As it all turned out, both my sons are autistic. I was v. relieved to learn that it couldn’t have been the MMR. It seems likely that we’ve got genetic predisposition in our family, on both sides. I think it’s also likely that one day a better understanding of possible contributary factors will help explain the evident boom in cases. I mean, like many people, I had no clue about autism when I was in my youth (1970’s) and now it’s all over the place. I personally notice what looks like a cluster among my cohort.

“Erica is correct: pro-vaccination does not mean hostility to people who can’t be vaccinated.”

Agreed!

Erica is correct: pro-vaccination does not mean hostility to people who can’t be vaccinated. In fact, it’s only everyone else’s vaccinations that keeps them safe. Given that there are people who either can’t be vaccinated or whose immunity is otherwise compromised, refusing to vaccinate healthy children risks their health and safety especially.

@nhokkanen — There are many, many environmental factors which can contribute to high mercury levels. Living near a coal-fired power plant, for example, raised my mercury levels. Numerous species of fish have extremely high mercury levels, including the commonly-eaten tuna. Drinking water has mercury.

I also am curious about: “… thimerosal at 20 parts per billion damages dendritic cells. The EPA drinking water limit for mercury is 4 ppb; most injected flu shots contain 50,000 ppb.” Once that flu shot is injected into and dispersed throughout a human body, what is the PPB concentration? I don’t know the volume of a flu shot, nor the volume of a person, or I’d do the math. Without that math, we are simply comparing apples to oranges. (A logically comparable statement: I have 250,000 PPM people in my household. Odds of winning the lottery are 0.2 PPM. What conclusions can we draw specifically from those numbers about whether I am a millionaire?)

Of course vaccine injuries occur. The risks are spelled out on the handy information sheets from my child’s doctor each time he/she gets a shot. But keep the discussion fact-based, rather than drawing speculative conclusions. And please don’t imply that a pro-vaccination viewpoint results in callous disregard for people who can’t be vaccinated or people who have had negative reactions.

I’ll jump in on the steering-classes discussion. (I’ve taught for decades, and I can’t resist.) I agree that the first thing to try is a private word, but if that doesn’t have the desired effect then I found the following can work surprisingly well. When you notice the untoward behavior, stop speaking or whatever you’re doing and look at the student. That’s all. Pretty soon everybody’s looking at the student who rapidly gets hugely embarrassed. It’s also very rare that they don’t know exactly why it’s happening, and, at least in my experience, the behavior never happens in your classes again. (If they honestly don’t get it, then try a second private word.) Once the student stops the offensive behavior, carry on with whatever you were doing before. As I say, it’s worked like a charm for me.

1. Federal Omnibus Autism Proceedings. The courts are a terrible place to referee accademic and scientific matters. Just because you have a seat at the plaintifs table does not make your arguements a scientific equivalent.

2. Mitochondrial disorders are inheirited. They are not aquired. Only in the Hannah Poling case, where a preexisting mitochondrial condition was exacerbated by vaccinations, have vaccinations been implicated in a court of law (again not a great place to ejudicate scientific hypothesis) to be responsible for mental retardation. Mitochondeial disorders themselves are very rare and tend to present with seizures, mental retardation and recurrent bouts of dangerous buildup of acid the blood, all without vaccinations.

3. People with egg allergies are generally no longer excluded from routine MMR or flu vaccinations (the 2 most common egg cultured vaccinations)

4. The EPA limits on mercury are so much lower than the concentrations that USED to be found in vaccinations because people tend to consume much much much much more water than vaccinations over the course of their lives. 2 cc of vaccinations 4 times in the first year of life vs 100 cc/kg/day of water minimum necessary consumption for infants.

5. Vaccinations, with the exception of multiple dose Flu vaccines no longer contain thimerisol. The decision to remove thimerisol from vaccines was made after 2-3 weeks of deliberations despite absolutely no demonstration of harm. Removing unnecessary additives to vaccines is cool, but unfortunately this has been interprted as an admission of danger on the part of the AAP, CDC ACIP etc (see folowing)

6. Maybe vaccinations and/or thimerisol don’t cause autism, MMR administration long predates the rise in autism cases. Plenty of money and energy has been wasted on “proving” the association of MMR and autism. The natural experiment of removing thimerisol from vaccinations has not resulted in a decrease in autism cases. Epidemiology of real kids trumps any number of damaged dendrites in a petri dish.

I’m all for safer vaccines. Vaccines are actively monitored for possible adverse effects. The first rotavirus (50 deaths a year US, >100 K developing world) vaccination was pulled off the market (at no small cost) 6-9 months after introduction due to a demonstrated increased risk of bowel obstruction. Risk was on the order of 1 case for every 5000 to 10,000 infants that were vaccinated. If MMR or thimerisol or a combination of genetic succeptiblity and vaccines and/or thimerisol are reponsible for a 1: 150 incidence of autism, the association would be readily demonstrable. It is high time that the line of inquiry be redirected.