Autism and vaccines

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It's hardly hysteria. Here's a link to the WHO page on measles: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/
They estimate that vaccinations prevented 17.1 million deaths from 2000-2014. Just because you and your mom got off lightly doesn't mean that it can't cause problems for other people. Mumps can cause infertility. Okay, that's not death, but it is really sad for people that wanted to have kids.

Rubella causes birth defects--100,000 babies are born with rubella-caused defects every year: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs367/en/

Speaking of hysteria, some people are actually attacking vaccination clinics because they are that paranoid about vaccines. We would have eradicated polio by now if not for this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/police-14-killed-in-bomb-attack-on-polio-vaccination-center-in-southwestern-pakistan/2016/01/13/d27fafd0-b9b9-11e5-85cd-5ad59bc19432_story.html

It's a much bigger issue than Disneyland. I think it is short-sighted to only think of what happens in one part of one affluent country. Even if a person doesn't die, they may lose time at school or work. My wife was old enough to be born before the immunizations. She got mumps on one side, measles, and then mumps on the other (chronic asthma compromises her immune system). All told, she was out of school for three months.

By the way, I call Godwin's Law on the Hitler reference. Not wanting to catch a nasty disease from some antivaxxer hardly makes us Nazis. OH PLEASE

Sensory input and biological interactions are not the same thing.

I feel, strongly, that the benefits of vaccines, all in all, far outweigh the risks.

Unfortunately, autism can start in babies/toddlers around the time they are given the main vaccinations. This might also give the impression that vaccines cause autism.

I agree . And as pointed out before, there are a lot of us being found on the spectrum before there were MMR vaccinations. Myself included.

I actually had the measles--the year the first vaccine for measles was introduced: 1963.

I didn't get a mumps/rubella vaccine until 1997, when I had to get one to go to college.

I got innoc'ed for everything going into the military in 79.

Had the mumps...really, really not fun and much worse than the flu.

Had the chicken pox. Didn't progress beyond the major itchy stage. I got lucky.

Had the measles. Not a bad case of the flu either.

Read Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes. He makes a good case for a number of cases of people with severe autism prior to the vaccines. It was standard practice to institutionalize such people--Temple Grandin's mother and Darryl Hannah's parents were told to institutionalize their daughters, and look at them now. It was generally assumed that such children could not be helped, especially if they started out nonverbal. They were all sort of lumped in with "ret*d, don't bother treating." Silberman even noted some children or youth who had made progress at home and then regressed when institutionalized. These places were awful, awful places, little more than prisons, with no therapy, no stimulation, and not even the beneficial effects of their family's love. For people who already tend to withdraw socially, this practically sent them into a catatonic state. Autism wasn't really studied until the 1930s and 40s. Prior to that, I expect low-functioning autistics were labeled as unreachable, and high-functioning ones (perhaps Henry Cavendish? My dad?) were just labeled as extremely eccentric.

I think the sensory issues are probably a problem with the structure of the brain and how it processes sensory input. I don't see how viruses would make a difference with that.

Institutionalization was an option for me as well.

Luckily, my mother saw "something" in me---and thereby started making sure I didn't become institutionalized.

Good for her!! Wow.....she's the "Anti-'My-Mother'".

To be clear:
My mother = biological mother
Mom = Stepmother...wonderful soul.....

Edit: BTW, GodzillaWoman....great links and good information. You have a lot to offer Thanks!

My relationship with my mother is ambivalent at best

But I do give her credit for "seeing something" in me--that nobody else saw at the time.

You have returned the favor by becoming who you are. She must be proud of you.

Thanks.

I think she's partially proud of me...but partially disappointed in me, too.

I think she thought I would get farther than I have actually gotten in life.

And, remember that the original research with Autism with Kanner and Asperger were done before MMRs. It's not like the spectrum just showed up in 1971.

Humans are really good at coming up with narratives to fill in the gaps. There's such a strong drive to find an enemy, something to blame. Ideally, science can be a candle in the dark to help us think through what is really happening. There's a lot we don't know still, and I'm no curebie, but the actual real research with brain imaging and genetics is pretty interesting. Instead we waste lots of resources refuting 12-person studies with half-million person studies.

Ahh, why am I even commenting on this subject?

Because it's very relevant to autism.

It makes sense to comment on it.

I guess? But I can't imagine changing anyone's mind. I just don't like getting into arguments on the internet.

BTW I remember looking down at my chickenpoxed body as a child with wonder and horror... Such a trip.

When I get in a discussion with anybody, I never expect to change that person. I just "put in my two cents."