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Thomas Sowell: Vaccine phobia and the autism ‘epidemic’
http://nypost.com/2015/02/10/vaccine-phobia-and-the-autism-epidemic/ ^ | February 10, 2015 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 02/11/2015 9:10:08 AM PST by iowamark

The current controversy over whether parents should be forced to have their children vaccinated for measles is one of the painful signs of our times.

Measles was virtually wiped out in the United States, years ago. Why the resurgence of this disease now?

The short answer is that false claims, based on other false claims, led many parents to stop getting their children vaccinated against measles.

The key false claim was that the vaccine for measles caused an increase in autism. This claim was made in 1998 by a doctor writing in a distinguished British medical journal, so it is understandable that many parents took it seriously, and did not want to run the risk of having their child become autistic.

Fortunately, others took the claim seriously in a very different sense. They did massive studies involving half a million children in Denmark and 2 million children in Sweden.

These studies showed that there was no higher incidence of autism among children who had been vaccinated than among children who had not been vaccinated.

Incidentally, the “evidence” on which the original claim that vaccines caused autism was based was just 12 children....

Unfortunately, it takes time to run careful scientific studies, involving vast numbers of children in different countries. That allowed the propaganda against vaccines to go on for years...

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: measles; thomassowell; vaccine; vaccines
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To: Republican1795.

Plus, they’re all eugenicists and the risk is worth it.


21 posted on 02/11/2015 9:40:17 AM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: dhs12345

A doctor on the CBC just stated last night on The National that an immunized child has “no risk” of catching measles. The vaccine “is supposed” to protect you. The fact of the matter is that there is a very low risk of dying from measles as a lot of the older folks have been noting that back when they were children: they often caught it / were sick for a while / ten recovered & had life long immunity. More people die from complications of the vaccine than from measles many because the combine it mumps & rubela. The immune system can only handle one insult at a time & the 3 in 1 combination vaccine overwhelms the immune system leading to complications. Furthermore: the thermosol [ mercury ] & aluminum in the vaccine had led to health problems not least of which was autism. I get nervous when government starts telling us that we have to get vaccinated. I got vaccinated myself back in high school long before I knew about the health risk.


22 posted on 02/11/2015 9:42:56 AM PST by Republican1795.
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To: dmz

The bad science is often done by those who usurp the label “scientist”. Such is the corruption we live under now.


23 posted on 02/11/2015 9:45:19 AM PST by Republican1795.
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To: iowamark; All

The AMA (in 2012) was floating around the idea of COMPULSORY PARTICIPATION IN VACCINE TRIALS. This is part of the bigger picture that some are worried about. Your own freedom in healthcare. (America Medical Association, Journal of Ethics)

“...Compulsory involvement in vaccine studies is one alternative solution that is not as outlandish as it might seem on first consideration...” (need for “healthy” individuals to get vaccinated in trials)

http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2012/01/pfor1-1201.html


24 posted on 02/11/2015 9:49:17 AM PST by machogirl
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To: iowamark

Look deeper: Dr. Andrew Wakefield was not the fraud... it was the phony “investigative journalist” Brian Deer who was exposed & has ties to the vaccine industry who was the fraud.


25 posted on 02/11/2015 9:50:48 AM PST by Republican1795.
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To: bmwcyle

When the MSM is promoting something... you just know it cannot be right.


26 posted on 02/11/2015 9:51:57 AM PST by Republican1795.
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To: demshateGod

Wow. My grandfather’s first wife died due to childbirth complications and my grandfather lost two siblings to childbirth complications.

This was 100 plus years ago.


27 posted on 02/11/2015 9:51:58 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: iowamark

Sowell’s right.


28 posted on 02/11/2015 9:54:13 AM PST by GOPJ (If you can't get on the high horse for men burned alive and children raped, what's the horse for?)
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To: Republican1795.
That is wrong. An immunized child may still get sick if only mildly. That is why boosters are needed. Yes, I know that measles is supposed to be different.

And what about the person who has a compromised immune system such as the elderly or a person who is taking meds for arthritis? Or what about the person who is neglectful of their kids and may have wanted the shots but for whatever reason didn't.

It is okay if you choose to not immunized your kids.... as long as, and here is the important point — your decision and choice doesn't affect other people.

29 posted on 02/11/2015 9:57:07 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: iowamark; All

From a historical perspective (written almost 100 years ago and dedicated to Woodrow Wilson)

Horrors of Vaccination Exposed and Illustrated (free to read)

https://archive.org/details/39002086340891.med.yale.edu


30 posted on 02/11/2015 10:02:18 AM PST by machogirl
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To: GOPJ
Sowell’s right.

Of course he's right. Mass vaccination and the widespread availability of potable water are the two most important public health triumphs of our time.

31 posted on 02/11/2015 10:05:27 AM PST by jalisco555 ("My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy" - Ronald Reagan)
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To: immadashell

Yah, but if the thing mutates because it’s being passed from host to host, vaccinations are irregular and not wide-spread, and I GET SAID MEASLES, I get to go to those folks’ houses who didn’t vaccinate their rug rats, and punch them so hard in the face that when they wake up their clothes will be out of style.

Right?

Otherwise, it’s no deal. I don’t want to force anybody to do anything unless it can directly effect me in a strongly negative way. I’d say this qualifies.


32 posted on 02/11/2015 10:05:47 AM PST by AxeofCrom
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To: Republican1795.
From your informative link:

-------------------------------------

"After speaking to Olmsted, I looked up some of the claims he made during the course of our interview, particularly places where he cited a specific study that I was unfamiliar with. Here is what I found.

Olmsted said the CDC tried to suppress findings from researcher William Thompson supposedly linking vaccines to autism. Snopes previously deemed this claim false, and the blog Respectful Insolence found the assertion cherry-picks a small subgroup in a study that overall found no link between vaccines and autism. Many studies , including the comprehensive Institute of Medicine review from 2011, have also come out since the original study in question showing no connection between vaccines and autism.

Another study cited by Olmsted supposedly found a link between thimerasol, a mercury compound no longer included in most childhood vaccines, and autism. But as Emily Willingham at Forbes explains, this study — a multi-phase study — ended by finding no link between thimerasol and autism. Even so, it's become the center of many conspiracy theories, most of which seem to center around confusion over how to interpret multi-phase studies."

33 posted on 02/11/2015 10:07:34 AM PST by TexasGator
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To: demshateGod

“I know three kids who were fine before vaccinations and became autistic after.”

I know three kids who had autism before being vaccinated. Obviously some type of time warp involved?


34 posted on 02/11/2015 10:09:05 AM PST by TexasGator
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To: demshateGod

BTW, my son and wife might have died during child birth. My son was breech and my wife is small with other complications.

I am >very< thankful for modern medicine.


35 posted on 02/11/2015 10:09:41 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: demshateGod

” Kid was fine, got the vaccine, the kid has autism. “

How old was the kid when it “got autism”? Autism isn’t generally diagnosed until about 3 years old


36 posted on 02/11/2015 10:09:56 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: AppyPappy

I don’t remember.


37 posted on 02/11/2015 10:22:17 AM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: demshateGod

Rather hard to make that diagnosis then.


38 posted on 02/11/2015 10:24:46 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: AppyPappy

That does not make sense.


39 posted on 02/11/2015 10:26:12 AM PST by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: demshateGod

You failed to tie vaccination with autism. Maybe the child was autistic and then got vaccinated.


40 posted on 02/11/2015 10:30:34 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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