"My heart says something else".

(In fact, according to something Dagmaraka found, she, ehBeth, patiodog, Chai, Caribou and I [a few more people too I think] all have a form of autism.)

Another factor in the increase of autism diagnoses is the expansion of what defines autism. We now refer to autism as any one of a number of conditions that fall under the umbrella of autism spectrum disorders whereas historical diagnosis was limited to a more severe form of social withdrawal.

Foul shot? Autism and the MMR vaccine

Ronald Bailey
THE PERCENTAGE of American children who receive childhood vaccinations is dropping, and educated, well-off parents are leading the retreat. What has spooked them? Parents fear that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine may trigger autism, a neurological disorder that typically appears before a child reaches the age of three.

The MMR/autism hypothesis took off in 1998 with the publication of a study of 12 autistic children by Canadian gastroenterologist AndrewWakefield. Wakefield's study found traces of the measles virus in the guts of children he tested. He concluded that the virus derived from the MMR vaccination, and suggested that it caused inflammation possibly related to the children's neuropsychiatric dysfunction. The connection was boosted by a report published in 2001 by autism activist Sallie Bernard, who argued that the mercury in the vaccine preservative thimerosal was "a novel form of mercury poisoning" responsible for autism.

But the preponderance of subsequent research has failed to find a connection between autism and the vaccine. A new study published by McGill University researchers in the July 2006 issue of the journal Pediatrics found that autism rates rose from 52 per 10,000 to 70 per 10,000 in Quebec a decade after the preservative thimerosal was removed from the vaccines. In 2005, a comprehensive review of 31 studies by the nonprofit authoritative medical collaboration, the Cochrane Library, found "no credible evidence behind claims of harm from the MMR vaccination."A 2004 National Academy of Sciences report produced similar results.

This and other research suggests that parents are confusing correlation with causation. The symptoms of autism just happen to emerge at the about the same time as recommended vaccinations are given. It's a coincidence, not a cause.

The real danger may not be the MMR vaccine, but fear of using it. Public health experts worry that many parents, having never seen a child afflicted with whooping cough or polio, are putting their kids at risk. The threat posed by the vaccine is likely illusory; that of infectious disease is surely not.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Reason Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group

Right, there are areas where it's actually becoming an issue again because of a concentration of anti-vaccination idiots. There was one in the Pacific Northwest somewhere I think, can look it up, don't remember details right now.

The state of Texas in law grants and acknowledges the right of parents to exempt their children from vaccination requirements for day care, school, and college for reasons of conscience including a religious belief or for medical reasons. In 2003, the Texas legislature passed changes to the statutes expanding the reasons a parent can claim an exemption but the Health Department has questionably also increased the bureaucratic red tape necessary for claiming the exemption. There are specific procedures for requesting an official state form and submitting it to the school or for completing a medical exemption that all take some time so please don't wait until the last minute to get your papers in order.

Almost all (I think maybe ALL, I'd have to research) vaccination mandates have some sort of an opt-out clause. So they're not really mandates, which is stupid.

It's like, "You MUST vaccinate your child to start school. Unless you don't want to, of course."

I'm going to go see what I can find on that, I do think there was a homeschooling element, my memory is fuzzy.

Despite the wide-spread imposition of school vaccination requirements, many states provide exemptions for medical, religious, and, to a lesser extent, philosophical reasons. These provisions vary by state, with medical exemptions for children who may suffer adverse effects from the vaccine being the most common. For example, in Colorado and most other states, an exemption from the vaccination requirements may be obtained by submitting to the school a certification from a licensed physician that "the physical condition of the student is such that one or more specified immunizations would endanger his or her life or health or is medically contradicted due to other medical conditions." 13 Almost all states also grant religious exemptions for persons who oppose immunizations for religious reasons. 14 The statutes allowing religious exemptions vary, with some requiring only a statement of dissent from the student, parent, or guardian, and others requiring a more specific statement regarding the child's membership in a religious denomination that opposes immunizations. 15 Exemptions based on philosophical or moral convictions in opposition to immunization are less common, but are provided by more than a dozen states, including Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. 16 States may specify that such religious or philosophical beliefs be "sincere" or "conscientiously held." 17