Vaccines and Autism: Videos on Newsweek
October 25, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
On Newsweek: Three videos with interviews with Dr. Paul Offit, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania medical school; Robert Krakow, a New York attorney who’s the father of an autistic son and who is representing more than 75 families who believe a vaccine caused autism in their child; and myself. The videos are below or go here to Newsweek.—— And here’s a profile of Dr. Offit by Claudia Kalb in Newsweek.
Oh my gosh. We have read the voice of reason and now to hear the voice! You are brave and at the same time diplomatic. The focus does need to be on service educational for kids up to age 22 and residential settings for adults.
I hope in my life time that residential services for adults with disabilities are a given. Parents could breathe easier and enjoy their children knowing what the future holds.
Perfect! Yes, we’ve read the voice of reason, and now we hear it. You are fantastic! Go Kristina!
Wow! All I can say is that I am very glad that your intelligent, eloquent voice is out there representing the views of many of us.
Ah, Kristina, your friendly, non confrontational manner is a delight to behold, along with your common sense and realistic approach.
If only more people realized that one can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!
We definitely DO need to take the focus off vaccines and concentrate on helping our autistic children to deal with the challenging issues that face them everyday.To prepare them for their journey into adulthood, and to make that transition easier for them!
Much time money and energy has been wasted that could certainly have been put to better use, here.
If only more people realized that one can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!
Sorry, for repeating myself there.(blushes)
That’s what happens when ya try to do something in a rush!
Great job Kristina, well said.
Mrs Chew,
You have read too many books and never learned to think for yourself.
thanks, everyone! (said with lots of blushes)
Very nicely said, Kristina! Thank you for being a voice of reason and a true advocate!
Kristina,
Wonderful interview! It is always a pleasure to hear your views and I just want to thank you for sharing your experiences with the rest of us.
Kev – Forming opinions is all about taking information, running it through the filter of your own experience, and coming to some sort of a conclusion on where you stand. I wouldn’t dare to claim that you are incapable of thinking for yourself just because your opinion disagrees with my own and I find it sad that making disparaging comments is the only way you can seem to find to support your own personal views, a common theme in the majority of your posts.
As with all of us, obviously autism has touched your life and that you are doing what you feel is necessary to help improve the quality of life for all autistic individuals and their families. And I can understand your frustration when you feel that people are being misinformed about the causes of autism as you see them. I feel the same way, although my opinion on that differs from yours.
I just think that we can disagree while still holding each other in respect.
Kristina, very well done. I especially appreciate your continued focus on what must be done now to help autistic children and adults.
While many feel compelled to deal with and debate causation, we can not allow that to overshadow the need for all parents to come together and provide for the tomorrows of their loved ones as the first priority.
Addressing the autism vaccine link is not negative. Solid answers can save kids in the future. Sorry, Christina but I think spending energy on answering ‘why?’ is productive.
Mike McCarron said,
…While many feel compelled to deal with and debate causation, we can not allow that to overshadow the need for all parents to come together and provide for the tomorrows of their loved ones as the first priority.
Well spoken Mike.
Well spoken Kristina.
I think it’s great to spend time and energy on “why” as long as there’s a sensible potential answer to “why” that’s being investigated. It’s when we pander to emotional, angry, irrational mobs and waste money, time, energy, and resources that could be directed to existing autistic people that I get ticked off.
More discussion on Mr. Krakow’s contribution here:
http://www.autismstreet.org/weblog/?p=207
In fact, he contributes.
Mary, the answer of “why” is being answered with genetic research (check out http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/ ). The vaccine/autism myth is taking money away from very important research in support systems in education and employment. The vaccine/autism factor jumped the shark a long time ago… it is time to move on.
Since I have a severely learning disabled son who could be killed by the actual diseases (hospitalized by croup multiple times, genetic heart condition, etc), I am keen on keeping the incidence of disease down and the educational/employment supports up. He has never been officially diagnosed as autistic… though when he was a senior in high school the psychologist brought it up as a possibility. He was initially looked at by a neurologist before the DSM was changed in 1994. As a parent of a disabled child, I very much resent the time and effort going to the vaccine/autism myth.
Mary, get familiar with your local library. Go down and see if you can check out Dr. Offit’s latest book (ours has four copies). If you cannot, ask them to order the book for their system. I did that many years ago with the very useful book “Childhood Speech Language and Listening Disorders, What Every Parent Should Know” by Patricia Hamaguchi… and the did get the book for the system (I also bought a copy and donated it to my kid’s school which had program for deaf/hard of hearing and speech delayed kids).
You might also want to check out:
Vaccinated by Paul Offit (just came out in paper back, I noticed at my local bookstore)
The Cutter Incident by Paul Offit
Plagues and People by William McNeill
Vaccines by Arthur Allen
Flu by Gina Kolata
The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
Also, looking at your website — please include in it the real definitive scientific evidence that the DTaP is worse than diphtheria (which returned to countries that were formally part of the USSR and killed lots of kids), tetanus (which there is no herd immunity for) and pertussis (which still kills over a dozen American babies each year), and that the MMR is worse than mumps (a great cause of deafness), rubella (read “Deaf Like Me” by the Spradley brothers, there was an epidemic in the early 1960s), and measles (which tends to kill one out of a thousand, you should read what happened to Roald Dahl’s oldest child). Do us a favor, show us what it is here!
The notion of “negative energy” spent was actually raised by a friend of mine who does think vaccines had something to do with her child being autistic. We know we’ve got really different opinions about certain topics and we also know that we share a lot—like the difficulties of our children transitioning to middle school—and that, at the end of the day, we’re in it together.
Kristina, middle school transition was simple compared to high school, and afterward. But is not that bad, every parent has similar issues:
http://www.apraxia-kids.org/site/c.chKMI0PIIsE/b.980831/apps/s/content.asp?ct=464417
The saving grace we have is a the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, which has contracted with a few disabled advocacy agencies who work to get the disabled in the work place. It is a long hard road.
Also, we are fortunate that the community college system has a very good disability services program. Being that my son is officially an adult, I try not to pry into his academic performance… but I did insist he get the appointment with the disabilities counselor this past fall after they sent me a letter. He did not like it, but it worked out.
I am trying to push him into adulthood, though I know it is a long hard road (sorry for repeating that!). He is presently a 15 year old in a 20 year old body. It takes time and patience.
Kristina
It’s very sad that you could decide for yoruself that vaccines could “not be the case” for causing autism. That may be true for your son. Vaccines are immune mediated events – it’s more than reasonable to answer teh question if these events that we are imposing oun our young children could be causing the epidemic of autoimmune diseases.
I also cannot fathom how one might consider looking for the cause of afflictions could possibly be negative? If we are to build a greater, more robust society this search for the truth is exactly what we should do. There should be outrage at the number of special needs kids being “produced” in our country – we need to find all the causes!
I do not know any parent who believes vaccines harmed their child that has ever suggested that resources be directed away from helping families with specail needs children – on the contrary, they are advocates of this basic need…so why would one want to pit these parents against one another..that is shameful.
One final point, you mention studies, and you suggest that people always find fault with them…that might be true because these studies generally are of such small sample size and not well crafted that statistics 101 says the results are not to be relied upon (not significant). The simple fact remains that there has never been a double blind, placebo controlled study of any size done on the vaccine schedule. The reality is that our children in the great country are the guinea pigs of hypothetical guesses by the medical establishemnt that may have started out as a well intentioned public health endeavor, but is now so corrupted with conflicts of interest that we all should be calling for public oversight. Dr. Offit is a prime example, he receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from phamaceutical firms, he refuses to exclude himself from votes on vaccines that he himself designed and stands to become wealthy if the vaccines are approved. That is conflict, that is wrong and if we as a public cannot see or stop that, then we deserve to keep watching as our children are harmed.
@Chris H,
I think I’ll just take middle school one day at a time, with constant forays in to the long view. Charlie is the youngest child in his class though he is the tallest and I wonder how often that gets overlooked (not intentionally, just in the heat of the moment).
@Ron,
What brings all parents of autistic children together are the basic struggle to take care of our children; people choose the avenues that they discern to be appropriate. We all have to figure out how to help our kids in school, with their education, and, again, we all share much more in this struggle (and in the struggles that await as our children grow up into teenagers and adults) than divides us.
HCN, while you were at “Mary’s” site, did you check out the “retain my services” link? w00t.
Kristina said “though he is the tallest and I wonder how often that gets overlooked”
Not an unfounded observation… it is odd, but tall children seem to be perceived as having different intellectual capabilities. Which is both good and bad.
You are wise to take each day one at a time, and get to know you local school counselor and/or psychologist. My son did create friends in both middle and high school, but he did not like keeping them by calling them up after they go to different schools. I did notice when I was buying his textbooks at the community college that some students did stop to talk to him, so there is a bit of social network that they do not like parents to know about.
Good luck, we all hope for the best.
HCN,
Please don’t think you are the only one ‘read up.’ Give me a break with the arrogance. I have no vaccine injured children, but after having read volumes, speaking to many parents and attending seminars, I have certainly concluded vaccines do injure and kill. This is fact– and please don’t give me the ‘one-in-a-million’ nonsense. I think you are wrong and Hannah Poling certainly proves that out, along with the Homefirst population. Am I permitted to disagree with you based on opposing and credible research? You bet– this is America.
One of the big complaints is that enough money has NOT been spent disproving the autism/vaccine link– not enough studies done by IMPARTIAL sources.
No vaccine injured children here either.
Or here. But I do know a child who had a hemolytic reaction to vaccines. He cannot be vaccinated. Which means that were he to come in contact with one of these deadly diseases, his life will be threatened. Which means that his mother really hopes that people whose children don’t have this one in a million or more (and for serious reactions, is that, no matter how much uninformed people sneer about it) response to vaccines have their children vaccinated on the regular schedule. In her case, her hope is justified, given her son’s vulnerability. We, for one family, will not be the ones responsible as vectors for the death of her child from measles or diphtheria or polio.
Does Mary have a vaccine injury BUSINESS? Mike, is that you? I see that you’re “not gonna let Big Pharma kick (you) around any more.” I can tell you, Big Polio or Big Pertussis or Big Meningitis make Big Pharma look like the 90-pound weakling on the beach. Or, if that’s not good enough, there’s always Big Tetanus or Big Diptheria. Hey, I know, let’s dance around the fire together three times, toss some indigo crystals around, and incant until we’ve summoned up Big Smallpox, while we’re at it.
I guess it’s really a “vaccine avoidance business.” Or, as I like to think, “Let’s Endanger Everyone’s Infants Because We’re Gettin’ Hassled By The ‘Man’” business. Another charlatan makin’ a buck.
Everyone in my home is vaccine injured. Each in their own unique way.