Vaccines and Autism - and Politics
I was very disappointed to find that the discussion thread about the anti-vaccination video, The Silent Epidemic, had been locked as being "off topic". This is a political website, and there is no part of the health and medicine field that is more inherently political than that of vaccinations. And the key political issue at stake is the right of the individual and/or his or her legal guardian to have control over what is put into their bodies. It's where the rights of the individual and the political will of the society interface, and where exactly one defines the boundaries over what is ethical and proper in a democracy. And, sad to say, this remains a very controversial, even explosively controversial, topic on this website. Therefore, I would not say that it is off topic; it is inherently very political, and hence very on topic for a political website that is interested in democracy, like this one. The only problem is its explosively controversial nature.
As someone who has an autism spectrum disorder who was finally diagnosed late in life, and also as someone who has had a serum antibody test for biocompatibility to dental materials that revealed an adverse immunoligical reaction to Thimerosal, a key additive / preservative used in vaccines, done on me prior to my autism spectrum diagnosis, I cannot help but believe from personal experience in the link between vaccines and autism. For goodness' sake, why couldn't a simple serum antibody screening test to common suspected ingredients in vaccines, like Thimerosal, be offered as an option for the children of concerned parents with the option to exempt their children from being vaccinated if the results came back positive? In a society that was truly democratic and politically sane and reasonable about this issue, the rights and prerogatives of the individual who tested positive would be honored above the profits of the drug companies that make the vaccines. And Democrats should stand up for democracy, and for individual rights.
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But autism in my family is very clearly genetic.
The somewhat functional autistics, the useful autistics like my rocket scientist grandfather and the non-autistics like one of my grandfather's sisters, they supported the entirely dysfunctional autistics as far back as I can trace in the family tree.
I have a great aunt who lived alone in her family subsidized apartment, only venturing out for food. I met her only once, she did not like social gatherings. Whatever insights she had about the human condition are lost because mental illness was something to be kept in the closet.
