Vaccines: Sick Monkeys and a new vaccine bill.

Sick Monkeys: Research Links Vaccine Load, Autism Symptoms

"The first research project to examine effects of the total vaccine load received by children in the 1990s has found autism-like signs and symptoms in infant monkeys vaccinated the same way. The study's principal investigator, Laura Hewitson from the University of Pittsburgh, reports developmental delays, behavior problems and brain changes in macaque monkeys that mimic "certain neurological abnormalities of autism."

The findings are being reported Friday and Saturday at a major international autism conference in London.

Although couched in scientific language, Hewitson's findings are explosive. They suggest, for the first time, that our closest animal cousins develop characteristics of autism when subjected to the same immunizations – such as the MMR shot -- and vaccine formulations – such as the mercury preservative thimerosal -- that American children received when autism diagnoses exploded in the 1990s."

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What do you make of this information?

In the mean time, while this new information is set to be presented in London, the USA is working on increasing the number of children who are vaccinated.

A new bill is being introduced to the Senate. It's called S. 2911: Infant Immunization Improvement Act of 2008.

It was introduced on April 24th.

Purpose of the bill includes:

• Low-income children are at risk for being under immunized. Moreover, a number of Americans do not receive immunizations due to a lack of knowledge about recommended child immunizations. This new bill authorizes key initiatives for addressing these issues.

• First, it authorizes additional funding for effective interventions recommended by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services and funds demonstration programs to increase immunization rates for Women, Infant and Children (WIC) recipients, which includes more than 45% of US infants. The Infant Immunization Improvement Act authorizes funding for effective interventions recommended by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services

• Also, it authorizes additional funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct immunization awareness campaigns and immunization education and outreach activities. The bill also provides funding to a conduct a public education campaign on the safety and efficacy of infant immunizations.

• Finally, the bill recognizes the need for integration of immunization information systems with electronic medical records, health information systems, and health information exchanges.

Info from here.

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Why is this bill important?

It's just...concerning. The decision to vaccinate your child is a personal decision that a parent should make after careful research and plenty of thought. Why does the government need to campaign for vaccines? Why do they have to spend 5,000,000 a year to fund propaganda for the national vaccine program they are developing? What kind of outreach activities is this going to include? Why don't they spend some of that money to actually research the vaccines they are using, rather than using our children for test subjects? How can they provide such one-sided information about vaccine efficacy and safety and then call it informed consent when you allow your child to be vaccinated? Everything doesn't add up.

The Infant Immunization Improvement Act authorizes funding for effective interventions recommended by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services

What does that mean? What are "effective interventions"? If the hospital could give my child the PKU test without my consent, will they soon be able to vaccinate her without my consent and call it an effective intervention?

The most angering part is the way they assume that low income parents and ignorant parents do not vaccinate their children. What if you do the research and choose not to vaccinate? In this "free" country, why isn't that a respectable option? I'm sure the immunization information systems with electronic records will make it that much easier for non-vaccinating families to continue to be harassed and bullied for their choices.