What is happening to our nation, when parents are so afraid of a non-fatal condition (that there is NO evidence is caused by immunization) that they will put the lives of their children, at risk? I could understand it if these were uneducated hillbillies with no concept of germ theory and an unhealthy fear of outsiders, but the core of these people are college educated professionals who have no excuse for this stupidity. I wish I could say more, I wanted to write a longer, more coherent piece, but the overpowering vastness of man's potential for stupidity has me awed. I am sorry, I'm just speechless.
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LOL! "Awed" you say. While I won't agree that there is "NO evidence", it certainly is not supported to the extent of being considered fact by any stretch of the imagination.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, I won't agree with you from the evidence standpoint, but the alternative is far, far worse. These people are putting their children at risk of contacting diseases that were almost considered wiped out 20 years ago.
Which brings me to another point. Dowe, I remember what your mom was like, so I KNOW you had a TON of shots growing up. As a matter of fact, I think anyone who has attended school since the 1960's has had a ton of shots. My question is, why weren't as many of us classified as either autistic or retarded as they are diagnosing now? Could it be that there is an influence other than or at least in conjunction with these immunizations?
Anyway, I'll let you tackle that one with another rant. :-)
I'm not sure what the answer is. AFAICT, it is one of the following:
ReplyDeleteA) There was no difference in the percentage of autistic children diagnosed, and there's only more media coverage of it now.
B) There are more children being diagnosed with autism now (There are after all relatively recent autism spectrum disorders like Asperger's Syndrome which were simply not widely known about when we were children).
C) Some as yet unknown environmental agent is causing more cases of autism spectrum disorders.
D) Or it may very well be a case of A, B and C. In this last scenario, There may or may not be an environmental factor causing more autistic children (Note: autism is still quite rare) in combination with more aggressive diagnosis of children with classic autism, high-functioning autism, and Asperger's Syndrome. And media sensationalization leading the credulous to assume the problem is greater than it truly is.
The important fact is that even if the vaccine had some impact we are talking about tiny percentages of children suffering from a non-fatal condition verses deadly and highly contagious diseases.