California study finds no link between vaccine ingredient, autism

California study finds no link between vaccine ingredient, autism

www.sfgate.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I guess it is good that they may have eliminated one ingredient from being a potential cause of autism. I just can't help but think that the link between vaccines and autism is real. It is a nasty catch 22 though. Vaccines do help prevent a lot of diseases and I would not be able to live with myself if I chose to not vaccinate my child, only to have her come down with one of the diseases I could have prevented.

It's like Russian Roulette and I really don't like it.

www.sfgate.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Why you do think there is still a link? There is absolutely no scientific evidence to even suggest it. You are fitting the evidence to your conclusion, instead of fitting your conclusion to the evidence. 90% of autism cases are genetically inherited; parents blaming vaccines just don't want to face up to the horrible fact they gave their kids autism.

It's not like Russian Roulette at all, if only based on percentages and chance. Even if vaccines were causing autism (they're not), the chances of the vaccine causing autism are very slim; just think of the millions of children who are vaccinated every year without problem. In Russian Roulette you have a 1/6 chance of getting the bullet, much higher than any supposed chance in the vaccine-autism case.

Besides, you have a misunderstanding of how chance works. In Russian Roulette, since you keep pulling the trigger, you are guaranteed to catch the bullet; if there was a 2% chance of vaccines causing autism, you could take the vaccine 100 times, and never have a problem.

The fact is, autism cases may not be on the rise. The methodology of diagnosing the disorder has changed. We may just be better are recognizing it. In years past autistics were either misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all.

reply to post by SaviorComplex

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Thanks for clearing up how chance works. That is a pretty complicated concept that I couldn't really wrap my feeble mind around.

I am guessing that you don't have kids and that you haven't read about parents accounts of their kids being fine one day, giving their child a vaccine and having them completely regress immediately after the shot? Later to be diagnosed with Autism? It is pretty easy to grandstand when you aren't in the situation.

I have read plenty of accounts of this happening.

[edit on 8-1-2008 by Karlhungis]

Once again, you are making conclusions for which you have no evidence. I have a son of my own, and helped raise my ex-wife's son from another relationship; he suffers from an autism spectrum disorder.

I've read plenty of accounts, but that doesn't make them true. First, there is no evidence of an vaccine-autism link. Second, someone just doesn't notice "overnight" that something is wrong with their child. The clues are often there, but a parent doesn't notice them, believing them to be signs of something else. Their little boy always stacks blocks or lines up his toys in a certain order, so they think it's a sign of intelligence. Or they think their daughter's lack of verbal communication just means she's a quiet child. The average child isn't diagnosed with autism until four or five years of age.