1.13.2011

Dr. Andrew Wakefield responds....

Click on the title of this post to go to Dr. Wakefield's response to the recent "allegations" of his study regarding children with autism and vaccines. We need more people like Dr. Wakefield in the Autism community.

1.06.2011

Medical journal: Study linking autism, vaccines is 'elaborate fraud'

This article (linked in the title of this post) pisses me off for a few reasons. First of all, releasing a story like this now - while the push is being done for flu shots - is coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. It's a fact that more people are choosing to delay vaccinations, or deny them all together, especially the flu shot. Another reason this pisses me off is the statement made by Dr. Max Wiznitzer, which goes a little like this..."Unfortunately, his core group of supporters is not going to let the facts dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism," Wiznitzer said. "They need to be open-minded and examine the information as everybody else." First, Dr. Wiznitzer, this study never shaped my opinion of vaccines or what happened to my child. And I know I cannot be alone in saying this. I didn't even know about this study until after I watched my son regress in a mere 48 hours after receiving 4 vaccines in 1 doctors visit - which he was sick and running a fever, I might add. I was assured that he would be "just fine". He wasn't. I have been looking for answers since then as to what happened to my son? Why was he talking and then stopped? Why was he healthy, and then all of a sudden has horrible stomach issues? Why did he no longer interact with me? I had a lot of questions, and no one seemed able to answer them, and frankly, didn't seem interested in helping me find the answers to those questions.

So, the fact that Dr. Wakefield conducted a study with 12 "subjects" where some information may have been altered? Is that really the issue? I don't think there are millions of parents basing their decision on to vaccinate or not to vaccinate on this ONE study and Dr. Wakefield's opinion. I think their decisions are based on information they have gathered from talking to other mothers whos children have been affected by vaccines. And other medical professionals who cannot clearly and definitively tell you that vaccines have nothing to do with Autism.

For example: Hannah Poling (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20015982-10391695.html). Time magazine states: ...(T)here's no denying that the court's decision to award damages to the Poling family puts a chink -- a question mark -- in what had been an unqualified defense of vaccine safety with regard to autism. If Hannah Poling had an underlying condition that made her vulnerable to being harmed by vaccines, it stands to reason that other children might also have such vulnerabilities."

So, although I guess you could qualify me as a supporter of Dr. Andrew Wakefield (simply for putting this out into the media and forcing questions to be asked), his small study that has costs him his medical license and has made the front page of CNN news, I make my decisions about vaccine safety based on the facts - from other parents, from court cases, from my experience as a mother raising a child with Autism.