First and foremost: I am not a doctor. Secondly, I am certainly not a scientist. However, there are certain things I hold to be true:
1) One should reserve judgment on medical/scientific matters until the science outweighs the speculation.
2) One should examine studies for BASIC scientific validity before accepting their results (sample size, controls, et cetera). If the study was done in by a scientist in a country you’ve never heard of, involving only 12 children of all different ages, and they live in a filthy village half a mile from a power plant and half a mile from a polluted stream…we can probably disregard the results.
3) On medical/scientific matters, neither politicians nor corporate spokespeople are the best sources for information.
4) One should easily identify the difference between a “possible causal relationship” and “a proven causal relationship.” Just because event “A” preceded event “B” doesn’t mean that “A” caused “B.” Similarly, if conditions “A,” “B,” “C,” and, “D” exist…it DOES NOT FOLLOW that condition “A” is the cause of condition “D.”
In the debate regarding infant vaccinations and autism…I find the general public guilty of violating most of these precepts. While campaigning for President, John McCain flogged the connection, stating there was “strong evidence” of a connection between MMR (Measles-Mumps-Rubella) vaccinations and autism (this author finds him to be incredibly brave for doing so). Obama and Clinton took similar positions, calling for more research. All three of them cited only speculation and generalizations…NOT hard evidence, which when dealing with the health and safety of our children, should be ALL that we care about.
Despite the fact that none of these individuals are actually scientific experts…the people listened…
Doctors and scientists told us that the rate of autism was going through the roof. They failed to explain that several different disorders fall under the blanket term of “autism“…and that each of the different disorders might well have a different cause…or that part of the increase might very well be increased diagnosis… and that a lot more children see doctors than used to be the case…or that many in the past were labeled “introverted, troubled, or behaviorally challenged“…and that many that were once diagnosed with ADHD are now identified as autistic…
They failed to explain ANY of the other reasons that there might only appear to be an increase…and the people listened…
Doctors and scientists published studies with unsubstantiated “causal suggestions.” Everybody knew mercury is a “bad thing,” so if there is a mercury-based preservative in the MMR vaccine, then THAT must be the cause. Too bad studies showed no decrease in autism when the preservative WASN’T PRESENT. They pointed at Amish communities and said, “They don’t get the vaccine and they don’t have autistic kids…so the vaccine must be the cause.” A child with no research training could point out that the Amish don’t do A LOT of things that we do. They have different diets, different lifestyles, different homes, different materials in their homes and their clothes, different medicine, and so on. Scientists said, “It’s a combination…kids with stomach problems who get the vaccine…are more likely to be autistic” because some British scientist said it a long time ago and nobody bothered to repeat the study. However, that connection has now ALSO been debunked.
These “studies” are no better than the one done by the Cornell University Professor, who concluded that because his study showed children in high-precipitation locales had a higher incidence of autism…autism must be caused by something kids like to do when it’s raining.
But, it doesn’t matter how weak the evidence of causation…the people listened…
So…
An increasing number of parents have opted out of MMR vaccines for their children…some cite the fears of autism…some vent their anger at the “money-hungry pharmaceutical companies.” And some parents who already have children diagnosed with autism breathes sighs of relief. Now they can say, “It was nothing in my genes.” Now they can say, “It’s nothing I did or didn’t do while pregnant.” They have a place to lay the blame outside of themselves. They have a place to focus their anger and disappointment. It doesn’t matter whether or not they’ve found the right place to focus their anger…just that it is on someone other than themselves.
And with the increase of children not receiving the vaccine…there is a PROVEN AND ESTABLISHED increase in the incidence of potentially fatal and highly contagious measles outbreaks. The highest in a decade…
Doctors cite that the case against MMR has not been sufficiently proven, and that the risk posed by the diseases outweighs any concerns over the vaccinations…
…but the people WON’T listen.
In a special federal court, judges ruled that the evidence presented against the vaccines was “overwhelmingly contrary” to the wealth of scientific evidence establishing that the vaccinations are, in fact, safe. The judges, after hearing all the evidence and experts on both sides, stated: “It was abundantly clear that petitioners’ theories of causation were speculative and unpersuasive…the weight of scientific research and authority [is] simply more persuasive on nearly every point in contention.”
But the people..still WON’T listen.
A recent study shows a much stronger potential link between extremely preterm babies (also on the rise) and autism, but caution that the autism may trigger the preterm birth, and not the other way around.
But the people DEFINITELY WON’T listen to this…
…why?
Because it is so much more comforting to blame a big, over-charging drug company…then to accept any other theory in which the cause of autism is possibly even the least bit environmental. Our minds fill with irrational and exaggerated fears and guilt. We start wondering if it was because we smoked while pregnant or took a pill to stop smoking while pregnant. Or maybe it was that party with the Long Island Iced Teas. Or maybe it was the pill we took for our “social anxiety” or so we’d have a “shorter, lighter, more wonderful period.” Or maybe it was that artificial sweetener in our diet drink. Or maybe it was the twenty electrical gadgets we carry in our pockets and on our person. Or maybe we shouldn’t have postponed/avoided prenatal treatment. Or maybe it’s because we worked right up until our water broke, in our job filled with environmental threats.
Now…I’m certainly not saying that any of these things actually cause autism (some are pretty ridiculous examples…some not so much)…I’m saying that these are the fears that cause us to discard environmental theories. We cannot accept that potentially our actions…especially something we maybe knew that we should or shouldn’t do…caused our baby to be born prematurely…which may have caused our baby to have autism. It’s a pill that is too big, too bitter to swallow.
…and those fears are causing people to avoid vaccinations…
…and THAT is causing more children to get sick…and to die.
It reminds me of something from an episode of House M.D….so I’ll leave you with that:
[House walks away. Cut to the clinic and House is in an exam room with a young mother and her baby.]Young Mother: No formula, just mommy’s healthy natural breast milk.
House: Yummy.
Young Mother: Her whole face just got swollen like this overnight.
House: Mmhmm. No fever, glands normal, missing her vaccination dates.
Young Mother: We’re not vaccinating.
Young Mother: [Takes a toy frog and starts to make frog sounds] Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit. [Giggles][Baby smiles and giggles too]
House: Think they don’t work?
Young Mother: I think some multinational pharmaceutical company wants me to think they work. Pad their bottom line.
House: Mmmm. May I? [He takes the frog and starts to do the gribbit noise with the baby]
Young Mother: [Whispered] Sure.
House: Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit. [The baby laughs] All natural no dyes. That’s a good business: all-natural children’s toys. Those toy companies, they don’t arbitrarily mark up their frogs. They don’t lie about how much they spend in research and development. The worst a toy company can be accused of is making a really boring frog.
[Young Mother laughs and so does House. The baby giggles again]
House: Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit. You know another really good business? Teeny tiny baby coffins. You can get them in frog green or fire engine red. Really. The antibodies in yummy mummy only protect the kid for 6 months, which is why these companies think they can gouge you. They think that you’ll spend whatever they ask to keep your kid alive. Want to change things? Prove them wrong. A few hundred parents like you decide they’d rather let their kid die then cough up 40 bucks for a vaccination, believe me, prices will drop REALLY fast. Gribbit, gribbit, gribbit, gribbit, gribbit.
Young Mother: Tell me what she has.
House: A cold.
[Cut to House leaving the clinic.]