A story from family history

[velvetpage]

Back on my kick about vaccinations - I'll make it public for those who wish to link to it later.

My grandmother used to tell the story of her cousins, who went to a Sunday School Picnic around 1928. She herself stayed home, because her baby sister was ill and her mother needed the help, but out of her very large family, almost all the kids went. They went to a local park and waded in a pond, having a glorious time. Nana was quite jealous.

Two weeks later, two-thirds of them were dead of diptheria. Several more were weakened by it enough that when another disease came flying around a few years later, their overall health was lessened and they succumbed to that. (I think that was scarlet fever.)

Contrast that mortality rate - approximately 66% - with the fairly slim chance of developing any kind of autism. (sassy_fae, stat please?) Now contrast it with the even slimmer chance that that autism has anything at all to do with the vaccines you're giving your kids.

And this was just one disease. Not the fifteen or so against which modern, free vaccines in Canada will protect them.

Please, please, vaccinate your kids. It's the single best thing you can do to ensure that they will grow up to be healthy adults. Vaccines are the reason we no longer feel the need to have half a dozen children each. We're not afraid anymore than one bad epidemic of measels will take our only child away from us. If we don't vaccinate, we should be.

Comments

[renface.livejournal.com]

Right now in the state of Wisconsin, there is a big story going around about how the #1 reason a doctor will decide not to treat you/your family is if you say, "Doctor, I don't want to vaccinate my kids." I think that it is a very important thing to do for your children, and I enjoyed your take on it.

[lady-hookington.livejournal.com]

What is the link between vaccines and autism? I've never heard of this before. I don't have children so that could be why but a lot of friends are mothers why else would I make so many baby afghans.

I worked in nursing for almost 10 years and went to nursing school for a brief period of time; I am a big proponent for vaccinations. I’ll have to check with the nursing instructor at work, too.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

The prevalence of autism varies on what research you're looking at, but at the moment the percentage of kids with a diagnoses seems to be around 0.03%

The idea that the vaccine was involved stems from the fact that symptoms of autism start to crop up around the time that kids are vaccinated. Kids who seem to be developing normally up to the age of 18 months or so can start to develop symptoms. This is often the age at which vaccinations are done, so it's easy to take anecdotal evidence as proof of causality.

Interesting study: in Sweden and Denmark, they've stopped giving the MMR vaccine. The prevalence of autism is exactly the same as before, and the same as countries who do vaccine with MMR.

The doctor/researcher I was talking to on Monday put it this way "Even if there was some reason to suspect there was a link (and there isn't), you've got the choice of risking autism or risking death.