To Karen: I think a good landmark article worth reading would be the Simpsonwood transcripts.

"The number of dose related relationships [between mercury and autism] are linear and statistically significant. You can play with this all you want. They are linear. They are statistically significant." - Dr. William Weil, American Academy of Pediatrics. Simpsonwood, GA, June 7, 2000

Does the fact that the initial paper that originally said vaccinations cause autism was proven to be false, largely made up and subequently withdrawn, not make you think? Or that there is so much more scientific evidence proving vaccines do not cause autism than scientific evidence saying they do? I fail to understand why, when the landmark paper that spurred all this debate about vaccines has been proven false, and in the face of so much compelling evidence that they don't cause autism, you people still are holding on to this as gospel. We cannot say for sure that vaccines cause it. How can you be so certain, when there are so many millions of children that have had vaccines, and are not autistic?

Juli:

Why did you not vaccinate your fifth child?

Your other four healthy ones - did you vaccinate them?

If not why?

I enjoyed the article and all the comments. My heart breaks every time I hear of a parent feeling broken over dealing with autism.

I am a mom of many children. My fifth child was born with autism. He had signs of it early on. One day when he was about 3 months I mentioned to my mother, "I know I should not say this, but sometimes I think he has autism, as he is not bonding to me the same as the previous children and he really does not make much eye contact."

By 6 months I KNEW he had autism, but of course his doctor thought I was crazy, as he just could not see it. My son was NOT getting immunizations mind you. He did speak some and made some eye contact, but around his first birthday, he started regressing and quit speaking and making eye contact and got much worse. He even had a febrile seizure.

At 2 years of age, of course his doctor finally admitted I was probably right after watching him walk, lack of speech and eye contact, his shrilling and meltdowns, etc.

For us, the use of raw goat's milk and some various techniques I tried at home to help him develop a language center in the other half of his brain seemed to be very successful for us. He can now speak, rarely has meltdowns, loves other kids, makes eye contact, shows empathy, is intelligent, etc. However, he is still very quirky, has a form of what I guess is echolalia (he will share something with us that is normal to say, but then he repeats his sentence in a whisper a few times in a row afterward), has a speech impediment (which he can enunciate words clearly when I help him, but then goes back to his impediment soon after), he has major obsessions, etc.

He still has certain issues such as recently he was getting diarrhea and tummy cramps a lot, his eyelashes always have matter in them, and he gets bumps underneath his chin. I tried eliminating dairy and that did not phase him. I am now trying to implement the Feingold and Gluten-free diets now and it does seem his tummy is hurting less. :)

I think each parent has to be willing to use a trial and error approach to find success. And for me, I know our son has been the greatest blessing to this entire family. He has stolen every one of our hearts and we have become better people because of him. More patience, deeper love, less selfishness, etc.

Such as I have not been away overnight from him since I figured out he has autism. I have given up much for him and have NO regrets. What I have given up for him is nothing in comparison to what he has given to me! :)

My idea of helping in this fight is to encourage parents to try different ideas until they find some success and to remind them how blessed they truly are and to let them vent to me. I think there are issues with vaccines, but since I had a son without all those vaccines that still has autism and who also regressed horribly at the age when most others do...for us it is something else that caused it.

Both of my boys are on the spectrum, and BOTH were from the vaccinations they received. My older son was 15 months old when he received his MMR. He lost ALL speech within 24 HOURS of receiving his vaccine. The last words I would hear from him for another 3 YEARS were "mommy, it hurts". I can barely keep from crying just typing this. His little brother is close in age to him, so he had his first few months of vaccines. I stopped them after my older son's regression. I believe it was the HEP B that got my little one. I shudder to think what would of happened to him if we had continued. So now I have one who has progressed from a moderate/severe autism to very high functioning with dyslexia, and my younger son has PDD-NOS, dyslexia, and ADHD. There are days I can barely stand the pain from the guilt I feel. People can tell you all they want that it was not your fault, but you still feel it just the same. I have 2 older daughters, and they both have decided never,ever to vaccinate any children they have. I am greatful my children have made progress, but I am still VERY angry just the same. They were poisoned, and it is like no one outside of the autism community believes it.

Thank you, Kent. Six years ago tomorrow, my beautiful little boy was given the autism label. He was two then. It still cuts me deep to my very core. I love him more than life; always have, always will. The part that pains me is not that he is different because he has autism. What nearly kills me with grief is the fact that they didn't have to poison him, leaving me to figure out how to undo their damage. THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO POISON HIM.....VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM!

Oh Robin Nemeth;;
I have had many days like that. Try not to be too sad, although it is sometimes so hard. My older neighbor told me that his best decade was in his 50's. My mother told me her best decade was her 40's. I would not say I had any good decades so far and I am close to the middle of my 50's. , I have just been so scared all my life of what was going to happen from the poisons my three have received. Are they going to live, how can I make them better, how will they survive in the future without the ability to make a living. I have wasted my life worrying if I said enough, and what did they think afer I said it.

We only get one life.

But I think people get embarassed at other people's ill luck, and what probably they think is that it does happen - it just does not happen often or to them. So they put it out of their mind.

I may not have had a good decade or even a good year but I have had some good days. Recently I have had the best time lately hanging around the Univeristy Medical Center with my husband and grafetting all their literature on immunizations with the slogan "Is there a vaccine for autism?"

We have to go tomorrow to the medical center and I am looking forward to it for once. Does anyone have perhaps a better quick little slogan that would be better? I am not all that clever just frustrated for the past thirty years.

I get attention when I use the term*Regressive Autism* and when I show people pictures of my plump happy typical baby boy *Not* born with Autism. More people ask what I think happened, offering an opportunity for conversation. But better still the opportunity to let them know they can also do some research.

I don't allow anyone to use PC terms like "special needs" about my son.

Would they call a woman who had been raped special needs?!

I correct them. He is POISONED. He is a CRIME VICTIM.

They always get quiet.

Good! Let THEM be uncomfortable! I'm tired of being the only UNCOMFORTABLE one.

Amen, Kent.

Maybe the advocate was confused about the tactics HE could successfully use to get across an idea within his own field-- while still keeping his professional standing-- and the overall tactic which could be best used by the vaccine injury community at large.

I see that a lot. People in professions which profit from the epidemic are full of types suffering from serious cognitive dissonance. To be a "dissident" within that profession requires stealth. Dissidents like this would like us to adopt tactics which they think would best reach those conflicted/on the fence types within their profession. I'm sure if their colleagues were brought around, it would make their professional environment much more pleasant.

But I think sometimes the dissidents themselves are somewhat sympathetic with their denial-ridden colleagues and don't want them to be painted as capitulating and harmful bystanders within the carnage. The dissidents themselves, therefore, are a bit conflicted.

Not our problem. It's up to these denial-ridden types on their own-- if they don't want to be held accountable-- to do the right thing or get out of the way. In some ways, you have to yell louder to reach the ears of people whose heads are stuck so far up their asses.

Hi Ken,

I believe that everyone should know the basics about vaccines and how it affects the body before anyone should say that vaccines caused my child's Autism.

Could you please reply and let us know which studies we could read and become very knowledgeable in before we start to get into a debate with anyone? I am only asking because I want to say that vaccines caused autism but I don't want to end up looking like an idiot and have nothing to backup my claim. I believe we need to have the necessary tools to have a powerful and plausible claim.

We are no longer dealing with parents who say vaccines are good and that I vaccinated my child and nothing happened. We are dealing with paid goons that go to seminars and troll many blog sites. These goons have all the answers to every single study which in fact no ordinary parent would even have a clue about where to even look for such a study or even have the time to read the study.

Please reply at your convenience. Or feel free to email me.

For too long the paradigm has been: Because vaccines are good and save lives it is never okay to question anything about the vaccine schedule. That paradigm does not reflect the times in which we live, where vaccines for non-life threatening illnes get mandated. I mean, the way the schedule was trippled without consideration if that is too much on infants or if some people are genetically prediposed not to be able to handle that, is downright dangerous to public health - yet the quell discussion with that same old thinking - since vaccines are good we cannot question anything about them. Well, I say when vaccine companies are indemnified by the government from liability, when they are paying clients to the FDA to evaluate their product, when they lobby states to put vaccines for non-life threatening illnesses on the schedule and make major profits of the sales of their products....I say the mandated vaccine schedule MUST be open to questions and discussion.

Here's a conversation I actually had just yesterday:

"Well, vaccines can cause brain damage, but that's not autism."

"What type of brain damage do vaccines cause? What does it look like; how does it differ from autism?"

"I don't know exactly what kind of brain damage a vaccine can cause, but it isn't autism. Autism isn't brain damage the way you think it is."

"But the symptoms of autism are caused by a malfunctioning brain, immune system and gut. When you heal those things, the brain damage--or 'changes"--can be reversed."

"Autism isn't that kind of brain damage."

Just had a conversation with my oldest and I should correct my previous post. We hadn't taken her to see the doctor because of the boys who would jump in front of her in school and then scream, inches from her face, at the top of her lungs. We'd taken her because of OCD symptoms. “The doctor just brought it up while I was there,” my daughter recalls. “He'd wanted to know how things were going at school.”

So. In the interest of accuracy, I stand corrected.

I'm sure my daughter will be pleased to know I'm going to such great pains...

I got a call from the nurse at the high school the other day. My daughter wasn't feeling well. “I told the nurse I could try taking an Aleve, that that would probably help and then I wouldn't need to go home,” my daughter said. But the schools don't allow students to carry medications, and they don't give out any medications without a signed form from a parent.

While I was at the school, I stopped in the nurses office and I gave her my latest copy of my vaccine flyer. The next day, I got to wondering if she had bothered to look at it at all. I got to wondering about why it was that each and every person I've ever given this information to, or spoken with about this information, has had next to nothing to say about it. And I thought to myself 'well, if you want to know what she's thinking, I guess you're just going to have to ask her'. And so I called her on the phone and I asked her if she'd had a chance to look at the information. “Well no, but you know, yesterday was one of my busiest days ever.” I asked if she thought she'd have a chance to look at it and when. She said she'd try to get back to me soon.

I've thought some about what I feel like saying to her. But really, I mostly want to know what she's thinking. Does she think it's all nonsense? I could live with that. I mean, who knows what to believe, these days, and who has a lot of time to research anything? I'd be a lot happier if she said something to me like “omg! I've looked at some of these links on that flyer you left me, and this is TERRIBLE, and we all have to DO something.” Either response would be an improvement over the usual silence. The usual response leaves me thinking that they don't take issue with any of the facts presented – they just don't care at all.

So when I spoke with her on the phone the other day, I asked her to please call me after she'd had a chance to look. “Tell me what you think,” I told her. “Especially about the missing money.”

“I spoke with the school superintendent a while back,” I said to her, “and he told me that just because they provided free H1N1 vaccines at the schools, that this didn't mean they advocated that people get them. But I cannot help but see this as anything but a show of support for their use.”

Think about it. I didn't say this to her on the phone the other day but I will probably bring it up if and when she calls me back. What if I were to show up on the grounds of the high school, and I were selling, or better yet, giving away pot or cocaine? (Oh now this is where I have to get ready for the accusation. “You're going to sell drugs at the high school?!?!” Puhlease, I have NO intention of doing so, it's a hypothetical situation...) Do you really think that my high school nurse or anyone else would be placated by reassuring words from me that “well, this doesn't really mean that I'm advocating it's use”?

I am so depressed lately. I feel as though it's ok for society to choose to abuse a particular group of people. Nothing is done. When they try to stand up for themselves, they are made to feel as if there is something wrong with them. Something wrong with them because they are emotional about their own children. Something wrong with them for CARING about their own children. I feel as though the most horrific abuse is overlooked, simply because it's convenient. When my husband turns on my television, I have to hear about how, if I'm depressed, it's probably got to do with my genes. And that I should 'ask my Doctor'. It is all that I can do to refrain from putting a brick thru the television screen.

I think of my oldest child. She is no longer in the public school system, but I remember when she was. How she would tell me of walking down the hallways and groups of boys would jump out from doorways to stand screaming inches from her face. And either no teachers noticed, or they chose to do nothing. Well, that was, after all, the advice that she got from the HMO pshrink that she saw. (We took her to see a Doctor, as tho there were something wrong with HER and not the boys who were screaming in her face. How ridiculous this seems, now). “Just ignore them. They'll stop.” Lol. They never stopped. But that didn't stop our HMO pshrink from getting paid for his wise advice.

I think about my oldest, and how she goes thru life apologizing for EVERYTHING. As though everything bad that happens is her fault. If somebody across the room drops something, she'll apologize for it. It's as though our children were born for only one reason. To be abused, and to take blame that no one else will take altho they should.

And I am so fed up to here with the censorship.

If my children's high school nurse wants to believe that my flyer means nothing, that's fine. If she wants to tell herself that it's fine when Congress deems a whole industry too important to fail and then collects billions in contributions by the people who've profited in that industry, and then our government appoints judges who look only at science done by the people who've profited from that industry and this is fine, too, well, what can I say to her? If she wants to believe that when a man disappears with millions of dollars, that this doesn't in any way reflect negatively on the data or the science he has done, what am I to say to her?

I suppose I will tell her that it has become impossible for me to have anything further to do with the school. My children have four more years of high school between them, and my husband believes that their education is important and god knows I don't know what to tell them to do, so I suppose they will continue to attend school. But I will have nothing further to do with any of the school teachers, nurses, or administrators. And I hope and pray that my children don't become like them. Cause I do believe that there is some sort of karmic justice.

Funny, just yesterday I unsubscribed to Obama's email list. They asked for a reason and I wrote, "Vaccines Cause Autism and that is all I care about."