You queer?

Wonder what the ratio of American citizens to illegal immigrants with the measles is?

thats been our strategy too. our problem with that was finding a pediatrician that would allow you to do so. most of them tell you the first time you ask to modify the schedule that its not negotiable. most that we called wouldnt see kids that werent vaccinated or even ones that were but not on their schedule. I thought we would never find one that would allow us to do it that way with my oldest son.

Metal, I didn't discuss it with them. I told mine what they were going to do. They didn't like it, and had rather poke em with everything they need at once, but I refused. We just scheduled another visit, paid the extra copayment and had a little more security not having them all at once.

While I can hardly blame you for associating your child's unfortunate disorder with the vaccinations he took earlier that is the definition of anecdotal evidence. My heart aches for you, your child and your family (my significant other works almost exclusively with children with autism and other developmental disorders) but the fact is proven science cannot link autism and vaccinations.

I personally would love to take the libertarian "let he who suffers chose" stance but the anti-vaccine movement is causing illness and death among children who, for whatever reason (cancer, autoimmune disorders ect..) couldn't be vaccinated. These children would've been safe, insulated among a 98% vaccinated population if jenny and company hadn't opened their big (and scientifically incorrect) mouths.

It is human nature to lash out and find a scapegoat when tragedy strikes. We want to see reasons and patterns. This is how superstitions came about. Witch burning and the like were an attempt to find order in the chaos and control an uncontrollable destiny. Fortunately, thanks to science and medicine we're able to understand and control more. Don't let witch hunting get in the way of children's health.

BTW recent studies point to the brain changes associated with autism beginning in the womb.

Autism Science Foundation versus Autism Speaks. ASF sees further research into the possibility of a link between vaccinations and autism as a waste of donated money; AS says keep spending donated money on research that has born no fruit - so far.
This is turning into an industry, it appears. I'd like to see hard data on exactly who (demographics) these 100 measles cases are. are most of them immigrants who have never been vaccinated because there was no opportunity? are most kids whose parents turned down vaccinations because of fear of autism and other disorders?
I have a major stake in this issue because my daughter and one of my daughters-in-law - with my five grandchildren among them - oppose vaccinations. both are smart. one is a highly educated medical anthropologist. mercy, i am torn ...

Great post! As a RN the anti vaccine movement in this country is a personal pet peeve of mine as well. Glad to see so many well informed responses like the one above. A lot of doctors and scientists at the C.D.C, the W.H.O and the American Academy of Pediatrics with much bigger brains than I possess have studied this issue pretty hard and there just isn't a grain of credible evidence that links vaccinations with autism.

Autism is hard to diagnose in children until they reach a certain age. Unfortunately that age often coincides with the age when kids are getting most of their childhood vaccinations. There is also a form called regressive autism were a child seems to develop normally at first but like a ticking genetic time bomb this form kicks in at a certain age and causes the child to regress socially and cognitively. This has to be the most heart breaking thing in the world for parents of these kids and it's only natural I guess to want to attach blame to some external factor. This form usually happens in the 15 to 30 month range and since kids are getting vaccinations in that time frame they are often blamed. But all research points to genetics as the cause not external influences.

There used to be a preservative called thimersol in vaccinations. The body breaks down thimersol into a form of mercury called ethyl mercury. But here is the deal. First, ethyl mercury is much more easily broken down and metabolized by the body than methyl mercury. Methyl mercury is the really bad form of mercury you get from eating contaminated seafood. Second, the amount of thimerosal that was in vaccinations was miniscule. You easily get way more of the bad methyl mercury from eating some seafood than you would have gotten from a vaccination containing thimerosal. And finally, because of the fear that people wouldn't get their kids vaccinated due to the irrational panic over thimerosal it was dropped as a preservative in childhood vaccinations in 2001 I think. So, if it was causing autism then I guess we had a huge drop in autism rates after 2001 huh? Nope. No drop at all. Thimerosal had nothing to with autism it turns out. Now the anti vaccination nuts have just forgot all about thimerosal and moved on to blaming some other compound in vaccinations. And with no more real evidence to back them up than they had about thimerosal. Every time one of their claims is disproven they just move the goal posts to another area and keep playing the game.

The problem with people in this country is that vaccinations have worked so well that they have lost their fear of what these vaccinations protect against. No one my age or younger knows a family whose child died of whooping cough or was crippled by polio. Thanks to living their whole lives in the vaccination age they have never had reason to fear such things. But you can bet your ass that people my grandparents age lived through that fear and would snatch a knot in these young anti-vaccine dumbasses.

Could it be the shot itself?