Caution Before Tossing Out Vaccine-Autism Link

by John M. Curtis
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Copyright January 10, 2011
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                 Vaccine makers around the planet have done anything to discredit the groundbreaking 1998 British Medical Journal “Lancet” study of Dr. Andrew Wakefield showing a link between childhood vaccines and autism.  Alarming increases of autism in the U.S., now accounting for 1-in-110 births, was not accounted for by genetics or environmental factors.  While new research shows there’s two-fold risk of developing autism of children born less than two years apart, it still doesn’t account for the genetic and environmental factors responsible for current autism epidemic.  More frequent and potent-dosed vaccines have increased over the last 20 years, exposing newborns and toddlers to more toxic chemical exposure than in past years.  British authorities criticized Wakefield’s research methods, cherry-picking subjects with preexisting developmental problems.

            British Medical authorities stripped Wakefield of his medical license March 24, 2010 for discouraging parents from getting childhood vaccines, endangering countless numbers of children in the U.K.   Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet study “pretty clearly shows that vaccines are safe, and there does not seem to be a clear relationship that vaccines are causing autism,” said Dr. Robert Melilo, an autism expert and author of “Disconnected Kids.”  Melilo’s carefully nuanced language indicating there’s no “clear” link between vaccines and autism doesn’t mean that one does not exist.  Autism is a complex neurobehavioral disorder that affects communication, interfering with normal developmental learning.  Where the research community fails the public is their inability to extricate themselves from ties to vaccine makers.  Vaccine makers, of course, tout vaccine safety.

            Wakefield’s 1998 study opened the door to other researchers studying the mercury-based preservative Thimerosol, prompting vaccine makers to remove the preservative from various vaccines.  If vaccine makers really believed the vaccines were entirely safe, they wouldn’t have ordered mercury-free vaccines.  “Some 95% of the research is in the past couple of decades has been spent looking for a bad gene or genes,” said Melilo.  “There has not been a lot of research looking at environmental factors,” hinting at why, beyond Wakefield’s discredited research, there’s still a common sense explanation.  For many parents attempting to control for genetics, nutritional and environmental factors, the vaccine-autism link makes sense.  Showing no scientific proof doesn’t automatically mean that no such link exists.  Failure to meet scientific guidelines doesn’t rule out the link between vaccines and autism.

            Discrediting Wakefield, his 1998 study or any other aspect of the link between vaccines and autism doesn’t automatically let parents off the hook.  Just because vaccine makers’ research doesn’t show a scientific link, it doesn’t rule out significant trends or the common sense that tells parents that the dead virus in vaccines with or without mercury is no health-food for developing infants and babies.  Parents encouraged to buy purified water or organic food products, including formula or milk, surely don’t think that it’s healthy to ingest dead viruses soaked in mercury-based preservatives.  When Melilo says, “there has not been a lot of research looking at environmental factors,” he’s also referring to toxicity substances in an out of foods.  While there’s hope on the way for better diagnosis and treatments, parents know that autism is currently a lifelong developmental problem.

            No government agency, medical publication, doctor, researcher or news story can reassure parents faced with the critical decision to vaccinate their children.  Parents are well-aware of the risks of childhood diseases but won’t sacrifice their children because the science isn’t yet there to demonstrate a link between vaccines and autism, whether or not one exists.   “There is an overwhelming abundance of research dismissing any credible link between autism and vaccines,” said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavior pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of North Shore Jewish Health System in New York.  There’s no “overwhelming abundance” of anything when it comes to autism.  Only the sober realization that parents can’t count on today’s medical research too heavily influenced by drug companies and vaccine makers to be truly impartial and reliable.

            Reports discrediting the research and reputation of Dr. Andrew Wakefield can’t account for the alarming rise in autism in the U.S. and other industrialized countries.  When medical researchers paid by vaccine makers or drug companies make promises or guarantees about product safety they have to be taken skeptically. While there’s some concern about unvaccinated children spreading communicable diseases, there’s bigger worries to parents about protecting their children from toxic substances.  If vaccine injuries were not real, there wouldn’t be a federal court in Washington D.C. subsidized by the vaccine industry to the tune of billions to settle injury claims.  Without a coherent explanation from the vaccine industry about the alarming rise of autism, parents must use common sense when it comes to preventing toxic exposure to their children.  No one can tell you that vaccines, with or without mercury, are health food.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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