Let ’s spend money on autism support, not conspiracy theories

I spent many sleepless nights in the months after my son’s autism diagnosis fretting whether I could have done something to prevent it. I recounted, in obsessive detail, the course of my pregnancy, the birth, and the two years of child-rearing that led to the moment when our pediatrician confirmed my fears — and life as I’d known it tilted off its axis. In my spare waking hours, I pored over research that exhausted me mentally and emotionally. It was a painful period of reckoning — and it’s the reason I vehemently oppose a commission to investigate a link between autism and vaccines, as proposed by President Trump. This link has been thoroughly disproven, and it is distracting and irresponsible to pursue it. The original study upon which the myth of an autism-vaccine link is based was retracted by The Lancet for being unethical and scientifically invalid; indeed, The Lancet editor publicly declaimed the study results as “utterly false”. Subsequent studies also found no association. Instead of wasting money and time on chasing phantom causes, we should use our resources to assist the millions who live with autism every day. And we should lay to rest the idea that vaccines have done anything but save lives from the misery of measles, mumps, polio, and other diseases that affected millions. It is, ironically, the very lack of these diseases in our present life that makes parents feel they can safely refuse to vaccinate their children. Parents want to prote...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Meds Medications Pediatrics Source Type: blogs