Comments
This is a great step in the right direction. I hate when people with a mission utilize bad science to prove their point. As a person who researches autism I think it is about time to take the money and resources put into vaccination awareness and put it toward real science to identify the true culprit, whether it be genetic, environmental or both.
I accidentally watched NBC10’s 11pm news last night, which talked about this as something like “a major blow to parents of kids with autism.” I was pissed at that editorializing, because.. it isn’t. If that case had been won by those parents it would have been a major blow to autism research. So many people would just assume “Oh, but that lawsuit was won by those parents, that means it really was the vaccinations.” So they use that line of reasoning to not get their kids vaccinated, and to stop looking for answers about autism in other places.
I feel for the parents, really, because this is obviously a very hard thing to deal with. However, it always seems like people make this assumption because they noticed autism symptoms around the same time as a round of vaccinations happened. Sorry dudes, that’s evidence of a sad coincidence. It is not causation.
Well that’s not surprising considering the owners of NBC’s kids have a kid (that is to say, the owners’ grandkid) who is autistic and the grandkid’s parents are anti-vaccination activists.
That oughta shut Jenny McCarthy up.
Now let’s go find another marginal celebrity to knock down a few pegs.
As someone who knows first hand what it’s like to deal with a kid with unexplainable medical issues that could potentially affect him and us for the entirety of his life, let me say fuck these anti-vaccine nutjobs. I’m sorry but it’s one thing to quixotically devote your life to trying to find an explanation for what happened to your kid, even though finding one won’t change their condition. And if you want to do that at the expense of the immense amounts of time it takes to be dealing with the issues and condition itself and mainstreaming your kid as much as possible and giving them as normal a life as possible then I can disagree with that approach but I’ll support your right to raise your child as you see fit. But this crosses the line into threatening public health, public safety and impacting the lives of many more people than just those involved both in terms of spreading unscientific misinformation, but also causing a potential resurgence and outbreak of some incredibly dangerous and awful diseases and conditions.
Some of the comments on the article were really interesting. I used to work with two autistic sisters and was sent to a workshop for parents and caregivers of autistic kids. The majority of people there agreed with vaccines; they only disagreed with how the vaccines are given. Giving a small child so many drugs at one time just doesn’t make sense. Giving a low to no risk newborn the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth also seems unnecessary. Do kids really need to be vaccinated against the chicken pox? So much of what we do nowadays is about convenience, not what is best for kids.
I can’t speak to the Heb B vaccine since I admittedly don’t know much about that. But if I remember correctly Chicken Pox is one of those optional ones. I remember it being like the flu shot. One that the doctors don’t push you on, but they do highly suggest it, particularly if there’s any at risk elements to your kid (premature, etc.). I think if you have a good doctor who is willing to listen to you and collaborate on your kids medical direction then you can spread them out. Our pediatrician discussed the schedule with us and told us (based on the time of year, specific other issues, etc.) what he recommended but also what we could put off, come back at another time to have done, etc. From what I gathered based on conversations a lot of parents prefer them lumped together so as to not have to come back for another visit or so as to not have to put their kids through uncomfortable shots multiple times (as opposed to just getting them all over).
John said:Are you speaking of specifically of this NBC affiliate? I would assume that local news stations (again, 11pm news) aren’t going to editorialize based on that, right? like, the guy who used to be on Fox29 in the morning was a TERRIBLE editorializer and it just made me want to beat him up.Well that’s not surprising considering the owners of NBC’s kids have a kid (that is to say, the owners’ grandkid) who is autistic and the grandkid’s parents are anti-vaccination activists.
anyway i just looked it up and the dude you’re talking about isn’t CEO of NBC anymore (but is still vice chairman of GE).
Kevin said:I can’t speak to the Heb B vaccine since I admittedly don’t know much about that. But if I remember correctly Chicken Pox is one of those optional ones. I remember it being like the flu shot. One that the doctors don’t push you on, but they do highly suggest it, particularly if there’s any at risk elements to your kid (premature, etc.). I think if you have a good doctor who is willing to listen to you and collaborate on your kids medical direction then you can spread them out. Our pediatrician discussed the schedule with us and told us (based on the time of year, specific other issues, etc.) what he recommended but also what we could put off, come back at another time to have done, etc. From what I gathered based on conversations a lot of parents prefer them lumped together so as to not have to come back for another visit or so as to not have to put their kids through uncomfortable shots multiple times (as opposed to just getting them all over).
Another issue with that may be a lack of insurance. If you have to pay out of pocket for every visit, you’re probably gonna opt to do many inoculations at once. Or even if you have insurance, copays can add up quite a lot. On top of that, for some people this means losing pay to take time off work, yadda yadda, you know where I’m going here. If you’ve got enough money to pay for one visit to the pediatrician AND groceries, or a series of visits to the pediatrician, you’re probably gonna pick the first one.
You’re 100% right. In fact I’d venture to say that’s more often than not on that subject the MAIN issue. In all our time in and out of hospitals we actually saw people who had to go days and sometimes weeks at a time without being able to go visit their kid in the hospital because if they didn’t work their 2 jobs or their extra hours or whatever, they couldn’t pay the bills. So to have to choose between seeing your sick kid and spending time with him, or paying the bills that keep him healthy. Believe me, even having to watch as people go through that is heartbreaking.
it is the sucks.