Voices: Vaccinations

By: Judith Wynhausen

December 26, 2006

Thank you for publishing the informative and compassionate article about autism a couple of weeks ago. In it, Paula Baker states about autism: “It is the fastest-growing developmental disability there is.”

I would think that the medical community would be turning over every stone in an effort to find out why autism is so rampant these days. But most of the medical community refuses to consider the connection between childhood vaccination and autism — I guess it opens up a Pandora’s Box.

Fortunately, there are some researchers who are brave enough to consider this connection, and they have found some very troublesome facts. The “official” proclamation is that research does not support a connection between vaccinations and autism (actually, it is the mercury in the vaccinations considered the main culprit), and they have declared vaccinations “safe.” But the testimony from doctors who treat children with developmental disorders, and from the parents of those children, paints quite a different picture. A search on the Internet will quickly give you pros and cons in this question.

Missouri law currently only allows for a “medical” or “religious” exemption from having vaccinations to go to school. Due to the large body of information that calls into question the safety of vaccinations, especially in regards to autism, there should be a “philosophical” or “scientific” exemption as well.

Source: Joplin Globe