Yeah, this is controversial and all that. So apparently the lead researcher on Gardasil (the HPV vaccine) said, “the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15.”

Oh my. Link: http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/10/25/top_stories/doc4ae4b76d07e16766677720.txt

There is a rebuttal here: http://skeptvet.com/Blog/2009/10/anti-vaccine-activists-and-conservative-christians-vs-hpv-vaccination/

Most of the rebuttal consists of, “But a lot of the people in the article are anti-vaccine so their opinion doesn’t count” to which I provide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu5voTjCr_c

You know, I am not completely anti-vaccine. I’m really not. I get a number of boosters and I have (selectively) vaccinated my daughter. Just because you disagree with a side of an argument doesn’t mean they are completely wrong.

Ok, my problem with the rebuttal: at this point it seems to me that folks on the pro-vaccine argument have decided that if anyone is on the anti-vaccine side of the argument that their argument can never have merit regardless of what is actually being presented. That kind of black and white thinking is not particularly helpful.

Shanna’s pediatrician tried really hard to talk me into the H1N1 vaccine. I told him I would go home and do more research. He said that 15% of women in their third trimester who get it have died. That’s scary. Well, yes that does sound scary. Until you go to the CDC site and look at more information. One person died. One. And she had asthma which is a known complication that makes it more likely you will die. And the regular flu vaccine? 90% of people who die from normal seasonal flu are over 65. The other 10% usually have some sort of other medical complications.

Here are some shots I’m skipping, thanks.

This has never been my hobby horse to ride, nevertheless I find it very interesting that Tripedia has updated their product insert for their DTaP vaccine. From page 11:

Adverse events reported during post-approval use of Tripedia vaccine include idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, SIDS, anaphylactic reaction, cellulitis, autism, convulsion/grand mal convulsion, encephalopathy, hypotonia, neuropathy, somnolence and apnea. Events were included in this list because of the seriousness or frequency of reporting. Because these events are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequencies or to establish a causal relationship to components ofTripedia vaccine.

I state, once again, that autism has never been one of my concerns when it comes to vaccinations–I mean, look at the rest of the stuff on that list. But I find it interesting that a company is now putting autism in their product insert warning.

Infant Primates Given Vaccines On U.S. Children’s Immunization Schedule Develop Behavioral Symptoms Of Autism

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/107989.php

A primate model for autism using the U.S. children’s immunization schedule was unveiled at the International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR) this weekend. The research underscores the critical need for studies into vaccine safety and the immune and mitochondrial dysfunction of autistic children. The National Autism Association (NAA) questions why the government hasn’t undertaken these vital studies and why researchers have had to depend on private money to perform this critical science that will surely impact the health of millions of children worldwide.

While the authors and organizations associated with this study are withholding comment until publication, University of Pittsburgh’s Dr. Laura Hewitson, Ph.D., described at the IMFAR meeting how vaccinated animals, when compared to unvaccinated animals, showed significant neurodevelopmental deficits and “significant associations between specific aberrant social and non-social behaviors, isotope binding, and vaccine exposure.”

Researchers also reported at the scientific meeting that “vaccinated animals exhibited progressively severe chronic active inflammation whereas unexposed animals did not” and found “many significant differences in the GI tissue gene expression profiles between vaccinated and unvaccinated animals.” Gastrointestinal issues are a common symptom of children with regressive autism.

NAA calls for the NIH to conduct large scale, non-epidemiological studies into the biomedical symptoms surrounding young children and all vaccines, including those containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal and other additives like aluminum.

This request for further research echoes that of Dr. Bernadine Healy, Former NIH Director in a CBS interview earlier this week. “I think public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as ‘irrational,’ without sufficient studies of causation… without studying the population that got sick,” Healy said. “I have not seen major studies that focus on 300 kids who got autistic symptoms within a period of a few weeks of the vaccines.”

Recently the government’s vaccine court conceded the case of Hannah Poling, admitting that vaccines triggered her regression into autism by exacerbating mitochondrial dysfunction. “The recent Poling case and this new research provide further evidence that the CDC has fallen down on their job to protect children from harm. The biomedical research to date suggests that parental reports of regression following vaccination is not only plausible, but likely in certain individuals,” said Scott Bono, NAA Chairman. “To date, the CDC has conducted no safety testing on the possible harmful effects of simultaneously administering multiple vaccines to infants, and has steadfastly refused to state a preference for mercury-free vaccines to be given to children and pregnant women. It’s time for HHS and Congress to step in and take vaccine safety away from the CDC.”