Vaccines
I know I am super late to the party on this issue, but I want to offer my perspective on this one. Being on the spectrum makes this a very important issue to me.
Lately, Vaccines have become a major issue in politics in case you were not aware. There are people claiming that Vaccines cause Autism (and other mental illnesses apparently) and they are using these claims as justifications to not get them for their children out of fear.
Besides the fact that all the claims to back up this science were labeled as false science and the man who is the cause of most of these ideas is in jail for malpractice, there are plenty who believe in his pseudoscience, and they are putting the world at risk.
I think it is relevant here to explain how viruses work so that you may be able to understand why there is now a measles outbreak when such a thing has not happened in many years. Vaccines are a weakened form of a virus that allow your body to fight it off and become immune to it. The problem is that Vaccines like the virus they are helping you fight off are required to be oddly specific. This is because Viruses rapidly evolve and change their makeup and sometimes even what the virus attacks.
To make it easy to understand, lets say Virus A attacks cell B in the body and is colored blue. The body becomes immune to Virus A due to encountering it. But one day, a new strain of Virus A appears that is the color red and now our body has no immunity to it. Effectively, as our bodies perceive it, this is a new sickness even though almost nothing has changed.
That is why it is so important to get Vaccines. They keep the most modern form of a virus in check, but only so long as no one manages to catch the virus without the vaccine, giving it time to mutate. Given enough time and the vaccine will no longer work for anyone because the virus will be a different one.
That is the issue with this anti-vaxxers. Their fear of Autism, which I will get to in a moment, is allowing the entire world to be put at risk from viruses like Measles that should have been permanently eradicated. If nothing else, these people are a special kind of selfish that they would harm the entire world over pseudoscience.
But now, to the other issue at hand. Why wold these people foolish put the world at risk in fear of Autism? It seems a foolish notion. After all Autism is a gift with many of the most prominent scientists and innovators of our time being on the spectrum . What possibly could be at work to hide this information from the public at the expense of the public. And really at their expense since people are dying because of ignorance.
Oh right, I know a group capable of such greed selfishness and disregard for human life for the sake of money. Autism Speaks
Yep that’s right, as if you needed a new reason to hate them, this wonderful “charity” group is to blame for the vaccine issues too. I will be using this as a perfect lead in to a future post where I really will go at it about Autism Speaks. But remember my friends when dealing with anti-vaxxers, it is best just to walk away for it is impossible to educate brainwashed fools.
Vaccines do not create Autism, but Autism creates Vaccines