U.S. Federal Court Denies Vaccine/Autism Claim

In a blow to those who still believe that childhood vaccines cause autism, the United States Court of Federal Claims has ruled against claims from three families that childhood vaccines that contained mercury-based preservative thimerosal contributed to autism that affects their children.

The thing is, even the researchers who did the flawed research have recanted, saying that they had made a mistake in their judgment that the vaccines contributed to the development of autism. And yet, the idea still persists.

Learning your child has autism is devastating. We don't want our children to have disabilities, to not be "perfect." Autism is a long road and the more severely your child is affected, the hard a road it is to navigate. And, it is normal, natural, to want someone or something to blame - but we need to find the right thing to blame.

The argument is that people have seeming normal children until they have their first vaccine injections. Within days, some say, their child becomes different as autistic symptoms begin to develop. But what doesn't come across is that autism has been around for generations. It was just often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all, in children with mild cases. And, the argument that we have more autism now could be explained with we have better understanding and diagnosis of the condition, and are therefore recognizing and diagnosing it more often. As well, the symptoms of autism often show up just at the same age/time that the vaccines fall so it isn't unnatural to want to blame the vaccines.

This post isn't going to change anyone's mind. Many who read it will nod their head in agreement, some will be outraged at my thoughts, and others won't really care either way or don't know what to think. All I do know is that we don't want to see our children struggle or suffer and most of us will do anything we can to keep that from happening. Too bad we can't always prevent the bad things from happening. As a mother, I do know that.