of any sort cause autism. By the same logic, it could be said that vaccines cause any imaginable medical condition.

Although I cannot imagine what it must be like to be in your position, I can tell you this: the end goal of treating, preventing, and potentially curing autism will be reached by further research and honest debate, not by subscribing to unsupported and unsupportable theories.

Mike Lazzaro

It has always been my understanding that the MMR vaccine contained the preservative, thimerosal. Am I correct in reading , here, that the medical community is, now, claiming that the MMR vaccine never contained thimerosal ? I am requesting someone get back to me with a definative answer. Did the MMR contain Thimerosal and are there still MMR doses, out there, containing Thimerosal.

I lost my son to his MMR – I wasn't looking for immune failure at 13 months. Then when he got HIB from that vaccine and the infection went undiagnosed for three years. He's polysaccharade ab deficient. Far worse than the autism diagnosis that he has. The CDC doesn't know about him. His shot reactions. His health failures. It's not about the mercury – the mmr cocktail is too strong for our kids. It's not just autism. Everything is on the rise food allergies, ee, primary immune def., add, sensory intergration and autism.

If they think we're in a recession now – just wait for the health establishment to colapse.

Hello Dr. Gupta.....

Why don't you have the courage to slam the door on these claims? The parents who keep pressing this issue are eating up funds that could be used to determine the causes of autism.

Why are you "eager to hear what we think?" Going to change your mind?

This piece by yours is a cop out. What do you mean when you say "not all of the experts agree?" The experts overwhelmingly agree that vaccines are not to blame. That a person can identify a few who do not is like saying that the Holocaust is open for debate because a few people do not believe it happened, and one is even a Bishop in the Catholic Church.

Go ahead. Be a scientist and a physician and risk the displeasure of a very strong and vocal minority.

Dr. Gupta......first let me say I admire you ......all this talk about childhood vaccines and Autism.....I brought up the difference when my children were born 1971 and 1974.....and now....I was amazed at the difference in the amount of vaccines children today get compared to the ones my children got,I was shocked ..at least 32 today....my son ,who was born in 1974 recieved his first at 6 weeks old and had an adverse reaction .....the doctor said he could give him his ,in 1/4 doeses over a period of 5 years and that seemed to work...must they give all the vaccines ,I mean so many at once?

There isn't enough empirically sound evidence that points to vaccines as being the cause of autism. That being stated if it could be linked do you really think that it would be worth getting vaccinated because of the risk?

Heffe
All side effects from vaccines have a neurologic factor in one way or another. How can you unequivocally proclaim that autism, as you say, is not one of the multiple side effects? Autism is hardly a "side effect"! I think what you meant to say is that no vaccine causes the multifaceted and irreversible neurological damage resulting in the devastating state of autism. You're so wrong.

You have to understand something...most of the Vaccine-Autism research is being done by medical doctors. There is an extreme conflict of interest.

If a child is fine, then gets a vaccine and dies, has autism, or is temporarily or permanently disabled, its because of something in the vaccine. Plain and simple, you don't need science for that.

If you eat bad peanut butter then get sick cause it has Salmonella in it, its because the peanut butter was bad.

vaccinations seem like a very unlikely cause for autism is, mostly because a vaccination, unless I am mistake, is usually a small dose of the virus itself, too weak to infect the body serious, but strong enough to allow our bodies to develop an immunity to the virus. I don't see that causing autism.

My son is 19 years old and has Asperger's. I know the frustration that parents of ASD kids feel because their children will never really be cured - unless their parents are celebrities married to celebrities, I guess. The link between autism and vaccinations has grown in popularity for the simple reason that none of us want to admit our kids are anything less than perfect. It's the same reason that obstetrics has such a high rate of malpractice claims. If the child has something wrong, blame the doctor, or in this case, the vaccine. I have three other children who do not have any evidence of autism, yet none of them are perfect either. They are just less obvious.

The problem I have always had with the effort to link vaccines to autism is the risk that an unvaccinated child will contract one of the terrible illnesses for which the vaccines were developed. If the debate has helped to improve the formulation of the vaccines, that's great, but please don't stop vaccinations.

I have had a very different experience with autism. My 16 yr. old son and I are both on the Spectrum with a diagnosis of Aspergers & I believe there is a genetic component to AS.

I have not made up my mind completely about other forms of autism as it relates to the vaccine debate but it cannot be ignored that Asperger's Syndrome tends to be prevelant in more than 1 family member. I have a friend who refused to vaccinate her 2 child due to her firstborn receivng a diagnosis of autism around the time the vaccine debate began. Guess what? Her second son ended up with a diagnosis of autism as well. More interestingly is that the child who received the vaccines is the one who has a milder form of autism, and her child who did not receive ANY vaccinations is the one of more severly autistic. hmmmm?

We all need to keep an open mind. Albert Einstein said: “A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be” – I hope the autism community can begin to pull together and realize that we are ALL on the same team. We will arrive at the correct conclusions pertaining to ASD's much sooner if we can all work together. We don't need to all agree on every single matter 100% of the time in order to work toward the greater good of comprehending Autism Spectrum Disorders. http://www.sharondavanport.com

Yes Curious! The MTHFR genetic mutation is reported to be as high as 90+ percent of children on the autism spectrum. Methylation is necessary to detox many vaccination components (mercury and aluminum). I have heard that as many as 40% of the population carry this mutation, but most haven't been exposed to as many neurotoxins, until now...

I am sure now some of the parents and family members of these unfortunate patients of autism will find somebody else or some other issues to blame and hope for financial lottery.

I think its a bunch of "hooey" The government will never admit that vaccines are causing our kids to become autistic. If they ever did admit that vaccines are at fault, this country would go bankrupt from the amount of lawsuits! I suggest everyone read the article that RFK Jr. wrote called "Deadly Immunity"

I'm somewhat surprised the name Andrew Wakefield hasn't come up. The MMR-autism link has a rather sordid past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield
I know it seems heartless to criticize parents of children with disabilities, but I think we need to stop being afraid of appearing insensitive and get the facts straight.

Dear Curious:

Anything is possible. you have used the word I think three times so far. It is good to be curious, and maybe you will find something that will have some promise. Until then, keep studying, work hard, and keep an open mind. Good luck.

think its a bunch of “hooey” The government will never admit that vaccines are causing our kids to become autistic. If they ever did admit that vaccines are at fault, this country would go bankrupt from the amount of lawsuits! I suggest everyone read the article that RFK Jr. wrote called “Deadly Immunity”

Gloria, my heart goes out to you. God bless you for your devotion to your son. I hope medical science will find ways to make both your lives easier. However, I disagree with you on your belief that vaccines are to blame for your son's autism. Contrary to your statement " ... why do they continue to say that the vaccines have no possible side effects ...?" no one is saying that vaccines have no side effects. What exhaustive medical research has proven is that the vaccines don't cause autism. You base your belief on a logical error: All medications have a risk for medical side effects, therefore vaccines cause autism. You could just as easily use that logic to argue that vaccines cause warts, astigmatism, flu, scoliosis, and many other disorders. Science has some very precise and reliable methods to determine cause and effect - methods that are far more reliable than a parent's hunch. For your sake and your son's, I urge you to give up the belief in a causal link between your son't vaccinations and his autism. It very well may be that doing so will allow you to shed needless guilt over having provided him the vaccinations in the first place. And shedding that needless guilt will, in my opinion, go a long way toward a more productive outlook on life, and thusly a healthier outlook for your son.

My son also has a form of autism known as Aspergers Syndrome. He began exhibiting symptoms almost from birth and I am certain the vaccines did not cause it.

I am please to report that with intense counseling, special education and the support of his family that he is now a fully functioning man that just turned 21. While I am unable to tell where his acting ends and real feeling begin most people meeting him would be impressed by his wide array of knowledge and may not even realize that he is "different".

For all parents of children with higher functioning autism, help your child to understand that while they may live in their own world, they need to learn how to function in ours.

It is easy to look at all the anecdotal evidence and come to the conclusion that vaccines and autism are related. A mother takes her healthy infant to get a vaccine...he later develops autism. A grieving person will always try to grasp "why did this happen; there must have been a cause" and it's easy to be fooled. Correlation does not imply causation.

That's why you can't rely on anecdotes. Careful studies, looking at all the children who *did* develop autism versus ones that *didn't* have to be carried out. And they have. And study after study after study has shown that the link doesn't exist, as much as celebrity spokespeople and the anti-vax crowd claim there is.

We're sorry your child has autism. We would like to find the root causes, and seek the means to prevent it. But as much as you *want* to believe it was caused by vaccines, the data doesn't support it.

In the meantime, deaths from preventable diseases are rising because of pockets of unvaccinated children ... and not just them, but people they come in contact with.

Quit relying on anecdotes and rationalizations and trying to figure it out yourself. The data has been collected. The link isn't there. Vaccines help far more than they hurt. Get your children immunized.

All vaccines have side effects, as with any medication. The court never stated otherwise. What the court did was officially acknowledge the mountains of evidence that show no link between autism and immunizations. In fact, even after reducing thimerasol, autism rates have continued to increase. This is a matter that has been studied quite extensively and the link simply does not exist. As a result of these claims, many parents have delayed or outright refused to immunize their children, putting these kids at risk. I assure you, none of these parents have ever seen a child with H Flu meningitis, or tetanus, or suffer from infertility as a result of mumps.

As with anything, there will always be anecdotal claims to the contrary, but anecdotal evidence does not equate to a definitive scientific link. I sympathize with parents of autistic children but I think it would be irresponsible to label the vaccines as the cause. The result would be decreased immunization rates and re-emergence of terrible diseases.

I've heard enough circumstantial evidence to conclude I will not allow any kids I may have to be vaccinated until they are old enough and developed enough for their bodies to resist possible side effects of the vaccine. I'll take the risk for the first few years that they may contract a disease. Period.

Just as in everything created by humans, there is always a side effect whether it is proved by science or not. Everything is poisonous if taken to extreme. Perhaps vaccines are so for small developing kids. Prove they are not dangerous I say rather than prove that they are.

The Sunday Times of London is reporting the following today: Dr. Andrew Wakefield's paper linking the MMR vaccine to autism launched the British doctor to fame and fortune. However, new reports reveal that he may have faked the data, and in publishing the fraudulent report is responsible for the deaths of at least two children who failed to get vaccinated due to the scare.

I have wondered if genes must play a big part in who might develop autism. If a parent or grandparent has say ADH and takes meds for this, might that somehow be passed on to fetus and if that fetus has the right gene or chromosone make-up mgith that not be a cause of autism?
This is just something I have been curious about as I know families with a child on the spectrum and one or both parents or a grandpart/sibling has some form of ADH or similar developmental issuse.

Wouldn't you be way more upset to have a dead child than a child with autism?

I think we need to stop chasing this, stop wasting money and causing public anxiety about vaccinations which save lives. Autism is not caused by vaccination; it is a devastating illness that has many roots in genetics and brain development. I hope this Blog will help to spread knowledge and facts about the research in Autism. I invite people to research BDNF and Oxytocin rather than wasting time researching an old question that we were able to answer, not only by us in the United States but by many researchers across the globe.

A Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist.

I asked a co-worker who is from another country where they do not have a lot of vaccines for small children. He had never even heard of autism in his country.

Sorry, Dr. Gupta, but the court's reasoning is faulty. The cause of most properly diagnosed ASDs (and most aren't!) is simple body toxicity (as is most illness!), most common of which is heavy metal neural poisoning. That intake comes from a lot of sources, especially in the diet, and the chemical junk that is in the vaccines is the most concentrated and toxic. It's not just mercury, either. Aluminum is the second biggest culprit. Has it ever occurred to anyone besides me that Alzheimer's is simply a geriatric ASD?

If vaccines are supposedly so safe, then why don't they go to a preservative-free oral or saline titer variety that can be kept refrigerated or frozen, without the chemicals like the formaldehyde and other toxins like animal organs in the solution, and simply use those? Europe does that regularly. The reason is that the shelf-life, and therefore the profit lines, are less. The point is that the crap in the vaccines is the problem!

BTW, the Amish don't vaccinate and their autism rates are zero. It may be a correlation instead of a converse causation, but it certainly is no coincidence.

One last thing: How many cases of true autism are there from un-vaccinated children?

I am the mother of three children (one girl and two boys) with two them having Aspberger's: one boy, one girl. And, I, for one, am sick of this whole vaccine/autism link debate.

The Poling case just infuriated me. The reason: it gave parents who were sitting on the fence just one more reason to put the rest of us – and our children – at risk by not giving their kids life-saving vaccines. In my opinion, these parents who decided not to give their kids their vaccines committed a crime of endangerment – not just to their kids but to their communities as a whole. I know firsthand about the pain, the sorrow and the daily struggles of autism. However, with my kids, I knew that something wasn't right when they were first born. They were too easily stimulated (rocking in a baby swing was often too much for them), playing a radio would "hurt" them physically (sensory integration disorder), they never looked at me directly, they always had to touch skin for comfort and their interactions between themselves and their peers were not age-appropriate. And..that was BEFORE they had their MMR vaccines.

I do not believe that vaccines are the root cause. It doesn't mean that there are not side-effects to the vaccines – that is why flyers are to be given out once they are received. However, to blame life-saving vaccines as the sole cause is ludicrous. My heart goes out to all who suffer, but I choose not to suffer. My "Aspie" kids give me such joy that I wouldn't trade for any amount of money in the world. I wouldn't change a thing about them despite the hardships we've faced.

Please google Dr. Paul Offit and see for yourself how corrupt these doctors have become. You will see that Dr. Pual Offit is on the payroll of big pharma and that he holds a patent on a vaccine. He also sat on the board at the CDC that reviews the vaccine schedule. He is frequently cited as an expert on vaccine safety but almost never disclosed that he has conflicts.

I have been posting this information all day to CNN and they have yet to post it.

Just go by your local pediatrician's office, pick up some vaccine literature, research the doctors and organization cited. You will see why families do not trust vaccines. I spoke with my child's pediatrician about the problem with his literature and he had no idea of the level of conflicts.

The research does not exist to show a link because big pharma give too much money to doctors, universities, media, and politicians. Just pay attention to the commercials while watching TV.

It's pretty simple, really. Does autism occur more frequently in vaccinated children than it does in the population as a whole? While finding that it does wouldn't prove causation, it would certainly imply it. If it doesn't occur more frequently amongst the vaccinated then it doesn't cause autism.

Dr. Wakefields original studies were funded by lawyers trying to sue vaccine makers. NO other studies have EVER replicated his results. There is no link. Sadly, as a pediatrician I now read daily about the children that are sickened or killed by vaccine preventable diseases. I know these parents are looking for a reason for their child's condition. Well, it is time to PLEASE look elsewhere and stop putting children's lives in danger with your heresay and lies.

1,500 people have been paid in excess of $1.18 billion since the inception of the program in 1988. – This is the KEY – there is always a RISK with vaccines, cross contamination, human error, manufacturing errors, ect... I wonder how much stocks these experts have in Pharmaceuticals?

well the decisions must be given merit if three different special masters ruled on the same evidence which was provided to all three of them by the three petitioners. after reading the decisions, not only did the special masters (all three of them) determine that the petitioners seeking redress did not provide beyond a preponderance of the evidence, that the vaccine caused autism, they decided the the evidence they did provide was insufficient.

IMO (not that I'm a doctor), it's more likley that the link between autism and vaccines is purely circumstantial. It's quite possible (and I'm sure being heavily researched) that there is a genetic developmental trigger in the brain that induces autism at roughly the same age as vaccinations are recommended.

I think it is unjust to tell a mother who is extremely concerned about her child's lack of health that she is putting the entire world at risk when she voices concern and recommends not using vaccines. If we consider history, vaccines came along at the same time that sanitation practices increased greatly. Perhaps the vaccines have something to do with the near inexistence of epidemics we now experience, but likely the new sanitation practices such as hand washing, indoor plumming, ect have done much more than we give them credit for.

Here is a link to the story in the London Times describing the case against Andrew Wakefield.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece

It baffles me why this has not been reported on CNN or many other American News sources.

I have several friends with autistic children, and not one believes the myth of vaccine causation. The scientific evidence has repeatedly and overwhelmingly shown there is no correlation between the two. But, every time there is a new study, the anti-vaccine crowd grasps at the most absurd straws to dismiss it. There are new articles in Scientific American and Science Daily on autism, which none of the people will ever read for fear of being disproved. When I was a young man, in the 1960's, I worked in a very rural part of America, at an institution housing many autistic children. Most of their parents NEVER had their children vaccinated... colloquial evidence, yes, but that's all the anti-vaccine crowd relies on. And, the one thing they never touch, is truth.

I was very religious when I had my children. A girl first, then my son. At first I didn't get any vaccines for my children because I was instructed by my "church" not to. However, when it was time for my children to attend school I was very worried about their interaction with other children. So I went ahead and let my son get ONE SHOT, and both my children the oral vaccine.... (my daughter was not given any needle injections). My son, who was a bright and bubbly child lost all interest in his peers after the vaccines and would often lay on the floor and continue to organize and reorganize books and cars. Luckily for me, i noticed the change in his behavior almost instantly and was able to get a swift introduction to the world of PDD and with that proper treatment for my son who was diagnosed at 2 and a half with Pervasive Developmental Disorder- Not Other-wise Specified. My son is now 12 years old, makes good grades and full of life! He still has some social difficulties which are often not noticed by people who don't know him. I truly believe that if i had continued to blindly have my child injected with whatever IS IN THOSE vaccines, my son's outcome may have been very very different!

Furthermore I would like to introduce the ideal that the body has a natural ability to protect it's self, case in point is both my children, 14/12 have survived WITHOUT the vaccines. Maybe we should consider trying to live without the MED's and a way of life, with vaccines as a "ONLY IF NEEDED" plan of action. My heart goes out to countless families, who do what is sold to them as "the right thing" only to have their children lives destroyed and dreams of the parents turned UPSIDE DOWN. And why? For money.....pieces of paper that mean nothing compared to the tons of lives that have been and continue to be sacrificed. Please save the children! Save the children, save the world.
Proud and AWAKE Mom
Tamika.

Tom
Facts are comments made by people who present themselves as knowing what they are talking about.
The facts, as I see them, are that vaccines have a very high benefit-to-harm ratio. Millions are administered and small numbers of those receiving the vaccines demonstrate harmful side effects (That's not to say that there are no side effects, but not at detectable levels i.e., sub clinical). So, should vaccine administration be stopped? Probably not. Do vaccines cause irreparable neurological side effects in a small percentage of recipients? Absolutely!

When we have a sick child or one with a disability, it is natural to search for answers to why this happened. If you haven't had a child with an illness or disability – you simply can't understand it. However – we have to find answers that are valid. There is so much 'junk' science out there and it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. While I don't have a child with autism, my child has other chronic illnesses and I searched long and hard for a reason. I have finally accepted that I'll never know why. It's just there.

Here's something to consider with the vacinnation debate. All kids get the same vaccines – so how come boys are much more likely to develop autism? Wouldn't we expect boys and girls to be affected equally if vaccines are to blame? And here's something else to consider. So often children receive vaccines at the same time they should be hitting developmental milestones. The fact that the child had vaccines and the milestones are not met doesn't mean that vaccines are the reason. While it seems reasonable to suspect the vaccine – science doesn't seem to be proving that.

At some point I think we need to look beyond the vaccine debate and focus on early diagnosis, treatment, education, and insurance. Other causes need to be looked at as well.

The the biggest possible "trial" - using the entire US newborn population - has unequivocally demonstrated that the thimerosal in vaccines does not cause autism. As Dr. Gupta notes, thimerosal has been removed from all vaccines for over 6 years. If thimerosal were causing the autism, the number of cases should have have gone down when thimerosal was removed from the vaccines. But the number of autism cases keeps going up. Thimerosal clearly is not the problem.

A more likely cause of the problem is a change in behavior: The likelihood of autism goes up with the mother's age at first birth. The average age at first birth has been rising steadily, at a rate comparable to the increase in autism. And that is still going on, so a continuing increase would be expected.

Of course pharm comps were going to win. Other countries would attack us if they found out that the US goven't have also poison their children.

Correlation does not equal causation...

I have an almost 8 year old son with autism – he is the love of my life!

My family insists that the vaccines are to blame, but I have never thought as much. At 18 months he only spoke one word, so it wasn't a case where he suddenly lost developments that he had gained.

As any parent I want to protect him at all costs, but at this point trying to find someone or something to blame for his being autistic is useless. I would much rather focus my time and energy on making him the best little man that he can be.

Is putting a child at risk for cripling diseases and possibly even death worth it just because some one doesn't want to 'deal' with an autistic child? There are worse things than raising an autistic child, challenging as it may be.

@Gloria Rosario, the condition of your son is certainly tragic; I have known families with autistic children, and I know what they go through on a day to day basis. But your tragedy cannot be an excuse to drop all rational investigations and act on emotion.

You said that you believe vaccines are to blame for your son's autism, and your SOLE reason for this belief is that they don't print warnings on vaccines. Really? From the lack of a warning, how do you conclude that autism is the result? That's not a rational conclusion. A more rational conclusion is that vaccines are only to be administered at medical facilities, and as such would include a discussion of the risks involved. Or even if there are some side-effects that are not reported, I don't see how autism is automatically the most-likely side-effect (would you make the same conclusion for every single medical treatment that has side-effects?)

Furthermore (and more importantly), all of the evidence in favor of a vaccine-autism link has turned out to have been forged. Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who reported the findings, falsified the medical records of the individuals used in his study. See:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece

While there may be some environmental causes of autism, in my humble opinion, more and more autism will be found to be genetic is cause – either by a single gene (e.g.fragile x syndrome) or a combination of genes, or susceptible by gene and influenced by environment – some cancers)

So while delicate feelings abound when one talks about children – I hope that this will bring more research to finding genetic causes and for curing either the symptoms of autism or its genetic mechanisms.

I believe vaccines do have a strong link to autism. If not why is there language in the bill for the Patriot Act that made Pharmaceutical companies exempt from prosecution on the autism vaccine link!

This issue is very similar to others in which causation was attributed to factors that later proved to be irrelevant. We humans tend to react emotionally to problems with our children's health, and we are far too willing to mistake coincidence- something that occurs in parallel with something else – for causation – something that brings about another effect. Because autism tend sto develop around the same time as the scheduled vaccinations, any sickness that occurs obviously must be a direct result of the vaccination, right? Wrong – that's merely coincidence. To prove causation, you must show that only those with that single factor showed the effect, and those without it did not show the effect...at least within statistical significance.

Case in point: leaky silicone breast implants were blamed for a number of conditions. The resulting legal onslaught bankrupted at least one company, made millions for lawyers and plaintiffs. Sadly, years afterward, completed scientific studies showed, cleary, that there was no causal link, that women without implants were suffering the same medical problems at the same rates as those with them.

I can't claim that drug companies aren't happy about the ruling, but please stop with the conspiracy theories because the decision went their way.

As to risk, you have to balance the risk to the risk of the disease being vaccinated against. I know there are plenty of people who have been killed or injured because they were allergic to the Polio vaccine, for example, but I guarantee you it isn't nearly as many people as were injured or killed by Polio.

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me preface my comments with the following:
- I am not a mother, sister, daughter, or any other relation that I know of to an autistic person, nor do I have any close friends who are autistic, so I cannot (and do not) claim to know the difficulties of the condition for either the individual or the family.
- I am an engineer and researcher, and as such am likely biased towards information documented in scientific, scholarly literature, though I do not have an iota of medical training.

I understand and empathize with what is almost certainly an instinctual need to find a reason and cause for that which deprives us of, for lack of a better term, a 'normal' life. But history is full of examples of people assigning, many times incorrectly and without proper evidence or training, the reasons for their misfortune – often with disastrous consequences. In the case of autism, it seems as though another witch hunt has begun – and the scientific research and studies supporting the lack of a connection between autism and vaccines is being ignored in favor of anecdotal evidence (like that of the previous comment: all medicines have side effects, so vaccines must have side effects, so autism must be a side effect of vaccines). And already the consequences are emerging in the form of measles outbreaks and the threat of a polio resurgence. I'm not suggesting that these conjectures are without grounds – in fact I believe them to have been the cause, perhaps, of much needed rigorous studies into the causes of autism. But it seems as though an overwhelming consensus has been reached among medical and scientific authorities that the "vaccines cause autism" hypothesis is false. Of course, I do not think that we should follow blindly the deductions of the medical community – after all it was a report in a respected medical journal (whose data has only recently been found to have been fraudulent) that began the autism-vaccine outcry. But faced with the substantial, well studied, and thoroughly reviewed arguments of many more people who know a much more than I do about the subject, I am personally willing to acknowledge that we should concentrate our efforts on finding the cause or causes of autism elsewhere. Doing so requires patience – and to ask such reserve of those suffering from autism personally or as family members is perhaps cruel, especially when the answer seemed so close. But identifying a convenient cause won't prevent or cure autism – we need to find the correct cause. Let us continue to challenge and demand excellence from the medical community in studying the cause and prevention of autism, but let us likewise respect their collective training and expertise so that we may all move more quickly towards a meaningful breakthrough.

As a physician – and a pediatrician – I applaud this ruling. We have been following these studies for years, which have disproved the original Wakefield study "results" from the late 90s. Autism is a devastating diagnosis for the child and their family, it's natural to want to find the cause and prevent it in the future. However, the bad reputation given to vaccines in general, and the MMR specifically, have far-reaching consequences. If I ever felt vaccines were to blame, I would never recommend them to my patients or agree to give them to my children.

We KNOW there is a genetic component to autism (the concordance rate in sibs is higher than that in the general population, and in twins even more than that ) and we suspect there is an environmental component as well – but it is NOT vaccines. Is it aspartame? The lead-based paint from foreign toys? BGH in milk? (In the not-to-distant past of the 1940s, autism was felt to be caused by mothers not loving and nurturing their children enough). Nobody knows, but the amount of money spent trying to tie vacines into all of this could be much better spent trying to find the true culprit.

Some of the increased rate in autism and ASDs is due to looking for it – I can think of a handful of kids in my grade school who landed up in special classes and were labelled as "retarded" who would fit ASD criteria as we know them today.

We need to spend the resources out there helping these children achieve their full potential, to provided respite and support for their families, and to find out why we are seeing so much ASD today.

Response to Nancy Hamilton...

You comment #1 is in error...

1) Large epidemiological studies clearly show that there are no significant differences in the rate of autism in vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated kids

In all truth, this study has NEVER been done. I am so tired of hearing this falsehood reported over and over. In all of the studies that have been done, they have compared different vaccines schedules, but never vaccinated vs. UN-VACCINATED children. Many in the autism community have requested for years that this study be done and feel that this would answer the question for once and all. I

Step 1 -Please someone anyone who declares research has shown there is no link between autism and vaccines, post a citation to a research article.

Step 2 – Now post one that is not funded by big pharma.

You cannot do it! Prove all of us wrong. If the research is there just post it. It is so easy! Just post the research. Many have claimed its existence. Post it. Dr. Gupta is or was up for Surgeon General. I am sure he can post it. Where is it. Didn't see it in the article.

THANKS to Dr. Gupta for providing this forum and posting information from both sides. I have even more respect for you now.

If 5000+ reported adverse events and class action lawsuits occured from any new drug, what would be the ruling? And "proving" that autism is not caused by vaccines does not prove that the overall chance of vaccine side effects outweighs the risk of getting the disease. Vaccines have saved millions of lives, but not progressing their research, development and manufacture could greatly change the public opinion of risk and reward. A good question is what are the risks of getting any of the vaccination diseases? How many people today are coming down with Polio? And does the government have a special fund and committee set up for Polio victim compensation?

I really find some of these statements difficult to read. I work with children with Autism on a daily basis and have the best job in the world!

Autism is a spectrum disorder with a wide range of varying difficulties/symptoms and I FIRMLY believe wholeheartedly that vacinations play some role in the early development stages of life.

There are too many common denominators that can prove this time and time again. Until someone out there can explain to me with FACTUAL EVIDENCE that there is NO WAY POSSIBLE a vaccination can be linked with Autism there is no amount of reasoning that can convince me otherwise.

There are families desperate for answer and it's time their voices be heard! Cancer and Alzheimer's are diseases we are learning more about all the time. When will Autism prove worthy of more dollars for research? We need it desperately, lives are being destroyed and families are suffering.

This long term study confirmed the absence of a connection:

Autism cases in California continued to climb even after a mercury-rich vaccine preservative that some people blame for the neurological disorder was removed from routine childhood shots, a new study found....

If there was a risk...autism rates should have dropped between 2004 and 2007.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/dailydose/12/04/autism.mercury/index.html

I enjoyed reading this article and the responses that it elicited. I rarely respond to articles myself, but I feel that people need to realize that the scientific community is not involved in some big cover-up and lying to the public about vaccinations. People often don't trust science because they have very little knowledge about it, and, quite frequently they gain what knowledge they have from the internet. Indicative of this is the comment by John Smyth that said to "google vaccines+truth."

While the internet can be a valuable resource, and certainly there are legitimate sites on Autism and vaccinations, there are plenty of sites who claim to have "absolute proof of a vaccine-autism link" that do not have this evidence. Are there people working to make sure that it's true there is no link? Absolutely. Should we trust a panel of legal experts in a special court? Maybe not. Should we be talking about autism and vaccines? Yes, if only to educate people about what real data is out there, so they don't get their ire up over something they know nothing about.

The truth is, as Dr. Gupta said, there is no medical evidence that there is a link between Autism and vaccines. If there were a link found in humans, at best it would be a correlation. This is why it is important to find a good animal model of autism so the cause-effect studies can be done. I don't think we should abandon the idea that vaccines may have neural/behavioral side effects, but I do think that as long as there is no correlative evidence found in humans we should focus our energies largely elsewhere, namely genetic and other environmental causes.

I feel awful for anyone struggling with a sick child.
Curious: you may have hit the nail on the head with this one.
I find it amazing that everything must be explained or proven; as we as a race are simply not capable of doing so. Our methods are not there and money plays such a huge role in society that many finding cannot be trusted. We must all do our due deligence and make decisions based on what we feel is best. I believe vaccines have improved and are less dangerous now then 10 20 years ago, and to not give a child some is irresposible, simarley threating someone that does not vaccinate is a laughable. I think civilazation is changing course again, what it holds for us we may not like. It might be what we need as evolution has been thwarted for long enough.

Originally it was the mercury in the vaccines that led to autism, and the manufacturers bent to the pressure and removed the preservative from the vaccines. Now after finding out that even without the mercury in the vaccines the number of cases of autism have still risen, it is just the vaccines themselves that lead to autism. What are people going to blame next?

As a professional scientist, I am greatly relieved that the Vaccine Court has made this ruling, as there is simply no credible scientific evidence whatsoever for any linkage between vaccination and autism. Scientifically, this has been a nonsensical story all along. It has been driven by pseudoscientists, cranks and personal injury lawyers who stand to profit from the misfortune suffered by parents and children, together with sloppy journalists who simply don't understand what they are writing about and can't be bothered to take the trouble to discriminate between good science and pseudoscience.

A very small number of science professionals are also culpable, and their roles in these shameful events should be investigated by the relevant professional organizations. Children have died as a result of reduced use of vaccines, and through using quack "autism cures" (sic). Anyone interested in reading more about what has happened should consult Paul Offit's marvellous book "Autism's deadly prophets" and also Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" book and web pages. Brian Deer's exposure of Andrew Wakefield in the London Sunday Times last weekend is also a fascinating read about what happens when scientists fail to follow the right professional standards and thereby betray public trust.

And These "Special Master" a small group that reside over many! Why would the government admit ANYTHING! I mean look into the history "the Tuskegee experiment" is a classic example of what sheep we are, and it would cost the government billions if not trillions to admit these huge error's. So why are we waiting for them to admit it or point out the connections! WE HAVE THE EVIDENCE! It's in our children! WE as parents are experiencing this.... NOT just one or two and not just ten or twenty.... BUT THOUSANDS. It's sad... it really is... We didn't ask for this.... And why when the vaccines formula is changed does the rate of increase in PDD decrease... Hmmmmm, i wonder.

As a research scientist, I base my decisions on a matter on facts. In regards to this, the research seems to point to no link between autism and vaccines. I have a problem with people who make decisions just because "they think things are right". My heart goes out to parents with autistic children, however, I feel instead of putting all of our focus on the "vaccines cause autism" debate, we should be putting money into funding other projects that could find out the underlying causes of autism. It could be that there is indeed a genetic basis for autism. Given the right environment, the physical manifestation of autism could be triggered. That is why it is so important to fund basic research.

As a scientist at a major university and having many colleagues that are experts in infectious disease and vaccinations, I do not believe that there is a link between these vaccines and autism. Autism is more likely the result of a genetic mutation, since it has been shown that the twin of an autistic individual is more likely to also be autistic. The symptoms of autism become apparent around the same time that children are receiving their vaccinations. This makes people assume that they are related, but is just a temporal coincidence. Parents fear over vaccines has led to many new outbreaks of the measles. What else will come back... polio?... I think Jonas Salk would be rolling in his grave. Lastly, autism has been around for quite a while, so when there were no vaccines, what was causing it? Again, I think it is a unfortunate genetic mutation. I feel sorry for parents of autistic children, I know many myself, but people should not fear the vaccinations that have saved so many lives.

On a side note: The girl who received the monetary compensation had a mitochondrial disorder, which may have contributed to the problem.

What in God's kingdom is MERCURY doing in a vaccine? Quit calling it Thimerosal! It is 49% MERCURY – one of the most toxic brain attacking elements in the world. The answer is this: If it were to be concluded that MERCURY in the vaccines is killing, maiming and sickening our population (which it IS), the Class action lawsuit aginst the Dental Industry for MERCURY fillings would make the Federal Reserve Theft look miniscule in proportion.
All about the money. Always has been, always will be – Oh, and Eugenics too! Keep MERCURY out of the food chain, PERIOD...

The evidence only shows that thimerosal did not cause autism.
The evidence does not show that vaccination does not cause autism.

The over use of ever increasing number of vaccines, many of them given on the same day, is a profound stress on baby immune systems. the side effects of which are largely unknown.

Vaccine induced stress on baby immune systems can cause serious medical problems, which might well include autism.

Jeff in Illinois asked if it's necessary to vaccinate against influenza. I say emphatically yes! Do a little reading about the terrible epidemics such as the one in 1918 and you will never again question the necessity of vaccinating against it. Many people make the mistake of thinking influenza is just a bad cold. It is much more than that, and kills thousands of people every year just in this country alone.

Also, if vaccines cause autism, why is it that most of the people who are vaccinated do not develop autism? Someone else here asked if there could be a link between genetic predisposition and the vaccines. I agree that should be investigated.

Sanjay Gupta,

I hope you read this because some of us are not so easily convinced that anyone in the legal or medical field would tell us the truth and whole truth about these vaccines possibly causing autism. I have a grown son that looking back had all the signs of autism before the term became widespread. To this day he is barely a functioning adult. Yet my other children also had early vaccines and show no signs of autism. So it's obvious that not every child that get early childhood vaccines would end up with autism. On the other hand, any doctor, lawyer, or judge who blankedly state autism is not caused by vacines should have their license ripped. It goes without saying that everything put in the human body has side affects. Some are good side affects and others are straight from hell itself.

I hope someone looks into this much further but this time instead of considering the possible money made/lost I hope someone thinks to check for the whole truth.

As a double major in biochemistry and psychology, I've done a fair bit of reading about both vaccines and autism. I do not understand where this claim is even coming from. I think people just wanted an answer and a quick fix to a problem that has yet to have one. It may be that the ASDs are all caused by different things. It is not unjust to to tell someone that they are putting others at risk when they do not get their child vaccinated. Since this story first became big in the summer of 2007, there was a minor outbreak of the measles I believe. Many of the children who contracted it were too young to be vaccinated, but were in daycare with children whose parents decided to not have them vaccinated.

While I am more likely to believe the theory that children with an immediate response to the vaccination are more prone to autism, I do not necessarily believe that it was the vaccine that causes it. A vaccine is made from the virus itself. There is an immunological response to it. It could be that these children would have had the same response to their first major infection.

I really don't understand why this is still an issue. The science is clear. The levels of Autism in vaccinated and unvaccinated kids are the same. As a researcher there are a number of promising places to look for the mechanisms behind autism, but the political pressure (and the funding sources) are all about adding to the already established result. All of the well meaning parents groups (that will not be convinced no matter how many studies find no connection between the vaccines and autism) are just redirecting funding from more promising research back to the vaccines.

I have a child with autism and from everything I have studied and read about autism I have learned that all these kids have one thing in common VACCINES. Their DNA is different, their enviroment is different, their lifestyle, eating habits, medical backgrounds are all different, but most all of them had the MMR and most all of the parents of autistic children noticed the difference AFTER this vaccine. The ONE COMMON THREAD is the vaccine. My child never had the 5 year old booster of the mmr, because I was afraid it would make her worse. Now I am terrified of an outbreak, but still I dont want her to have another mmr because she is functioning pretty good right now. One day, I believe they will find the connection, I just wonder if when they do, they will let us know. I dont care about collecting alot of money from a lawsuit, I just want my grandchildren to be safe when they get their shots.

Dan: If he's from a country that has very few vaccines, chances are he's never heard of autism because they dont' diagnose it. Your statement had many faults in it.

And, like everyone else siding with SCIENCE.. why has the cases of autism went UP instead of DOWN since the mercury was taken out? Also, if you read up on the mercury in the preservative, it keylates out of your body naturally, unlike methylmercury, which bioaccumulates. chances are in recent years, Autism is diagnosed at a higher rate than before. I've heard people say about people they know "he wasn't diagnosed with autism, because noone knew what it was.. he was just considered aloof and without emotion." Sound familiar to other people?

Let's be reasonable here. People can now be scared of something that has no science backing (vaccines=autism), or you could bring back the nasties of the world: Measles, whooping cough, scarlett fever, polio, small pox, mumps...need I go on?

And the rise of severe food allergies is now giving rise to something fun: TOO Clean. We shelter our children from every day run of the mill virii, but to the point their immune system doesn't develop properly. I read an article that there is starting to be a correlation in that. Also, our bodies weren't designed to eat bleached white bread all the time.. so instead of feeding your kids processed crap, how about whole foods that actually have nutrition?

-soon to be a Dad.

I agree with those who have said that we should not treat both sides equally. Cruel and immoral swindlers like JC's hero Dr. Fudenberg (who sells "cures" for autism for profit and has lost his license to practice medicine in South Carolina due to dishonesty and fraud) are no different than Nigerian princes scamming people via e-mail. And while it might be easier for parents to keep believing in the non-existent link between autism and vaccines (just as it might be easier for an e-mail scam victim to keep sending payments to the prince in hopes that one day he'll appear on her doorstep with a suitcase full of money), it needs to be acknowledged that there are real and terrible consequences for this belief in fairy tales. Believing in UFOs with no evidence is relatively harmless. Refusing to vaccine one's child risks the re-emergence of tragic diseases that we had all but eradicated. I agree, we should be cautious of claims by the pharmaceutical industry and we should ensure that results of studies are inspected and re-produced. But that has already been done. The results are in. The game is over. It's time to move on.

We have friends who love and care for autistic children and grandchildren and my heart goes out to Mrs Rosario.
I first heard of this theory from those friends 10 or 12 years ago – also fluoridated water and radiation from microwaves and overhead powerlines- It's normal to try to find a link between those things we can get our head around to explain that which we don't understand. Since that time, millions have been spent trying to find out if the link is real- During that time the drug industry removed the suspected material from most vaccines. The results- over and over– There's nothing there. My understanding now is that (1) it's probably genetic with the new theory that in our modern life experience, Geeks and Nerds-of which I'm a charter member- are more sucessful breeders than they were 100 years ago.and (2) milder variations that in the past might be written off as "Johnny's a litle odd" or "Why don't they do something about that kid" now get a diagnosis.
No doubt in 50 years we'll know more; but, we'll get there faster if we stop spending our money and research trying to force "Square facts" into " Round theories"

I would like to know when mercury was first introduced as a preservative in vaccines and if there is a correlation between that time and any increases in the number of autistic children. It would appear that with the removal of mercury from vaccines, there should be a corresponding drop in autistic cases if in fact there is a connection. That in itself would add credence to the connection between vaccines and autism.

Having read the comments above, I could not help but see the pattern of people shouting "Cover-Up! Cover-Up" and have become saddened by it. If parents are so certain that there is a massive cover-up by physicians that has caused so many children to suffer, why go to a single doctor ever? Surely such widespread maliciousness would be obvious that physicians are not to be trusted, especially if they care so little for millions of children.

As a physician scientist I certainly hope for the best outcome of any of my patients and also hope that my contributions to medical science will make a difference in patients' lives in the future. It is all any physician can hope for and I have to tell you that I am certain that my colleagues feel the same way (or we wouldn't have gone into medicine in the first place). In terms of this debate and it's sordid beginnings, vaccines are not perfect but prevent millions of deaths while causing very few adverse reactions. Hopefully, we will perfect them in the future but for now we must continue to strive for medical excellence using evidenced based medicine which indicates that vaccines do not cause autism.

To Cliff Court. I agree with you. It's what my husband and I have thought for years; that our son's condition (Aspergers) was triggered (NOT caused) when he got his vaccinations around 1 year. Up until then, he was on track, babbling and happy, then suddenly started having issues and stopped progressing.

Fortunately we got help early and along with excellent educational services provided in Huntsville, AL and Phoenix, AZ, he is now a happy 20-year-old, holding 2 part-time jobs and gradually maturing into his own. (Penny, I also agree with you- I wouldn't trade my son's personality and joy of life for anything)

I also would like to see a study of children who developed disorders (not necessarily autism) after vaccinations. And I do believe in vaccinations; they do much more good than harm. We've been with them too long to remember what it was like before vaccinations, so we don't have any memory of the grief these diseases caused. But check out any Third World country currently in the news for rampant epidemics...

re Kristin: First, If Thimerosol were the cause of autism, then you would expect to see a "dose-response" relationship between thimerosol and rates of autism. Meaning that a a little bit should be worse than none, and a lot worse than a little. This data clearly show nothing of the kind. Second, if thimerosol were the cause, you would expect that the incidence of new cases of autism would have dropped following the reduction or removal of thimerosal from vaccines. This has not happened. There have been numerous studies looking at the epidemiological data. NONE of the high quality studies have found a link.

A while back, my son (age 17), contracted mumps. This despite being vaccinated for it. He was one of "the lucky ones" for whom the disease ignored the vaccinations. It was so severe that he had a high fever for almost 6 days. His Doctors said that there was a very real possibility that he would not be capable of producing children.

He has not been tested yet. He knows that the possibility is real and accepts it, for now. I believe that a teenage boy doesn't fully grasp the concept of sterility and may even be cavalier about it ("who-hoo, no kids!"). He is sexually active but he knows that he needs to take precautions to avoid STD's at the very least.

The kicker? He and 3 other kids contracted the disease from a kid who had never been vaccinated and his parents forged his records. It gets better. This kid has a little sister who contracted measles and spread it to 4 other kids in 2nd grade.

I just don't get it.
Thousands of kids die every year in car accidents
Hundreds of kids die from the common flu
Kids are being permanently injured playing sports and the list goes on and on.

Why isn't anyone calling for all of these preventable issues to stop?

Even is there is some link, the fact that kids today have to read about polio, smallpox and all of the illnesses that just a few decades ago killed or crippled untold numbers of kids.

I feel for the parents of autistic kids, but I suspect that because it is a mental illness there is a stigma attached making parents face a greater societal challenge. It makes it a bit easier to point a finger and blame someone else. Not doing so means that the parents themselves are "at fault" for passing on the illness.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sounds quaint but it is reality.

In response to several posts, here are a couple of citations:

Smeeth et al., Lancet, Volume 364, Issue 9438, 11 September 2004-17 September 2004, Pages 963-969.

Parker et al., Pediatrics, Volume 114 No. 3 September 2004, pp. 793-804

As for the number of papers in the literature: the thing about negative data is that, unless a study has done something really different from existing studies, chances are it's not going to be published because the scientific community doesn't benefit from 5000 articles saying the same thing.

Amy said:

"Wouldn’t you be way more upset to have a dead child than a child with autism?"

What an absolutely ABSURD statement!

Actually Amy, I'd rather have my perfectly healthy baby boy that was delivered on Aug 3, 1992 BEFORE he was injected with a known neurotoxin in amounts that weren't even deemed safe for a 250 lb adult!

This ISN'T about the “benefits” of vaccines - THIS IS ABOUT SAFETY.

Until the government produces the studies that demonstrate the SAFETY of injecting a neurotoxin into an infant, AND until the government can demonstrate the SAFETY of the current vaccine schedule (effects of FULL schedule on long-term health) AND until a study is done comparing totally unvaccinated children to vaccinated children, this issue isn’t going away.

So in answer to your question Amy, I’d rather have avoided injecting my child with mercury in the first place.

Kelli Ann Davis

It is very amusing to me when people who do not have a child with autism tell a parent with autism how they should think about this debate. Where do some of you get the nerve? The people saying "my friend has an autistic son/daughter" doesn't give you any more credibility than someone that doesn't know anyone with autism.

Unless you are a special needs educator (you are truly saints all of you) or the parent of an ASD child you really have zero credibility in telling the other side what we should think. I know something changed in my son short very very soon after his MMR and given that it was not his diet, nor was it his drinking water, now was it his place of residence, nor was it anything else entering or touching his body on a daily basis. The link was there.

One of my sons has autism. One of them does not. They were both vaccinated. However, my older son from _infancy _had a tendency to play repetitious games, rotate wheels over and over, not track us as normal babies do, etc. He was vaccinated first at 6 months, after we noticed his strange behavior. But with vaccines he still progressed normally, just a little differently. We never believed he had autism until his preschool teacher noticed certain behaviors and asked us to have him tested. When we did they found he had ASD.
@ Deb Quilter (early poster): You know what you speak of when you say 'early intervention' is essential. Since he was diagnosed at 3 yrs, our son has been in therapies and with behavioral modification companions. He is aware enough of others that he has 'learned' social behaviors yet retains the special qualities that are singular to him. He can go to a regular school with some special help there. He can function now (at 6 years old) as a very normal child due to his training, but he is still 'different' and will always be special. We do not always like his behaviors, but we value who he is and what he will contribute to this world someday.

My sister has Down Syndrome (neither here nor there), but her birth prompted both of my parents to become Special Education teachers, and my father is an award winning autism specialist. We have all had enough of this vaccine crusade.
Despite immense effort and research, no link has been established between MMR or thimerosal and autism. Even among children not vaccinated, autism rates continue to rise, and even in places where thimerosal was phased out decades ago, such as Japan, autism is still becoming more prevalent. Autism sets in at a specific young age, which is approximately the age certain vaccines are received. The ages are correlated, unless vaccines are administered earlier or alter in life it will always be correlated with the timing of the onset of ASD symptoms. I am sick and tired of hearing parents claim "my child was fine until they were vaccinated...", when exactly at that age the ASD would emerge anyway.
This waste of time and effort is caused by parents who simply want something to blame for the condition of their children. The parents who continue to focus on this dead end are not heroes, they are obstructionists. The data imply there are indeed environmental factors at play in autism, but obstructionist parents of autistic children have hijacked the research priorities to focus on their pet vaccine scapegoat. Instead of researching other plausible factors in the development of ASD, such as volatile organic compounds (VOC), the same dead end fight is being waged over and over and over in the utter absence of evidence.
My heart goes out to all of the parents who would like to search for the real genetic and environmental causes of autism, to find real results and answers, instead of having the media attention and research funds siphoned into this pointless crusade.

As the grandmother of a seven-year-old boy diagnosed with either Asperger's or PDD-NOS (depending upon which neurologist you choose to believe), I was disappointed to learn of the decisions of the Grand Masters in these 3 cases. I did read some of each of the decisions and understand why some "experts" were given more credence than others, and why some theories seem more rational than others. What concerns me most is the possibility that these decisions and some recent studies will "close the door" to further research about the potential link between vaccines, the preservative, or both and Autism Spectrum Disorders. It seems to me that for some children (for example, a child who displays one or more symptons of an ASD) an abundance of caution in the vaccination schedule is appropriate. As with most issues, extreme measures are probably not useful, but perhaps a relaxation of the schedule would be prudent. In the case of one of the children, the respondent's experts believe her autism "to have been evident even prior to the MMR vaccination." Why not, in that event, unbundle the vaccinations and give them at slower pace so as to reduce the possibiliy of an adverse reaction? We are very fortunate that our little boy is what they refer to as "very high on the spectrum." He is high functioning, very responsive to therapies, very bright, and mainstreamed in a wonderful public school system. When HHS states on the very day the decision is handed down, "Hopefully the determination by the Special Masters will help reassure parents that vaccines do not cause autism," I can't help but wonder just for a moment if the political concerns are taken into account in the legal decisions. Frankly, I would have been more reassured if HHS had refrained from making that statement,

CNN's coverage of autism issues has been very prominent and is very much appreciated.

Kelli Ann Davis,
My heart goes out to you. My son also has autism and the day-to-day is always a challenge, one I love but nontheless a challenge all the same. Every time this makes the news and the ignorant comments start to fly it boils my blood to no end.

Autism is caused by a sequence of events that disconnect calcium signaling at the cellular level. Pertussis toxin, yeast proteins, measles virus, clostridia toxin and metals all affect calcium signaling. Parents give a history of disorders associated with a G inhibitory protein defect. When pertussis toxin is given they lose the closure switch for L type calcium channels. Measles lands on cell wall receptors and opens these channels. The mercury in vaccines blocks their ability to take calcium in and out of storage within cells. As long as we don't look at this sequence of events that is disconnecting cell signaling autism will remain a mystery. Many children in my practice recover on nutrients that restore cell signaling. One in six children are disabled. This is bigger than one lost case in court, this is destroying Americas future. The truth is staring us in the face and won't go away.

My relevant questions:

Have there been any studies that look into not just the side effects of vaccinations, but the rate at which they are given? Why can't vaccinations be spread out?

How long are the tests done on vaccines? Do they periodically re-test these vaccines? Autism is a developmental disease and doesn't appear overnight.

Do environmental changes alter side effects of vaccines?

If thimerosal was taken out of MMR's in 1999, why is the rate of autism still going up?

Could it be environmental and genetic factors in synergy with some part of vaccinations that causes autism?

Would the FDA be honest if vaccines did cause autism? Maybe they believe that 1 out of 150 kids with autism is better than an outbreak of polio or hepatitis.

How much pull do pharmaceutical companies have in the FDA? (this is a rhetorical question....)

Proud Sister,
Gina

Re Andy: You said

February 12th, 2009 4:12 pm ET
The evidence only shows that thimerosal did not cause autism.
The evidence does not show that vaccination does not cause autism.

I don't know who you are but I am using the information superhighway to give you an "F" in critical thinking. You can NEVER prove a negative. It is a fundamental impossibility.

Although I may fail in my attempt to prove that you ARE a space alien. There is no way on God's Green Earth that you can prove that you are NOT a space alien. (Nanoo Nanoo)

Jeff in Illinois,
the amount of hours kids watch tv has DRAMATICALLY increased over time as both parents work sometimes two jobs, therefore CLEARLY television is responsible for autism.

Oh wait, the amount of hormones used in cows has increased DRAMATICALLY over time. kids drink lots of milk, therefore the hormones in milk MUST be responsible.

WAIT, the amount of new pesticeds used on fruits and veggies has increased dramatically over time. kids eat lots of fruits and veggies , therefore PESTICIDES must be responsible.

Please Jeff – use some common sense before spewing out such fear mongering.

I have been reading some of the comments about what I wrote about the vaccines and autism. I have to say that although I believe my son was harmed by his MMR vaccine. I do believe all children should be vaccinated I have an 11 year old Daughter who is up to date with all her vaccines.
I believe that the my son had some other factor that caused him to react to the vaccine. That's what I want them to look into.
Filing a law suit is not the answer, the answer is their needs to be more research again so that no other family has to go thru this.
For those of you who do not have a child with autism, what you do not understand is that I am thinking about the future when I am no longer here. If this problem is not solved the amount of money the government is going to have to spend in the care of these children will be in the billions.

It is worth noting that, given the growing interest and demand for thimerosal-free influenza vaccine, another fully thimerosal-free influenza vaccine for adults is now available in the U.S. CSL Biotherapies has delivered the largest supply of thimerosal-free influenza vaccine (trivalent, latex-free, single-dose pre-filled syringes) to the U.S. market this season — nearly 6 million doses. Its brand name is Afluria.

Afluria is currently available for healthcare professionals to order online for this flu season at http://www.mercuryfreefluvaccine.com or through our toll-free number 1-888-435-8633.

I think that unfortunatley we may all just have to wait for the answer.

“Nowadays thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines that are routinely recommended for children six years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine.”

If there is some link between mercury or thimerosal levels in vaccines and autism then we should see a decrease in the percentage of children diagnosed with autism over the next decade.

"Autism is incredibly similar to heavy metal poisoning. Vaccines contain heavy metals. The number of vaccines administered has grown extraordinarily over time, and autism rates have increased in parallel."

Autism is nothing like heavy metal poisoning. This was actually one of the points made in the first set of the omnibus proceedings.

The number of vaccines have increased, but mercury has been gone out of them for almost 8 years and autism rates continue to rise. This argues against any association.

I have a 3 year old son who is Austic, our first and only child. When my husband and I went to our doctor and asked about the shots, his comment was,"That they are safe and I gave it to my son and nothing happened." (who was a year older than mine). At the time of my son's 2nd well-care check-up, I expressed my concern for his regression. He then set me up with an appointment for a brain doctor, the very one he took his own son too.

Childhood vaccination represents one of the more controversial issues worldwide and will continue to remain so despite the latest Vaccine court's statement.
Check out one of the current articles on Health WorldNet http://healthworldnet.com " To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate " where this issue is explored in depth.

Nancy Hamilton February 12th, 2009 5:08 pm ET

I don’t know who you are but I am using the information superhighway to give you an “F” in critical thinking. You can NEVER prove a negative. It is a fundamental impossibility.

Although I may fail in my attempt to prove that you ARE a space alien. There is no way on God’s Green Earth that you can prove that you are NOT a space alien. (Nanoo Nanoo)
*************************
Uhhh Wrong!! Negatives can easily be proved. I can easily prove that you are NOT a man, just as easy i can prove that you ARE a woman. so why dont you give yourself an F as well.

Deb Quilter made an excellent point.

I too wish that pediatricians would screen for or at least inquire about certain areas of development with all kids. I also wish that all pediatricians (and pediatric specialties) would read up and at least be aware of the current diagnostic criteria. Lots of pediatricians, from my experience, still have a very old and dated stereotype as their criteria and many kids have delayed diagnoses and are delayed in getting help that can make a difference, just because they aren't rocking back and forth in the corner, grunting. I just wish everyone would be aware that the word "spectrum" actually means something.... Every kid is different.

People have this idea that vaccines are this incredibly unnatural thing that can cause havoc with the human body in trace amounts. News flash: There are thousands of chemicals in our food and in the air we breathe. Often we don't even know what they are. Viruses, bacteria, and fungi are everywhere around us.

I believe one thing about vaccines: they can stir up your immune system and cause a fever. So can the common cold. If everyone had to get a cold precisely at 2, 4, 6, 12, 18 months, etc., we would surely be arguing that colds cause autism.

I don't think anyone has ever said that Vaccines are without side effects. Fever, Fussiness, and other side effects are well known. What scientific study after study has shown though is that there is not a link between the vaccine and autism. This is not one of the side effects of the vaccines.

Dr. Mary Megson wrote:

"Autism is caused by a sequence of events that disconnect calcium signaling at the cellular level. Pertussis toxin, yeast proteins, measles virus, clostridia toxin and metals all affect calcium signaling. Parents give a history of disorders associated with a G inhibitory protein defect. When pertussis toxin is given they lose the closure switch for L type calcium channels. Measles lands on cell wall receptors and opens these channels. The mercury in vaccines blocks their ability to take calcium in and out of storage within cells. As long as we don’t look at this sequence of events that is disconnecting cell signaling autism will remain a mystery. Many children in my practice recover on nutrients that restore cell signaling. One in six children are disabled. This is bigger than one lost case in court, this is destroying Americas future. The truth is staring us in the face and won’t go away."

Dr. Megson, what are the nutrients of which you speak? You back up what I've been saying for years, but it sounds like you also have a treatment that seems to work. That is important.

I'm a parent of an autistic son. Yes day to day life is challenging.

My son was vaccinated, so are both of his younger siblings, and I will vaccinate my baby that I'm pregnant with now. I have a brother with an immune deficiency disease he depends on herd immunity to keep him alive. The flu- chicken pox- what some deem as unnecessary vaccines? If he got these diseases he would die. Its that simple. So would the majority of people who are receiving cancer treatments or have had transplants. If I don't vaccinate my children I'm not just risking their lives I'm risking many many others. And I would rather have my son with autism who is living then one who died from a preventable disease. (Think it can't happen? What about the 7 month old who died earlier this year from HiB?)

My son has had autism since he was born, yes we didn't really notice it until he was around 18 months (which is normally when children receive the majority of vaccines, which is possibly why so many think vaccines = autism because around 18-30 months is when autism really shows its ugly head.) however, now that we know what to look for, we can watch videos of him as early as 6 weeks old and see the signs- about a month before he had his first vaccination. There is a study being done that observes how children learn to roll over and crawl (again long before vaccines) and it is being proven that children with autism many times learned to roll over and crawl differently.

There are so many things that can cause autism. People say look at Denmark- they have lower amounts of vaccine and lower amounts of autism. They also have a different diet then us. For example they began to give their children cow's milk at 9 months instead of a year. So is cow's milk earlier the cure for autism? Any autistic parent who has cut dairy out of their children's diet and saw improvement in autism would complete disagree with that statement. The GFCF diet does work with some but not all autistic children. It is the same with other diets and supplements. Sometimes they work, other children they don't. In the same vein there is probably many many factors that cause autism or predispose a child to have it. Let's move on, let's look at other routes, vaccines are probably the most researched route, all the parents who don't believe any study done accomplish is more funding to be taken away from looking at other causes so we can do yet another study into vaccines = autism. As a parent of a child who has autism that was clearly not caused by a vaccine I'm tired of hearing this "link" I want answers, I want new treatments for my son not more money spent on a dead end road.

I guess these people claiming a link have failed to notice that ASD is also found in populations in which the infants are not vaccinated (Amish, etc.) What caused this ASD then? Hmmmm....silence....

And how about those infants in the general population that develop ASD but their parents declined their vaccination, again, what is the cause? Silence again......

I truly feel bad for these parents who have children with ASD, but finally there has been a muffle to the screaming. To the diehards...you will never be convinced...but neither were many people when science showed that the world wasn't flat....come to think if it, some still claim that it is.

Dr. Mary Megson – What you said sounds great except its a load of bunk. You can postulate all the complex mechanisms you like, but in the end if there is no link between vaccines and autism, as numerous studies have now proven, then there's something wrong with your math. When you make a comment like this "Autism is caused by a sequence of events that disconnect calcium signaling at the cellular level." you need to qualify it with a BIG "in my opinion" because this is not accepted scientific fact or theory. Its especially important to do so when you put "Dr." in front of your name. Whether you are an MD, PhD, or you have a "a mail order degree" that allows you to call yourself doctor, with the use of those two letters comes responsibility. Those letters require you to be factual, not just opinionated.

I am so happy to hear about this court ruling. Autism is not caused by immunizations. I have two sons, 19 and 6 who are both severely Autistic. My older son was immunized and I refused to immunize my younger son. He was not immunized until after he had received a label of Autism from Yale Child Study Center. Hopefully, research can now go in the right direction- a genetic component with some kind of trigger.

Laura, KR, Cliff Court:
Thank you for your comments. My first child is due in a few months and we've been struggling with the decision to vaccinate or not, and if so how much, how often, when.
Why was there so much response to Gloria's comments and your educated and intelligent comments of your first hand experience are ignored?
We need to widen the investigation: so ASD is probably not *caused* by vaccines but it seems very likely that for children who are genetically pre-disposed it is a *trigger*.
It seems probable that vaccines are not a singular cause but a contributing factor (one of many factors including environmental toxicity which causes immune system disfunction).
And please, until you have lived through this experience hold your judgements – it helps no one. (And for all you rational scientists that justify your skepticism of first person observation, I too hold an advanced degree in biological science and I would like to remind you that empirical observation is the cornerstone of the scientific method. It's not that these parents are crazy with a need to blame – they have observed data, they have formulated questions, and those questions are yet to be answered.)

There have been many comments in which people have asked legitimate scientific questions about this case, but fortunately they have all already been asked by scientists and you can find the results easily online.

But I have a question for anyone who still believes that autism is caused by vaccines. If this is true, why couldn't this court be convinced

My name is Cesar and I have son who just turned 12 months two days ago. We did not give him the MMR shots, until we get more research. Anyhow, all the comments here mention that their kids have autism, can we have any families who did give their sons the MMR, shot and did not see any difference in the behaviour or for that matter get austism. Thanks

I am on the Spectrum – Aspergers Syndrome. I must say that this debate is wild. I already made a comment earlier as to where I stand on the vaccine vs autism debate, so I will not repeat myself. However, at the risk of going "off subject matter" I really want to voice just a few thoughts.

First, to all the people who are referring to autism as if it were some horrific tragedy which renders the individual with no quality of life – please stop. The Spectrum is huge and the ranges of autism span across vast margins.

Can I be honest and really say what I feel? Would all of you non- autistics respectfully listen to someone who actually lives with autism everyday? Do you know what I hear when I read these comments from parents who state that it is more preferaable to them to risk their children's lives & other citizens lives by not vaccinating because they want to prevent their child from being like me?

Well, this is what I hear: I hear you saying that individuals like me are such a bother that you would opt for certain death (yes some vaccine preventable diseases result in certain death!) than to have a child with autism. QUESTION: If a doctor told you that your child needed both arms amputated in order to prevent their death (ie: cancer, etc) would you say "NO" and let your child ultimately die because the certain disability of a double amputee child would be too much of a burden on you?

Is it easy to parent a child with autism? My mother would certainly tell you that I was definately a challenge. And bless her heart, she did it without the luxury that parents have today. Aspergers wasn't even an available diagnosis in the DMV IV when I was a child & I didn't even receive my diagnosis until adulthood. And BTW: I am parenting a son on the Spectrum too! Yes my teenager has Aspergers as well. So don't think for a minute that I cannot see this entire situation from both sides because I CAN!!!

I will save my breath and say no more – except that I am going to give my mother a call as soon as I submit this comment and tell her how much I love her & respect her for being the most selfless, dedicated, unselfish mother an autistic daughter could ever wish to have! I am happy I read all of these comments.....I've never appreciated my mother more! http://www.sharondavanport.com

Just want to mention that Dr Gupta article points to the FDA website where it is clearly stipulated that there are 3 flu vaccines that do NOT contain ANY mercury AT ALL ( zero , nada) . So why don't we simply always use these ones ? next time I get a flu shot , I ll ask for one of these .

I am on the Spectrum – Aspergers Syndrome. I must say that this debate is wild. I already made a comment earlier as to where I stand on the vaccine vs autism debate, so I will not repeat myself. However, at the risk of going “off subject matter” I really want to voice just a few thoughts.

First, to all the people who are referring to autism as if it were some horrific tragedy which renders the individual with no quality of life – please stop. The Spectrum is huge and the ranges of autism span across vast margins.

Can I be honest and really say what I feel? Would all of you non- autistics respectfully listen to someone who actually lives with autism everyday? Do you know what I hear when I read these comments from parents who state that it is more preferaable to them to risk their children’s lives & other citizens lives by not vaccinating because they want to prevent their child from being like me?

Well, this is what I hear: I hear you saying that individuals like me are such a bother that you would opt for certain death (yes some vaccine preventable diseases result in certain death!) than to have a child with autism. QUESTION: If a doctor told you that your child needed both arms amputated in order to prevent their death (ie: cancer, etc) would you say “NO” and let your child ultimately die because the certain disability of a double amputee child would be too much of a burden on you?

Is it easy to parent a child with autism? My mother would certainly tell you that I was definately a challenge. And bless her heart, she did it without the luxury that parents have today. Aspergers wasn’t even an available diagnosis in the DSM IV when I was a child & I didn’t even receive my diagnosis until adulthood. And BTW: I am parenting a son on the Spectrum too! Yes my teenager has Aspergers as well. So don’t think for a minute that I cannot see this entire situation from both sides because I CAN!!!

I will save my breath and say no more – except that I am going to give my mother a call as soon as I submit this comment and tell her how much I love her & respect her for being the most selfless, dedicated, unselfish mother an autistic daughter could ever wish to have! I am happy I read all of these comments…..I’ve never appreciated my mother more! http://www.sharondavanport.com

Its the number of vaccines that is the main problem. Children receive 26 vaccines before the age of two. Just ten years ago it was half that amount.
I wish someone would come up with a safe vaccine schedule, check for compromised immune systems in these kids and give one vaccine at a time.
My son had 6 live vaccines at 18 months, started throwing up, stomach problems, lost language....autism.
I dont think any of us are against vaccines. There are just too many of them given to little children at once.

My son was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome when he was 8 years old. He was "different' from the day he was born. Even his cry in the nursery at the hospital was different. He did not sleep at night for years. There is no way that vaccines later in his life caused his autism spectrum disorder. The focus needs the be on the real "causes", treatments, and support for future success.
The possibilities are there if the focus isn't on blame or endangering other children by frightening parents from vaccinating their children from deadly diseases. My son just graduated from college with honors and has been accepted into graduate school. At one point we were told that he could not be taught and would need to be institutionalized. As parents, his mother and I chose not to believe that. Neither did our son.

February 12th, 2009 5:07 pm ET

My relevant questions:

1. "Have there been any studies that look into not just the side effects of vaccinations, but the rate at which they are given? Why can’t vaccinations be spread out?"

The number of antigens introduced into a child via a needle is a tiny fraction of what he he exposed to when he breathes, licks his fingers, or eats pizza crust off the floor at Chucky Cheese. The live viruses used in some vaccines are weakened, and roughly 1,000 as powerful as a non-weakened virus. In other words, there is no known mechanism by which four or five or six vaccines can cause autism.

2. How long are the tests done on vaccines? Do they periodically re-test these vaccines? Autism is a developmental disease and doesn’t appear overnight.

Safety testing for all vaccines is ongoing. Adverse effects are self-reported by parents, and that information goes into a database that is continuous monitored.

3. Do environmental changes alter side effects of vaccines?

I don't know what this means.

4. If thimerosal was taken out of MMR’s in 1999, why is the rate of autism still going up?

Thimerosal has never been in MMR. Diagnoses continue to climb due to expanded diagnostic criteria for ASDs; more social services; increased awareness by parents, physicians and educators; and other reasons that have nothing to do with vaccines.

5. Could it be environmental and genetic factors in synergy with some part of vaccinations that causes autism?

Sure. It could also be the phases of the moon, or rap music. But there's no proof for those things either.

6. Would the FDA be honest if vaccines did cause autism? Maybe they believe that 1 out of 150 kids with autism is better than an outbreak of polio or hepatitis.

Such a conspiracy would involve millions of people in universities, governmental offices, news rooms and drug makers around the world. It strains credulity.

7. How much pull do pharmaceutical companies have in the FDA? (this is a rhetorical question….)

How do you measure pull?

Vaccines did not cause my sons autism. No more than the fact that my partner displays autistic traits and every male in my side of the family is an engineer! My son, now that I know the signs, always had the "hallmarks" of autism from his early days. Even as an infant, I noticed he didn't gaze while nursing. He was an especially easy baby - always doing his own thing.

I truly wish that all of this court time and lawyers fees were being used to make IBI therapy more readily available. My understanding is that in the US it's still considered "controversial", where here in Canada it's provincially mandated (but the wait-lists are insane!).

My son went from non-verbal to saying things like: "mommy, going to the store and in the shopping cart going to buy lots of toys and presents!!" in LESS THAN a year.

I really really wish the best for all other families who have an autistic child, but this is a false claim. The sooner other parents realize this and use this money to set up an ABA-based program or other program (DIR/Floortime, NET) the better!

Fundamentally, does it MATTER why your child has autism? No. What matters is helping them reach their full potential.

I feel this ruling is just. Vaccines don't work in any way the same as normal drugs with side effects, unless you consider the side effect to be relative immunity. Most drugs work against the body's natural systems to prevent things like high blood pressure, etc. Vaccines work with the body to produce antibodies to ward off infection. Save contamination, there is little to no chance a vaccine would have a side effect other than making you sick (if you happen to have a weak immune system and a live virus vaccine). In any case, whatever developmental processes lead to autism likely occur during development and even before birth, not afterwards.

What is the autism rate in children who are not vaccinated?

If no studies have been conducted to determine this, why not? It could be done with simple review of medical records, or even telephone canvassing. Why not add it to the US Census data?

As a sample, what is the autism rate amongst religious groups that do not vaccinate?

I believe no such data exists. Why not?

What is our government and Big Pharma worried about if they are so sure that vaccinations does not cause autism. Do the study. NOW!!!!

re Nancy Hamilton.
I don't want to see an epidemiological study of the "dose-response" relationship of thimerosal and autism. Many of us just want a study of the rate of neurological disorders (including autism) in vaccinated vs. UN-vaccinated children in the U.S. Studies that compare different vaccine schedules or different doses of thimerosal in Denmark or England is like comparing apples to oranges. We really need someone to actually do a REAL study here in the U.S. with vaccinated vs. UN-vaccinated children. This would answer the question whether vaccines in general (not thimerosal or just MMR) cause neurological disorders in some of the children who receive them.

There is a growing body of scientific evidence indicating that inflammation plays a major role in autism. Studies published in respected peer-reviewed journals have found in people with autism:
• inflammation in autopsied brains
• inflammatory cytokines in the spinal fluid
• auto-antibodies to the myelin basic protein that covers nerves
• imbalance between various components of the immune system such as Th-1 & Th-2 cells.

We have an autism epidemic. The huge increase during the past 25 years was recently confirmed in a study at UC Davis. This increase cannot be the result of genes alone. This increase has paralleled the huge increase in the number of vaccines received by babies and children during the same time period.

We also have increased rates of severe allergies, asthma, and auto-immune disorders in today’s children. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/03/AR2008030303200_pf.html

What could be causing this? We are giving an unprecedented number of vaccines – two dozen vaccines by the age of 2, and another dozen before school starts – containing multiple live viruses, aluminum, mercury, and a number of other ingredients. This is unprecedented in human history! The purpose of aluminum in vaccines is as an "adjuvant" to provoke a stronger response from the immune system. Are we over-provoking infants’ developing immune systems? Some kids seem able to tolerate this aggressive vaccine schedule, but others are not.

Many many credible parents are reporting vaccine injuries in their babies and children. These adverse reactions are summarily dismissed as "coincidental" and not studied by the government agencies and medical organizations who should be working hard to understand, prevent, and treat vaccine reactions.

My daughter, a healthy toddler, had a seizure after receiving the MMR at the same time as the varicela vaccine. After that she had high fevers for about a month, and then always developed a high fever whenever she got sick. Nobody else in our family has ever had a seizure, and she never had a seizure before or since. But she was fortunate. She recovered. Her immune system was able to regain its equilibrium.

A study used to be cited on the CDC web site from the New England Journal of Medicine saying that there is an increased risk of febrile seizures following both the MMR and the DPT vaccines. Encephalitis (swelling of the brain) is a known reaction to some vaccines. Here’s an interesting article about research on how viruses can cause seizures: http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/seizures-and-the-immune-system.html

Here’s an interesting article about how injections are different from normal exposures such as eating: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1913/richet-lecture.html

Many stories of vaccines causing regression into autism start with generally accepted reactions such as high fever, seizures, swelling at the vaccine site, screaming, and then are followed by loss of language and social skills, and sometimes development of health issues such as inflammatory bowel disease. These stories are very credible, and are told independently by so many parents from various times and places. There is more to this than "post hoc ergo propter hoc".

I was given my routine shots as a child and was diagnosed with ADD as a 12 year old. Do I blame vaccines for my ADD? No! ADD runs in my dads side of the family. I'm so tired of families blaming vaccines for their kids Autism. Autism is genetic. In utero, kids are predisposed of the Autism gene. Please look at genetics first before blaming something else.

My friend is a D.O. and she told me that the mercury levels are quite low.

Can you imagine if the recent salmonella outbreak was greeted with comments such as:
- All these reports from people saying they got sick from eating peanuts are just anecdotal! The plural of anecdote is not data! So they should just be ignored!
- Just a coincidence! Don’t confuse coincidence with causation! Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy!
- Studies show that there has always been diarrhea and stomach cramps and vomiting throughout history – no reason to blame the peanuts!
- People who blame peanuts are anti-food! They don’t remember what it’s like to have famines! Food is a victim of its own success!
- My friend threw up and she never ate peanuts! My other friend ate peanuts and didn’t get sick! So obviously peanuts don’t cause stomach problems!

These are the kinds of things that people keep saying about autism and vaccines.

Instead of reacting like this, our government agencies took reports of salmonella-related sickness seriously and investigated. They took poop samples and identified the bacteria. They interviewed the people about everything they ate and tracked down the source. If they had not done this, people would still be getting sick and even dying from the products of that contaminated peanut plant.

But, as Dr. Bernadine Healy said, and as many parents have witnessed, nobody from our government agencies is studying children whose parents say they became autistic because of vaccines.
There needs to be research on the injured children. Epidemiology is not the only form of science. Epidemiology is notorious for being subject to manipulation through selection criteria and statistical methodology.

And, contrary to what some of you have said, one of the most important epi studies has NOT EVER been done: a comparison of health outcomes in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated kids.

Nancy Hamilton linked to an article by Brian Deer about Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Please read Dr. Wakefield’s rebuttal to at http://www.rescuepost.com/files/deer-response.pdf .

Also read about Dr. Wakefield’s case at http://www.cryshame.co.uk/

Dr. Wakefield is one of the few gastroenterologists who listens to parents and helps children with autism and severe GI issues. He has been unjustly pilloried for simply investigating his patients' health problems. We need much more doctor's like him.

Please please read these books:

"Evidence of Harm" – By David Kirby

"Changing The Course Of Autism – A Scientific Approach for Parents and Physicians" – by Bryan Jepson, M.D. with Jane Johnson; foreword by Katie Wright (daughter of the founders of Autism Speaks)

"Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Development Disorder" – By Karyn Seroussi

anyone notice that most of the parents of autistic children on this blog who are completely against any idea of a vaccine-autism link are parents of Asperger's Syndrome children (many with others in the family having the syndrome as well)?

They're called Autism Spectrum Disorders for a reason – they're different. It seems obvious there is a strong genetic component to Asperger's. It also seems obvious that heavy metal poisoning can be a trigger for other forms of autism. Obviously, it isn't affecting everyone, but take a genetic sensitivity or other environmental factors (i.e. diet – toxic foods for example will only exacerbate any health situation), and add in some mercury, or aluminum, or other toxins, and there could easily be a link. What we need to do is stop listening to the people making billions of dollars from this.

Trying to link a specific instance of anything to a cause when the likelihood of an occurence is recognized by everyone as being extremely low is a fool's errand or in this case a serious mistake on those trying to reach a decision. Proof will come in the form of statistics, not examining three specific cases.

The direct effect of MMR vaccine may not necessarily be the the cause of autism, however, when you have or live in a state with the highest rate of autistic children it is not difficult to see that those states have highest number of mandatory vaccinations. NJ for example just added Flu shot to the list. And by the time child gets his or hers 18 month MMR shot the system is already overloaded and usually MMR becomes the trigger. And we should see that all reaserch in connection with vaccines has been done by FDA financed research facilities that are affraid to lose funding. By the way we all see how effective they are in peanut salmonella outbreak and prevention.

: J Biomed Sci. 2002 Jul-Aug;9(4):359-64.Links
Abnormal measles-mumps-rubella antibodies and CNS autoimmunity in children with autism.
Singh VK, Lin SX, Newell E, Nelson C.

Department of Biology and Biotechnology Center, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA. singhvk@cc.usu.edu

Autoimmunity to the central nervous system (CNS), especially to myelin basic protein (MBP), may play a causal role in autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder. Because many autistic children harbor elevated levels of measles antibodies, we conducted a serological study of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and MBP autoantibodies. Using serum samples of 125 autistic children and 92 control children, antibodies were assayed by ELISA or immunoblotting methods. ELISA analysis showed a significant increase in the level of MMR antibodies in autistic children. Immunoblotting analysis revealed the presence of an unusual MMR antibody in 75 of 125 (60%) autistic sera but not in control sera. This antibody specifically detected a protein of 73-75 kD of MMR. This protein band, as analyzed with monoclonal antibodies, was immunopositive for measles hemagglutinin (HA) protein but not for measles nucleoprotein and rubella or mumps viral proteins. Thus the MMR antibody in autistic sera detected measles HA protein, which is unique to the measles subunit of the vaccine. Furthermore, over 90% of MMR antibody-positive autistic sera were also positive for MBP autoantibodies, suggesting a strong association between MMR and CNS autoimmunity in autism. Stemming from this evidence, we suggest that an inappropriate antibody response to MMR, specifically the measles component thereof, might be related to pathogenesis of autism. Copyright 2002 National Science Council, ROC and S. Karger AG, Basel

PMID: 12145534 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

: Pediatr Neurol. 2003 Apr;28(4):292-4.Click here to read Links

Comment in:
Pediatr Neurol. 2004 Jan;30(1):78; author reply 78.

Elevated levels of measles antibodies in children with autism.

Virus-induced autoimmunity may play a causal role in autism. To examine the etiologic link of viruses in this brain disorder, we conducted a serologic study of measles virus, mumps virus, and rubella virus. Viral antibodies were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the serum of autistic children, normal children, and siblings of autistic children. The level of measles antibody, but not mumps or rubella antibodies, was significantly higher in autistic children as compared with normal children (P = 0.003) or siblings of autistic children (P <or= 0.0001). Furthermore, immunoblotting of measles vaccine virus revealed that the antibody was directed against a protein of approximately 74 kd molecular weight. The antibody to this antigen was found in 83% of autistic children but not in normal children or siblings of autistic children. Thus autistic children have a hyperimmune response to measles virus, which in the absence of a wild type of measles infection might be a sign of an abnormal immune reaction to the vaccine strain or virus reactivation.

PMID: 12849883 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE

For those who want to believe there is a link, no evidence will ever be enough. They will continue on with their tirade – tilting at windmills for no good purpose. I respectfully suggest that their energy would be best applied in other pursuits.

I agree with Twyla's point above. Until I see a study that measures the incedence of autism (and other suspected vaccine related side effects) in vaccinated vs unvaccinated populations, I remain skeptical of the denials and "proof" offered so far. This does not strrike me as a difficult study to design. Of course, if it is done by the same groups currently raging against any parent that does not support mass vaccination, it will be of dubious value.

To Cesar: My 2 older sons have received the MMR shot. Both spiked a slight low-grade fever (about 100.2- which is a fairly common side effect). In my son with ASD it did not make it worse. In fact other then the fever (that my son without ASD also had) there was no side effects.

To Marie: Thank you my feeling exactly! The more funding on these studies the less that goes to proven therapies (like ABA!) that work.

To Jeff in Illinois: I'm what you would call pro-vaccine, my son has autism- classic autism not Aspergers. He is the only member of my or my husband's families for as far back as we can research that does. Neither one of my other two sons have autism. My son that is autistic was born with it. Vaccines had nothing to do with it. He also because of family history had immunological screening done at 6 months BEFORE he received his vaccinations.

To john hemenway: There has been a few informal studies done on religions that do not vaccinate. The difficulty is this- there are very very few religions that don't. Certain Amish do not (its normally more of a money issue then religious because they do not have health insurance for the most part and so many receive their vaccines at free clinics) , but as many as 70% of Amish children are vaccinated. Also of the religions that don't, some reject all forms of medical intervention and therefore well-kept medical records don't exist. In any study they have done- there have always been cases of unvaccinated children having autism. There hasn't been a broad study done that I know of yet that can give exact percentages.

I am a public health nurse. Probably one of the most challenging aspects of our profession is ensuring that when our families do "research" on vaccinations, they are receiving information from a credible, medical source. If you were looking to buy a car, you would probably contact the Canadian or American motor association for credible, independent advice about a reliable vehicle. So why do parents continue to bypass the American pediatric society, Canadian pediatric society, and their local health authorities and choose to believe the information on anti -vaccination websites? I have read some of these blogs, and they are truly comical if you are reading them with a medical background. I have seen everything from people posting their name with a "medical degree or designation" that does not exist, to parents making statement about what vaccinnes their child received that they could not possible have had..such as a family claiming that their child had the MMR vaccine at 2 months of age and was harmed( MMR vaccine is not given anywhere in the world at 2 months of age). Themerosal (the "mercury") was removed from all routine childhood vaccines over a decade ago, yet I still hear parents lament over all the mercury in the vaccines. NO ONE has ever claimed that an individual could NOT POSSIBLY be harmed by a vaccine,but the risk of harm is incredibly low. Yet, I can guarantee if your child ends up in emergency with suspected meningitis or whooping cough, you are NOT going to be studying the product monograph to see if the antibiotic or other medicine that is being used to SAVE YOUR CHILD's Life will contain, thimerosol, alluminum, or any other "poisons" that some parents claim are harming thier children through vaccination. You think that getting the disease will make your child stronger? Then how come when there is a disease outbreak of the measles, mumps or meningitis, the health clinics suddenly get overwhelemed with calls DEMANDING that their non-vaccincated child (by chioce) suddenly gets the vaccine? It is because the risk of harm to their child then becomes real. I respect choice, and I think parents need to do what they think is best for their children. I only hope that these choices are based on sound scientific research and not illogical fear. Anyone can book an appointentment (in Canada) at their community vaccination clinic for the sole purpose of gathering more information.about vaccines. No health professional will, or should, force the shots apon you, or make you feel like a bad parent for wanting this imformation if you have not decided to vaccinate. For those parents who are trying to make a decision on whether to vaccinate, I hope you recieve the support and information you need. Good luck!

As a parent of an Autistic son, I can only tell you that it is heartbreaking, hard work, financially devastating, and baffling. I watch/listen to my son cry inconsolably some nights. He cannot speak/communicate to tell me why he is crying. I try to explain to my neighbors that my son cannot help himself after they bang furiously on the walls of our apartment. I read comments from experts or novices about how autistic kids just want to be by themselves. I am certain that my son has not chosen this life. I have been to public school programs where they direct you to a broken-down, mobile trailer behind the school. Inside there are old taped together desks, dirty broken toys, and a loveseat, arms black from years of wear and stuffing hanging out one side. There is one trained teacher and one untrained helper for some 18 kids, most of which need individualized attention if there is any hope of them learning skills/progressing. I cannot help thinking that this is the best the "richest country in the world" can do. My vet's office is newer, cleaner, etc. and has almost a 1:1 ratio or caregivers to pets. We try Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Applied Behavior Analysis, Play Therapy, Floor Time, sign language, and on and on without signficant results. The level of training from agency to agency varies dramatically and there seems to be a high level of turnover of therapists. I read about and occasionally try one of the myriad of treatments that have cured the child of the article's/book's child. I never find any reputable studies on the internet to support the author's claim however. I offer to fly out to see the author's child, but my offers are never accepted. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate – with schools, with my insurance company, etc. All of these things that I pay for in one way or another, and they do not want to provide/pay for any thing.

If you have made it this far in my diatribe, let me close by saying that, to a certain extent, the vaccine ruling is irrelevant. We need to find the cause or causes to be certain to prevent one more parent from having to experience the heartbreak of watching their child suffer from Autism. However, regardless of the vaccine case ruling, we need more treatment, better treatment, better facilities, and we need financial support.

I would like to know what percentage of parents that have opted out of vaccines have children with autism. Now that would be telling, but I can't find any data for this, figures.

PS. I have family member with autism.... gut instinct tells me this is from vaccines, I've done enough independent research to see that we can not blindly trust what the govt allows to be doled out.

What is the answer? Less vaccines...does anyone know an autistic person 40 years old or older? I don't. Did we have these type of vaccines in our day? Some, but not all.

Virtually everyone I've spoken to, and everything I've read, indicate that autism is a brain "wiring problem". My son sees the world ( and everything) differently than I do. He sees things I never would have noticed. His visual and auditory senses are much more acute than mine. He is driven and obsessed by "what he needs to do". We have learned to deal with this, both my son and I.
The degree that a brain has a "wiring problem" probably determines the degree of impairment. If a child's senses were more acute than my son's, it may prevent normaI reaction to the inputs and may block out everything else.
I absolutely believe that my son was born the way he is and that it's probably an inherited genetic trait. I do not believe that any form of autism is caused by vaccinations. I am basing this on my personal research and the very instincts that recognized that my son was "different" on the day he was born.

MMR NOT ONLY SAFE– IT ALSO ALLEVIATES AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

from – Randy Crawford 3701 Second St. #10 Coralville, Iowa 52241 (319)400-2837
randycrawford52241@hotmail.com rancrawfo@hotmail.com

The federal vaccine court is to be congratulated for ruling Feb. 12, 2009 MMR does NOT cause autism and other diseases. I have been using dozens and dozens of repeated doses of MMR for years, because it is the only thing that will alleviate my autoimmune disease processes. I know from direct experience that MMR is completely safe and free from side effects. It is effective to alleviate autoimmune disease, and works best when injected every day for weeks at a time. MMR works even better when given with other live virus vaccines like varicella and yellow fever. The stories that mercury combines with MMR in some weird way is also demonstrably false, because when I took a dozen tetanus-diptheria shots with thimerosal the same days I got MMR, there were no side effects either. When kids get sick about the time of getting a vaccine, it's only an event that would have happened anyway and had nothing to do with the shot– like with a million people watching TV today some will have heart attacks next week, but the heart attacks would have happened anyway and had nothing to do with watching TV the week beforehand. Now that the courts have ruled intelligently, doctors don't have to be paranoid about using MMR and they can help more people with multiple MMR injections. And that's good for people who need relief from autoimmune disease. MMR works against autoimmune disease by acting as an immunodistractant to down-modulate eosinophils, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and other leukocytes.

As a former critical care registered nurse, and more recently a disabled 40 year old man, I know first hand about Pharma side effects. I was on Lipitor for high cholesterol for 3 years, and developed Mitochondrial Mutations of my Mitochondrial DNA, with Neuronal Apoptosis (Brain Cell Death) as a direct result of my LIPITOR use. Nowhere will you find this listed as a potential effect, unless you are part of a STATIN EFFECTS Study and your case is presented to Dr. Doug Wallace of the UC Irvine, one of the worlds foremost mitochondrial experts, who opined that LIPITOR was the causal contributor to my Mitochondrial DNA mutations as well as the neuronal apoptosis evidenced on Electron Microscopy of my brain Biopsy.
I for one will never again trust anything from our FDA, there is much credible research out there if you sift through it objectively, and read every part of it.
My heart goes out to any and all patients and families who have been let to believe the junk science pushed on medical doctors by salesmen for the BIGGEST WHORES in the world, big pharma.

As a Pediatrician in private practice, the autism – vaccine link has long been resolved for me.Before this special vaccine trial, the evidence has long been known to the medical community -there is NO link .More important than this trial is the news reports from the Times of London that Dr Wakefield was working for Trial Attorneys when he wrote his controversial paper and that he changed results of his study to make a point for his financial gain.He is now getting a large salary here in the US as head of an Autism foundation. He and others like him stand to make Huge sums of money by keeping this controversy alive.Until he is sanctioned and exposed for the quack that he is,autism rsearch will continue to waste money barking up the wrong tree

As a autism therapist,I can tell you that autism is a "relationship"problem.The best way to help autistic children is to help PARENTS by telling them what's the^problem.

Mike Z is absolutely correct. No one is saying that vaccinations are without side effects but so far there has been no convincing evidence that autism is caused by vaccinations, whether it be the MMR vaccine or thimerosal. What is known is that those diseases can be deadly, take measles for example: there are several potentially deadly side effects of measles but likely the worst side effect is encephalitis which is much worse than autism and occurs in about 1:1000 cases of measles. Many people haven't seen the diseases that are vaccinated for so do not fear them. Another good example is polio, read about polio in the 1950s and it was a horrible disease crippling millions of people and putting people in an iron lung sometimes for decades. They built whole hospitals to house the people that had polio. Fortunately a vaccine came out to prevent polio. There were side effects with that initial vaccine (the oral vaccine) and the main side effect was polio itself but at a much, much lower rate than the people who didn't get vaccinated. Now we have an injection version which does not have that side effect. Unfortunately as humans we more often than not succumb to the emotional argument and so when Jenny McCarthy gets on her soapbox we listen.

Finally, the reason prevails. Maybe there will be fewer of those who irresponsibly endanger my daughter's health by sending their unvaccinated kids to her school. Or have we forgotten why do we need vaccinations?

I am Colten Snyders mother and YES vaccines do cause Autism. As far as The "special masters" rulings this is what I think. Listen to the words from John Mayhers song Waiting on the world to change. "When you trust your television what you get is what you got, cause when you own the information you can bend it all you want, that's why I'm waitin', waitin ' on the world to change. The song says it all. We can't even trust these people to keep us safe from peanut butter. Until you have lived the story you will never know the scope of it.

Mrs. Snyder, we are all sorry about your son's condition. When we are angry, it is natural to look for a something (or someone) to blame. Or what we could've done differently. But sometimes tragedies (illnesses, accidents, deaths) simply happen for no reason, or at least for no reason that we have control over. Although I am sure they've told you that countless times, I hope that some day you will be able to hear it. You have done nothing wrong by vaccinating your son. Blaming it on vaccine is not unlike the way people used to blame for autism those kids' mothers' supposed lack of attention to the children. Yet neither has anything to do with this illness, at least not according to the available truly scientific evidence.