Vaccines: An Autistic Perspective

With the outbreak of measles coming out of Disneyland, vaccines have been in the news a lot recently. Thanks to discredited doctor Andrew Wakefield and model Jenny McCarthy, it's practically guaranteed that autism will enter any discussion on vaccines. While an expert in autism may occasionally be consulted, it seems as if the autistic perspective is consistently left out.

I could use this post to state the inability of vaccines to cause autism, or to state that the apparent regional correlation between vaccines and autism may be caused by the fact that those regions tend to have better access to medical care in general. I could talk about the difference between unbonded mercury and mercury in the form of a salt, such as thimerosal. I could bring up the proven effectiveness of vaccines using comparisons to parts of the world where vaccination is not readily available. All of these have been discussed at length, and doing so seems to do little to counter the trend of not vaccinating.

Instead, I would like to talk about how we in the autistic community see the issue. We have some points of view that never get addressed in the public discussion.

To a certain extent, some of us feel slightly responsible for the spread of preventable diseases that result in the deaths of children. I know it isn't our fault. We didn't do anything to cause it. All we did was exist, while others spread the idea that it was because of mercury being injected into us. What most autistic people are seeing is that people are, en masse, rejecting proven preventative medicine based on a hunch.

The primary vaccine in the crosshairs seems to be the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Vaccines for the three diseases first became available in the 1960's, and were combined into one in 1971. Most people agree that the apparent explosion in autism started in the 1980's. Several of us in the autistic community dispute that there's an autism epidemic, but that's another subject. The point here is that if the MMR vaccine were to blame, the increase should have been seen in the early 1970's.

I know I said I wasn't going to talk much about the science, but I want to mention one thing. One of the reasons vaccines are blamed for autism is the mercury. This would imply that autism is a form of mercury poisoning. Let's have a look at some typical symptoms of mercury poisoning (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning#Signs_and_symptoms):

*Peripheral neuropathy (itching, burning, or pain).

*Skin discoloration.

*Swelling.

*Desquamation (shedding or peeling of skin).

*Profuse sweating.

*Tachycardia (fast heart beat).

*Increased salivation.

*Hypertension (high blood pressure).

Children may show the following symptoms:

*Red cheeks, nose, and lips.

*Loss of hair, teeth, and nails.

*Transient rashes.

*Hypotonia (muscle weakness).

*Increased sensitivity to light.

*Kidney dysfunction.

*Emotional lability.

*Memory impairment.

*Insomnia.

I don't see most of those symptoms in higher occurrence among my autistic friends than I do in the general population. In fact, none of them are listed in the description of autism.

Some say that mercury damages neurons on contact. As far as I know, this is true. However, if this is how vaccines cause autism, it requires autism to be a form of brain damage. That seems like it would make sense to someone who doesn't know how the autistic mind works. The problem is that most of the autistic people I've known in my lifetime have been absolutely brilliant, and have been able to easily accomplish mental tasks outside the abilities of neuronormal people. I can't really say about the others, because of their inability to communicate.

Perhaps the brain damage caused by the mercury only damages the ability to communicate. I see two problems with that explanation. First is that it provides no explanation for the increase in mental abilities in other areas. Second is that brain damage isn't that predictable. The mercury would damage whichever neurons it came into contact with. Those may be in the part of the brain that control communication, or it may happen somewhere completely different. It would depend entirely on where the mercury arrives first.

There's one final point I want to say about mercury. Unlike mercury poisoning, no one has ever died from autism.

That leads me to the biggest point I want to make in this post. Let's go ahead and assume for a moment that vaccines can cause autism. In recent years, children have been dying from preventable diseases, such as measles and whooping cough. Many of us in the autistic community take offense that it would be preferable to risk their children's lives than for them to end up like us.

I understand that an autism diagnosis can be initially devastating for parents, especially combined with some of the things parents are still told about the diagnosis. However, it is becoming more widely acknowledged that an autistic person can live a happy, fulfilling, and productive life.

Refusal to vaccinate is a public health crisis. Diseases that have been almost stamped out are making a comeback. Please don't use our existence as a reason to risk the health and lives of your children and those around them.