vaccinate thyself (and your kids.)

ok not related at all to life here...

but, while this is surely a blow to many families out there, i think that it was pretty responsible. go federal court! there's not much data out there to support the idea that the mercury-laced preservative found in MMR vaccines (for a shortish period of time) cause autism. the onset of the symptoms of autism coincide around vaccine time, but that may be the extent of the relationship: coincidence and correlation. the mercury-laced preservative has not been present in the vaccine for years now and an alarming amount of children are still being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.

i do believe, however, that we load up our babies with lots of vaccines, albeit all necessary. i know a lot of parents these days who are going for a delayed vaccination schedule in order to avoid pumping babies too early with too much. that makes sense. but please, these vaccines are necessary and were invented for a reason, and actually, they haven't ever come without hazards.

i look at increased incidences of so many other health issues, and wonder why this specific preservative has been blamed for autism spectrum disorders. in the name of convenience and ease we've done so much to our world, to our food supply and to ourselves-- surely that has had an effect on our bodies and our offspring. i often wonder if we've shot ourselves in the foot.

who knows, maybe in 20 years there will be sufficient data to support the vaccine preservative's role in causing autism, but in the meantime there are so many other issues to examine.