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| Photo credit: Photo by BigBlonde |
Numbers seem like concrete things, but they are really surprisingly fluid and open to interpretation based on our own point of view. I was reminded of this today after I posted my haikus on autism and realized that my own perspective on autism and vaccines may not have been clear.
When my daughter makes a mistake she says, "Oopsies!" And I was feeling that way after realizing how vague my previous post was. So, oopsies! To fix this, I decided to do three things:
- State again clearly: I personally do NOT believe vaccines caused my son's autism.
- Edit the haiku post to add a few haikus and a link to this post.
- Give a prose explanation of how I see the numbers in this post.
- Some people believe that the preservative thimerosal, which is a little less than half mercury, causes autism.
- Thimerosal (and mercury) is NOT present at all in most vaccines. In the two vaccines (flu and tetanus) in which it is present, thimerosal is only .01% of the content of the vaccine, meaning the mercury content of one of those tiny vaccine vials is less than half of .01%. This is less mercury than is present in a two ounce serving of tuna.
- In contrast, there are 25,000 genes in the human body and 82,000 other E.P.A. approved chemicals used in the U.S. The chances that the (now non-existent) mercury in vaccines is responsible for the neurological differences of autism (as opposed to any of the 25,000 genes or 82,000 other chemicals) seems vanishingly small.
- Vaccines save 35,000 lives in the U.S. each year. (250,000 children die of measles alone every year, and that is actually a huge decrease; five years ago it was closer to 750,000 in a single year.) Millions of people would die worldwide every year without vaccines.
I know some of you all may assess the evidence differently, and may disagree about what causes autism and what risks are worth taking, but I wanted to tell you how I do the math.
I wish they could narrow it down to what causes autism. I've read Jenny McCarthy's son has "come out of himself" with a certain diet she tried with him. I've tried to encourage my brother to do the same with my nephew, but again, it's very hard to get him to eat anything but chicken nuggets.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for talking about this oft-whispered quandary. You have a great platform here and your insight is valuable and appreciated.
ReplyDeleteOut of uncertainty about the whole vaccine thing, I put off giving my youngest the MMR vaccine until he was over 2. I don't know why that seemed a magic number to me, but that is what I went with. Although it didn't seem at all likely that vaccines caused autism, my mommy anxiety wouldn't let me give permission for the shot until he was a tad older.
I have never seen all of the stats laid out in haiku before, and I was relieved to see this post illuminating that which my dim mind could not de-tangle from the awed distraction of seeing the hard numbers of a controversial matter placed in a 5-7-5 format. Well done. I hope that other moms and concerned friends of young ones read this and feel like someone in the know shed some helpful light on the matter.
Delurking here to say "Brava!" As a nursing student, I know too well the effects of the diseases we vaccinate against. People shouldn't be counting on herd-immunity to protect their kids. And I dropped a link to your place over at Shakesville, so if you're wondering, that was me.
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