No, vaccines aren’t behind the rise in autism
March 1, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Not just me saying this: No, vaccines aren’t behind the rise in autism is the title of a February 29th Huffington Post piece by Harold Pollack, Associate Professor at the School of Social Service Administration, and faculty chair of the Center for Health Administration Studies at the University of Chicago.
I’ll simply say that the scientific controversy has been put to bed long ago, even if many people angrily respond to this post.
Unfortunately, the same social currents that lead people to fear vaccines lead people to dismiss the messengers and messages that might assuage these fears. Elaine Showalter’s Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Culture appeared ten years ago. Too bad, because the vaccine-autism controversy provides a great illustration of how hysterical epidemics are spread through an interaction of families in pain, underlying cultural anxieties, issue advocates, and the modern media.
The vaccine-autism controversy features heart-wrenching testimony from parents who faithfully took their child to the pediatrician for shots, only to witness the onset of autism soon after. On the other side, it features pharmaceutical companies, often poster boys for corporate greed. It taps into public distrust of the influence and social authority of scientific medicine. It taps into public fears about strange chemicals that penetrate our bodies in novel combinations to do strange things.
Pollack notes that he and his wife are “caregivers for an intellectually disabled man” and “know only too well that families are drawn to quackery and hokum.”
There shouldn’t be a “scientific controversy” about whether or not vaccines or something in vaccines causes autism; about a hypothesis that some have called an urban myth. But perhaps, as Pollack notes, the possibility of a single, simple answer for what causes autism is too appealing and too comforting, if veering straight towards magical thinking.
Wow, I’m surprised HuffPo ran his piece! I expect he will be villified by the
usual cast of characters” in no time flat.
I hadn’t seen this article. Thank you so much for posting.
There is one distinct issue they are missing with vaccines when it comes to studies, however, IMHO. I remain unconvinced that the number of vaccines in the timeframe that they give them doesn’t generate an autoimmune response in susceptible children. I have only my own anecdotal experience to go from, but I have four children. Two boys, two girls. Boys are nearly identical when it comes to food allergies (anaphylactic to the same things), tongue tie, GERD. Girls have no known allergies. Yet my older boy and girl both have severe sensory issues, with daughter having many Asperger traits. Younger two have both been evaluated. Have no sensory issues and no ASD traits. The only difference is how I staggered their vaccines; all four children have received their full vaccine regimen (except for MMR booster… 105 F fevers, allergic reactions, and full-body rashes I can do without so we had them titred instead), but on a much more staggered schedule than the CDC’s. The younger two have also never had the fevers and crankiness we are told are “typical” after vaccines, which both older children had.
I have never been convinced that vaccines caused my son’s autism. He seemed strange right after birth. He was my third, so I know babies. He just wasn’t “right”. I am tired of so much attention going to the vaccine controversy.
I’ve been documented on film practically from birth thanks to my camera and film-obsessed (can anyone say Aspergers? Yes, they come in the over-80 variety too) and proud-to-be-grandfather-for-the-first-time grandfather. Looking back at that material, it’s easy to see my traits long before I turned 1. (Does make you wonder why I was diagnosed so late
). My parents never noticed anything odd about any of us due to them not knowing anything else, and them being just like that when they were little too.
Kristina,
Thanks very much for highlighting the article; I don’t frequent the Huff Post and would have missed it. Full marks to him.
I have had this sinking feeling that this is just going to continue to go around and around and around with shifting goalposts (what constituent is said to be responsible) and flareups based on the smallest possibility of related, but not relevant news (the settled case) spun into significance.
I think Dr. Pollack expressed the situation quite well. From what I see in the comments at Huff Post, I don’t know if the response will be more reflective than a, “Oh yeah?!…(usual stuff)”
Holy cow! Thanks for bringing this to people’s attention. The only Huffblog posts on autism I have read were by Kirby and Kennedy, not exactly reputable sources. I have two severely affected kids and they were such from birth.
There are some free autism podcasts at http://www.mic.mypodcast.com that explain the whole vaccine as is pertains to autism issue. “Autism and Vaccines, Parts I and II” are put out by Midnight in Chicago and are highly regarded.
In essence study after study shows that there is no linkage bewteen autism and vaccines. The podcasts will take you through the controversy from beginning to end.