Now, don't get me wrong, I am sensitive to the claims that vaccines may have a causal relationship with autism--my best friend has twin autistic daughters, so I'm very familiar with the denouement of those affected. Here's a link to a study on mercury in vaccines and the related increase in neurodevelopmental disorders--to include autism and autism spectrum disorders--published in the Journal of the Neurological Sciences this year.
That said, if you're not willing to vaccinate your kids then your kids should be homeschooled and kept out of public schools. Unvaccinated kids are liable to contract a plethora of diseases that vaccinated children do not. They may also act as a vector to transmit those diseases to areas that currently do not normally encounter those diseases--like hospitals, malls, and movie theaters.
The best and most level-headed approach I have seen yet is the one promoted by Jenny McCarthy.
This link is to a transcript of Jenny McCarthy's (yep, THAT Jenny McCarthy) interview with Greta Van Susteren on her Fox show, "On The Record."
She has an autistic son who has made a complete recovery. Her focus now is on a more considered approach to childhood vaccinations. For example:
VAN SUSTEREN: So what is the most direct thing people can do to help now? What can help?
MCCARTHY: You can call your congressman.
VAN SUSTEREN: OK.
MCCARTHY: You can walk to your pediatrician's office and demand an alternative schedules.
VAN SUSTEREN: For the vaccinations.
MCCARTHY: For the vaccines because really my main goal right now is to stop the increase of autism and I really do believe by delaying the vaccine schedule, separating them, do not give eight shots at once. Hanna Polling (ph), that federal court case that was just conceded, her autism was triggered by vaccines due to a visit where her doctor gave eight shots at once.
Don't do more than one shot in a visit. Do you see what I'm saying? Not to not vaccinate. Space them out, ask for mercury-free. Make sure your child is not sick before you vaccinate. Your child does not have a good immune system. How is it supposed to detox the vaccine? Test your child for an immune system. Make sure they have really good glutothion. Glutothion is your body's naturally antioxidant to detox these things.
So you can go in and I want people to go in empowered, to take safety of their children back into their own hands, ask questions and demand things.
The story was occasioned by a Green Our Vaccines rally that Ms. McCarthy and her beau Jim Carrey (yep, THAT Jim Carrey) held in Washington D.C.
As for those that just don't like vaccines at all or object on religious grounds, well, go live in a commune somewhere where the rest of us don't have to accept the risk of your choices.
You'll probably die out from polio/diptheria/tetanus within a generation or two anyway.
