Speaking up against anti-vacciners

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[quote]

I agree,

Vaccinations (or the lack thereof) may hurt the Lakers chances at a championship.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/04/lakers-chicken-pox-kobe-bryant-ron-artest-andrew-bynum/1

I chose no/i believe vaccines caused my childs/family members autism. However, I dont believe it cause anyone I knows autism, but I do believe it can make it worse or cause it. I have 4 kids and am a proud nonvaccinator. My kids have never had 1 shot. But even so, I am dealing with spectrum disorders.

If there is one thing that had driven me crazy about this site is this whole "This is how I was meant to be" mentality. Actually, no, it isnt how anyone was meant to be. (Unless your looking at this from a christian persective which I doubt many are) It is how people are, and we should accept that, encourage people to understand it and embrace it, but it isnt how one was meant to be, as implied in the first choice of this poll. Something unnatural happens to cause the brain to do these things.

Vaccines (and specifically the MMR vaccine) have been conclusively proven to NOT cause autism. Only the brain dead clowns like Jenny McCarthy continue to ignore the scientific facts that stare them in the face in favor of wild emotionalism. Anyone who grew up in the polio era like I did realizes the value of vaccines beyond any doubt. And back then we had to suffer with all the childhood diseases they prevent, like chicken pox and measles that are totally preventable today. I never did have the mumps (and my sister caught it several years ago in her 50s) and would take the MMR to avoid the more serious consequences of the mumps in adulthood. Oh and there is also the flu vaccine that we did not have back then as well as vaccines against Hepatitis B and C. Even back around 1982 I asked a doctor for the then new Hepatitis B vaccine since I am gay and thus in a high risk category (aside from the fact that nobody will have anyting to do with me since I am an Aspie social outcast). His nurse had no idea what I was talking about and wanted to give me Gamma Globulin.

For me, it's not about "being a mistake." I'm frustrated with anti-vaccine people in the same way that I'm frustrated with creationists. They're willfully ignorant and chalk up any opposing evidence to their "theories" as being part of a conspiracy.

Who I am is not a mistake. Who I am is the way that God made me, as a free range person. That's why I take a stand against the anti-vaccine.

God made me autistic, and I believe I will still be autistic in heaven. This is how I was meant to be. Autism is an extreme variation of something that can be found in the general population, not a disease caused by a single defective gene or a damaged brain. Variety makes a population stronger, and autism is one expression of variety. Even things that, in their extreme forms, create disability, are still vital parts of the human gene pool. Genetic diversity--not a homogeneous population of "superior" individuals--creates a species' survivability. God made humankind diverse. Autism is just one more way that expresses itself.

No, "in His own image" would be more accurate, and then *some* of the traits of *some* autistics just happen to bear *partial* witness of that. Otherwise, we would have to expect our LFA fellows to also believe themselves blessed. In any case, however, it is silly to speak against people who speak against vaccines unless one has some specific reason/s for actually promoting vaccination.

Other. It has nothing to do with whether I'm a mistake (and believe it or not, disabled people who are disabled because of accidents and the like can still prefer being disabled, it has nothing to do with cause). It has to do with the fact that their rhetoric endangers a lot of people, especially people in poorer countries who stand the most to lose, also especially people with health problems that make exposure to sick people really dangerous.

Some actually do, but since that runs against stereotype, people don't realize it. (And people who think they know all about what the very diverse group of people labeled with LFA think about themselves, and assume it to be totally negative, are usually totally wrong. There's as much diversity of opinion there as among any other group of autistic people and to treat it like everyone must be miserable about it is ignorant. You can take any group of people, including people expressly designed by the person to sound as if none of them could be happy with their situation, and there will be people who consider that situation a blessing.)

It is kind of hard to have a comprehensive understanding of individual opinions of people with whom you (and in some cases no-one) can fully communicate. I agree that we shouldn't impose what we think we would feel on those people as a group, and agree with a lot of what you say about people being unnecessarily mistreated, as you've outlined both on boards and in your youtube vids. But without having a form of communication which both sides can understand, it is difficult to know how we can (as individuals and as a society) act on the basis of what someone wants/feels/thinks. I am not defending the poster above particularly, just putting it out there as a problem and inviting a response from people.

yeah i agree with most it is just plain insulting and selfish.

Oh I meant that once people do acquire a means of communication, the opinions are varied. Which suggests that before people had a means of communication (and also in the cases of people who never gain one), the opinions were also varied. It's not like there's a hard line between people with communication and people without, that people never cross, and that we can never see people before communication as saying something about people who still don't have it, or something.

errm, I would think that the main reason for promoting MMR is that it prevents Mumps, Measles and Rubella, which are nasty and potentially life threatening illnesses. No?

My own speculation/projection had not meant to be a presumption, and I do apologize. Personally, I see my own AS/HFA as neither curse nor blessing in any way people typically think of such things. I shy away from or even "speak against" vaccines for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with any thought of autism even though I do personally know a juvenile female who has been affected in some ways certain people might view as "autistic" ... and yet I never mention that as one of my reasons for avoiding vaccines since I have no reason to believe vaccines can inject autism.

I loved the OP's letter, and I share her sentiments. Well done.

I do not know much about the supposed research that was done to find a link between vaccines and autism; all I know is that I see AS symptoms in almost everyone on my dad's side of the family, and that is enough to make me believe that, in my case, AS is genetic rather than caused by a vaccination.

Like some others who have posted here, what bothers me the most when people tell me that my personality is the result of a medical mistake is that I feel like they are taking everything away from me. Like I am not even a person.

My dad sits there angrily saying "I ruined my daughter's life, because I let those doctors give her that shot."

Sometimes I just want to say "Excuse me, but I will decide whether or not my own life is ruined, thank you very much. It is not all about you, you do not control the destiny of the people around you." Sometimes he acts like my problems are god's way of punishing him. Like the reason I was put on this planet was to bring pain and suffering to others. I AM A PERSON TOO.

I worry that the children of the outspoken "anti-vacciners" may have similar feelings.