Comments on: Vaccines Cause Autism? And Lemons Limit Highway Fatalities?

By: Nolan Crusat

Nolan Crusat — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:31:51 +0000

The above comment is taken from Morris Weinberger et al, NEJM Vol 334, No. 22 May 30, 1996

By: Nolan Crusat

Nolan Crusat — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:31:07 +0000

Also, keep in mind that the cost for receiving vaccination for measles, mumps, and rubella is approximately $20. The average cost for hospitalization to treat these diseases is $21,000. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.

By: Kev

Kev — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:45:32 +0000

Aaron, thanks from an autism parent for an amusing blog post. You’re quite right to illustrate the silliness of the vaccine rubbish and don’t feel you need to apologise to the likes of anti-vaxxers such as Harold. He spends a life in a state of righteous indignation, panting for something else to be offended at

By: Aaron B. Hicks

Aaron B. Hicks — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:46:33 +0000

By: Aaron B. Hicks

Aaron B. Hicks — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:08:17 +0000

Additionally, here is a study from the New England Journal of Medicine in which 440,655 children who received the MMR vaccine between 1991 and 1998 were compared to 96,648 children who did not. They found the same incidence of autism in both groups and that there was no temporal bunching of autism diagnosis (i.e. vaccine timing did not affect the time of onset for autism). In essence, they found that there was no link between vaccination and autism. And this represents only one member of the large majority of studies discrediting the link between MMR vaccine and autism.

Vaccines are a dead end when it comes to autism research. We need to quit spinning our wheels and redirect our focus elsewhere.

By: Aaron B. Hicks

Aaron B. Hicks — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:45:18 +0000

Harold, I apologize for sounding pretentious or nasty. I only intended to offer examples of correlative situations in which causation was obviously absent. I understand that parents are concerned about their children, but I am concerned about preventing thousands and thousands of unnecessary deaths that would otherwise be caused by preventable diseases — the undeniable consequence of concerned parents denying vaccinations to their children.

I have no intention of downplaying the painful effects of autism. I am not the parent of an autistic child nor do I work with autistic children, so I do not have the same emotional connection that many individuals have. There is much value in autism research — the incidence rate is unacceptably high — so I strongly believe that the cause of autism must be found.

As a side note, a recent study (covered by TIME) concluded that ASD is just as common in adults as in children. If this is the case, then that would imply that autism rates have not been increasing over the past few decades — the observed increase in childhood autism would be attributable to an increased rate of diagnosis, not increased vaccination rates.

By: Harold L Doherty

Harold L Doherty — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:36:07 +0000

This blog comment and title are childish and disrespectful of parents concerned about their children. You are mocking families trying to cope with serious challenges facing their children.

Your comments are not even original. This type of nastiness has been spread by so called “skeptics” for several years now.

And like them you offer no actual science to back up your pretentious nastiness.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:53:37 +0000

My daughter started to develop autism one week after her 4 month set of vaccines in 7/96. She stopped babbling, rarely smiled, developed severe constipation, and oral thrush. No one will ever convince me that her vaccinations did NOT contribute to her autism. There is a link between the brain, the gut, immune system, and autism that will be discovered in the near future and it will be made clear that parents are not making this up. Not every child with autism develops it because of vaccinations, but mine did and she will be affected for the rest of her life.