I just read this, and it is amazing. It is too long to paste here, but please read it in full. I just think that those who are anti-vaccinations should have the whole picture.

Read the comic here.

Wow, they actually retracted the paper. That's crazy! I've only heard of one other instance of that happening (oddly enough, to someone I know from uni...).

Hardcore anti-vaxers won't even care. But they should just know that the link between MMR and autism is non-existent. So if they use that as a reason, then they are misguided.

The sad thing is that pure, unadulterated science is so prone to corruption.

Why anyone would not want to protect their child is beyond me. I really don't get those people.

You know, several years ago, they banned the vaccine in Japan - and the result was actually an increase in autism rather than a decrease. But still people think the vaccines cause autism.

Trouble is, once two things have been linked in people's minds, the link will always be there and people will worry. It's like yerba mate tea - gosh, I love this kind of tea, but one day someone told me that it had been linked with oesophageal cancer. I thought 'eek!' and googled for info, and found that actually there was no evidence that yerba mate tea causes cancer, and that yes, in countries were it is drunk a great deal, there is more oesophgsgeal cancer, but then these people are also drinking it at scalding temperatures, and the burn damage is likely making them more susceptible. Now I am very logical, and this makes total sense to me - but still, whenever I drink a cup of yerba mate tea, I start feeling a sore oesophagus! I can never get rid of that link between yerba mate tea and oesophageal cancer in my mind!

Interestingly, exposure to extreme temperatures increases a cell's mutagenic capacity - i.e. the cell is more likely to develop mutations. That doesn't necessarily mean the cell WILL go on to become cancerous - just means that it's at a higher risk of becoming cancerous (but may not do so). This holds for a variety of cell types, not just oesophageal, but also the cells in your trachea (or windpipe) which would get exposed to extreme temperatures if you were to breathe in extremely hot air.

Ah, that is interesting. I was wondering exactly how boiling water could make someone susceptible to cancer. But it did seem more likely to me that a burn could cause problems than a type of tea!

Even if vaccines DID cause Autism (which I do NOT think they do) I'd rather have a child with Autism then a child who passed away because of something I could have prevented!

So true.

I have a friend who refused to get her child vaccinated for fear of him becoming autistic. Instead, he got something he wouldn't have gotten if he was vaccinated (I don't remember what specifically) and now he has brain damage. I just don't understand that. I want to do everything possible to protect my child!

That's pretty stupid. Sad, but stupid.

I think Teresa's right. The people who have been brain washed by this nonsense about there being a link between MMR and autism won't care about this. They'll continue to believe celebs like Jenny McCarthy who tell them there is some sort of conspiracy against this guy. Because they desperately want to reassure themselves that they've made the right decision by not vaccinating and putting their child at risk of measles. But they'll be wrong, and hopefully they don't pay the ultimate pricae when their child gets sick and dies from a preventable disease.

But seriously... a study based on TWELEVE children (and a flawed one at that). That's not evidence of anything, and anyone who thinks it is, and puts their child at risk because of such a study, is an idiot.

This makes me sad...

Cause I really liked Jim Carry...

I just read today that this guy has been struck off! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1280840/Andrew-Wakefield-Doctor-heart-MMR-vaccine-row-struck-off.html (I know it's the Daily Mail, sorry about that haha)

whats more worrying is the amount of aluminium they put in the other vaccinations. but it took a good bit of research for me to figure that out. they ought to do more comics like that... makes things easier to understand when you're brain is sleeping like mine lol.

I just took my daughter to the doc today for a checkup and we talked about the MMR vaccine. I was skeptical and he automatically thought it was because of the MMR-autism link. Wrong! I'm actually concerned about the aluminim content, as another person pointed out here. I think this whole autism scare has given concerned parents like me a bad name. We're not all brainwashed idiots. There are other side effects and risks that are worthy of speculation. (BTW, Abby's getting the vaccine when she's two. In the meantime, my ped assured me that measles, mumps, and rubella are very rare and that almost all cases are mild. She'll most likely be perfectly fine until she can receive the vaccine in one year.)

The thing is though, that measles has seen a resurgence in the UK because we don't have that herd immunity anymore. This puts children at risk who can't have the MMR for medical reasons (like being allergic to the contents).

I have had all my jabs, including my MMR booster when I was 18 and I am perfectly healthy! *touch wood*
How many of you guys have had all your vaccinations? And you all seem ok!

Ugh, don't take this the wrong way, but I really hate that justification. "I'm fine, you're fine...what's the big deal?" Try giving this excuse to a woman's whose child is injured, maimed, or even dead due to a vaccine reaction. It's kind of like invalidating the concerns of parents, and that doesn't help anything. Again, nothing personal against you - I hear it a lot. It just bothers me every time.

My daughter is getting the MMR vaccine later because she may have a medical condition, which I just learned this morning. It needs to be addressed before more toxins are introduced to her body.

Yeah I understand that, and that is fair enough delaying her jabs because of that.

But it's a risk people have to take. They have to weigh up the benefits and costs. Some people would rather risk their child dying than getting something like autism, which really is stupid.

She'll probably be just fine! Seeing as she's not even 2. My concern would be more for the school-age kids that don't get vaccinated. They pass EVERYTHING... we had a wicked stomach virus that hit our entire hallway... I would hate to see measles or some other preventable disease go through the school because of parents NOT being informed, and just refusing vaccinations due to HYPE!

A lot of people get information from unreliable sources, and don't do any research to find the facts. Because I am going into research, I have this pounded into my head "Correlations don't prove causation." Following that, we always hear about how murder rates increase in the summer, as does the sell of ice cream. Even though the numbers match, eating ice cream doesn't cause people to murder others.

The Vaccine and Autism debate is very similar to that. Someone in California noticed that the rates of children being vaccinated matched the numbers of children being diagnosed with autism. This got out without any actual research done, and soon the state of California was actually trying to change things based on an unproven hypothesis. In fact some of the guys who did the "research" connecting autism and vaccines aren't even credible. They are lawyers running a law firm that specializes in lawsuits regarding vaccines.

All the real scientific research on it has shown no link. It is because a lot of vaccines use a tiny bit of mercury, well that was an argument. Several countries removed removed all the mercury, and autism rates still went up.

For years, anyone who pays attention to science and not the media, they know there is no connection between autism and vaccines.

It drives me crazy because the media posts studies that only show correlations that would never stand in the science community. Just today on my phone I saw a story that linked 9/11 to causing an increase in miscarriages. The argument was that the stress from 9/11 caused stress in males, hurting sperm, and thus causing miscarriages. It's such a horrible argument and yet it gets published because of a correlation with no actual science behind it.

I should mention that I had to read about this for class. I actually have a pdf version of one of the articles I read on the subject, which I can send to anyone interested.

Oh I read that about miscarrying during 9/11. When I saw the headline, thought 'bullshit', and ignored it ;D

It is! Even if it was somehow true... it would be something else, not 9/11. Like stress from worrying about terrorism or wars. Even that is a stretch. That is why I laugh when the media presents studies. It seems most of the time none of it has true scientific evidence to support it. In fact, I posted the link to the 9/11 miscarriage thing on Facebook and my comment on it was "It reminds me of the argument of Autism and Vaccines." Which is why it was fun to see this thread.

I've had my MMR but I still got rubella, it's horrible, all your skin peels off like really bad sun burn and it peels for weeks, when I was at college five of my friends had the mumps, they were all up to date on their MMR as well, they looked funny with their fat swollen necks.