Posted on 07/01/2014 7:29:27 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
Serious complications related to vaccines are very rare, and there is no evidence that immunizations cause autism, according to an analysis of 67 research studies.
The analysis comes as many vaccine-preventable diseases are making a comeback, often in communities with low vaccination rates. At least 539 people across 20 states have been infected with measles this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This report should give parents some reassurance," says pediatrician Courtney Gidengil of Rand and Boston Children's Hospital, co-author of the study out today in Pediatrics.
The report says there is "strong evidence" that the measles vaccine is not associated with an increased risk of autism. That myth gained popularity in 1998 because of a medical study that has been retracted. Still, the myth persists.
"There is a lot of misinformation out there about vaccines," says co-author Margaret Maglione, also a researcher with Rand. "With the rise of the Internet and the decline of print journalism, anyone can put anything on the Internet."
Like all drugs, vaccines can cause serious side effects. But those complications are "extremely rare" and should be weighed against vaccination's enormous benefits, Maglione says.
In an April report, the CDC noted that vaccines given to infants and young children over the past two decades will prevent 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations and 732,000 deaths over the course of their lifetimes.
The new report notes that some vaccines, including flu shots and the combined vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella, are associated with an increased risk of fever-related seizures in small children. Although these seizures can be frightening for parents, they're typically benign and cause no long-term problems.
According to the analysis, vaccines against rotavirus – a common cause of severe diarrhea and dehydration in children – increase the risk of a serious type of intestinal blockage called intussusception, in which part of the intestine telescopes into itself. The vaccines against it, RotaTeq and Rotarix, can cause an additional one to five cases of intussusception for every 100,000 doses given, the analysis says.
It's important to remember that rotavirus infection also causes intussusception, says pediatrician Paul Offit, chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a developer of the RotaTeq vaccine. He notes that rates of this complication are actually down slightly since the introduction of the vaccines.
The new analysis may not convince parents who are strongly anti-vaccine. University of Utah pediatrician Carrie Byington says she hopes it will persuade doctors to promote vaccines to their patients.
In an accompanying editorial, Byington notes that recent medical school graduates are more skeptical about the effectiveness of vaccines than older doctors, who have been around long enough to have treated children for measles and meningitis. In Washington state, a study found that more than half of medical providers were willing to consider untested, alternative immunization schedules that skip or space out vaccines.
Doctors say it's important to put risks into perspective.
Nearly 38,000 children under age 4 were injured in car accidents in 2012, and 523 died, according to the CDC.
"The most dangerous aspect of giving your child vaccines is driving to the office to get them," Offit says.
If the government came out tomorrow and said that vaccines lead to autism, the anti-government skeptics would suddenly believe the government could now be trusted.
It's funny when you watch advertisements for drugs on TV. When they give their disclaimer they gloss over the fact that the drugs can kill you and in clinical trials people died.
“If the government came out tomorrow and said that vaccines lead to autism, the anti-government skeptics would suddenly believe the government could now be trusted.”
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This won’t happen. Big Pharm and Big Gov are two very well established arms of the iron triangle. The Republicrats and their cronies stand to lose too much money.
I have read that the incidence of autism among unvaccinated children is practically zero.
and yet your statement is irrational... how ironic.
“But what I am saying is that these “studies” that contend that all vaccines are 100% safe are suspect - particularly these days, so I don’t fault parents for questioning “authorities”.”
Where are those studies? I’ve never seen any such studies, and certainly that description doesn’t fit the one this article is speaking about.
Ha! Good point.
Nope, I’m not trying to tell you anything. What would be the point?
So I have to bear liability for not getting a vaccination and spreading disease, but vaccine developers are immune from liability.
Nice system you’ve constructed there! I can’t see a thing that could ever go wrong!
“So I have to bear liability for not getting a vaccination and spreading disease, but vaccine developers are immune from liability.”
Where did I say that I thought vaccine makers should be immune from liability?
I think you’re referring to the fact that they can’t be sued in civil court, but that is only stating half of the facts. There is a special court set up specifically for claims against the vaccine manufacturers, by a special act of Congress. They are NOT immune from liability in that court. The Supremes simply ruled that you can’t go after them in another court, you must use the court that is set up for that specific purpose.
What’s irrational about my statement?
There have been several studies centered around thimerosal, an organomercury compound used in a number of vaccines as a preservative. Many claimed that it was the cause of the rise in the number of cases of autism. Some say that there is convincing proof that it causes a rise in neurotoxicity, while others say that there’s no convincing proof.
“The problem is, the antivax people won’t be swayed by studies. They are emotional thinkers, not rational ones.”
That is irrational. You cannot possibly know that. (How many do you know personally?) It sounds like an emotion based thought. It comes across as an attack. Almost Alinsky-ish...
“That is irrational. You cannot possibly know that.”
Really?!? Doesn’t it go without saying that I don’t know it, but am making a prediction, based on the fact that I was speaking in the future tense, and humans cannot know the future? That sort of thing is assumed implicitly by rational people.
Now, this prediction is not an “emotion based thought”, it is my assessment based on my experience with these folks, and the knowledge that they have refused to accept the results of any of the great many previous studies that have already come to similar conclusions. If they wouldn’t accept those, then they are not like to accept this one. Past behavior is generally a consistent predictor of future behavior. That’s not irrational, it is completely rational.
Now, as to whether my prediction was accurate or not, well, just look at the responses on the thread. Have any anti-vaxxers changed their tune? Or have they just dreamed up more rationalizations to allow them to cling to their emotionally-based beliefs?
“There have been several studies centered around thimerosal, an organomercury compound used in a number of vaccines as a preservative.”
So, several studies that found no link between thimerosal and autism = “these “studies” that contend that all vaccines are 100% safe”???
Ummm..ok. The treatment of a patient with a rare Mitochondrial disease , which she shares with a sibling btw and being kidnapped by some federally funded nitwit who’s is producing a similar “study” is okay with you?
Psychiatric drugs to the point of incapacitation and segregation from family in the name of “Research”?
Thanks , but No thanks .
Children’s and MGH should be boycotted by anyone who has an “unusual condition.
It is all about “funding”. Gov’t Largesse for the stupid as$es that Hahvud turns out.
I think you’re referring to the fact that they can’t be sued in civil court, but that is only stating half of the facts. There is a special court set up specifically for claims against the vaccine manufacturers, by a special act of Congress. They are NOT immune from liability in that court. The Supremes simply ruled that you can’t go after them in another court, you must use the court that is set up for that specific purpose.
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It’s almost impossible to win in that court.
My cousin was left permanently brain damaged by a bad batch of the DPT shot. He was perfectly healthy until he was 18 months old, and then he started developing holes in his brain. His parents flew him all over the country looking for answers that no doctor could give them.
However, they never gave up looking for a cause, and they finally found it 14 years later. It was a small article in a medical journal in one of the universities medical libraries.
BTW, they didn’t win in court.
My perfectly healthy 5 year old niece started having seizures 4 hours after her MMR shot. They continued on and off for almost 2 years. However, according to every doctor she saw, it was just a coincidence. Sound familiar?
Luckily, she seems fine now, and was never given another vaccine.
Is my family just unlucky? Maybe
Are we just more sensitive to them? Maybe
I’ll let you decide.
BTW, Have you heard of SV40 monkey virus that contaminated millions of polio vaccines?
It is a undisputed fact that the vaccine was contaminated and causes cancer.
Do you know how many of those millions won in court?
The answer is zero.
Strange that the court paid out "$2,569,336,538.59 for compensable claims and $104,202,681.85 for attorneys’ fees representing those claims" from FY 1989 to FY 2013, if it is so hard to win a claim in that court (source). You may be right, though. It is not unheard of or even unusual for something the government set up to not work properly. If the court is broken though, let's fix it, rather than pretend that this is some insurmountable issue.
Ummm..ok. The treatment of a patient with a rare Mitochondrial disease , which she shares with a sibling btw and being kidnapped by some federally funded nitwit who’s is producing a similar “study” is okay with you?
Psychiatric drugs to the point of incapacitation and segregation from family in the name of “Research”?
I neither said nor implied any of those things. I think your tinfoil hat is on too tight.
Some did, some didn’t - take your pick.
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