Vaccination & epidemic

[Happy Monkey]

Maybe mercury deprivation causes autism! Autism has been on the rise ever since parents stopped letting their kids play with mercury from broken thermometers, after all.

[classicman]

... and eating lead paint chips. Maybe thats it.

[Clodfobble]

One wonders why they would keep studying it, since they've already removed thimerosal from the standard (not including flu shots) childhood vaccination schedule.

[Undertoad]

One knows why.

[Clodfobble]

Yes, because most science is done based on political climate and pressures, rather than seeking new and objective knowledge. I'm glad we agree on that.

[Undertoad]

Aren't you not supposed to be here or something? I mean, I wouldn't want to be accused of calling you a liar when you flat out put words in my mouth.

[Clodfobble]

I'm sorry, UT. As has happened more than once, a different poster's (in this case, Happy Monkey's) flippant, mocking tone on this subject has gotten me irritated, and then you end up bearing the brunt of my sarcasm as the only one who actually responds to the topic (rather than wandering off to find a few more cutesy cartoons or videos on the subject, as it seems the others do.) I should not have directed post 680 at you.

[Undertoad]

Thanks. (You da woman, hang in there!)

[classicman]

Linking another thread as it has relevance.
Whooping cough

Some doctors relate this recent rise in cases to the parents who have shied away from vaccinating children due to fears, albeit unfounded, that there is a connection between vaccines and autism.

bold mine -

Are they still unfounded? I'm no longer sure. There are some who also think that there may be a link between lupus and vaccines or birth control. There just haven't been enough studies done.

[jinx]

Herd immunity?

City living helped humans evolve immunity to TB

"Population density seems to play an important role in shaping so many aspects of our species", said Prof Thomas. "It was a vital factor in our species maintaining the complex skills and culture that distinguish us from other primates. It drove many of the genetic differences we see today between different populations from around the world. And now, it seems, it also influenced how infectious diseases spread in the past and how we evolved to resist those diseases".

[Happy Monkey]

Evolution works, but letting everyone with TB die is a bit worse than even the worst of the side effects proposed by the anti-vaccination groups.

[Clodfobble]

But is it really, HM? 1 death in how many (I don't honestly know the rates for TB,) versus more than 1 in 100 significantly brain-damaged? I do agree there must be a tradeoff line somewhere, but I think most people are sorely underinformed about where that tradeoff line realistically lies. Autism is better than death, I've said that before, having watched a friend of mine lose her newborn baby. But how many autistic kids equal one death? Or any of the lesser consequences of disease? I've actually given this some thought, and to me, autism is worse than anything except being dead, blind, or quadriplegic. I would gladly trade deafness, for example, or the (painless) loss of a limb, if it meant my children could have their brains back.

Which would you rather be, Stephen Hawking, or Terry Schiavo?

[classicman]

I would gladly trade deafness, for example, or the (painless) loss of a limb, if it meant my children could have their brains back.

For a fully functioning brain? In a heartbeat.

Those who haven't experienced brain damage/disorders just cannot understand - literally can not.

[Clodfobble]

Initially posted in this thread just under a year ago, the connection between autism and the human retrovirus known as XMRV has been significantly strengthened by several new studies. 82% of the autistic children in one study tested positive for XMRV. In a normal population of healthy adults, approximately 3% test positive for the virus.

Another interesting fact related to XMRV: those who have it have been shown to have a defect in the RNase-L antiviral pathway.

One of the RNase L fragments has a structure that is almost identical to a protein involved in the removal of heavy metals and toxic chemicals from cells.

Long story short, in addition to severe immune dysfunction, those who have this virus are also likely to have problems removing heavy metals from their bodies.

And a repeat of the important quote from the post last year:

According to Dr. Judy Mikovitz, Whittemore Peterson Institute Director of Research, XMRV can lie dormant in people for years.

"If I might speculate a little bit," she said, "This might even explain why vaccines would lead to autism in some children, because these viruses live and divide and grow in lymphocytes -- the immune response cells, the B and the T cells. So when you give a vaccine, you send your B and T cells in your immune system into overdrive. That's its job. Well, if you are harboring one virus, and you replicate it a whole bunch, you've now broken the balance between the immune response and the virus. So you have had the underlying virus, and then amplified it with that vaccine, and then set off the disease, such that your immune system could no longer control other infections, and created an immune deficiency."

The good news is, several of the same drugs that keep HIV under control are also showing to be effective against XMRV. Not to defeat it, but to prevent further replication. It will still be years before true screening and therapeutic drug cocktails might be possible, but this is potentially what the medical community has been holding out for: a definitive test that can remove those children who test positive for the virus from the vaccination pool, while steadfastly reassuring everyone who does not have the virus that vaccinations are completely safe for them.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

The good news is, several of the same drugs that keep HIV under control are also showing to be effective against XMRV. Not to defeat it, but to prevent further replication. It will still be years before true screening and therapeutic drug cocktails might be possible, but this is potentially what the medical community has been holding out for: a definitive test that can remove those children who test positive for the virus from the vaccination pool, while steadfastly reassuring everyone who does not have the virus that vaccinations are completely safe for them.

That's really exciting stuff Clod.