General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSome interesting facts on vaccinations from the Amish Community
Was over in Amish country this morning checking on a cabinet and had a long talk with Faye (owner of the store) Here is what she told me about vaccinations. Only about 40% of the Amish kids go to private schools, the rest go to public schools. All of the Amish kids in public schools get vaccinated, period! Of the 40% who attend private schools, about 60 percent are vaccinated. The non vaccinated kids' parents say this is based on religious grounds. However, most Amish communities have a doctor that treats the communities periodically. If said doctor, declares an outbreak of any kind, the parents of non vaccinated kids will comply with the doctor's request to have the kids in that community vaccinated if they are not already. Since 2000, there are have been only 3 cases reported of Amish children who are autistic. So, logically, autism CAN NOT be caused by vaccines because most Amish children are vaccinated and their autism rate is practically zero!. So, if anyone tries to tell you that Amish children don't vaccinate out of idiotic fear of the vaccine, it is not true. Religious grounds, yes, fear no! What this should tell us is that autism is most likely caused by something we are doing that the Amish are not. I wish I had a link for this information but this is straight from the horses mouth, so to speak
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Comparing larger populations who have low rates of autism and what they do or do not share in common with groups with higher rates. There was a good study someone posted that compared rates in half a million vaccinated and unvaccinated kids, but they all belonged to the same larger population, so the only real conclusion they could draw was that because there was no difference in rates, there wasn't a link between autism and vaccinations. They didn't have the data to start looking for further differences in things like environmental exposures between those who wound up with autism and those who didn't.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Everyone, back to hooks and eyes!
Sid
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)what people eat and their environment while they are pregnant that may cause autism.
No link, it didn't happen.
riverwalker
(8,694 posts)I think my genealogy research has formed my opinion on vaccines even more than my training as nurse.
Hunting down graveyards and death records of ancestors, where so many children died of Diphtheria and Scarlett Fever, brings it really close to home. I would follow a family of 6 through census records, and suddenly it becomes a family of 3. As I search deeper, I find they lost 3 children a week apart from these diseases. I can't tell you how many times I have found this in my family tree alone. Graveyards often reveal the same story, children dying one week or days apart in some horrid epidemic.
We have forgotten what that must have been like, to hear a cough or find a rash would send terror through a mothers heart.
Historic NY
(37,453 posts)Where are the autistic Amish? Here in Lancaster County, heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, there should be well over 100 with some form of the disorder.
I have come here to find them, but so far my mission has failed, and the very few I have identified raise some very interesting questions about some widely held views on autism.
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/olmsted.html
Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)Docs have determined that autism happens in utero, while the brain is developing. There are several forms that have been identified, some with genetic predisposition (in the Amish community that might be less of an issue if there haven't been a lot of carriers), and some due to mom's chemical exposure (which is likely a HUGE benefit to living in an Amish community), particularly to certain solvents and heavy metals.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25199954
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3700406?sid=21105784265473&uid=4&uid=3739256&uid=3739920&uid=2