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The "Open Question" On Vaccines and Autism
CBS News ^ | May 12, 2008 | Sharyl Attkisson

Posted on 04/22/2018 7:17:20 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Perhaps the most puzzling thing about autism and ADD is that more than a decade into this public health crisis, our best, smartest government scientists and public health officials still say they have no idea what's causing it. Scary stuff, when parents having a child today realize there's at least an estimated 1 in 150 chance their child will have an autism disorder (1 in 90 if it's a boy).

While the government has been utterly unable to stop it, or even tell us what is causing it, they say they do know one thing: it's not vaccines. But today, in an exclusive interview with CBS News, Dr. Bernadine Healy becomes the most well-known medical voice yet to counter the government on that claim.

Healy's credentials couldn't be more "mainstream." After all, she once was a top government health official as head of the National Institutes of Health. She founded the first school of public health in Ohio, and then headed both the school of public health and the school of medicine at Ohio State University. She's an internist and cardiologist. And she's a member of the Institute of Medicine, the government advisory board that tried to put the vaccine-autism controversy to rest in 2004 by saying a link was not likely.

According to Healy, when she began researching autism and vaccines she found credible published, peer-reviewed scientific studies that support the idea of an association. That seemed to counter what many of her colleagues had been saying for years. She dug a little deeper and was surprised to find that the government has not embarked upon some of the most basic research that could help answer the question of a link.

The more she dug, she says, the more she came to believe the government and medical establishment were intentionally avoiding the question because they were afraid of the answer.

Why? Healy says some in the government make the mistake of treating vaccines as an all-or-nothing proposition. The argument goes something like this: everybody gets vaccinated at the same time with the same vaccines or nobody will get vaccinated and long-gone deadly diseases will re-emerge. (When I asked about cases of brain damage resulting in autism that have been quietly compensated by the government in vaccine court over the years, one government official recently told me that "it's still better overall to get vaccinated than not to get vaccinated.")

Healy says the argument need not be framed in those terms (vaccinate or don't vaccinate). Instead, she says, we should vaccinate, but work to do it in the safest manner possible based on what we know and what we can find out.

That's what the parents of autistic children have told me as well. If we can screen children to see which ones might be more susceptible to vaccine side effects, and vaccinate them on a more personalized schedule that is safer for them, why wouldn't we? If it's safer for all children to have their vaccinations spread out, why wouldn't we? Healy says it's called "personalized medicine" and is being done in virtually all areas of medicine today with the exception of vaccines. Yet the government continues to frame the conversation in all-or-nothing, "one-size-fits-all" terms.

Lastly, Healy says the government has a long way to go to even do basic research that could get at the heart of what she believes is an open question. For example: why in the past decade hasn't the government compared the autism/ADD rate of unvaccinated children with that of vaccinated children? If the rate is the same, it tends to point away from vaccines. If the rate is markedly lower in unvaccinated children, it tends to point toward vaccines.

The government has a dataset of unvaccinated children available. It has published more than one survey of parents of undervaccinated and unvaccinated children (to find out why the parents are choosing not to vaccinate). It would seem simple to use those same families to measure their rate of autism/ADD. Also, why hasn't the government used vaccine court as a resource to ask the autism/vaccine question. There, nearly 5,000 families have self-selected as believing their children's autism was caused by vaccines. Many have expressed willingness to let their children's medical records be released and studied; but nobody in the government has been interested.

As if that's not scary enough, look down the road a little. Millions of autistic children will - in the not-too-distant future - outgrow their parents, or their parents will no longer be able to care for them. Their only option in many cases is institutionalization. Who, but a parent or family member, can and would devote the moment-by-moment attention it takes to raise an autistic child? Our nation has not, to my knowledge, begun to build these institutions, or figure out how to pay for them.

Back to the subject at hand. If the day comes that public health officials can finally tell us with reasonable certainty what is causing all the autism and ADD, and if the cause has nothing to do with vaccines, I think most people will just be relieved to know what it is and feel that we can, then, be closer to stopping it. Until then, in the minds of many, including Healy, it remains a sad, open question.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: autism; children; conspiracy; coverup; link; safety; studies; vaccines
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To: logi_cal869

So smallpox vacs were for fools

Tetnus vacs only for fools

Smart people like you should refuse vacs if bitten by rabid dog

Thanks for sharing y oh wisdom


81 posted on 04/22/2018 11:51:06 PM PDT by old curmudgeon (There is no situation so terrible, so disgraceful, that the federal government can not make worse)
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To: old curmudgeon

And just like that, the rat comes out of the sewer to call me an “anti-vaxxer.” Are you afraid to use the term? Or is it too many syllables for you?

Perhaps you’re too dumb to read the 2nd sentence in my comment. Maybe it’s not your fault, but everyone else’s. Perhaps it’s a mental condition resulting from your poor state of health. After all, you DID manage to somehow survive this long despite listening to the government, doctors and industry all these year; obviously that survival was not without compromising effects.

The fact is that I never wrote anything of the sort. Putting words in another’s mouth, metaphorically, is a very progressive thing to do. Perhaps THAT is the truth of the matter. HmmmmMMMMMM?

Troll much? Or perhaps conflicted?

Monicker is half right for you, but it’s missing one word.

Would you like to buy a vowel, proggy?

How do you like them apples?

(the latter being a metaphor for a key story I’m not going to share with the likes of you which would likely interest you greatly had your mind not been sealed shut decades ago)

This picture is MUCH greater than your pet bias, much like the scandal currently enveloping POTUS. It takes an open mind and a personal choice, but my 4th book outlines how that may not be possible for you. Sad, really. If you’re not a proggy, you sure walk & talk like one. Recall that pathetic footnote I mentioned.

Ah, but you didn’t bother to read that post, either...

How’s my sarcasm, dude? On par with yours? I’d love to keep playing, but I have a morning constitutional with your name all over it; thanks for getting it going. Truly.


82 posted on 04/23/2018 5:55:00 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: the OlLine Rebel
100%, exactly.

Autism is also used as a label instead of ID (intellectually disabled).

Keep changing the definition of Austism and pretty soon, it'll be 1 in 2.

83 posted on 04/23/2018 5:57:16 AM PDT by SoftballMominVA
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To: freedumb2003

Calling my personal experience an.”anecdote” suggests you seek your own facts. Just offering.

Nice handle btw, it fits


84 posted on 04/23/2018 5:58:52 AM PDT by silverleaf (A man who kneels for the national anthem doesn't stand for much of anything)
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To: silverleaf

>>Calling my personal experience an.”anecdote” suggests you seek your own facts. Just offering.<<

Perhaps you need to use the dictionary. Your experience is, by definition, an anecdote. It is indicative of no trend nor can a conclusion be drawn. If you were not so shrill, I would be sympathetic.

>>Nice handle btw, it fits<<

While browsing the dictionary, look up “ad hominem.” Then look up that fallacy. It is used when you have no argument and is quite childish.


85 posted on 04/23/2018 6:02:03 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (robert mueller is an unguided missile)
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To: freedumb2003

Work with a vaccine injured child
There are many
Support groups could use you
Then compare “anecdotes “

Some people have to have the last word
I am not one of them ...
passing over to freedumb


86 posted on 04/23/2018 6:18:14 AM PDT by silverleaf (A man who kneels for the national anthem doesn't stand for much of anything)
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To: silverleaf

I don’t think you understand my point.

Do you have facts that link vaccines to the harm? A medical link?

If so, I am all eyes: I have seen no such case to date but maybe I missed yours.


87 posted on 04/23/2018 6:35:26 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (robert mueller is an unguided missile)
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To: Luircin

I am actually very pro vaccine. Due to my global travels, I have been vaccinated against just about every thing with the possible exception of Japanese Encephalitis. But it has always been my choice for both the timing and content of the vaccines.

Understand that in my childhood, I was contra indicated for smallpox due to a skin condition. Had I been forced into the vaccine, it would be very likely that I would have contracted small pox.

Bureaucrats should Never decide health care.


88 posted on 04/23/2018 7:03:13 AM PDT by taxcontrol (Stupid should hurt)
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To: logi_cal869

“I am not against guns, but ....
“I am not against free speech, but ....

I am for the Constitution, but ....”

How many times have we heard someone start like that and the next sentence become a rant against that which they claim to support

There is a difference between sarcastic and nasty

I hope you made it to the bathroom, you are full of it
You are not sarcastic


89 posted on 04/23/2018 9:00:44 AM PDT by old curmudgeon (There is no situation so terrible, so disgraceful, that the federal government can not make worse)
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To: old curmudgeon

Awfully progressive & straw man of you.

Have a nice day.


90 posted on 04/23/2018 9:53:50 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: old curmudgeon

“Doomed” I say... /s


91 posted on 04/23/2018 10:55:31 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: Cronos

I am pro-vaccination, but the schedule, as Atkisson said, could be personalized if there turns out to be sensitivity to them in some people. Another FReeper has said CDC has ultimately debunked that possibility, which is fine with me.


92 posted on 04/23/2018 11:33:55 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The US Constitution ....... Invented by geniuses and God .... Administered by morons ......)
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To: StolarStorm

When I was very young, I was starting to become autistic, according to my Dad (R.I.P.), but I was ultimately brought out of it, thank goodness. But I always seem to have had some strangeness from time to time. Maybe I was sensitive to vaxxes as a kid, but more likely, something else might have been involved.


93 posted on 04/23/2018 11:36:36 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The US Constitution ....... Invented by geniuses and God .... Administered by morons ......)
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