This month, the North Hudson Community Action Corporation (NHCAC) is collaborating with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) Immunization Program to offer five vaccinations for free to everyone from newborns to seniors at NHCAC’s public health centers in Union City and West New York.
The program, made possible by funds from the federal government allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is being conducted just as parents rush to get checkups and vaccinations for their kids before they return to school.
NHCAC is encouraging all residents to take the opportunity to protect and promote their health and the health of their families, and their community – but some Hudson County residents may not be lining up anytime soon.
After a study published in a medical journal, The Lancet, in 1998 showed a possible link between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism, some parents began to show concern about the growing list of vaccines their children are mandated to take. And although that study was discredited and more recent studies “found no evidence of harm” from vaccines, many people nationwide, including some high-profile celebrities, are still pushing the cause of vaccination research and choice.
Mother turned medical practitioner
Louise Kuo Habakus, a member of the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice, which held a session last year at a restaurant in Hoboken, is also the director and founder of The Center for Personal Rights, a non-profit organization based in Middletown.
Habakus said she got involved in the fight for vaccination choice after two of her children were injured by vaccines. She said they developed inflammatory bowel disease, which got progressively worse after each vaccine.
However, she stressed that the injuries her children faced may be less or more severe than what others could face.
“Vaccine injury manifests very differently in different people,” said Habakus.
A former corporate executive, Habakus took on the mission of poring over studies in her quest to advocate for research, education, and informed consent when it comes to vaccination and ultimately became a holistic health practitioner.
According to Habakus, children in New Jersey receive 45 doses of 13 vaccines by the time they enter kindergarten - a threefold increase over the past 25 years.
Habakus added that New Jersey is the only place in the world that mandates the flu shot for kids.
“We mandate more vaccines than any other place in the world,” said Habakus. “We also don’t have the gold standard when it comes to choice.”
Vaccines are recommended at a federal level by the Center for Disease Control and are mandated by each state’s Department of Health.
New Jersey tops the list of most mandated vaccines, which parents may only refuse for religious or medical reasons.
Texas, the state which mandates the second highest number of vaccines, also allows exemptions based on philosophical or personal beliefs.
“Even if [the vaccines are] okay, you still can’t mandate people to do it,” said Habakus. “At the end of the day, if you don’t have the right to make fundamental decisions about what goes into your bodies, what does freedom mean?”
Advocating for informed consent
Habakus said that New Jersey is the leading state with children with autism and learning disabilities. Autism is a complex developmental disability that affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
In New Jersey, the autism rate is 1 in 94. Some have said the high rate is due to the many resources that exist in the state, a situation that draws people with autistic children to move here. In addition, more children may be diagnosed here.
Habakus pointed to the fact that the Garden State gives more shots, offers no vaccine choice, and is the U.S. and worldwide headquarters for over half of the world’s pharmaceutical firms.
“Is that a coincidence?” she said. “The pharmaceutical industry is such an important tax base in our state, you could argue that it would be impossible to be elected in New Jersey without pharm support.”
Habakus said that sufficient research has never been put into vaccines to see who is susceptible to possible complications prior to administering vaccines, because the people conducting the studies are the same ones selling the product.
“We’re not saying don’t vaccinate,” said Habakus. “We’re just saying do your research.”
New governor could mean new rules
Habakus said that Gov. Chris Christie is “showing leadership and foresight” on the issue of vaccination choice, as evident from a letter her organization received from Christie last year in which he said he will “stand with” families as governor in their fight for greater parental involvement in vaccination decisions that affect their children .
According to the results of a recent Harris Interactive poll conducted in May, vaccination choice is a mainstream parental issue with over half of parents responding that “parents should have the right to decide which vaccines their children receive without government mandates.”
Although Christie has been focused on budget issues for the first part of his term, Habakus said she is confident that he’ll remember his campaign promise to stand with families like her own.
Get informed
Though Habakus and others may be questioning the validity of vaccines, representatives from the NHCAC maintained that the vaccines they are making available can be of use to the general population for everyone from newborns to the elderly.
Representatives from NHCAC said that misinformation about vaccines could make some patients and/or their parents decide not to receive immunizations, which could put them and others at a greater risk for illness.
“The North Hudson Community Action Corporation Health Centers agrees with the position of the Center for Control of Disease and Prevention,” said NHCAC President Christopher Irizarry. “Vaccines work best when most members of a community are vaccinated. We at NHCAC work each day to help eradicate communicable diseases in every way we can.”
For more information on this vaccine programs and/or other health center services, call NHCAC Public Health/Infection Control Coordinator Anny Taveras at (201) 863-5823 or visit www.nhcac.org.
For more information on the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice, visit www.njvaccinationchoice.org.
Lana Rose Diaz can be reached at ldiaz@hudsonreporter.com. Free vaccines offered through NHCAC
The following vaccinations are currently available at NHCAC centers in Union City and West New York for free: HPV vaccine, TDAP vaccine, Meningococcal vaccine, Pneumococcal vaccine, and Prevnar 13.
Although the vaccines are free of charge, minimal administration fees may be applicable. Vaccinations can be accessed at the NHCAC health centers located in Union City and West New York sites.
Walk-in with no appointment required at the West New York site on Mondays -Thursdays (5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.), and at the Union City site Mondays through Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information, call (201) 863-5823.
One can choose to not vaccinate but those individual(children will not be allowed to attend public schools and they should also be a law like Megan's law letting the rest of the neighborhood no where the unvaccinated live so that those vaccinated can stay far away.
I think the only issue left is the psychology of how people can delude themselves.
In brief:
No vaccine exceeds the EPA safety limit. This is a math error that has been corrected and corrected since the late 1990's. Not that it really matters all that much, it should be obvious to you that the EPA standards aren't correct for medical products.
You should try reading the Simpsonwood transcript before commenting on it. You also might want to learn how hypothesis testing works. Again your misrepresentation of the data has been corrected since at least 2000.
Good news: there are countless toxicologists and statisticians who can and have explain how the vaccine critics keep getting these arguments all wrong.
FYI your comments about pertussis are fictional.
Using only middle-school math you can demonstrate that there are vaccine preventable diseases. Also your argument about outbreaks in fully vaccinated populations is a total logically fallacy and the rest of the world is getting tired of correcting these errors.
And Herd Immunity is a definition. When people question it, you know they don't know what they are talking about.
Just so you clearly have totally misrepresented VAERS--this is explained on their site.
You might want to check what mandate means.
And no in NJ daycare, education, and government assistance is not contingent on being vaccinated. Here is the relevant part of the law: http://www.state.nj.us/health/cd/documents/njac857_4.pdf
And here is a useful link for finding different country's vaccine schedules:
http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/en/globalsummary/ScheduleSelect.cfm
Select Americas and Influenza vaccine and you will find the facts.
If you wish to dig deeper, try Googling. Here is a study from 2006 Alberta Canada:
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/06vol32/dr3213a-eng.php
You will note: " In Canada, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization currently recommends that all children aged 6 to 23 months without contraindications should receive the safe(30,32,33) and efficacious (30,34) trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine annually(24) to prevent illness, reduce transmission, and reduce health care utilization (15,21,28,30,32,35,36)."
And
"For the first time in 2004-2005, the provincial Department of Health in Alberta provided funding for universal influenza vaccine for all children 6 to 23 months of age."
Again, please note: "universal influenza vaccine for all children 6 to 23 months of age."
Finally, all you provided was a carefully selected 9 word quote from the NCVIA act. The quote was very careful to cut off what exactly was prohibited. Read the whole act and learn the truth.
However, since I have already linked you to actual US civil court decisions, it would seem that you would have to know already know with absolute certainty that the quote you provided was entirely deceptive.
W&N
Kind of you to respond.
Nice rhetoric. Now let's pull back the curtain and see if you are offering any substance.
When asked: where is the influenza vaccine given to children, our 13 year old looks for facts.
You argue by assertion. When told you are wrong you didn't bother to double-check but instead continue to argue by assertion.
The WHO keeps a very helpful database with all the country's vaccine schedules:
http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/en/globalsummary/ScheduleSelect.cfm
Selecting the Americas and Influenza vaccine demonstrates that you are wrong.
And you have incorrectly defined what "mandate" means.
And you have incorrectly stated the NJ daycare/pre-school regulations for influenza vaccination.
Your inability to get the basic facts correct is all too typical of njvaccinationchoice arguments.
We all understand that the pharmaceutical industry is very large and important to NJ, but this doesn't change the simple fact that the link you provided doesn't support your claim that over half of the world's pharmaceutical companies are headquartered in NJ. This is not surprising since your claim is false--a fact easily demonstrated using first-grade math.
BTW--I think you misread the Times article--you might want to try re-reading it.
I especially liked your snide comments about fact checking. This is nothing more than a diversionary technique.
I think you wish to turn our attention away from the truth and not actually have as look at (e.g.) #5 in your list of the Top 10 reasons:
http://njvaccinationchoice.org/top-10-reasons/
(1) U.S. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act does prevent lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers--it states this right in the law. Almost 26 years later and the vaccine critics still can't get the facts correct.
(2) VAERS does not document vaccine reactions. Again, almost 26 years later and the vaccine critics still can't get the facts correct.
(3) Not only can one sue pharmaceutical companies, such suits have occurred. I have already posted one decision from the state of Maryland on the issue of vaccines causing autism--there are others. But since the readers of njvaccinationchoice are told these suits don't exist, the readers probably don't have the opportunity to read the decisions that ridicule the science and the ethics of the scientists and lawyers that brought these suits.
(4) you don't understand what informed choice (consent) means. There are lots of references online you might want to try learning what the expression means.
And these errors are all from just one of your arguments.
No, I think you don't want some to fact check your claims like (#2) that vaccines are not tested with double-blind, placebo controlled trials. Our 13-year old has the good sense to Google " double blind placebo vaccine".
There are more than 3 million hits. Pages and pages of double-blind, placebo controlled vaccine trials. Should we keep going with the other 8 top Ten reasons?
The reality is that njvaccinationchoice and AgeofAutism and GenerationRescue are marginalized to yelling on the Internet because they simple can't articulate an argument that passes the Middle-School Science test.
Nor do they change their arguments even when they are demonstrated to be false.
So the real question is why are these arguments still being made?
W&N
It can be very threatening to read perspectives that challenge our own deeply held beliefs and past decisions we have made."
When one's deeply held beliefs are challenged by knowledgeable peopple using science, then, one should wake up and smell the bacon and perhaps realize that their analysis of their observations may not have any basis in reality.
As for there being nothing wrong with agreeing to disagree, in a word, HOGWASH, when it comes to public health matters. Vaccine denialists and refusers place others at risk. This is now the case in California, where children are dying due to vaccine denial and refusal.
No one has told anyone to shut up. Nice strawman. However, the anti-vaccinationist, on which you rely, have threatened vaccine proponents, attacked them personally by "outing" them, and posting their employment information and encouraging their lemmings to write to the employers. I have never seen that done by those of us who rely on science.
Another of your strawmen is the issue of risk. No one claims that vaccines are either 100% effective or 100% risk free. However, in a logical analysis of risk vs. benefit, benefit wins every time.
Habakus again: "It's time for us to be brave enough to admit the truth. How much of what we believe comes from firsthand examination? Very little." Again, hogwash. Vaccine refusers and denialists claim that they saw their children regress in a matter of moments, etc. At the Autism Omnibus hearings video was shown of a child, prior to vaccinations, where they showed obvious signs of autism, and, yet, their parents saw "regression". Meanwhile, I saw a classmate in his iron lung after polio. I saw my friend's son before and after meningitis (pre-vaccination availability). No interpretion required.
Now, as to your mandates claim. No, there is no mandated vaccine what-so-ever anywhere. You are given a choice, use services available to the public, and get vaccinated, or not use those services. You have no right to place another child at risk by having your unvaccinated child in the same program as a child of a responsible parent who had all vaccinations. No vaccine is 100% effective in and of itself. However, vaccines coupled with herd immunity are highly effective in preventing spread of diseases.
I just love the "we have a lot of PHARMA companies in New Jersy" argument. So what? When I drove through NJ several years ago, I saw the chemical plants along the Turnpike, and I got to see purple air.
I do expect to be ruthlessly, and truthlessly attacked as a pharma shill, etc. If anyone knows where I can sign up for their largesse, please post the address.
As for your cheap shot, it is truly barain basement. Just because you do it, does not mean others do it. Your facts are non-existent.
There is nothing wrong with agreeing to disagree. But when people become rude and insulting and dismiss the authentic experiences of others, this tells me that there is a lot more going on beneath the surface. Real societal progress comes from dissent and we should welcome it, not attack it. Are we really so well off on so many fronts that we should tell people with differing views to shut up? Real dialogue and progress will come from respectful interchange where we can focus on facts, not on ad hominem invective. Whether we are talking about compulsory vaccination, or health care reform, or global warming or our economy, or any number of other significant problems that our country faces, we all have to stop the knee-jerk, fear-based urge to attack, long enough to open our minds and listen. At the end of the day, your opinions will still be your own.
This issue is not so simple as “vaccines good, vaccines bad,” any more than it would be that a hammer is good or bad. Vaccines are a tool. It matters how, when, and why we use them. As with any other drug or medical intervention, there are tradeoffs. There are risks and benefits. It is a very naïve person who believes that you will get something for nothing. It is a very naïve person who believes that society must turn to vaccines to protect us against every pathogen that could strike us. This makes for a terrific business model, however. And if you interrogate industry analysts for the source of future pharma profits, you will find that vaccines are on the ascent, to make up a dismal outlook as many of their blockbuster drugs come off patent. If pharma can get more governments to put their vaccines in the recommended and mandated pipeline and pay for them through increasingly expensive entitlement programs, it’s a sweet business. Whatever you believe about the merits of vaccination, the interplay between industry and government is worthy of deep, independent, thorough scrutiny.
It's time for us to be brave enough to admit the truth. How much of what we believe comes from firsthand examination? Very little. And that's understandable. We are bombarded by information. We would be paralyzed if we had to research everything first. So we employ shortcuts. We rely on experts. We find people with whom we agree on some things and we assume they must be right on other things as well. This is natural. It's human nature. As is the instinct to defend yourself, dukes up, when someone tells you that something you believe, something you have done, may not have been so wise.
A couple of specific comments related to the article:
1. I stand by my assertion that NJ is the only state in the US and country in the world to mandate the flu shot. Mandate means required. It is compulsory in the state of NJ for daycare and preschool for children up to 59 months of age. There is no other state in the US that requires it. The US recommends it for all American children to age 18, but even a child can understand the difference between a recommendation and a mandate. It may very well appear on the official vaccination schedule of other countries but you will find that it is recommended, not mandated. The flu shot is required in certain other situations. For example, it is a condition of employment for certain healthcare workers, and it is required for children of US military for some on-base childcare programs... but again, these are not mandated by state or by country.
2. I stand by my statement about the concentration of pharma in New Jersey. We are long acknowledged to be the Medicine Chest of the World. Read this New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/16/business/16IMPA.html. NJ has 1,588 pharmaceutical companies (manta.com). Despite mergers and consolidating trends, pharma remains very important... it employs nearly 70,000 and the sector delivers nearly $30 billion in our state. Read the 8/11/09 article called The Future of Pharma in NJ Monthly. If you go to IRS.gov and type in "pharmaceutical industry overview" in the search box, it lists NJ as headquarters for many of the premier pharmaceutical companies of the world, stating that NJ became the capital of this industry around the turn of the century.
This is a cheap shot, so I ask your forgiveness upfront. But if readers are asking their 13 year olds to do fact checking without context or relevance, then they deserve the results that they find. In all seriousness, this is an issue worthy of our energies, resources, and intention. Whether you are moved by the health of our children, or the health of our pocketbooks, we‘re all on the same side.
Reading, and beLIEving the NVmis-IC website is not a way to get a good education.
NVIC is a pack of lies.
.
http://tinyurl.com/33pkxf4
You seem to suffer from terminal credulousity. You have swalloed everything from the anti-vaccination liar merchants of disease, disability and death. You are too young to recall diseases.
As for being a victim of ignorance, I do feel sorry for you. You lack critical thinking skills, and, unfortunately, you can spread the stupid gene.
You claim "Science has shown that there is no valid argument against vaccination..."
Really?
Please refer to the June 2000 transcript of the CDC's Simpsonwood Retreat held in Norcross, GA, during which 51 of our country's pre-eminent "experts" on vaccines convened and determined a "statistically valid correlation between thimerosal-(mercury) containing vaccines and neuro-developmental disorders in infants and children." The CDC's 2009 vaccine excipient list shows 7 of the childhood vaccines still contain thimerosal in amounts that exceed the EPA's safety limit.
You should have plenty of time to get through the entire document now that you have that coveted night shift position at Mickey D's!
To Ileonard:
Sorry, but your argument is quite flat and way off the mark! When people start talking about "herd immunity" and "vaccine-preventable disease," it is a clear indication of how limited their scope of knowledge on this subject really is.
FYI, the pertussis outbreak in CA is caused by a strain of pertussis for which there is no vaccine. Recent testing has shown that the current DTP vaccine increases the susceptibility of the new strain to spread. Go figure!
BTW, there is no such thing as "vaccine-preventable disease." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report lists disease outbreaks in fully-vaccinated populations. Then, there are the populations of people who naturally resist disease without vaccination. I, for one, have never had the flu. Never. Not in my 50 years of life. Funny? I've NEVER had a vaccine.
Just so YOU'RE clear about what you are choosing--it is the right to refuse a forced medical treatment that carries with its administration, the inherent risk of permanent injury and death. Our own government files these injuries and deaths in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System or VAERS. Just so you know.
To White and Nerdy:
There is quite a difference between an "official" vaccination schedule and a "mandated" one. Each year the CDC puts out their official vaccine schedule but that doesn't mean the states mandate every one of them. Mandated means that daycare, education and government assistance programs are contingent upon vaccination.
So, please list those 20 countries that are "MANDATING flu vaccines for infants as young as 6 months old," because I'm pretty sure that's what NJCVC's website says.
You may want to familiarize yourself with the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. Included within its provisions,
"No manufacturer shall be liable in a civil suit..."
PLEASE people! Stop being victims of your own ignorance!
The other issue here is the question of balance. Does this issue require balance? Would you expect balance if discussing a flat earth or whether the sun revolves around the earth? Of course not. Science has shown that there is only one truth.
This "vaccine controversy" is the same. Science has shown that there is no valid argument against vaccinations to support "balance".
Of course, the AoA lemmings and drones, some who infested these comments, do not understand that. They are deluded individuals who think that they are still relevant.
They are not. Their ideas have been dis-proven. They have no reasonable basis to continue, but they do.
McDonald's is hiring.
Yes, there is an issue of choice – but the choices/options must be correctly identified and fairly presented so that their implications/potential consequences can be evaluated and considered in making the decision. To poll readers regarding whether or not parents should have free personal choice of what vaccines their children receive misses the point as it fails to correctly identify the choice and the social context.
In this poll, the “choice” refers to parental choice regarding what, if any, vaccines their child will receive. It is presented as a personal choice with consequences for just that child. The question basically asks about “free choice” – yes or no. Since “freedom” is what this country has been founded on, it’s almost unpatriotic to not choose “choice”! It’s a rather loaded question with a predictable outcome.
But by their very nature, vaccines have consequences extending well beyond the individual. Protecting a high number of individuals within a community also collectively protects through herd immunity those members who cannot be immunized due to age, medical condition, or religious belief. In this society, if everyone were to opt for egocentric “free choice,” there would be unhealthy and downright deadly consequences. (Consider the trends in those areas which have relaxed mandates for certain basic vaccines. The current pertussis outbreak in California is a case in point.) Asking a question focusing on “vaccine choice” ignores the reality that, although vaccines are given to individuals, what’s at stake is really the public’s exposure to vaccine-preventable disease.
If the choice is more correctly identified as disease vs. no disease, rather than vaccine vs. no vaccine, the response may be different. Asking "Do you think parents should be able to choose to allow their children and, by extension, their community to be vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases?" redirects the conversation.
It is vaccine-preventable disease that should be the focus. Vaccine-preventable diseases are still a threat to public health. We should be clear about what we are really choosing.
Thanks for a nice article.
I have a suggestion for you: there is larger story behind your story.
Consider Ms Habakus comments quoted in your article.
A simple counting exercise demonstrates that her claim that over half the pharmaceutical companies being head-quartered in New Jersey is false. The true value appears to be less than 1%.
While her assertions about fundamental rights and that one "can't mandated vaccinations" might seem convincing to the naive, the US Supreme Court has found her to be wrong. Then there are the ethicists...
Again Ms Habakus asserts that New Jersey is the only place in the world that mandates influenza vaccines for "kids", the reality is that our 13 year-old took about 2mins to find 20 countries in the Americas whose official vaccine schedule includes influenza for kids.
Perhaps it would be more fair to focus on written work. Here is a summary of njvaccinationchoice arguments:
http://njvaccinationchoice.org/top-10-reasons/
Their reasons are wrong. Wrong in exactly the sense that they systematically miss-state the most basic facts and totally misrepresent the concepts, ideas, and science.
Here is one obvious example: #5, the claim that you can't sue vaccine manufactures or physician administrators of vaccines is 100%, absolutely false.
Here is an example of a September 2008 court of appeals affirming lower court rulings in a case where it was claimed that vaccination caused autism.
http://mdcourts.gov/opinions/coa/2009/112a08.pdf
The courts ruled that all the vaccines cause autism arguments were "junk science" of such poor quality they couldn't even be admitted to court.
In other cases, courts have described the vaccines cause autism as "intellectually dishonest".
In short, it is impossible to defend njvaccinationchoice's arguments--they are simply wrong.
So I think the bigger, more interesting story is how these falsehoods continue to be advocated and how they risk our families' health.
W&N
Asthma, allergies, childhood diabetes, childhood rheumatoid arthritis - these and other autoimmune diseases are as epidemic as autism in the US, and the rate of increase in their incidence is not diminishing. Immune system response is what vaccinations are all about; autoimmunity is one of the consequences.
On the Facebook page, Dr. Tenpenny on Vaccines, is a community of people who, like Ms Habakus, are all about full information, and access to same.
Age of Autism reported on this story today:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/08/to-v-or-not-to-v-vaccination-choice-in-new-jersey.html#more.
It's outstanding coverage!
Anne Dachel
Age of Autism
Ms Habakus is a breath of fresh air, speaking about why our children are so sick. Asthma, allergies, ADHD, Autism, and that's just the A's.
No one that favors vaccines (government, pharma, doctors) is willing to talk about vaccine SAFETY which is the big issue here. As good parents, we cannot continue to blindly vaccinate when the safety studies have not been done, and when our children get sicker and sicker after each shot.
Congratualtions to Ms Habakus for her intelligent and honest statements. Nowadays, a large percentage of parents question the safety of vaccines. This is because so many have seen their own chilren regress following vaccinations and because nobody can seem to give us a reasonable answer to the reason for the present epidemics of autism, asthma, diabetes and allergies.
As a former New Jerseyite, I certainly hope that Governor Christie will stick to his promise to so many who supported him during his campaign.
Parents must have the right to decide what drugs are injected into their children's bodies. It's
an integral part of our democracy.
Maurine Meleck, South Carolina
The Hudson Reporter tells us that "more recent studies 'found no evidence of harm' from vaccines," but we're not told that "Each and every study was conducted and/or funded by someone who patents, manufacturers, promotes, endorses, profits from and/or defends in a court of law----vaccines," according to the research of autism advocate, Julie Obradovic.
http://www.ageofautism.com/julie-obradovic/
And it isn't only "some high-profile celebrities" who challenge the vaccine safety claims.
Top experts are sounding an alarm over the link between vaccine and serious health problems. Excellent books by informed doctors like
Mayer Eisenstein, Sherri Tenpenny, Todd Elsner, Robert Sears, Stephanie Cave, and Robert Mendelsohn are worth reading.
On Aug. 3, 2010, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Children's Health heard testimony from experts announcing that the dramatic increase in autism is linked to environmental toxins. http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/articles/2010/08/15/10479
This should be considered a national health care emergency. We need to focus on the cause cited by countless thousands of parents: They say their children were normally developing until they received certain routine vaccinations. We need independent research on vaccine safety. We need to stop going to the agency that runs the vaccine program to ask them if their vaccines are damaging our kids.
Officials more than tripled the number of vaccines our children receive in the last 25 years. This has been done without a single safety study on the cumulative effect. http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/ads/080212.pdf This increase directly coincided with the explosion in autism.
Parents need to educate themselves when it comes to what vaccines they'll permit for their children.
Anne Dachel
Media editor: Age of Autism