The ASA has turned from the best available science. There are no roads on the trackless wasteland they’re traveling now (emphases mine) …
Autism Society of America: research_envirohealth_vaccines
Individuals living with autism need help today. There is a clear and present need for the government, scientific, medical and autism communities to probe further into all possible environmental causes of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in a fair, unbiased and thorough way, particularly because findings may help us approach treatment and prevention more effectively. Research needs include, but are not limited to, research into the causal or contributory relationship to autism that may be attributed to thimerosal containing vaccines (TCV’s), the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) inoculation and/or a combination of the two. The interaction of these vaccines with other potentially contributory environmental factors and vulnerabilities also needs serious investigation.
ASA strongly believes that:
- Vaccines administered to children, teens and adults must be safe;
- More unbiased and credible research needs to be done to:
- ensure and optimize safety,
- identify those who are at higher risk of injury and develop and implement appropriate accommodations for them,
- avoid injury altogether, and
- prevent unnecessary overexposure;
- All those who are vaccine injured need to be justly compensated;
- Development and availability of treatment for injuries from environmental factors, including but not limited to vaccines, needs to be prioritized.
Madness.
This is worse than a distraction from understanding the causes, prevention, treatment and management of the range of cognitive disorders we currently label as “autism”, it is going to cause harm to children and families by reducing immunization levels.
Science is never perfect, but it has a vastly better track record than the alternative. It’s an imperfect guide, but it’s the best guide we have. The science is as clear as it gets on thimerosal and MMR vaccination – they don’t make significant contributions to autism. We need to look elsewhere to understand the genetic and environmental interactions that alter brain development.
The ASA has done good things, but we can’t send them financial donations knowing that they going to use our contributions to, unwittingly, cause great harm.
This is a shame.
Update: The Executive Director of Autism Speaks has resigned over their anti-vaccination obsession.
Update 10/16/09: See also Jim Carrey - enemy of the enlightenment
1 comment:
I find all the hysteria over vaccinations to be kind of silly. Study after study has shown that vaccinations are safe and complications are exceedingly rare, and yet people are more inclined to listen to an actress than doctors and scientists.
Of course, it's not just silly, it's dangerous. When a large number of children are unvaccinated, not only are they in danger of getting a disease, but they're also a danger to children too young to receive the vaccine or those who can't receive it because of health reasons. It's one thing to have one or two unvaccinated children in any given classroom - you still have a good chance of keeping the disease out of the population that way. But if large numbers of people stop vaccinating, it could be disastrous. Measle, mumps and pertussis cases are already on the rise in the US because of fewer vaccinations, and if the trend continues ...
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