[afraidfortherepublic]

I am the grandmother of an autistic child whose symptoms develped shortly after the MMR vaccine. No one can say whether the vaccine caused this beautiful child to regress, or not. But you all should realize that no one is advocating eliminating the vaccines. All parents have asked is that the MMR vaccine be split into its 3 parts and given on a staggered basis and that the Thimserol additive be eliminated. (Meaning that vaccines would have to be used when fresh.)

I can report that my daughter no longer receives any flack from her doctor over this (New Jersey), nor does her sister in Virginia. Their children are vaccinated on a delayed basis with separate vaccines -- no questions asked any more.

Although I am not belittling deafness as a disability -- it can be more easily "fixed" than autism. However, I don't think that separating and delaying the vaccines will lead to more deafness in the population. It isn't even a reasonable argument.

[cogitator]

Although I am not belittling deafness as a disability -- it can be more easily "fixed" than autism. However, I don't think that separating and delaying the vaccines will lead to more deafness in the population. It isn't even a reasonable argument.

The reason that I posted my comments was that I think we may have forgotten the original reasons that these vaccination programs were adopted. Deafness is one of the mildest symptoms of Congenital Rubella Syndrome (which I didn't realize). CRS can lead to profound retardation as well as stillbirth (the first link of the two in my previous post describes what can happen). While I think it is important to determine if the increasing incidence of autism is related to vaccination or the mercury preservatives in vaccines, it is also important to remember that the vaccines have substantially reduced or virtually eliminated the risk of many diseases that were literally feared 30-40 years ago. (And it amazes me that we are not very far removed from those times.)