The vaccine-autism debate should end now...

[SidDithers]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090219.wlpicard19/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

Unfortunately, it is unlikely to put an end to unsubstantiated claims about the MMR vaccine and childhood vaccines more generally.

That's because a whole industry of hucksters has sprung up to promote alternatives to vaccines, and the vocal (and Web-savvy) minority of conspiracy theorists will see these thorough, thoughtful rulings as, well, just another part of the conspiracy by Big Pharma to poison kids for profit.

The vaccine-autism scare dates back a decade. In 1998, British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield and colleagues published a now-infamous article in The Lancet medical journal that suggested a jab of MMR could trigger bowel conditions in children that led to autism. The study of 12 children caused a furor, but the findings have never been reproduced or substantiated. A number of Dr. Wakefield's co-authors have retracted parts of the paper and others are facing professional misconduct charges.

The damage has been incredible. In Britain, about 25 per cent of children do not get the MMR vaccine and, as a result, there has been a resurgence of childhood illnesses such as measles.

Sid

[stray cat]

1. It should end but it won't: Science often isn't effective against strong opinions

[trotsky]

2. Since the whole movement was based on lies...

it's quite easy to simply invent new ones to keep it going.

[madrchsod]

3. bleeding people of their money for unproven treatments is their game

every generation has their share of charlatans...

[semillama]

4. K&R n/t

[uppityperson]

5. k&r

[Warpy]

6. There is nothing you can do about a cult

except limit the damage they do to people outside it.

There has never been any proven link between vaccines and any disease process, although every vaccine does have extremely rare and well known complications. The 25% of children who are unvaccinated in the UK have not resulted in a 25% decrease in the number of new autism cases diagnosed.

There is nothing one can do to placate the howler monkeys out there, whether they're 9/11 conspiracy nuts, holocaust deniers or antivaxers.

The best thing we can possibly do is point the facts out when they start to rant and rave to make the antivaxers a little less persuasive to people who are new to the manufactured controversy.

It is a manufactured controversy, too, based on Andrew Wakefield's falsification of data for money.

[damntexdem]

10. Yes, but where do the children deprived of vaccination fit?

Their parents are in the cult. Are the children outside the cult, too you to decide to be in the cult, so should the children be protected from their parents' cult? How easy would that be politically?

One approach, though far from perfect, is to use the herd-immunity argument: so long as enough children are vaccinated that a disease doesn't spread in schools, continue with the 'philosophical objections' exclusions, whereby parents can opt out of vaccination based on such objections while sending their unvaccinated kids to public school. But if vaccinations drop low enough that a disease is spreading, then there can no longer be the luxury of 'philosophical objection,' and ALL kids must be vaccinated to go to public school (or simply must be in law, no matter what the schooling arrangements). Of course, a major problem with this approach is that the condition that brings about the need for requiring universal vaccination is strongly related to low public support for vaccination, thus making the universal requirement more difficult to enact and enforce -- even in the face of pandemic.

[Warpy]

16. That's why it's mandatory in the US for all but the Amish

and people who will home school.

The mandatory nature of childhood vaccination before school participation protects most of our children in this country.

I'm afraid there is nothing the state can do about crazy parents who fall barely within social norms.

[truedelphi]

7. The witnesses and researchers brought forward to substantiate the

Autism and MMR connection were not the best.

This court case should not undercut not the remarkably interesting fact that in populations wherein no MMR vaccines are offered to children, there is also no autism (The Amish people, for instance, have very few cases of autism.)

It is only ONE court case. Offered only evidence that proved very little, the judges in the case could not offer a judgment other than the one that they did.

Perhaps next court case, the vaccine safety activists will have their ducks in a row.

[trotsky]

8. You should know that you're repeating a lie.

It was first put forth by proven liar Dan Olmsted, based on a flawed methodology (if you can even call it that) that only counted what a select group of health professionals said about their dealings with the Amish. It didn't actually survey the Amish themselves.

There is in fact a facility called the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, PA that specifically deals with autistic Amish children.
http://autism-news-beat.com/?p=29

There's even a unique genetic mutation found within Amish communities that causes a disorder "with seizures that progress to autism and retardation". Fascinating, no?

Really - think about it. If there were such an obvious and basic example "proving" a connection between lack of MMR and lack of autism, how could there be ANY debate whatsoever?

[FatDave]

11. "such an obvious and basic example"

Not to nitpick, but seems like there's a whole lot of things non-Amish children are exposed to that Amish children aren't. A lack of autism in Amish children, if one even existed, would actually prove nothing regarding vaccinations. It could be due to a lack of exposure to television, microwave cooking, food additives, or fluorescent lights just to name a few.

[trotsky]

14. You are absolutely correct. n/t

[truedelphi]

17. I should have known it was you, T. n/t

[trotsky]

25. T = truth n/t

[beam me up scottie]

21. Fascinating.

Nice legwork, trotsky.

[damntexdem]

12. More likely, they'll have their decoys in a row, and try to fool the judges,

Expect fowl play. ;-)

[varkam]

22. Just. Flat. Wrong.

The Amish vaccinate and they also have autism.

[damntexdem]

9. Should but won't.

Should have long ago but didn't.

[Usrename]

13. What about Thimerosal?

It never has been used in the MMR vaccine, has it?

Thimerosal has not been ruled out as a cause of autism, has it?

[Warpy]

24. It has

The numbers have been crunched to death and there has been no link found.

There has been no decrease in the number of new autism diagnoses since thimerosol has been removed from mandatory childhood vaccines.

[progressoid]

15. Who needs vaccines?

I'm going to protect my family with one of these big fucking crystals:



The bigger, the better right?

[HuckleB]

23. Sweet!

[EvolveOrConvolve]

18. Britain ought to criminalize the act of withholding immunizations from children

After all, were a person do something else that caused the death of another, it would be considered a crime. Why doesn't this lunacy fall under the criminal code?

[xchrom]

19. recommend

[beam me up scottie]

20. k&r

Fundamentalists have to ignore evidence and invent their own facts, they know that eventually science will be their undoing.