One girl's case begs the question: Did Vaccinations Cause Her Autism?

I don't know if you read this when it came out in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, but on the front page of the AJC on Thursday, March 6, 2008 was a story about a little nine-year old girl in Georgia named Hannah Poling. Her story is significant because she has autism, and now, for the first time ever, government officials are conceding that childhood vaccines contributed to the problem.

Follow this link to read the full article by Alison Young.

I find a couple of things interesting and noteworthy about this article.

First, these are not two parents who were uninformed. This little girl's father is a NEUROLOGIST!! He even co-authored an article about her case in the Journal of Child Neurology in 2006.

"...As parents, we have to make the decisions about what is safe and what isn't for our kids..."

In this day and age, if you want to go to public school, or have a child in daycare, you are pretty much forced to vaccinate your children. And the list of vaccines keeps growing and growing. This is the medical community's idea of health, wellness, and prevention of disease. And the government is blackmailing you into having to buy into this idea:

Get your child vaccinated, or you can't go to school.

Now, also in this article you will read that there is a federal vaccine injury fund. Read that sentence again. THERE IS A FEDERAL VACCINE INJURY FUND!!!

Here's what that says to me. Enough people have been hurt by vaccines that now there's a federal fund to compensate those people. In fact, here's a quote from the AJC article:

Congress created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in 1988 after widespread lawsuits against manufacturers and health-care providers stemming from reports of side-effects of a version of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine used in the 1980s.

With companies getting out of the vaccine business for liability reasons, Congress established the program and a trust fund to serve as a no-fault alternative for resolving certain vaccine injury claims.

The average injury compensation to an individual in vaccine court has been about $1 million. In fiscal year 2007, more than $91 million was awarded to people harmed by vaccines.

Okay, read that again. Companies who made the vaccines were getting sued because their vaccines were causing adverse reactions in those who received them. They were getting out of the vaccine business, because apparently it was BAD for business, and then the government came in and basically removed any of their liabilities. Uncle Sam said you have to get vaccines, and if you get hurt, you can't sue the makers of the vaccines.

Another point of interest in the case of Hannah Poling is that the government admits that vaccines contributed to the girl's onset of autism, but they have sealed the records and therefore refuse to elaborate further. Here's a case that for the very first time concedes a link between vaccines and autism, and they sealed the records. That essentially prevents any further questioning of this case or any meaningful dialogue between pro- and anti-vaccine groups that may lead to enlightenment.

While the government concedes in this case that five vaccines Hannah Poling received in 2001 may have significantly aggravated an underlying disorder that led to autism, they still emphatically deny any relationship between vaccines and autism.

"...I think it is wrong and unconstitutional for the government to mandate a vaccine program for kids..."

Personally, I think the science behind vaccines is sound. Essentially they work like this: introduce a weakened version of the microorganism into the body and allow your immune system to develop antibodies against it. In most cases, the tiny amount of microorganisms present in the vaccines is not abundant enough or virulent enough to cause sickness. The problem however, is what they put in the vaccines to preserve and weaken the microorganisms. Amongst other things, they put in aluminum, formaldehyde and phenol, and alcohols. Aluminum has been listed in connection with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Meanwhile, a variety of symptoms can manifest due to sensitivity to formaldehyde and phenol.

And finally, up until 2001, all vaccines here in the United States had as an ingredient thimerosol, a mercury containing compound. Yes, you read that right, mercury. Mercury is a known toxic substance that is harmful to humans, especially pregnant women, infants and children.

Dr. Boyd Haley, a Phd and chair of the chemistry department of the University of Kentucky, has been one of the loudest critics against thimerosol. Read some of his thoughts on mercury here.

Now, I don't care where you fall on the issues of vaccine safety or of vaccine necessity. But I will say this: I think it is wrong and unconstitutional for the government to mandate a vaccine program for kids. As parents, we have to make the decisions about what is safe and what isn't for our kids. Are vaccines really the best decisions we can make for our kids?

I'll leave the final word to Jon Poling, Hannah's father...

"The biggest question right now for the public is: How unique is Hannah's case?"

That is indeed a question worth asking.