I read an interesting article today about a ruling in an Italian court that held the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine did in fact cause autism and the court awarded monetary compensation to the family. The article got me thinking about the whole subject again and my experience with this vaccine. There are definitely courts throughout the world (including here in the US) that have ruled that the vaccine has indeed caused autism.
I am not saying that I believe the MMR vaccine causes autism, or affects us in any way, but I will say that have had an interesting experience with that particular vaccine myself. I have had the vaccine FIVE times! Yes—you are reading correctly, five times. For unexplained reasons I never show any immunity in my blood for the diseases (this holds true for chicken pox as well, which I have never yet had—I’m strange).
I had the MMR shot when I was a child, and then when I entered college in 1991, it had become a requirement to have the shot more twice. I needed the extra vaccination to enter school. Unfortunately, I received it at a clinic, and when I transferred schools my records were lost and my only choice was to get the shot again (about six months later).
Then to my surprise during my pregnancy with my first child in 1999, I had blood work done that revealed or falsely showed that I was not vaccinated—meaning I had no anti-bodies present in my blood to reveal that I had an immunity to the diseases. A few hours after giving birth to my first son (because they cannot give you the vaccination while pregnant) I received that ever so fun shot in the toosh! Now, if you are keeping count that is MMR vaccine number four—one as a child, two entering college six months apart and one after giving birth!
The above scenario repeated itself during my second pregnancy, blood work, no anti-bodies, and another MMR shot right after birth (MMR vaccine number five). The first two births took place in NYC and I am not sure if the protocols are different there than they are here in South Carolina, but for my third pregnancy and my current one I have not had any blood work testing these anti-bodies that I am aware of.
I believe that my autism/autistic traits have progressive become worse throughout the years, but are the vaccines to blame? Who really knows? Could it just be that those of us who are on the spectrum may be more susceptible or sensitive to the vaccines? Maybe our symptoms become exacerbated? Of course, I am just speculating and asking myself some questions that have long been on my mind.
I can say this—measles, mumps, and rubella are deadly diseases—autism is not, and I will continue to vaccinate my children.
What are your thoughts, opinions, experiences? After thinking about it, I wondered if anyone else has had any experiences like I have.
READ THE FACTS–ARTICLE LINK: The Mythical Link Between Vaccinations and Autism
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Interesting…not saying that this means anything but when I was pregnant with my NT daughter the bloodwork showed I didn’t have immunity to MMR (despite 2 vaccinations), and therefore after she was born I was given another vaccine. My son (who was born 2 years later) was diagnosed on the spectrum. Again during my pregnancy with him the bloodwork came up saying that I didn’t have immunity and they ordered me to have another vaccine. You’re the first person I’ve ever heard mention having a similar experience.
I knew there had to more people out there who had similar strange experiences. Most people I have talked to (including doctors) have never even heard of anything like this occurring. As I said in the post, I have no idea if it means anything either but I found it interesting for sure.
I can’t help giving credit to Temple Grandin for ASKING researchers whether they had researched the kids who progress normally, then regress dramatically. They have not! That by itself is damning of the institutional autism research community.
Nobody would say that peanut butter causes anaphylactic shock. The number of people who experience dire immune responses to peanuts is very small. I’m sure there is no statistically significant association between peanut exposure and dire allergic responses. Nonetheless, we acknowledge that for some people, the causative association is real and direct. If the institutional autism research community has not chased down this question, as Temple Grandin says they have not, then they have no evidence base for the statement that vacines aren’t causing autism in some kids.
I also think that autism is a wastebasket diagnosis which is based entirely on observed behaviors, at this point. I think that in the end, we will find that there are multiple causes for the clusters of observable behaviors we call autism, some of which may turn out to be fairly distantly related.
I don’t know, but the tone of the article doesn’t sound like critical journalism but rather like a political agenda, e.g.:
and most links are internal. The examiner.com is sort of an article farm. Dr Wakefield is a very controversial guy. His Wiki entry says:
That could of course be part of the “persecution”, but there are so many red flags in this article that I would not take any of it serious until I heard about it from a more solid source, and maybe give it a bit of time as well – for some other people to dig into it and see what they come up with. If anyone bothers.
I don’t put too much stock in the article myself, only that it was interesting and made me think of my own odd response to that same vaccine.
That, and our gov’t here in the US decided that pharmaceutical companies cannot be sued or held liable for vaccines that harm people, which I believe is absurd that no one will be held responsible. I am constantly disappointment by the agencies here that regulated our food and drugs–but that is a whole other discussion. 🙂
You probably have some sort of immune deficiency since your body did not respond to the vaccine the expected way (by producing antibodies on an onging basis). It sounds like the vaccination is pointless in your case.
With US drug regulation, that does sound odd at a glance. Maybe there are some practical reasons for it, other then just “immunising” big corporation? I hope so… I don’t really know much about US food & drug regulation, but it seems to me as if US politics in general is strongly influenced by powerful lobby groups / commercial interest.
Anyway just out of curiosity, do you know if there have ever in modern times been a vaccine on the market in which was later proven to have had harmful effects? (not court decisions – but proper and widely acknowledged scientific research).
Here is what I think… Autism (and all spectrum diagnoses, including ADHD) are first and foremost genetic. There must be a genetic predisposition. In those that have the genetic factors, “stuff” in the environment triggers the symptoms. For some, it might be pollution in the air, the chlorine and chemicals they use to make our water safer, or preservatives in food. If you think about ALL the artificial junk that we are surrounded by, it would make sense that those who are sensitive to only one of these things will be on the mild end of the spectrum. If someone is sensitive to ALL of the junk, they will lie on the severe end of the spectrum. For some, they might be sensitive to the MMR viruses in the vaccine. Others could be sensitive to the preservatives they use. Still others could have no sensitivity to anything in any vaccine.
Is autism CAUSED by the MMR shot? No! Can the MMR shot, or any immunization for that matter, be a trigger that brings on or exasperates the autism signs/symptoms? You bet!
This theory also explains why some on the spectrum respond to special diets and biomedical treatments while others don’t. It’s the only theory that has ever made sense to me.
There’s my two cents. 🙂
Hi Tiffany,
Thanks for your reply…I agree along your lines of thinking especially that I seem to be one of those people who are sensitive to everything!
A few years ago I tried the Gluten-Free diet, not because of autism, but because of all the stomach and neurologic issues I was experiences. I feel incredible! The results for me were instant…almost, anyway. I felt great..BUT we lived more than an hour from any store that sold gluten-free anything, I couldn’t eat out anywhere or anything quick, and with the kids that was important..AND the gluten free stuff was sooo expensive. I could not maintain that kind of a diet, but I did feel very good while I did. Several years later, I received my autism diagnosis–any strange coincidence? Possibly
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