A Matter of Truth

February 3, 2010  |   Posted in Blog, Chronic Illness   |   0 Comments   Tags: autism, vaccination, vaccine, vaccine safety

As an Infectious Diseases consultant for two and a half decades I prescribed antibiotics to people with life threatening infections.

I acknowledged that each time I gave an antibiotic there was a risk that rather than make someone better, that the antibiotic might cause a side effect. I made a habit of informing patients and family members that the antibiotic could cause an allergic reaction, or an upset stomach, or diarrhea, or a rash, or difficulty sleeping, or make them fat. Some side effects might mean they needed to stop the drugs. Other side effects would go away with time even if you continued the drug.

If bad side effects occurred then there would usually be alternatives to prescribe. But at that moment in time, it seemed better for them to take the antibiotic rather than to allow the infection to continue.

Some antibiotics are so toxic that I wouldn’t start them until I was close
to absolute certainty that they had the disease the antibiotics were designed to treat. Once I was convinced…by biopsy or culture…that the disease was present I would hold my breath and give the antibiotics…while maintaining vigilance for problems.

I’m recounting these experiences to tell you it is NORMAL and EXPECTED for doctors to tell people of potential problems with medicines. Side effects happen. Side effects can be measured and quantified. But with experience, doctors come to know what side effects will happen with each antibiotic or drug.

We know penicillins can cause a rash. They don’t affect sleep.

Sustiva (an HIV treatment) can cause a rash AND can cause wicked dreams.

So if vaccines caused autism, why would I not tell people? I don’t have stock in vaccine companies. I don’t get paid to give vaccines that aren’t safe. It’s always easier to tell the truth…you don’t have to remember what you said each time because the next time you’ll say the same thing.

It comes as no surprise therefore to read yesterday that the centerpiece in the “vaccine causes autism” argument has been retracted both on scientific and ethical grounds. If a scientist is so convinced in the outcome of the study that they are willing to stack the deck and experiment on children without ethical review panel permission, then one should question their conclusions. Twelve years after the event, the editors of the journal are playing the disappointed parent and saying to their miscreant son, “You are dead to me”.

Of course that plays well in the mafia movies, rarely happens in scientific literature, and doesn’t really help the arguments too much. They are twelve years after the publication…twelve years of misdirection to many.

The medical and scientific communities have found no evidence that autism is due to vaccines. There is mounting evidence that autism has a genetic base.

So by blaming the wrong culprit and avoiding vaccinations, one risks allowing children to get sick with a vaccine preventable illness. AND we waste time going down a wrong path, when focusing on the actual cause of autism is overlooked.