I need to make better use of the ‘unfollow’ option on Facebook.
Lately, a surprising number of people I know have been sharing their firmly “anti-vax” position, and seeing their posts pop up on my timeline is making me question my own judgment. Not only am I “friends” with people who are unnecessarily exposing their children to potentially fatal diseases and contributing to the spread of these infections, but it also seems like the main reason for their uneducated stance against vaccinations is that they “may cause autism.”
First of all, that’s not true. Any connection linking autism to vaccines has long been disproven, but for some reason, people keep clinging to this out-dated and untrue “information,” claiming it to be factual. I’d blame Jenny McCarthy, but I fail to see why anyone would ever trust anything she said on the topic, anyway. Does she have a degree in epidemiology, or something?
But people swear it’s true. I even saw one post from a friend of a friend who said she watched her child “turn autistic” just days after vaccinating him. I guess that’s what happens when kids catch autism, though. Normal children become monsters basically overnight.
Maybe I’m wrong, but even if this were even possible, wouldn’t it still be better to have an autistic child (who is still alive) than a child needlessly dying of measles or smallpox, or some other preventable disease?
There’s a lot of misconception about autism. People seem to think it’s some kind of debilitating disease that leaves victims completely incapable of any coherent mental processes, but it’s not. It’s just a neurological disorder, and throughout history, autistic people have made huge contributions to society.
Tons of artists, musicians, scientists, writers, and actors have confirmed autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and even more are suspected to be on the spectrum – including: Albert Einstein, Mozart, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson, Andy Warhol, Michaelangelo, and Hans Christian Anderson.
These revolutionaries made a dramatic impact in their respective fields because they think in a different way than most other humans – which is both the benefit and the downside to having a brain disorder. Thanks to this unique brain function, those with autism are capable of creating, inventing, and discovering things that neurotypical people would never think of.
In fact, if there ever were a cure for this “disease,” society as a whole would face losing some of our most creative, innovative thinkers. However, I suspect that if given the choice, the majority of individuals on the spectrum would prefer to remain autistic.
But… if it’s not vaccines, how do you explain the rising rates of autism in children? According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC), the prevalence of autism in children rose from 1 in 166 in 2000 to 1 in 68 by 2010.
For years, autism was seen as a disorder that affected only little boys who were obsessed with trains. Asperger’s Syndrome wasn’t even recognized as a diagnosis until 1994, at which time the criteria for diagnosing ASDs was revised. This broadening of the diagnostic criteria in the 1990s led to many more autistic girls receiving a diagnosis, which may account for some of this increase in prevalence.
In fact, another overhaul to this criteria (including the elimination of Asperger’s as a separate diagnosis) in 2013 may cause rates to “decline” in the near future. This artificial reduction in prevalence will likely be attributed to parents choosing to skip safe immunizations just to keep their precious children autism-free.
Because, as we all know, living with autism is a fate worse than death.
