US Court Says Measles Vaccine Not To Blame for Causing Autism
Filed Under (Activism, Autism and The Media, Autism and Vaccines) by Estee on 13-02-2009
Last night, while going out with a girlfriend, I ran into two comments about autism. The first was the “I’m sorry” [your kid has autism] comment, to which I can now calmly reply that this person need not be sorry for Adam is the best kid in the world (and then explain nicely why I respond as such). In fact, when I see neurotypical kids nag their parents and get greedy for things, I feel I am blessed with a conversely gentle, affable, loving, amazing child who is growing and learning and changing by the day.
The second was the usual question I get “So, what do you think of Jenny McCarthy?” Well, all you need to do is go to the right side bar, watch my Autism In The Media video for an answer on that. Usually, people unfamiliar with autism and the politics surrounding it will believe Jenny and are shocked that I do not endorse her. They sort of look at me a little perplexed and conclude “well at last she’s raising awareness.”
As I’ve said before and will say again — not all awareness and advocacy is healthy awareness and advocacy. Anything that shifts public perception to lesson the value of human beings based on their disability, sways people to feel sorry for us or our children, or endangers their health, is not advancing the needs of autistic individuals or creating an Inclusive society. It is so unfortunate that Jenny has received so much air time and so many children have died as a result of her claims that vaccines cause autism. Refreshing was the woman last night who had asked me the question about my thoughts on Jenny. She also managed (as a scientist) to understand the scope of Jenny’s damage to autistic people.
This has been going on (and there are much better bloggers on the science and politics of vaccines and autism including Kathleen Seidel, Left Brain/Right Brain, Mike Stanton…). As I sat with my girlfriend at a restaurant last night, I receive an email to watch CNN. Any time there’s something about autism, I get similar emails, but the thing is, this is old news for so many of us. Those who watch the science, instead of following Jenny-And-The-Quacks, have known this for a long period of time.
Andrew Wakefield is busted and CNN is finally reporting (what most of us already knew), that vaccines do not cause autism. Do you think Oprah and Larry King will follow suit? Do you think that science will be of more interest than mysticism, speculation, sensationalism, and autism as Hollywood entertainment?
For more on the US Court ruling, view the article here.
ESTÉE KLAR
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
Writer/Curator/Founder of The Autism Acceptance Project. Lecturer on autism & the media, and parenting. Graduate student Critical Disability Studies, York University. I like to write about our journey, musings, attitudes towards autism.
While I’d love to think that science has won the day, I’m not holding my breath. Being anti-vaccine is an easy answer for people who are scared, and frustrated, and looking for answers. I think that there’s been a huge failure on the part of the “scientific” community to address this issue over the years (why wasn’t the CDC giving press conferences and going on Oprah to address this 5 or 10 years ago?), and now it’s firmly ingrained in a certain type of person’s mind.
I can’t say that I really blame people, although it frustrates me to no end. But I’ve had 11 years to get used to the idea that my children are autistic, and to love them and value them and advocate for them as the people that they are, and not the people that I expected them to be. I do get furiously angry at times at the amount of time, money, and energy that’s spent debating a dead issue which could be much better spent in other ways, but I try to recognize that too many people are reacting out of fear, and unwarranted despair.
I think that one of the best things that we could be doing as an “autism community” is to be providing good information about what it’s like to live as an autistic person, or as a parent of an autistic person. Knowledge can often overcome fear, and anger, and denial, and I’m still not sure why we don’t have pamphlets in every single pediatrician’s office to inform parents about autism, and how it is not the end of the world for either parents or autistic people.
I’ve seen it happen with higher-order multiple births (triplets plus)…between the triplets organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Britain we managed to not only disseminate information about the risks of triplets plus, but give doctors the information that they needed to give to parents who were dealing with more than 3 babies at a time. While there are definitely still gaps in education and information, it’s pretty rare now that a parent faced with a higher-order multiple birth pregnancy can’t find good information.
We have an increasing number of autism advocates- both people with autism themselves, and family members, who can speak with authority about the fact that autism is not only not a death sentence, but that people with autism can live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives. I’m not sure why we’re not able (as a community) to convey that information to people who are coming in contact with autism for the first time, and the longer we put off that kind of effort and education, the more easily people latch on to things like being anti-vaccine.
Yahoo, Jenny McCarthy drives me crazy. My sil asked me if “any other moms of children with autism” have written a book besides Jenny McCarthy? Why she gets so much press is beyond me. She’s not even a popular actress. Thanks for your blog. I stumbled upon it today!
Refreshing to find people who don’t buy into the Jenny hype!