It Makes You Wonder

I have long contended that there is not a link behind vaccinations and autism.  After all, people have received vaccinations for years and years, but autism just seems  to be picking up speed.  However, there is also the contention that autism is actually NOT becoming more and more common...we are simply becoming more aware, and therefore, diagnosis of spectrum disorders is happening more frequently.

Today I read an article on Yahoo!.   You can read the article by following this link:

http://news.yahoo.com/swine-flu-vaccine-may-linked-rare-nerve-disorder-200440063.html

Basically the article relates the findings of one Philippe De Wals of Laval University in Quebec City.  He found that since 2009, of the 4.5 million people who received a vacinnation for H1N1 (swine flu), 25 of them developed Guillain-Barre syndrome within 6  months of getting the vaccine.    According to him, that is about 2 people per 1 million doses.  There were also another 58 people who developed Guillain-Barre who did not receive the vaccine.

Just to clear up any confusion, Guillain-Barre disease is a disease of the central nervous system.  It's an auto-immune disorder, meaning the body's immune system will attack itself.  This leads to muscle weakness, breathing problems, and a host of other complications until death occurs.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001704/  The preceding website, which cites the ADAM medical encyclopedia, states that "The swine flu vaccination in 1976 may have caused rare cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome. However, the swine flu and the regular flu vaccines used today have not resulted in more cases of the illness."


But what does this all mean?  Vaccines still do more good than harm.  Polio, measles, and whooping cough were practically non-existent in this country due to vaccinations.  Now we are seeing a resurgence of these illnesses because parents are choosing to vaccinate less.  However, the fact that a vaccine may have caused an auto-immune disorder gives me pause.  If a vaccine can be at the root of something like Guillain-Barre, can it also be at the root of spectrum disorders that we are seeing today?


There isn't any real way to know.  Vaccines are a business.  Medicine is a business.  If someone were to come forward with proof that a vaccine did, indeed, cause a once-"normal" child to suddenly deteriorate...can you imagine the repercussions?  Can you say "wide-spread fear and panic"?  Suddenly, NO ONE would vaccinate.  And the companies that produce such vaccinations would suddenly be filing for bankruptcy.


As far as Logan is concerned, whether or not a vaccine caused his autism is a moot point.  He is who he is and this is the hand he's been dealt.  But still, this latest finding makes me wonder...