The last several weeks with the measles “epidemic” in the news there has been increased social pressures on those parents who have chosen not to immunize their children. This social pressure has even come to bear on presidential candidate and medical doctor Rand Paul who at the top of the week said that he had heard about “many tragic cases” of children who got vaccines and ended up with “profound mental disorders,” only to do an about face later in the week as he posed for the cameras while receiving his flu vaccine.
We need to step back from the media hysteria over the so called measles epidemic which has affected less than 300 children and consider the more significant epidemic of autism spectrum disorder that has mentally crippled over 1,000,000 children. Despite what the science and medical community says about there being no correlation between vaccine and autism my day-to-day experience with parents of autistic children points to an undeniable direct correlation.
I am not against vaccinations if done in a rational and safe way. And I support parents who refuse to cave to the social and medical pressures to vaccinate their children. People ultimately do have the power to bring about change for the better.
Terry Pfau DO, HMD