Thursday, September 20, 2007

Serious day. . .


Ok I've gotten into it with a few people now on this issue and you know how I hate to talk about serious things here but this is just making me angry.

Autism. . .

Jenny McCarthy went on Oprah this week to push her new book and scare people into believing that immunizing your baby causes autism. Jenny McCarthy is hot. . . loved her on MTV (and you know how I feel about breasts. Jenny McCarthy is funny. Jenny McCarthy may even be a good writer (I haven't read her books). What Jenny McCarthy is not is a doctor (though she did take a semester of nursing school before she became a playmate). Forgive me if I don't want to get my medical advice from a former centerfold.

The argument is always "well, what else could have caused it?" Parents want someone to blame. They won't blame themselves or God (and nor should they) and a two-year-old hasn't had much happen to them in their short time on earth so what could be the connection. . . it isn't contracted from someone else, they weren't exposed to radiation, it can't be breast milk vs. formula (or something else they ate). They need someone to blame, so they blame the one thing they couldn't control going into their child. . . vaccines.

Let's talk about another rising kid "disease," ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder. I'm assuming anyone reading this is over 25. . . do you remember anyone growing up with ADD? Do you remember any hyper-active kids in your grade school (if not, chances are, you were that kid)? ADD and ADHD didn't seem to exist until recently. Now everybody has it and doctors dole out medication like candy. Is it because it's more prevalent, or is it because we can test for it.

What about autism? Is it more common today or do people simply know what it is now?

Autism is hard to define. It's actually several similar disorders all lumped into a category. 90% of autistic diagnoses are genetic. The CDC, the AMA, the AAP. . . every one of them discounts the link between the two. Someone at work said "that's the government and western medicine. Your can't trust them, you should take more fish oil." So either the AMA (et. al.) is right ,and there really isn't a link between autism and immunization, or the government and medical community is lying to us. Maybe putting something in the vaccines to make the general populace less functional and easier to control.

Anyway, that's my two cents on the subject. I doubt I'm going to sway anyone one way or the other. Everyone who has an opinion on this subject already is not moving their opinion either way. For me it comes down to this. Would I rather have a kid stricken with autism, or would I rather have a kid die from polio, mumps, measles, chicken pox, or whooping cough, all of which can be fatal? I'd rather take my chances with the immunizations.

3 comments:

Janice said...

I totally agree with your post. Jenny McCarthy is not my favorite person. Yes, she is very pretty and girls like myself would love to look like that, but she is a bit of an airhead. I would NEVER take medical advice from her.

I would most definately go with the immunizations. Great post!

JayJayGhatt said...

whatever man. i'm so sick of celebrities (many of whom never stepped foot in a college classroom) use their visibilty to spew their opinion so convingly (b/c they are actors after all) that it scares people.

I come from Africa, where children die everyday from disease our kids over here are immunized from, so I'm not taking my chances. My childhood bestfriend died of German Measles. Can you believe that? I'm only 34 and at that time US kids were immunized and spared.

I think there is a bit of misdiagnosis going on and I think perhaps it was always there and not diagnosed before, but whatevah.

SHE IS NOT A DOCTOR AND HASN'T EVEN PLAYED ONE ON TV!

Rodney Wilson said...

I'm happy to write that I don't know who Jenny McCarthy. I'd not give her much thought. And I wouldn't go around trying to know all the latest potential malfunctions a child can have; if you go looking for them, you'll find 'em. Let things be and if any problem develops, deal with it. I fear for all these poor kids whose parents start looking for signs of ADD and ADHD and ODD and this disorder and that disorder.