The News
Vaccines are largely safe, and do not cause autism or diabetes, the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) said in a report issued today. This conclusion followed a review of more than 1,000 published research studies.
Says Ellen Wright Clayton, chairwoman of the reporting committee and director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee:
The message I would want parents to have is one of reassurance.
In other words, vaccines are safe.
The committee found that evidence convincingly supports a causal relationship between some vaccines and some adverse events—such as MMR, varicella zoster, influenza, hepatitis B, meningococcal, and tetanus-containing vaccines linked to anaphylaxis ( a life-threatening type of allergic reaction).
Even so, this dangerous allergic reaction is exceedingly rare. One study places the risk of anaphylaxis at 0.65 cases/million doses, which is only a 0.000065% chance! This adverse effect is literally less than one in a million, and thus we conclude that vaccines are essentially safe.
But more importantly, evidence favors rejection of five vaccine-adverse event relationships, including MMR vaccine and autism and inactivated influenza vaccine and asthma episodes. However, for the majority of cases (135 vaccine-adverse event pairs), the evidence was inadequate to accept or reject a causal relationship (meaning that they did not find evidence that could conclude that X caused Y). Overall, the committee concludes that few health problems are caused by or clearly associated with vaccines.
My Opinion
We have the evidence. There is now no reason not to vaccinate your children. However scary it may seem, vaccines save lives, and not just your child’s life, but even children around them.
Any potential fears or (less than) 1-in-a-million effects are not worth having polio come back to paralyze our kids.
Related Posts:
On Explaining the Safety of Vaccination
More Reasons to get Vaccinated
Sources:
Did they include the following study?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12145534
Autoimmunity to the central nervous system (CNS), especially to myelin basic protein (MBP), may play a causal role in autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder. Because many autistic children harbor elevated levels of measles antibodies, we conducted a serological study of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and MBP autoantibodies. Using serum samples of 125 autistic children and 92 control children, antibodies were assayed by ELISA or immunoblotting methods. ELISA analysis showed a significant increase in the level of MMR antibodies in autistic children. Immunoblotting analysis revealed the presence of an unusual MMR antibody in 75 of 125 (60%) autistic sera but not in control sera. This antibody specifically detected a protein of 73-75 kD of MMR. This protein band, as analyzed with monoclonal antibodies, was immunopositive for measles hemagglutinin (HA) protein but not for measles nucleoprotein and rubella or mumps viral proteins. Thus the MMR antibody in autistic sera detected measles HA protein, which is unique to the measles subunit of the vaccine. Furthermore, over 90% of MMR antibody-positive autistic sera were also positive for MBP autoantibodies, suggesting a strong association between MMR and CNS autoimmunity in autism. Stemming from this evidence, we suggest that an inappropriate antibody response to MMR, specifically the measles component thereof, might be related to pathogenesis of autism.
The study certainly has an interesting result, but without being able to access the full study, I don’t think that we have enough information here to refute anything. It also makes no mention of vaccines anywhere in the abstract, leading me to believe that this may be looking at something different all together.
Also, while the study is talking about MMR and associated antibodies, it does not specify whether or not they were testing MMR from vaccines, what dosages they were considering, etc. I think that this study is probably unrelated to the use of MMR in vaccines. Any study seeking to study such a hypothesis would surely include it in the abstract.
Without any of this information, we have to go with the evidence that we have, which is that every review has shown no link between MMR vaccines and autism. (Here’s another one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11331734)
I continue to have mixed feelings on vaccination. Not whether it is appropriate to vaccinate (I believe it is, 100%), but whether it is appropriate to group vaccinations into combined/short interval shots as many healthcare professionals currently do. Based on my education (biochemist/molecular cell biologist with experience in immunology, working in connection with the UC Davis MIND institute) and as a parent of a 3 year old autistic child who had zero symptoms of developmental disorder until 48-72 hours after his 18 month MMR, and full regression to non-verbal and asocial behavior has caused me to seriously question whether there may really be some etiological link to at least some autism cases. Yes, this is simply one anecdote, and it could be completely coincidental, but there is no question that within one week of his MMR he went from neurotypical and age appropriate development to 1% in most categories of development, especially in language and social ability. Did MMR cause it? We obviously have zero way of knowing, and I would never state that it did, but I certainly have more questions about it now.
Were I to do it again, I would still allow my son to get immunizations, but would request (and pay for if necessary) individual shots spread out over a longer duration. I don’t believe there is any relation to heavy metal toxicity, Al, or thimerosal, but there seems to be growing support for immunological correlation (at least in some cases) and there is nothing wrong with taking additional measures for peace of mind, as long as vaccinations are occuring.
I also believe that there are multiple causes (genetic, epigenetic, environmental) which may lead or or at least give some predisposition to different forms of autism, based on familial studies and spectrum phenotypic variation.
Given the recent publications regarding prenatal supplementation of high dose B vitamins (folate in particular) and autism diagnosis, I would also really like to see studies regarding B vitamin supplementation in infants/toddlers and whether or not it impacts autism/PDD diagnosis rates.
First let me thank you for sharing your story. I know that it can be hard to do so with things so personal.
But to your question, there are studies that have been done looking at the rate of vaccination and the number of antigens in the vaccines to answer your question. I will point you first to my post discussing it (and vaccine in general) :http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2010/10/16/on-explaining-the-safety-of-vaccination/
And here is the study that I think can help answer your question: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2010/05/24/peds.2009-2489.full.pdf+html
Sorry for being so blunt, but…
If you’re against vaccinations, I think you need to be put down.
Try to remember, what we are dealing with mostly are scared parents. I would advocate for better education before we line them up for euthanasia.
The problem is parents don’t trust the drug companies or the government and rightfully so. For example, the CDC can not consider one individual if it means millions will die. On the other hand, many adults would give their lives if it meant just one child would live. As far as Drug companies that produce vaccines only do it because the government protects them from lawsuits–otherwise there would be massive lawsuits. Yes, in short, you cannot sue the drug company directly if a vaccine kills you. Parents know that if vaccines really was a problem, the government would not tell them. The government would quietly fix the problem to avoid mass declines and fear of vaccination. Then there is preservatives like Thimerosal (Containing mercury) because to provide it otherwise is not cost effective on a massive scale. Finally combination vaccines. Much like regular drug interactions are not thoroughly tested like a single drug. It is not specifically required and is cost prohibitive. The FDA has proven trust in them to be sketchy at best. Given that for a drug to be approved, in short, needs to out perform a placebo. So, believing the FDA specifically puts people first is unfounded. Now, make no mistake. The concept of vaccines are critical in avoid events like the black plague. Which would be child’s play compared to the global affect today. Human extinction would be plausible with out this intervention and other protocols. The question is: “Are a limited number of children who may be harmed by vaccines worth the end of mankind?” I can’t answer that question, however, the CDC/FDA have to…
Pingback: An open letter to parents concerned about vaccines « Science-Based Life