When it comes to illnesses, things are not ever so simple as car–dog–injured doggy.

There are a whole host of other factors of which you may not be even remotely aware: aspects of biology that you can’t see, other environmental factors, etc. “I saw it with my own eyes!” is not good enough because, quite frankly, we’re all fallible human beings with really quite poor observation and recall skills, particularly when we’re close to the situation and emotions are running high. Lots of biases can creep into our interpretation of what happened. That’s where science steps in to control for all (or at least as many as possible) of those other factors that we don’t take into account, to try to figure out what really happened.

Now, I’m not discounting your account. It may have happened that way. I just want to make clear that eyewitness accounts, contrary to popular belief, are very often unreliable, especially when what is being observed involves many complex variables.

You are the one who has to deal with a loved one going through pain, you’re the one who has to care for them day in, day out, and that is clearly very difficult, and you should be applauded for it.

Unfortunately, I can easily see how being in that situation, having a passionate and direct emotional connection to it makes it difficult to seriously consider that you don’t have all the answers.

The facts simply don’t indicate any real connection between vaccines and autism. Insisting that you just know the answer, and you just want to be left alone, while spreading a message that is causing children to die from preventable diseases is deplorable.

We need to do everything we reasonably can to ensure the safety of children. Any serious complication is one too many. But here’s the thing: the question boils down to choosing between serious complications from a disease or serious complications from a vaccine. With that choice, we need to look at the relative risks, and when we do, we very quickly see that the diseases prevented by vaccines pose a much, much greater risk to children’s health than the vaccines, sometimes by as much as 1,000 times.

I am very sorry that you have had horrible experiences. Vaccines are safe, as much as anything in life can be called safe. If you want 100% safety, you’re never, ever going to get it, since nothing is 100% safe. But we can do our best to get as close as possible to that ideal, and for the most part, we do. There will always be a risk, and sometimes, the dice may fall against us. We may be that 1 in 1,000,000, and it sucks. That’s the reason that the vaccine court exists, because sometimes s**t happens beyond anyone’s control, and the families affected deserve to be compensated for that.

The consensus of science, however, shows that autism is not caused by vaccines, despite the understandably convincing appearance that they do. But under controlled observation, we find the truth. We know some of the causes (Reyes’ Syndrome, Fragile X, etc.) and scientists are trying to figure out more. It’s slow going and may not give the immediate comfort and relief that parents are looking for, but they are trying very hard.

I hope you’ll take a look at sources of factual info, rather than sites like Age of Autism, Generation Rescue, Mercola and so forth. You deserve to learn the truth, and it pisses me off to no end that there are those who have lied to you.

I’d love to know when you are sending me a check.

So then the CDC is lying about the MMR causing low platelet counts resulting in internal bleeding in my baby.

So then the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program must not even exist, because “vaccines are safe”.

@ Andrew reall : “probably paid by a quack”

Please feel free to look my mother in the eye, and tell her that. Or every other person who has been injured by a “safe” vaccine. Think she is deceiving you when she has no feeling from her chest down from her toes? I don’t need scientific doubt when I have witnessed and lived through that.

Notice how your posts appear on this website, even though you are insulting and probably paid by a quack to spread disinformation. It’s almost like people who have facts on their side aren’t afraid to confront lies.

Meanwhile parents of autistic children are thrown out of “AutismOne.”

1) Poul Thorsen had his name on the paper, but was never the primary or secondary author, it is not his study. Yep, he got done for fraud and embezzlement of CDC grant money and suddenly he has been elevated to being the prime mover and shaker of the Danish studies (which must be quite a surprise to him). The studies still stand, all you actually have is an attempt to discredit the study by association.

As for Thorsen, if he is indeed proven to have stuck him hand in the research till, then off the jail … no quibble about that.

2) You have been told that the Danish studies are the primary foundation upon which the science exonerating MMR and thimerosal-containing vaccines as a cause of autism rests, it never was

What you are spouting is the denialist technique of spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about vaccines.

However, lets try a small thought. If the studies were somehow completely discredited as a result of Thorsen’s financial chicanery with grant funds, it would not be enough for scientists to call into question the scientific consensus that neither the MMR nor thimerosal are associated with an increased risk for autism. The reason is that there’s so much other evidence that is consistent with the Danish studies and similarly shows that neither the MMR nor thimerosal in vaccines is associated with autism.

Scientific consensus is never ever based on one study, two studies, or a handful of studies. A scientific consensus is based on examining all the evidence from all relevant studies, deciding which studies are most methodologically powerful, and then synthesizing it all into a conclusion.

Vaccines are safe, there is no scientific doubt, you have been deceived and tricked by being lied to.

In the end you will all just want to continue twisting the truth. Our children & every other child who is vaccine injured will always be an acceptable loss to you. Why should you care? What’s one more dead or maimed baby to you? As long as it’s all about “the benefits outweighing the risks” and only affecting a “significantly low” population that just so happens to include my babies. The truth is people like you will never give a damn until it happens to you personally. And I wish, hope and pray that it never does, because that means yet another baby was hurt or killed and added to the vaccine body count.