For over a decade now most doctors, researchers, and government officials have denied that there could be any link between vaccines and autism. They’ve denied it so vehemently that they’ve refused to adequately study the very idea. Until now. The federal government’s vaccine advisory panel (the National Vaccine Advisory Committee or NVAC) just voted to recommend to the US Dept of Health and Human Services that they, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conduct large-scale prospective research trials in groups of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children to determine various theoretical risk factors and possible severe reactions to vaccines, including autism.
For those of you who are saying to yourself, “Wait haven’t they already done that and found that there is no link between vaccines and autism?” Well that’s entirely accurate. To date, no study has proven that there is no link. There are studies that have failed to prove a definite link, even some that have gone as far as saying there there is a great probability that there is no link. What they have been doing so far is using population based statistical analyses, or epidemiological studies, to determine that vaccines probably don’t cause autism. But no large study has yet to be done using un-vaccinated children as a control group to compare to vaccinated children. This type of study is considered the gold standard in proving if something is safe or not. And this is the type of study that the government has refused to do for so many years. Autism is not the only risk that they will be able to study. There are so many theoretical reactions to vaccines that haven’t been adequately studied. They have just been written off as rare occurrences that parents don’t really need to worry about. Now finally after years of public pressure and speculation, the NVAC has agreed to take action, maybe.
First they will have to look into the logistics and see if it is feasible. They will select a neutral third party research organization to determine how to go about the study. If that organization deems the project to be feasible, then the study will begin. Here are some of the topics of research that the NVAC recommends if all goes well:
- Identifying subsets of the population that may be more vulnerable to severe vaccination reactions.
- Accurately determining the statistical incidences of various severe reactions that have been reported.
- Studying the risk to babies with a family or personal history of reactions to vaccinations.
- Studying various alternative vaccination schedules that promote less vaccinations at each visit and spreads them out at a slightly older age.
- Studying individual vaccine chemical ingredients, including animal toxicology research.
I have always looked at vaccinations as a necessary evil. They make me uneasy, but so do the diseases they protect against, for the most part. Some vaccines seem unnecessary to me such as mumps, rubella, varicella and HepA. The chance of my child catching it coupled with the mild symptoms that it carries leads me to avoid these vaccines. I still do get the measles shot and this is the one that causes me the most concern. I have personally met too many parents with autistic children that swear up and down that it was their MMR shot that turned their child from a happy, bubbly baby to quiet and withdrawn overnight. I don’t think every child has the risks that these children did, but I believe some do. If this is indeed true like multitudes of parents claim it is, it will be nice to know what the risk factors are. That way vaccinations won’t feel so much like Russian roulette for parents down the road.
