Immunize you crazy parents!

Oliver's post : Disclaimer - Maybe long and boring

So in my micro-bio class we have been studying the immune system and immunization quite a bit these past few weeks. I have been baffled over the past few years hearing so many negative things from parents (in Utah County especially) about giving kids shots. The most common reason I have heard for this uprising of non-immunization of children is fear. That is what it comes down to. They have heard it through the grape-vine that some agent in some shot will give their child Autism or something crazy. I would like to write a few of my thoughts on the subject.

First off, because of immunizations over the last 50-60 years, my generation has not had to see the effects of the horrific diseases that have plagued human beings since recorded history. I have never even seen anyone with polio. None of my friends kids or my wives friends kids or my nieces or nephews have died of measles or mumps as an infant. I think if we had all of these horrible diseases around and our doctor asked us...I can guarantee that your child won't get polio, or measles, or mumps, or rubella, or whatever disease that was rampant, we would be all over that. Now that those diseases are super rare (BECAUSE OF IMMUNIZATIONS) people aren't scared of them.

Second, IMMUNIZATIONS DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM! Look, I know your mother-in-law or the relief society president has a friend who's sister's husbands' brother's cousin's friend swears that "my kid changed the day after he got his 6 month booster shots" or something similar. I'm pretty sure science has been wrong in the past, and you can use that argument if you want. But almost everything, I mean EVERYTHING in your life that you can and can't think of has been scrutinized by scientists. You trust your life every second to the fact that something has been tested by science and you are 100% OK with it. Everything you eat from a can or package is pasteurised or autoclaved or sent through radiation to kill all bacterial and viral life. Every single part in your car was tested vigorously hundreds of thousands of times. The computer screen in front of you will most likely not blow up in your face, because of the same thing, vigorous testing.
Now let's bring this full circle back around to Autism. Autism is one of the most prevalent of the genetic disorders and has been studied immensely, probably more than you could imagine. There have also been lots of studies to try to link Autism to immunizations. Trust me, the one thing we have more of in this country than scientific studies is lawyers, and if a lawyer could get their hands on even a single study out there that could remotely link autism to a shot, there would be no shots at all and many rich parents of autism (and even more rich lawyers) But news flash, they haven't, not because of some government cover-up, or because the drug industry has supreme power over our country. There has not been any real evidence. In fact, all studies have pretty much come up with the same thing. There is no connections. I could link hundreds of articles about this, but I found one article that sums up nicely what most of the research says:

"Because of a temporal correlation between the first notable signs and symptoms of autism and the routine childhood vaccination schedule, many parents have become increasingly concerned regarding the possible etiologic role vaccines may play in the development of autism. In particular, some have suggested an association between the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine and autism. Our literature review found very few studies supporting this theory, with the overwhelming majority showing no causal association between the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine and autism. The vaccine preservative thimerosal has alternatively been hypothesized to have a possible causal role in autism. Again, no convincing evidence was found to support this claim, nor for the use of chelation therapy in autism. With decreasing uptake of immunizations in children and the inevitable occurrence of measles outbreaks, it is important that clinicians be aware of the literature concerning vaccinations and autism so that they may have informed discussions with parents and caregivers."

Link to the article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17168158

As the summary says, the first notable signs of autism happen to occur in most cases around the time that children get their booster shots. As a father of a child with a genetic disorder, I can say that it is natural for a parent to want to find a reason behind why their kid has a genetic disorder. As a father of a child with a genetic syndrome, I have struggled a bit with the "why." To tell you the truth, there is no why. Random 1 in 20,000 chance and here he is. Does that mean we love him less? No. Does that mean that if he had autism instead of angelman syndrome I'd love him less? Of course not. If he did have autism instead, would I be a little skeptical of why he started getting certain characteristics around the time he got his shots. I'm sure I would be a little wary. Like i said earlier, science has been wrong in the past, but the evidence we have before us is there. No studies can link immunizations with increase of autism, but on the contrary, immunization have been proven to prevent your child from getting several of the most common horrific diseases that were so much a part of even our grandparents lives.

Thanks to immunizations, there is no small pox. Thanks to immunizations, there is almost 0 measles, mumps, rubella, tuberculosis, plague, polio, pertussis, diphtheria, Hepatitis B...the list goes on.

I think I've rambled on enough. Before you give up on immunizations, at least give it some research, and not make your decision solely based on a forwarded email from grandma.