I tuned into a new series on ABC last week titled “Eli Stone”. It stars Angelia Jolie’s ex-husband, actor Jonny Lee Miller. Miller plays a successful San Francisco lawyer who has inoperable brain aneurysm. The first episode of the series dealt with the “myth” that vaccines can cause Autism. Eli is hired as a lawyer for a woman who claims her son was “normal” before he was given his vaccinations. Eli reveals to the court there have been studies linking vaccinations to Autism, in particular the vaccine that the child with Autism was given. He also exposes in court that the fictional executive for the vaccine maker refused to give his own child the shot. The jury sides with the family of the Autistic boy and awards them a large amount of money. It seems that this particular episode has stirred up quite a bit of controversy and some people are now worried that people may opt to not have their child immuized because of the show.
I found this particularly interesting because I have a friend who’s family claims their daughter was not showing any signs of of having Autism or delays before she was given her vaccination shots. They claim that before she was given the shots she easily recalled details of her day. That she could answer simple questions like “What did you have for lunch today” with ease, but after receiving her vaccination she could not remember such details.
After the show I googled autism+vaccinations and found thousands of articles relating to the possible link between mercury based vaccines and autism. Although there doesn’t seem to be any hard evidence that mercury causes Autism, there are many people out there that believe it does contribute and they have pushed for a ban on mercury based vaccines.
A new study England, released last week, concluded that vaccinations could not be linked to Autism. This is reportedly the largest study on the topic to date and disproves the controversial findings of Dr. Brian Wakefield. Dr. Brian Wakefield published his findings of a possible link between Autism and vaccinations in the medical journal, The Lancet in 1998. The recent study in England also confirms something that the Canadian Pediatric Society believes. They feel that there is no link between vaccinations and Autism.
Why then do some parents strongly believe that vaccinating their child has caused them to be Autistic despite the studies?
Andrea
I to have often wondered how so many parents can believe one thing and doctor’s and other experts can say the complete opposite. But parents should be considered experts in terms of their children. They are the ones that witness the changes in their children. They are the ones that see their child forgetting and not being able to “function” as they did before.
Not to long ago on Oprah they discussed this very topic. But I found that the conversation by medical experts was more in a circle than actually anwsering any questions. I believe that of all the paretns that were guests on the show, contributed their childs Autism to immunizations.
Jenny MacCarthy was also on the the Oprah show, she has an autistic son. She to believes that there is a direct correlation between immunizations and autism.
I am left with the a similar question that you ended your blog with. How can so many parents be wrong?
Andrea,
Although I have not read specific research studies on the topic of vaccinations and autism, I am quite familiar with the “myths” that have been surrounding the issue. Like Kelly, I have listened to Jenny MacCarthy speak about her personal experience of having a son with autism (I believe it was during an interview with Larry King). Throughout the segment, she continually linked her son’s autistic behavior with the immunizations that he received. It was amazing to see the dedication, time, and effort that she put into working with him on a daily basis to “bring him back”. There was a bit of confusion, however, in terms of the techniques that she was using with her son. By the end of the show even Larry was questioning whether or not she considered her to be “cured”.
I agree that parents have a natural instinct that tells them when something is not quite right with their child. I think that parents are now, more than any other time in history, much more vocal when it comes to their children’s well-being. As a teacher, I can say that parents are more involved in educational decisions and I think that this can be said about medical procedures as well. I believe that it is good, in a sense, that parents are no longer submissive bystanders in their children’s lives. Rather, they are active participants who may seek a second, third, fourth…etc…opinion if what they’re hearing from medical doctors isn’t sitting well with them.
I also feel that in today’s technological society, parents have more access to information. For those seeking “answers”, they can gain access to theories, opinions, and studies from around the world with a simple click of a button. The problem is, however, how accurate the information truly is. I think that parents want to find a way to help their children and to spread the word to other parents out there as well. Whether or not there is a direct correlation between immunizations and autism remains to be seen. That being said, I truly feel that until there is a “cause” for autism found, parents will continue to grasp at anything that might even remotely look like an “answer”.
I think the difficulty with Autism is there is really no cause and effect relationship that has been identified. Is it genetics, environmental, perhaps vaccinations, diet, who knows? With such a large awareness of Autism today, parents want an explanation as to what caused it. We live in a society that needs to know what caused it, now we can fix it. I personally find the whole “cause” of Autism, as Kelly said, like a big circle. It is confusing and leaves you right back where you started.
The simple answer is no one is quite sure what causes it. It could be a combination of the factors like genetics, environment etc… I went to the Texas State Autism Conference a couple years ago and at that time they were really pushing that the cause was genetics. They had a lot research that seemed significant, but that just told one small side of the story. I think vaccinations could be a factor. However I think people are looking for the one thing that causes Autism, but it is probably not the case. How can we expect something as complex as and Autism to be caused by one factor… ? I think as complex as Autism Spectrum Disorders are.. somewhere there is a complex cause, which probably will not satisfy parents searching for the answer to their mystery.