Dachel Media Review: Low Vax Rates, Adult Services
By Anne Dachel
Read Anne's commentary and view the links after the jump.
Jan 8, 2014, Twin Falls (ID) Times-News: Idaho Vaccination Rates Among Lowest in the Nation
Jan 7, 2013, WPTV West Palm Beach, FL: Palm Beach Gardens mother says more services needed for adults with autism
A blow to the program came in 1998, when British physician Andrew Wakefield shook up parents worldwide by claiming that MMR - the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine - causes autism, Klamm said. Wakefield's claim was scientifically discredited the following year, but his study continues to influence many parents' decision not to vaccinate their kids, she said.
Fear of the vaccine is now the most common reason parents don't vaccinate, Klamm said.
Dr. Wakefield must be the the world's most influential doctor. Thanks to him, thousands of parents think vaccines cause autism. Another example of members of the media not doing their job. I wonder why the Wakefield claim never works.
You're doing awesome, keep going, move it, next one," Valerie Herskowitz tells her 22-year-old son, Blake.
She's trying to establish a chocolate-making business in her Palm Beach Gardens home with her son, who is on the autism spectrum.
She's facing the dilemma confronting many parents of children with autism who are becoming adults; there are few programs or opportunities for them.
"On a national level no, on a state level no, and on a city level absolutely not," she said of the programs for adults with autism.
Herskowitz has been a speech pathologist for more than 30 years, working with youngsters on the autism spectrum. She says as the children grow older, the resources dry up. . . .
"My major purpose is to provide some sort of opportunity for both my son to have a meaningful life, and eventually to grow the business so we can employ other individuals on the spectrum." . . .
"In the next possibly five to ten years there's going to be a huge amount of people becoming adults, and I don't think people are farsighted. I think they're shortsighted and they're not really looking at the crisis that's going to be coming," she said.
Stories like this make me angry. The young man receives no services. After he's 22, everyone forgets about him. This mother is trying to provide a livelihood for her son. She has to do it on her own.
What is she paying taxes for? Parents of adult children with other disabilities aren't left to their own resources. I posted a comment.
I have studied like "that autism strikes boys more often than girls. But when girls do get the condition, they tend to be at the severely affected end of the spectrum."
Is that true Anne?
Posted by: Sunny | February 27, 2014 at 11:49 PM
I wish there were more information given in this kind of story. What they usually mean is that not all preschoolers or whatever got ALL the recommended vaccines, and if 95% of them got five DTaPs, two MMRs, five flu vaccines, four Hibs, and three hep-Bs, etc. etc., but only declined hep-A and chickenpox vaccines, I don't think it would make much difference to their autism and allergy rates.
Posted by: cia parker | January 11, 2014 at 05:11 PM
My son was perfectly healthy until vaccinated against measles in the UK. We watched him disintegrate into profound autism in the weeks following his immunisation. No one else has put forward any, let alone a remotely credible, alternative explanation for this. I remain 100 per cent convinced that his immunisations caused his dramatic regression.
David Thrower
Warrington, UK
Posted by: David Thrower | January 09, 2014 at 05:28 PM
I wonder what the autism rates in Idaho are...
Posted by: False Skeptics Make me Laugh | January 09, 2014 at 06:23 AM
"Idaho Vaccination Rates Among Lowest in the Nation"
This kind of article appears in the newspaper right before pharma/govt try to change the vaccination laws in the state, so Idaho, beware.
Posted by: AnneS | January 08, 2014 at 06:25 PM