Posted on 12/08/2005 6:15:13 PM PST by agsloss
It's a far piece from the horse-and-buggies of Lancaster County, Pa., to the cars and freeways of Cook County, Ill. But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don't have autism. "We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines," said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst's medical director who founded the practice in 1973. Homefirst doctors have delivered more than 15,000 babies at home, and thousands of them have never been vaccinated....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
In some cases the cause of autism is you get more government aid if you get your child to be declared as being 'autistic'.
The increase in the incidence of autism directly correlates with the increase in the number of vaccinations added to the schedule (But, of course, correlation does not mean causation).
Maybe he did, didn't get the answer he wanted, went to the press.
Yes, I've seen the speculations before, but they did truly seem anecdotal.
In this case, if the reporter is telling the truth and the doctor is telling the truth, and there doesn't seem to be any good reason to doubt it, then you have a sample of 30,000 children, not one of whom has autism.
If true, that is not within the margin of error and not anecdotal. There's no way that some other factor, such as an interest in home schooling, could account for it.
Of course it's always possible that somebody is simply wrong, or lying, or that all the other doctors in this medical group are lying to the boss. But this is still the most persuasive account I have read yet.
Actually, the bigger theory is that the vaccines might trigger something genetically. However, there is a huge genetic component to autism.
There are families where the first child had autism. They skipped vaccines for their next children, and their children still had autism.
It did, but the diagnosis criteria was expanded years ago and more cases have been diagnosed since. This does not explain all the increases, but it does explain some.
They are wrong. I worked at an institution for the retarded, and one of our patients was autistic from an Amish family...
And autism was widespread in the 1950's, but those kids were labled "retarded". Now any retarded kid with behavior problems is called "autistic", which is more pc....
Autism has a strict criteria, and can actually be caused by measles, mumps and other viruses that cause encephalitis...what is different now is that pediatricians who trained after 1980 have never seen a case of measles encephalitis...
Actually, autism tends to affect relatively well-educated populations. For example, there is a huge incidence of autism in the Silicon Valley, especially the wealthier, more educated areas.
Doctors are not scientists. A few hundred years ago they were barbers. They established a guild, started speaking in tongues, and now control legislatures.
Amish polio cases raise concerns
By Robert Rhodes
Mennonite Weekly Review
ST. PAUL, Minn. — A polio outbreak in a central Minnesota Amish community has health officials looking for ways to convince more plain people to take immunization shots.
Though no one has become ill from the outbreak — the first time polio has surfaced in the United States since 1979, when an international outbreak also affected the Amish and other plain groups — five Amish children from Todd County have contracted the polio infection. Three of the children, ages 5 to 14, are from the same family.
Minnesota state epidemiologist Harry Hull said Oct. 31 that the state health department now faces the challenging task of encouraging more people to overcome their fears about immunization — the only sure line of defense against a broader, more dangerous outbreak.
“What we’re hoping is that we can head this off at the pass before it gets into [general society],” Hull said, noting that only about one in 200 people who contract the polio infection suffer the disease’s ravaging paralysis.
So far, immunization appeals among the Amish have met with some success, Hull said. Out of 24 Amish families in the community where the polio turned up, near Clarissa, about a third had been vaccinated previously, Hull said, and others have agreed to take the vaccine.
In another Amish community in southern Minnesota, near the Iowa border, Hull said as many as 500 people are expected to receive the immunizations in coming days following an appeal in that area.
Hull said health department personnel have been lobbying for the vaccines by first approaching local Amish church leaders, who have been leaving the choice to individual families.
In some Amish settlements, Hull said, workers have been going door-to-door, to ensure that no pressure is exerted on families by others who object to immunization.
“It’s been a very individualized approach,” Hull said. “There are a fair number of Amish who are immunized already . . . so you get into lots of subtleties here.”
Sociologist Donald Kraybill of Elizabethtown (Pa.) College, said there are no official prohibitions among the Amish against immunization. Instead, he said, some oppose the practice out of a combination of fear, ignorance and religious zeal.
“It’s more rural conservatism or caution,” Kraybill said Oct. 31. “Some of it is just sort of rural neglect or fear of the unknown. These are people who haven’t studied any science in high school.”
Kraybill said in Lancaster County, Pa., Amish schoolteachers maintain immunization records on their students, as well as offering a form to be signed by families opposed to their children receiving vaccinations.
Kraybill said one Amish clinician, who works in an Amish pediatric practice, said as many as two-thirds of the Amish children in the Lancaster area are vaccinated.
This high percentage, Kraybill said, may be attributed in part to the 1979 polio outbreak, which Hull said started in Europe before spreading to North America and beyond.
In Canada and the United States, the 1979 outbreak had a significant impact on several Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities where immunization was frowned upon, Hull said.
But after 1979, Kraybill said, Amish leaders in the Lancaster area became more supportive of vaccine programs.
This also is the case in more progressive Amish communities where there is more openness to modern medicine, Kraybill said, or in parts of Indiana, where Amish children attend public schools and are required by law to be immunized.
“A lot of it relates to fear about the vaccination process,” Kraybill said. “They’re not sure what’s in the vaccine.”
Others, Kraybill said, “would feel that your health is more in God’s hands. But that would certainly not be the prevailing atttude.”
Oh, no. Not this feces again?
The Amish don't have autism. They just have 5,000 other genetic diseases to deal with (as well as deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases).
He got autism 3 days after getting a vaccine? Sorry, but I HIGHLY doubt that; autism does not have an acute onset.
YES
"Now where did that statement come from? Due you mean the large number of babies that are birthed in this country by third world illegal women, who came to this country already with child and probably were never vaccinated for anything. Sort of makes you wonder doesn't it????"
Yes, because statistically they suppress the increased rates, which means the degree of the problem is being masked.
It did. The word autism was first used in the early 1900's, and the classification/diagnosis began in the 1930'-40's. I believe wide-spread vaccination began at least a decade after that. Also, autism most likely existed for centuries; it just wasn't labeled that.
"Amish polio cases raise concerns"
There's certainly a downside not getting vaccinated...
Mercury is a well known neuro-toxin. The brain is largely neuro-mass. The mercury based preservatives are more effective than alternatives at a significantly reduced cost. It seems to me that this is a "no brainer", so to speak.
On the other hand, we can't have anyone taking action against the medical industry. So, we'll just cover up the facts and have the pharmaceutical companies do some research to prove this connection is bogus.
Business in the US as usual: Make some money at the expense of a few citizens. Oh well, little kids are citizens, too. Judging by the value of unborn ones, young kids can't be worth much. < /sarcasm>
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