Vaccines and Autism: Is There A Link?
Haertlein, Lauren L. “Immunizing Against Bad Science: The Vaccine Court and The Autism Test Case.” Law and Contemporary Problems 72 (2012): 211-32. EconLit. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
“Immunizing Against Bad Science: The Vaccine Court and the Autism Test Case,” written by Lauren L. Haertlein, deals with one of today’s most popular controversies; vaccinations causing autism in children. Haertlein’s article gives insight into the history of vaccine litigation and the policies that accompany it. Furthermore, she talks immensely about the Vaccine Court, whose job is to work with petitioner’s stating that a vaccine, such as measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), has caused some illness to their child. The article uses real-life Vaccine Court examples such as Michelle Cedillo’s case, whose mother claimed a vaccination gave her daughter autism, as a way to better understand how the Vaccine Court works. This controversial topic is being discussed daily in magazines, journals, and on talk shows. The families that are blaming autism on vaccinations are giving vaccines a bad name and causing other parents to re-think their decision about getting their children vaccinated.
“Ms. Haertlein graduated magna cum laude from Duke Law School, where she was Editor-in-Chief of Law and Contemporary Problems and received the Clinical Practice Award for her work in the Duke AIDS Legal Project on matters related to federal and state AIDS policy and the provision of direct legal assistance to low-income HIV-infected clients.” (Arnold & Porter LLC)
Additionally, Haertlein has her Masters in Philosophy from Duke University and her Bachelor’s in biology and political science from Tufts University. She is currently working as a lawye...
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Throughout the article Haertlein does not cite other scholars who disagree with her claim. Nonetheless, since she uses real-life court cases of families who disagree with her claim, the scholars and other expert opinions are not needed. The scientific evidence alone makes her writing significant enough to state her claim.
Haertlein’s article will be particularly useful for my research because it goes into great detail about the Vaccine Court and provides multiple court cases to use as resources later. Even more, it offers definitions of terms that could be useful. She uses a standard argument, scientific evidence, to back up her statement. Haertlein’s article has made me even more excited to further study the controversy between vaccinations and autism.
Work Cited
Haertlein, Lauren L., Arnold & Porter LLP. Arnold & Porter LLP, 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
The vaccination scandals have dominated the news, this past February. False accusations against the CDC or Center for Disease Control, saying that vaccines cause Autism Spectrum Disorder in young children. Cleverly using the classic idiom, ‘you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink it,’ Robert Ariail’s cartoon portrays Uncle Sam attempting to pull a horse, labelled anti-vaxxer, to a pool of water, labelled knowledge. Another image in opposition of the anti-vaxxer movement is a cartoon by Mike Keefe, which depicts
Ratzan, S. C. (2010). Setting the record straight: Vaccines, autism, and the Lancet. Journal Of Health Communication, 15(3), 237-239. doi:10.1080/10810731003780714
Doctor Andrew Wakefield had written a paper in Lancet journal in 1998 which suggested that MMR vaccine causes autism. In his research, he found out that MMR vaccine was responsible for bowel inflammation that leads to the translocation of non-permeable peptides into the bloodstream. (American Academy of Pediatrics) This in turn carries them to the brain causing the root of autism spectrum disorder to form. His research was called weak by drug corporations, governments and media companies and was then discredited earning him a fraud reputation. His paper has since raised a decade long argument on MMR vaccine originating autism spectrum disorder. This has caused a lot of parents to withdraw their children from being vaccinated, which increased measles infections.
Over the last twenty years there has been a very large increase in the number of mandatory vaccinations, which leads many people to believe that the increase in the number of vaccinations has a direct correlation with the increase of childhood Autism. “Today, 40 percent of American parents have chosen to delay or refuse a recommended or mandated vaccine for their children (Largent, 18)”. Many parents are too young to remember when communicable diseases could ravage a classroom or school. Polio could paralyze ten thousand children in a year. Rubella coul...
One of the important reasons why parents are concerned about the safety of these vaccines is due to the 1998 theory proposed by British gastroenterologist David Wakefield linking autism to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Though the Institute of Medicine has already conducted safety review panels since 2001 and rejected any such correlation, parents continue to fear about their children suffering from autism or immune dysfunction due to vaccinations. (American Journal of Public Health, 2008)
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Vaccines have been around for hundreds of years now, allowing humans to increase life expectancy tremendously. Vaccines have been a great contribution to today’s science and human health, but vaccines have also brought fourth numerous concerns for many parents. One of the most controversial debates that society is currently facing is whether there is link between vaccines and autism. To distinguish if there is a link between vaccines and autism a closer look must be taken within the research of both. A vaccine is an injected or orally administered substance that contains live(attenuated) or killed pathogens to activate the production of antibodies in the body to produce immunity against a disease or different types of diseases. (Red) Vaccines are composed of different molecules and ingredients, one of them being Thimerosal, an organic mercury compound. (blue) The use of Thimerosal in vaccines have associated the link between vaccines and autism. Autism or Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological development disorder that can affect an individual’s behavior, communications and social skills. (green)
...’t aware of an issue of unvaccinated children into the mix, leading to people believing that vaccines may cause autism. Recalling a few years ago, this was on news stations reporting on Jenny and her son’s autism, if that could change my mind on vaccines, its possible that other peoples have opinions has wavered, also.
there is not a connection between Autism and immunization shots and continue to protect ourselves
In the Frontline episode The Vaccine War, a progressively distressful debate ensues among many scientists and doctors within the public health system and an unnerving alliance of parents, politicians, and celebrities. The topic of debate is the overwhelming pressure parents feel to vaccinate their children and their right to decline such vaccinations. In several American neighborhoods, groups of parents have been exercising their right to refuse vaccinations, which has elevated anxiety on the return of vaccine-preventable diseases such as pertussis and measles. The reason such parents are denying their children various vaccines such as the MMR “triple shot” for measles, mumps, and rubella is because they are convinced that it is linked to autism, a link that has yet to be proven. Many of these parents are focused solely on their children, not taking into account that their decision may put the American populace at risk for disease. Such parents are not thinking about other members of society that vaccines don’t work for, and in certain adolescents the effects deteriorate, thus only when every person is immunized the “heard immunity” is successful.
As sickness struck person to person, rendering them helpless, it left sadness and tragedy across the world. As a result, vaccinations were created to prevent and put an end to diseases and the sorrow. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations (MMR), that are supposed to help are being questioned by people believing they are linked to Autism. Numerous studies have shown that there is no connection between the two. The holes and lies in this theory are prevalent when looking in depth at how this theory was established, whom it benefits if it's true, and the facts that disprove it.
In recent years, the correlation between vaccines and autism has become the subject of much debate. On one side, there are the anti-vaccinators, or anti-vaccers. On the other, there’s pretty much everyone else. Despite the fact that the anti-vaccination movement has little base in scientific fact, their campaign to end early infanthood vaccinations rages on. While doctors and scientists try desperately to make parents look at the research studies, vaccination rates continue to fall. But, even in these dark times, there is still hope that scientific fact will prevail and defeat the anti-vaccination fear mongers who have caused many children to fall ill and even die because their parents did not properly vaccinate them. This is one of the most saddening scientific failures of the twenty-first century. A failure to educate the public properly has resulted in child, even infant, fatalities. The anti-vaccination movement was started based on falsified data and continues only because of a lack of knowledge and proper education of the general public.
Paulson 1Daniel PaulsonProfessor FukuchiEnglish 1301-3056226 October 2016Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism In the past few years there have been many false accusations about vaccines causing ASD (Autism spectrum disorder). Arsenal predicted that vaccines caused ASD. Arsenal went on to state “there is absolutely undeniable scientific proof that vaccines cause autism. There is no question! Case closed! Game over!”. This false prediction spread fear in the populace despite the fact there is no hard evidence that vaccines causes ASD. Due to predictions like Arsenal’s gaining so much attention the CDC has issued a statement refuting that vaccines cause autism. There has been increased number of cases of ASD in the last 40 years however this has mostly
Vaccines against diphtheria, polio, pertussis, measles, mumps and rubella, and more recent additions of hepatitis B and chicken pox, have given humans powerful immune guards to ward off unwelcome sickness. And thanks to state laws that require vaccinations for kids enrolling in kindergarten, the U.S. presently enjoys the highest immunization rate ever at 77%. Yet bubbling beneath these national numbers is the question about vaccine safety. Driven by claims that vaccinations can be associated with autism, increasing number of parents are raising questions about whether vaccines are in fact harmful to children, instead of helpful (Park, 2008).
Recently the number of parents who are intentionally delaying their children’s general vaccinations is increasing. The controversy that is causing the number of delayed vaccinations to go up is based on the fact that there are negative articles connecting them to autism and other similar diseases. When parents are researching vaccinations and they read those negative articles, those articles make them believe that vaccines cause autism. Vaccines are important because they protect humans from preventable diseases and getting them could save human lives. Vaccines are important throughout life no matter what some research suggests. Parents are now more likely to intentionally delay vaccines because of negative press, even though vaccines