Over the past several days it has not gone unnoticed that autism parents are being blamed for the outbreak in Measles at the California-based Disneyland. As the number of cases grow, now up to 68, so do the number of allegations by various news sources.
One report went as far as to say that, “Liberal, well-educated parents living in cities such as San Francisco have fallen victim to what is called “The Jenny Effect”. Poll the nearest 100 parents of a child with autism and the majority will tell you that Jenny McCarthy is the last person they would take parenting advice from, let alone follow her ‘teachings’ on autism as if she is some guru. Yet, that is the picture that is being painted. Not everyone wants her as a spokesperson for their child, but on the other hand, not everyone wants organizations such as Autism Speaks to be the voice for their child.
Many parents instead like to walk down the middle of the road, carefully considering both sides and instead they become their child’s voice. And along the way they take in bits of information, research it and share with their pediatrician when making the decision on how to go about following the vaccine schedule as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC.
Read further into this topic and you will find there is a winding road that is not the middle road but a trail of distrust by parents of The CDC, The APA, Big Pharma and the Government of legislators who simply refuse to see. It’s because of this trail that was left by the manufacturers and the experts there is a belief that autism was caused by the MMR vaccine. As recent as 5 months ago, the CDC had its own whistleblower. Now the autism parents can say “I told you so”.
But to be blamed for this outbreak is unjust to the point of name-calling. To discredit parents of children with autism who are barely making it through each day to care for their children is not fair and it needs to stop.
Find the real cause of this outbreak. Forget about autism caused by a vaccine for a moment. Let’s look at some other very recent health report news.
The enterovirus-68 this Fall created a fear where only 21% of preschoolers attending the L.A. Westside Waldorf school are vaccinated. Next thing that happens is an outbreak of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. A doctor in L.A., Dr. Jay Gordon, is trying to walk that middle road. A breath of fresh air along the way for parents. He is not anti-vaccine, but is encouraging parents to use common sense and to look at the vaccine schedule closely and work with their pediatricians to create a schedule that works.
To prove the point further that autism parents are being blamed unfairly for these outbreaks there are actual deaths that do occur from the vaccines themselves. In one CNN report less than 3 months ago in September 2014, at least 15 children, all under the age of 2, died after receiving measles vaccinations through a U.N. sponsored program. As many as 50 other children got sick after what a U.N. report described as a “bungled immunization.” Another factor that needs to be considered is where do our outdated vaccines go? To the third-world countries and being used by U.N. sponsored programs such as the one in Syria. Since this practice has begun the rates of developmental disabilities in these countries has tripled.
Meanwhile, officials are disagreeing whether or not the measles disease outbreak is under control. One week ago, California’s public health department is saying the disease linked to Disney was over. Yet, four days later, Kathleen Harriman, chief of the Vaccine Preventable Epidemiology Section for the California State Public Health Department, said the most recent case was diagnosed, in a park employee, just 3 days after the statement was made saying it was over.
At this time there are now 68 cases confirmed. Measles is a highly contagious disease. It’s a sneeze. It’s a cough. It’s the stuff we fear when we travel on an airplane. Perhaps we need to go back to the days of showing “shot records” before being allowed to travel. in the meantime, perhaps those who are doing the finger-pointing and the name-calling and blaming autism parents on this outbreak and use that time and energy in a more productive way, more polite way. Experts are finding that adults who had measles as a child or received only one vaccination prior to 1989, chances are they probably need a vaccine boost and should be tested by their physician.
