Thoughts on The Vaccine Controversy From Jim Carrey

It would be interesting to see someone refute the logic of the following comment:

"We have never argued that people shouldn't be immunized for the most serious threats including measles and polio, but surely there's a limit as to how many viruses and toxins can be introduced into the body of a small child.

Veterinarians found out years ago that in many cases they were over-immunizing our pets, a syndrome they call Vaccinosis. It overwhelmed the immune system of the animals, causing myriad physical and neurological disorders. Sound familiar? If you can over-immunize a dog, is it so far out to assume that you can over-immunize a child?"

This is obviously a complex issue, but I bet most of us know people, or know of people in our communities, whose kids have developed Autism. And who are convinced that this happened after a shot or series of shots.

Comments

[kitty mama]

Refute the logic, why? Autism came from somewhere! I do believe we over vaccinate and it causes autism, there is tons of information out there that confirms it. Most of the modern ills of society is due to toxic contamination of human beings. When will people ever wise up? I'm with Jim Carey!

[handofcod]

It sounds logical doesn't it? Your immune system can only deal with so much. In just the same way, it sounds logical that you need to get rid of toxins in your body with a periodic detox. But both are examples of where the logic of the guy on the street bears no relation to the reality. Vaccines may have side effects but probably not because the immune system can't cope. The immune system gets exposed to, and remembers, thousands and thousands of pathogens over a life time.

Sure, children develop autism after having a series of shots. But also they develop autism after not having a series of shots. And many have shots and don't develop autism. Casual observations of people in your community miss the comprehensive picture. You need to do the epidemiological studies which all suggest that vaccines don't cause autism. On the other hand there's lots and lots of evidence that not vaccinating your child is a serious risk to their health and the health of others.

There's a reason why we look to experts and not movie stars for medical advice. See for example:

http://specialchildren.about.com/od/autismandvaccines/i/vaccines.htm

[justmyopinion]

Correlation does not equal causation. As the above comment eludes to, an apparent pattern can be taken out of context. Most children who receive all of the immunization shots do not develop autism, and most children that are autistic developed this regardless of immunization history.

If you look over the last couple hundred years you can find a statistically significant relationship between the decline in the number of pirates and the increase in the number of hurricanes. Should we encourage piracy on the high seas to combat potential devastating hurricanes? Of course not, neither should we scare ourselves out of protecting our children from easily preventable diseases.