Scientology and Vaccines

[RLSteve]

[Grundy]

I'm torn on the vaccine issue, myself. I feel there's not enough research into both their effects as a cocktail injection (having so many being injected at once) but also I think people forget that we do not understand autism almost at all.

Slightly offtopic, I would personally like to see more research done into the correlation between children who lack significant amounts of social interaction and development with parents/others (ie, growing up with the TV as a mommy) and autism. It likely won't explain the severe cases, but it would make some sense when you consider the surprising amount of high-functioning autistics and social blindness in society's youth.

(personally I believe we're better off without the debilitating diseases killing or crippling children, but that's just me.)

I've never heard of this. I was properly vaccined from what I know. There was something I missed because I didn't go to high school, but I got a bunch for fresh new coctails prior to my first trip to Asia.

Honestly the whole autism and vaccine connection is bullshit. You can go to jail for not vaccinating your kids in my home country and we have one of the lowest rates of autism in northern-Europe. Fang zheng, no connection. There was autism before vaccines were even invented and plenty of people who don't get vaccinated get autism. I honestly don't think there is a connection. All research that I've seen (read: bothered to look at) seems to suggest its just a genetic disorder you're born with.

imho i'm glad scn doesn't take a stance on vaccines. I'd personally be horrified to send my kids (if i ever have any) to school without a tetanus and hep jab.

I had to flip through my Skeptic magazine because I remembered an article on mercury and autism. Of course the whole issue is on Medical Controversies so I flipped past a "The Trouble with Psychiatry" article by John Sorboro (who mentions Tom Cruise in the first paragraph) to find this one.

The article "Mercury Rising" is by Matthew Normand and Jesse Dallery. Now I'm no doctor but from what I understood, Thimerosal in vaccines does not cause autism nor does cause mercury poisoning. Thimerosal, a preservative used in vaccines, breaks down into ethylmercury, but it's methylmercury that is toxic and causes all sorts of problems. Ethylmercury is "expelled rapidly from the body and it does not accumulate" (from the article). So not all mercury is bad.

Well I guess you probably already knew that. I'm pretty skeptical (ha orly) about this being the cause of autism. And it shouldn't be a reason to not vaccinate your kids.

But it made me think about being skeptical in general. I've looked into everything from ESP to numerology to ghosts to out of body experiences. In fact, I think one of my hobbies is trying to understand why people believe weird things like astrology or Scientology. When does someone accept information and when does someone reject it?

Before I was treating Scientology as something new, not in the same realm. It hit me today: these people are believing these things for the same reasons. It's the same decision making process. It's the same whether you see ghosts or you relive past lives.

So next time you think you can convince a Scientologist that their beliefs are bogus, imagine they're a Psychic who'll read your palm to tell you your future. It's the same thing. They believe it, no matter what the evidence.

I think. I, er, may have overstepped myself here. Anyway, thoughts?

[RLSteve]