• The Scientific Method is the only surefire way to determine the facts of the natural world
• The scientific community at large applies the SM to the best of it’s ability, and will discontinue or modify theories if the data and evidence no longer support them
• The SM was used to create the initial and subsequent vaccines
• The SM is continuously used to prove the efficacy and safety of vaccines
• When a testable hypothesis is put forward about potential risks of vaccines, the SM has been used to show that there is not in fact the associated risk
• Therefore, I believe that the all available credible evidence supports the safety of vaccines for the vast majority of people (a doctor can advise on the rare cases when it would not be advisable for that particular child’s situation and timing)
• I acknowledge that there could come a time in the future when somebody is able to provide some sort of evidence that holds water against vaccines (but it I find it unlikely)
• Until the SM method is used to provide conclusive evidence against the safety of vaccines, I will continue to support them
• Due to Herd Immunity, I feel that those who do not vaccinate their children because of misinformation are putting both their own as well as other children at risk who might not also be vaccinated (perhaps cannot afford it or have not reached the age to have the full schedule of vaccinations)
• The News Media has the prime purpose of being entertaining, and should always be taken with a grain of salt when reporting science stories (on either side of the fence). It is for this reason that I have tried my best to avoid linking to news stories but rather to the direct study or association site.
• There is no conspiracy to withold the truth the dangers of vaccines (rather, the supposed dangers get well publicised along with their scientific rebuttal… assuming they are testable in the first place)
• I don’t believe those who are anti-vaccination have any ill intent towards children or in any way intend harm. I just believe they are misinformed and have misplaced their skeptisim
• I am a father of one (and hopefully more later)

Disclaimers

• I have ABSOLUTELY NO training in medicine or anything related to it. I cannot stress this enough.
• I am completely in favor of vaccines and you will need very strong evidence to dissuade me otherwise
• Naturally when looking up this information, I had my own opinions of what was, and wasn’t, reputable and skipped over links that seemed to me to be imflammatory, anti-science or, in my opinion, clearly quackery. If your viewpoint on this is different then mine, then you might not have skipped those same articles. In that vein I have done my best to only link to things that most people would agree to be “unbiased” (or at least mostly mainstream). So even if it agreed with me but was just a random blog, it is hardly evidence of anything. My own blog included obviously 🙂 All I can honestly do is point to sources that seem to me to be as balanced as possible.
• Vaccination has become a very emotional issue, and I have my views on the matter. Please do not take my word on any of this. Talk to your doctor and do your own research.

Methodology

The Claims

Claim 1: Vaccines cause/lead to disorders on the Autistic spectrum (the route generally claimed to be via Mercury)

Analysis

There were fatal conflicts of interest in this paper. In my view, if we had known the conflict of interest Dr Wakefield had in this work I think that would have strongly affected the peer reviewers about the credibility of this work and in my judgment it would have been rejected.”

… As the father of a three year old who has had the MMR, I regret hugely the adverse impact this paper has had.” But he added: “Professionally, I don’t regret it. The Lancet must raise new ideas.”

Presenter and journalist Brian Deer seems to have singlehandedly eaten away at the MMR story. His clear and simple presentation of this, his latest chapter—describing an enormous clash and conflict of interest between science, business, huge egos, and the potential to make megabucks—belies the huge and prolonged efforts he has clearly gone to in trying to get to the bottom of the MMR tale of woe.

The Times article that reported on Brian Deer’s results led to a lawsuit by Wakefield and his funders, but all funding for that has since been dropped in the face of the lack of scientific credibility of the study⁶.

So before we’ve even gotten too deep… the study that kicked off the vaccine (specifically, MMR) scare in the first place was simply bad science and for personal gain.

(Added 11/11/2009): Amazingly… the folks at Age of Autism still think it’s a good idea to reference Andrew Wakefield as if he is a credible scientist!

Thimerosal

The following study was performed on Danish children, but I believe it is still relevant as it looked specifically at the link between Thimerosal and Autism

⁸:

Thimerosal has been removed from or reduced to trace amounts in all vaccines routinely recommended for children 6 years of age and younger, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine (see Table 1). A preservative-free version of the inactivated influenza vaccine (contains trace amounts of thimerosal) is available in limited supply at this time for use in infants, children and pregnant women. Some vaccines such as Td, which is indicated for older children (? 7 years of age) and adults, are also now available in formulations that are free of thimerosal or contain only trace amounts. Vaccines with trace amounts of thimerosal contain 1 microgram or less of mercury per dose.

Bernard, S., Enayati, A., Roger, H., Redwood, L., Binstock, T. Autism: A Unique Type of Mercury Poisoning. Condensed draft of June 27, 2000.

Kanner, L., Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact. The Nervous Child 1942-1943;2: 217-250.

CDC. Thimerosal in Vaccines: a Joint Statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Public Health Service. MMRW 1999;48. 26:563-565.

CDC. Recommendations Regarding the Use of Vaccines That Contain Thimerosal as a Preservative. MMWR, 1999; 48. 43. 996-998.

Correspondence from Theresa(sic) Binstock to David Satcher, MD, PhD. July 5, 2000.

Edelson, S.B. Mercury: The Basis Cause of Major Chronic Diseases of the New Millenium, 2000.

Stajeck(sic), G.V., Lopez, G.P., Sokei, H., Sexson, W. Iatrogenic Exposure to Mercury After Hepatitis B Vaccination in Preterm Infants. Journal of Pediatrics, Vol 136, Number 5, May 2000, pp679-681.

Steuerwald, U., Wibe, P., Jorgensen, P., Bjerve, K., Brock, J., Heinzow, B., Jorgenson, E., Grandjean, P., Maternal Seafood Diet, Methylmercury Exposure, and Neonatal Neurologic Function. The Journal of   Pediatrics. Vol 136, Number 5, May, 2000, pp 599-605

Haley, Boyd presentation The toxic effects of oral mercury, Mercury Toxicity Workshop, Dallas, Texas, May 4, 2000.

Aschner, Michael. Environmental mercury toxicity presentation, Mercury Toxicity Workshop, Dallas, Texas, May 4, 2000.

Case Studies in Environmental Medicine: Mercury Toxicity, March 1992, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This is not to say Thimerosal was found to be dangerous in the doses given in the vaccines (“Several cases of acute mercury poisoning from thimerosal-containing products were found in the medical literature with total doses of thimerosal ranging from approximately 3 mg/kg to several hundred mg/kg.” however the dosage in vaccines is < 0.1 µg/kg/day. In other words, several orders of magnitude less than the amount that any study could find even a remote link to.

Kanner, L., Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact. The Nervous Child 1942-1943;2: 217-250.

CDC. Recommendations Regarding the Use of Vaccines That Contain Thimerosal as a Preservative. MMWR, 1999; 48. 43. 996-998.

Edelson, S.B. Mercury: The Basis Cause of Major Chronic Diseases of the New Millenium, 2000

Because we found a statistically significant rise in total mercury levels in these infants after vaccination, we are concerned about the possibility of compounding the neurologic risk for these infants. However, no information is currently available to suggest such a causal link with immunizations. Until thimerosal-free hepatitis B vaccine is universally available, there are few practical alternatives in those situations in which the mother is seropositive for hepatitis B. Further studies are needed to assess the pharmacodynamics of mercury over the first days and weeks of life after hepatitis B immunization.

Steuerwald, U., Wibe, P., Jorgensen, P., Bjerve, K., Brock, J., Heinzow, B., Jorgenson, E., Grandjean, P., Maternal Seafood Diet, Methylmercury Exposure, and Neonatal Neurologic Function. The Journal of   Pediatrics. Vol 136, Number 5, May, 2000, pp 599-605.

1 (CDC Recommendation) does recommend the precautionary removal of Thimerosal, and so could be argued that it is in favor of the claim against vaccines. But reading the recommendation it is clearly pre-cautionary despite there being found no link between Thimerosal and autism.

Claim 2: 600 children died in Mbarara, Uganda following Polio vaccines

“At the main hospital in Mbarara during that month of 1977 more than 600 children had died following polio vaccination. 600 children,” writes Ugandan Kihura Nkuba. “So even some of the timid medical practitioners who were initially afraid to come out, started coming out giving information and saying ‘Oh, we knew this oral polio vaccine was trouble because as soon as the child receives it, they get a temperature and their health goes downhill and there is nothing that you could do.'”

There was in fact the 3rd Conference from the National Vaccine Information Center in 2002. However, the National Vaccine Center, despite it’s title, is not a government or mainstream (bad word I know) scientific institution, but actually an anti-vaccine group. I found it interesting that the 2002 program has the heading “Anecdotal Evidence Shows the Way”. Sorry, anecdotes aren’t science. So you, the reader, can be the judge of even the general credibility of this group.

On the schedule linked in the above document it shows

2:45 – 3:15 p.m.

Kihura Nkuba

“Polio Vaccine Campaigns in Africa”

So I don’t see a real reason to doubt that he did indeed speak at the conference.

Regardless, he does not speak about the incident of 600 children from direct knowledge, but rather from what someone told him (so it is second hand) and there is no other record of it that I can find. He also does not make any claims that it was some sort of intentional death program (which most of the articles on the Internet linking to it claim). He instead expresses rather that the OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) which has a live virus but does not require trained nurses to administer was given improperly, and he wished that the IPV (Intraveneous Polio Vaccine) which does require a trained nurse but has no live virus would have been used. The controversy is that many of those who were given the oral vaccine were apparently already sick (according to him), which goes against the policy for administration in the US. In fact the use of OPV was discontinued in the United States in 2000 and in 2004 in the UK, but it continues to be used around the globe. The actual recommendation to discontinue appears to have been made in 1998 by the CDC²⁵.

Claim 3: Mitochondrial dysfunction coupled with (the mercury in?) vaccines can lead to Autism, and the CDC is investigating this

Daniel A. Rossignol, J. Jeffrey Bradstreet 2008. Evidence of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism and Implications for Treatment. Journal of Child Neurology, Vol. 21, No. 2, 170-172 (2006) DOI: 10.1177/08830738060210021401

Mitochandrial dysfunction, impared oxidative-reduction activity, degeneration, and death in human neuronal and feal cells induced by low-level exposure to thimerosal and other metal compounds.. .D.A. Gaeier, P.G. King, and M.R. Geier 2008

However, in many cases of autism, there is evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction (MtD) without the classic features associated with mitochondrial disease. MtD appears to be more common in autism and presents with less severe signs and symptoms. It is not associated with discernable mitochondrial pathology in muscle biopsy specimens despite objective evidence of lowered mitochondrial functioning. Exposure to environmental toxins is the likely etiology for MtD in autism.”

Do vaccines cause or worsen mitochondrial diseases?

As of now, there are no scientific studies that say vaccines cause or worsen mitochondrial diseases.  We do know that certain illnesses that can be prevented by vaccines, such as the flu, can trigger the regression that is related to a mitochondrial disease.  More research is needed to determine if there are rare cases where underlying mitochondrial disorders are triggered by anything related to vaccines.  However, we know that for most children, vaccines are a safe and important way to prevent them from getting life-threatening diseases.

Or if you don’t trust the CDC, how about the American Association of Pediatrics²⁶ (second emphasis my own):

WHAT IS MITOCHONDRIAL DISEASE?

A recent case that was awarded compensation through the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program involved a child with a mitochondrial disorder or mitochondrial disease. This case has raised questions about what environmental triggers might bring on or worsen autism-like symptoms in children with such disorders.

• Mitochondria produce the energy needed for cells to function normally. There are a number of genetic disorders that cause mitochondria to produce less energy than cells need. Symptoms of these disorders can be very mild or quite severe. In some of the disorders, symptoms do not develop for many years. Some of the rarer mitochondrial disorders affect the brain and cause worsening neurologic symptoms over time. In many cases, an event that requires more energy, such as an infection, fever or other illness, can lead to the development of symptoms.
• Although details of the case and the decision cannot be disclosed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the agency published a statement on March 3, 2008, which said: “HRSA (the Health Resources and Services Administration) has reviewed the scientific information concerning the allegation that vaccines cause autism and has found no credible evidence to support the claim.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this was a unique case and information about it has not been accurately characterized in the media and other public forums. It represents one special case and does not change the immunization recommendations for children in whom vaccines are otherwise recommended.  More information is available at the CDC Web site: http://www.cdc.gov.

According to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, “There are no scientific studies documenting that childhood vaccinations cause mitochondrial diseases or worsen mitochondrial disease symptoms. In the absence of scientific evidence, the UMDF cannot confirm any association between mitochondrial diseases and vaccines.

The case being referring to is that of Hannah Poling, who’s parents won in a court case (not a scientific study) that a vaccine led to additional “stress” on a (possibly) pre-existing Mitochondrial Dysfunction. I’ve linked to the Time article that discusses the case.

According to Dr. Shoffner, previous recent research has reported that up to 20% of children with autism have hyperlactacidemia and increased ratios of lactate/pyruvate.

“When you consider the frequency of autism in the general population, and you take 20% of that as a rough estimate of the proportion of children that may have these biomarkers [of mitochondrial dysfunction], it begins to raise some interesting questions about how to approach diagnosis, mechanism of disease, and patient management in what could turn out to be significant numbers of individuals,” said Dr. Shoffner.

I’m actually pretty excited about this research as if we can even begin to show some genetic linkage to autism, we’re at least partly there. However, the claim that there is scientifically credible link to vaccines or that the CDC is even actively researching it is simply false.

Claim 4: The Amish do not vaccinate and have no cases of Autism

Actually I’m going to directly quote the claim that I received:

.. don’t forget about the study of over 10,000 Amish children who had NO vaccinations, and they found not ONE case of autism.  … And again, scientists cannot even tell us what causes autism, and why it’s jumped so astronomically high in the past couple decades (Almost 1 in 100!) .. If even top scientists can’t figure out the cause, how do you know with such certainty?”

So there are 3 claims here:

1. The Amish don’t vaccinate

2. The Amish have no cases of autism

3. The normal (non-Amish presumably) rate of Autism has “jumped astronomically” in the past couple decades

Analysis

As far as I can tell, this claim originated with an article by Dan Olmsted of UPI. So first thing to note at this was not a scientific study, but a news story.

Actually, we’ll have to look further for the claim about “NO” children with autism²⁸:

I have come here to find them, but so far my mission has failed, and the very few I have identified raise some very interesting questions about some widely held views on autism.

…

So far, from sources inside and outside the Amish community, I have identified three Amish residents of Lancaster County who apparently have full-syndrome autism, all of them children.

So, maybe it’s from this quote, also from a Dan Olmsted article²⁹:

But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don’t have autism.

Or maybe that’s for the claim that they don’t vaccinate… ?

Anyhow, first off, Amish do vaccinate.

Responses were received by 225 (60%) of the 374 Amish households in the community with children aged <15 years. An additional 120 responses were received by households without children. A total of 189 (84%) households with children reported that all of their children had received vaccinations; 28 (12%) reported that some of their children had received vaccinations; and 8 (4%) reported that none of their children had received vaccinations

…

84% of Amish households reported all their kids had received vaccinations. Only 4% reported that none of their kids had received vaccinations. Among all respondents who knew their own vaccination status, 281/313 (90%) reported that they had received vaccinations as children.

That’s hardly a case of not vaccinating. The “Left Brain/Right Brain” site is run by 2 parents with children on the autism spectrum and a drug reaction specialist, so it seems to be at least reputable.

Ok, so claim #1 is out the water unless anybody can find credible evidence otherwise.

So let’s assume that #2 is true, namely that the Amish have a very low incidence of Autism. That would certainly not be a good thing for those who see vaccines as leading to Autism!

is a non-profit medical and diagnostic service for children with inherited metabolic disorders in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Claim 4: Pharmaceutical companies lied about the levels of Squalene and Theanine in their vaccines

Squalene

* Squalene is a naturally occurring substance found in plants, animals, and humans. It is manufactured in the liver of every human body and circulates in our bloodstream

* Squalene is also found in a variety of foods, cosmetics, over-the-counter medications, and health supplements.

* Squalene is commercially extracted from fish oil, and in particular shark liver oil. Squalene used in pharmaceutical products and vaccines is purified from this source.

Continuing from the same page:

Since 1997, an influenza vaccine (FLUAD, Chiron) which contains about 10 mg of squalene per dose, has been approved in health agencies in several European countries. Squalene is present in the form of an emulsion and is added to make the vaccine more immunogenic.

* Twenty two million doses of Chiron’s influenza vaccine (FLUAD) have been administered safely since 1997. This vaccine contains about 10mg of squalene per dose. * No severe adverse events have been associated with the vaccine.

* Some mild local reactogenicity has been observed.Clinical studies on squalene-containing vaccines have been done in infants and neonates without evidence of safety concerns.

* A few people have tried to link the health problems of Gulf War veterans to the possible presence of squalene in the vaccines these soldiers received.

* One published report suggested that some veterans who received anthrax vaccines developed anti-squalene antibodies and these antibodies caused disabilities.

* It is now known that squalene was not added to the vaccines administered to these veterans, and technical deficiencies in the report suggesting an association have been published.

Scary indeed. It’s also in fingerprints³⁷.

It has not been found to be dangerous at all, so whether or not they “lied” is not all that relevant. Until a peer-reviewed study can be presented that shows that this is even dangerous, there is no point in continuing here.

Theanine

Research has already shown that green tea may help reduce the risk of flu. Now, research has found that theanine, a rare protein found in green tea, combined with cystine (a more common protein) may increase the immune response of some elderly patients after flu vaccination.

Claim 5: Viera Scheibner, PhD has done “enlightening” research

Before we get started… a PhD is impressive but Dr. Scheibner’s (often misspelled as Scheiber) is not in one of the branches of science in any way related to medicine, epidemiology, childhood illness, etc.

However, nowadays, with an alarmingly increasing frequency, the parents (or at least one of them, usually the father) may be accused of shaking the baby to death. The accused may even “confess” to shaking the baby, giving the reason, for example, that having found the baby lying still and not breathing an/or with a glazed look in its eyes, they shook it gently-as is only natural-in their attempt to revive it. Sometimes, ironically, they save the baby’s life, only to be accused of causing the internal injuries that made the baby stop breathing in the first place, and which in fact were already present when they shook the baby to revive it.

No matter what the parents say or do, everything is construed against them. If they are crying and emotional, they will be accused of showing signs of guilt. If they manage to remain composed and unemotional, they will be called calculating and controlling-and guilty because of that.

In another scenario the distraught parents try to describe the symptoms to an attending doctor in hospital or a surgery but are totally at a loss to understand what has happened to their baby. To their shock and dismay, they later discover that while they were describing the observed symptoms, the doctor or another staff member was writing three ominous words in the medical record: shaken baby syndrome.

Many of these parents end up indicted and even sentenced to prison for a crime that somebody else committed. Some of these cases have been resolved by acquittal on appeal or have been won based on expert reports demonstrating vaccines as the cause of the observed injuries or death. However, only God and a good lawyer can help those parents or care-givers who happen to be uneducated, or have a criminal record, particularly for violence, or have a previous history of a similar “unexplained” death of a baby in their care, or, worse still, a vaccine-injured baby with a broken arm or fractured skull. More and more often, the unfortunate parents are given the option of a “deal”: if they confess and/or plead guilty, they will get only a couple of years in prison; but if they don’t, they may end up getting 20 years.

So… a parent/nanny who has a previous history of violence or unexplained death gets to blame the vaccine on the strange coincidence of another child dying?

All I can say about this (as others would) is to think critically about the claim that a vaccine shot would over some period of time cause a child’s body to completely beat itself up (broken bones, brusies, etc) without the parents noticing. It is much more likely that the child was abused. There is no actual scientific study showing an association between vaccines and “shaking baby syndrome”. It is instead, as best I can tell, an unfounded theory of Veria Scheibner.

Claim 6: D B M Hall and C J Bacon have published a “plethora” of work linking vaccines and SIDS

There is a plethora of work by C J Bacon and D B M Hall that outline studies between vaccinations and SIDS

The studies:

C J Bacon, D B M Hall, T J Stephenson, M J Campbell. How common is sudden infant death syndrome? 

Recurrence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is rare but may give rise to confusion and controversy because of the differential diagnoses of familial disease or covert homicide. We examine eight studies of recurrent SIDS published in English since 1970. These studies reported relative risks of recurrence, as compared with the population or with controls, ranging from 1.7 to 10.1. We assess the validity of the studies by three main criteria: accuracy of ascertainment, adequacy of investigation and matching of controls. We found that all the studies failed to meet these criteria, and we think that their flaws would have resulted mainly in overestimation of recurrence risk. We conclude that, although an increase in risk is probable on theoretical grounds, this risk cannot be quantified from the available evidence. We suggest that professionals should be cautious in their pronouncements on the chances of recurrence, and that parents who have lost a baby to SIDS can, with the exception of particularly vulnerable families, be reassured that the risk of recurrence is small.

It is impossible to be certain, but it is estimated that each year in England and Wales there may be about 30–40 infant deaths from covert homicide, which represents about 10% of the current annual total of sudden unexpected deaths in infancy. This paper reviews the features that have been suggested as possible indicators of covert homicide, describes the difficulties in its identification and the need for better evidence, and emphasises the importance of thorough medical investigation of all sudden infant deaths.

Replies were received from 63 pathologists who carry out necropsies after sudden infant deaths. There was a pronounced variation in their use of the terms “sudden infant death syndrome” and “unascertained”, with the last term being applied not only when there were apparently suspicious features but also in various other circumstances. Opinions were divided as to whether the term “sudden infant death syndrome” still serves a useful purpose. Deaths that had occurred while bed sharing were categorised in several different ways. Many pathologists commented on the inadequacy of the history available to them at the time of their report.

C J Bacon, S M Hall. Haemorrhagic shock encephalopathy syndrome in the British Isles. 1992. Archives of Diseases in Childhood.

Abstract (emphasis my own)⁵¹:

The aetiopathogenesis of haemorrhagic shock encephalopathy syndrome (HSES) remains unclear and after concern that a novel environmental agent was the cause, the British Paediatric Association and the Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in 1983 initiated surveillance of this condition in the British Isles. After 1986 cases were ascertained via the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit ‘active’ reporting scheme; this report presents the findings for 1985-8. Sixty five patients were reported, of whom 52 satisfied the criteria for inclusion. Of those whose outcome was known, 24 (46%) died, 18 had severe neurological damage, and six survived apparently intact. Epidemiological features of note were: the median age of 15 weeks (range 3-140); statistically significant clustering of admission times suggesting a peak onset period at night; lack of geographic clusters, of secular trends and, except for a slight excess in winter months, of seasonality. Clinical and pathological features followed a highly consistent pattern, suggesting that HSES is an individual clinical entity distinguishable from conditions with similar presentations, such as septicaemia and Reye’s syndrome. There was no microbiological or epidemiological evidence to support the emergence of a novel environmental agent. Many of the features of HSES were, however, the same as those described in heat stroke and we suggest that the two conditions are the same even though there is usually no history of overt overheating.

Summary

Claim 7: It took a long time for people to accept Copernicus, therefore anti-vaccinations claims should be taken seriously

Analysis

This is a common and misleading tactic of the anti-vaccination movement (it’s actually got a logical fallacy devoted to it: The Appeal to Pity or the Galileo Gambit/Argument) .

Example⁵²:

For example, “Scientists scoffed at Copernicus and Galileo; they laughed at Edison, Tesla and Marconi; they won’t give my ideas a fair hearing either. But time will be the judge. I can wait; I am patient; sooner or later science will be forced to admit that all matter is built, not of atoms, but of tiny capsules of TIME.”

Another example⁵³:

The Galileo fallacy is the idea that if you are widely vilified for your ideas, you must therefore be right.

They made fun of Galileo, and he was right. They make fun of me, therefore I am right.

In “reality“, in order to wear the mantle of Galileo, not only must one be scorned by the establishment, but one must be correct.

Or as Carl Sagan put it;

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton,         they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Another formal quote, apparently attributed to Robert L. Park states:

It is not enough to wear the mantle of Galileo: that you be persecuted by an unkind establishment. You must also be right.

No doubt your response might be, “but that doesn’t make the theories wrong either!”. And you’d be right. The point is that what happened to Copernicus (or Galileo or Columbus) bears no relevance whatsoever on the truth of any claims. The only thing that matters is whether or not they are based on good science and that when tested, they turn out to be true. In all cases, when those with an anti-vaccination agenda actually create a testable theory, the science doesn’t hold up and they turn out to be wrong.

Conclusion

As far as I am concerned, the evidence and studies presented here do not represent a viable claim against the safety of vaccines. I would also hope they serve as a warning of the type of “evidence” that is often found to be wanting here. For whatever reason, many people do not like vaccines and many others make a lot of money on books and “alternative medicine” for those who have been led to believe that vaccines are bad for their children. As always, extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. Anecdotal, word-of-mouth “studies” do not for science make. To those who claim that those of us who “trust the scientists about vaccines”, I hope that I have demonstrated that I do look at the science. A “mountain” of unsupported evidence does not in any way add up to even a molehill of actual evidence.

I realize most people will think I wasted my time putting this together, but I think it is important to not let those against vaccines (or really, followers of any brand of pseudoscience)  attempt to use what appear to be volumes of data to silence critics.

Appendix II: Who Cares?

Pertussis can be a severe illness, resulting in prolonged coughing spells that can last for many weeks. These spells can make it difficult for a child to eat, drink, and breathe. Because vomiting often occurs after a coughing spell, infants may lose weight and become dehydrated. In infants, it can also cause pneumonia and lead to brain damage, seizures, and mental retardation.

Hib meningitis once killed 600 children each year and left many survivors with deafness, seizures, or mental retardation.

Since introduction of conjugate Hib vaccine in December 1987, the incidence of Hib has declined by 98 percent. From 1994-1998, fewer than 10 fatal cases of invasive Hib disease were reported each year.

This preventable disease was a common, devastating illness as recently as 1990; now, most pediatricians just finishing training have never seen a case. If we were to stop immunization, we would likely soon return to the pre-vaccine numbers of invasive Hib disease cases and deaths.

As many as three of every 1,000 persons with measles will die in the U.S. In the developing world, the rate is much higher, with death occurring in about one of every 100 persons with measles.

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases in the world and is frequently imported into the U.S. In the period 1997-2000, most cases were associated with international visitors or U.S. residents who were exposed to the measles virus while traveling abroad. More than 90 percent of people who are not immune will get measles if they are exposed to the virus.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 900,000 measles-related deaths occurred among persons in developing countries in 1999. In populations that are not immune to measles, measles spreads rapidly. If vaccinations were stopped, each year about 2.7 million measles deaths worldwide could be expected.

In 1964-1965, before rubella immunization was used routinely in the U.S., there was an epidemic of rubella that resulted in an estimated 20,000 infants born with CRS, with 2,100 neonatal deaths and 11,250 miscarriages. Of the 20,000 infants born with CRS, 11,600 were deaf, 3,580 were blind, and 1,800 were mentally retarded.

Due to the widespread use of rubella vaccine, only six CRS cases were provisionally reported in the U.S. in 2000. Because many developing countries do not include rubella in the childhood immunization schedule, many of these cases occurred in foreign-born adults. Since 1996, greater than 50 percent of the reported rubella cases have been among adults. Since 1999, there have been 40 pregnant women infected with rubella.

If we stopped rubella immunization, immunity to rubella would decline and rubella would once again return, resulting in pregnant women becoming infected with rubella and then giving birth to infants with CRS.

Finally (for blog/comment-enabled version):

To any commenters (what few of you there might be), please refrain from personal attacks of me or any other commenters. Let’s discuss the merits of individual ideas, not the people who have them. As I hinted above, this is a very emotional issue and NOBODY on any side is intending harm. Also, if you have evidence in favor of your views (or against mine), please include actual links to the studies or articles in as reputable or mainstream a place as possible. If you believe the media is “censoring” the truth, then feel free to link to other sources. However, I don’t really desire to become a forum for having a meta-argument about the accuracy of news reporting. If you can resist linking to sites within (http://www.whale.to) that would be great. To my readers out there who aren’t conspiracy theorists, you can go there and see how “reputable” (yay, “Auschwitz Hoax”, “Death Towers”, “Mind Control”, etc) and hilarious the site is. In many cases, the only “evidence” I could find for most of the claims was from that site.