Say it loud, say it quietly, say it constantly, say it with passion, say it with anecdotes, say it whatever way you like you can even say it till you’re blue in the face. I don’t care how many times you try to say it, it’s wrong, it’s so impossibly wrong that it just isn’t funny.
Vaccines don’t cause autism. They don’t period.
Don’t give me your autism wars links. Don’t give me your natural news dot-com links. Don’t give me your vac truth links either.
Don’t bother quoting Tenpenny, or McCarthy, or Kennedy or Trump.
Vaccines don’t cause autism. They don’t Period.
I don’t want to hear about your rubbish tweets either Jim Carey. You are a funny guy, I have loved very hard at many of your movies but face it, you’re an actor not a scientist, not a doctor, not a researcher. Stick to the acting and leave the science to those qualified to do it.
Vaccines don’t cause autism. You can say it till you’re blue in the face it won’t change the fact that they don’t period.
The constant paranoid rubbish that comes out of the anti-vaccination movement would be almost funny if it actually wasn’t so serious. But it is serious. It really is serious. My creative partner here at NLTE has written from a health professionals perspective What we should really be afraid of and No shots, no school. Tricia places it in a context squarely of where it should be, the health and wellbeing of the wider community.
There is so much rhetoric about choice and personal freedom. But let’s face it that is such a misnomer that it is laughable. Saying you don’t have to follow the law and regulations of the country is like saying you have the free choice to murder, not pay taxes, not pay your car registration etc. I guess in a sense you do have the free choice but choosing not to follow those laws will result in consequences.
So where it is regulated that you vaccinate then there will be consequences for not doing so. It could be loss of access to health services, it could loss of access to education services for example.
But..
This is an issue that just won’t go away.
Millions of children have been researched to prove there is no link between autism and vaccines. Systematic review of all the research has been done. Hundreds of studies across the globe have shown that there is no link, that vaccines don’t cause autism, yet still it goes on.
But…
They continue to appeal to crazy websites that are known purveyors of fiction and lies. They appeal to the research of Andrew Wakefield. For some info about him you can see this post.
But…
They call you a shill, a sheep, a communist.
But…
They appeal to anecdotal stories of children, they know, that apparently regressed at the exact moment they had their vaccine.
But..
This is serious. Vaccines don’t cause autism, they don’t trigger autism, there is no link to autism. Shout it till you’re blue in the face it doesn’t matter it isn’t true.
But…
The most serious thing in all this is the demonization of neurological difference. These conspiracy theorists, wearers of tinfoil hats, declare epidemic, holocaust, and catastrophe.
So…
In the mind of these proponents of fiction living as someone with neurological difference is far worse than dying of a preventable disease, or even surviving a preventable disease and spending life on crutches, in an iron lung, or with lifelong reduced quality of life.
These people would have us believe that being autistic is a fate worse than death.
And worse…
Enter the likes of the snake oil sellers, the purveyors of false hope. In they come, to sell the latest so-called miracle cure.
They call autistics locked up, lost, and incapable of a quality of life.
None of it of course is true in any way. None of it.
The talk of epidemic is false – The numbers of autistic people is steady the rise in diagnosis is due to increased understanding and improved diagnostic methods.
The talk of holocaust is offensive – There is no comparison between the genocide of people and living as a neurodivegent person.
The talk of cure and cause is imbicilic – There is nothing to cure and the cause is largely irrelevant. Autistic people are not disordered or diseased they are different, the cause of what makes us that way is of no consequence and a diversion of funds away from the support services that can assist in living in a largely non autistic world.
The Consequence…
The spreading of these lies and conspiracy theories, the demonizing of autism as a fate worse than death, all adds to the negative narrative that pervades the media in presenting autism as a bad thing. It opens the door for the sellers of quack and abusive therapies, it creates a sense of devastation in the parents of autistic children as having to endure and fight against this apparently terrible worse than death condition.
It’s all of this that places autistic people in the dangerous situation they are in. Yes dangerous is not an overstatement. When there are treatments like MMS, GcMaf, Chelation and others perpetrated on autistics and no legislation to protect them. When therapies like ABA and Electro-shock therapy is allowed to be perpetrated against autistic people. Then yes it is a dangerous situation.
When we autistics can be subjected to torture and abuse and it be labelled as therapy and treatment then yes, we are in a dangerous place.
We must silence these lies and conspiracy theories.
We simply must. It’s a matter of safety and security for autistic people.
Because autistic people are human persons just like non autistic persons, and as such have the same human rights as those non autistic people.
We must change the dialogue, the narrative, away from disorder and disease and towards difference and diversity.
Yes, anti-vaxer you can say it, you can scream it, however you like, until you are blue in the face. I simply won’t hear you. I will challenge you at every turn. I will call out your rubbish and lies and present the truth.
The truth of course is that vaccines, none of them, cause autism, trigger autism or are linked to autism.
Vaccines have nothing to do with autism. It’s just that simple.
