Living with Autism: A Parent's Perspective

Apparently in the states there exists an interesting myth that celebrity parents and bloggers denouncing vaccinations are hurting the vaccination rates amongst the wealthier parents.

This myth is even being spread as fact by the NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) and TIME magazine.

What really makes me laugh about all this is the target audience suggested by these groups. They are suggesting that while wealthier individuals are decreasing the vaccination rates amongst their children those in the poorer groups are actually increasing their vaccination rates.

Now what amuses me is this when celebrity gossip magazines create articles they specifically (and successfully)target a group of individuals that are likely to be highly susceptible to celebrity influence. That target group is not the wealthiest individuals but instead the poorer, less educated masses.

For the NCQA and TIME to suggest that vaccination rates amongst wealthier individuals is declining simply because of celebrity parents and celebrity bloggers is missing the message that these lower vaccination rates are sending.

Those in the wealthier groups across both Canada and the US are largely likely to be far higher educated then those amongst the poorer groups and so unsubstantiated theories are far less likely to be quickly swallowed up by the wealthier groups then they would by the poorer groups. The simple fact that vaccination rates are decreasing amongst the wealthier groups is indicative of the fact that perhaps some of these parents are looking a lot closer at the relationships between the various vaccinations and autism as well as perhaps looking at the success rate of vaccinations (lower then what the health departments would like people to believe)

The likely reason why the vaccination rate is so high amongst those in the poorer groups is that those who are poorer and usually less educated are far more susceptible to the bullying nature of the health departments and pharmaceutical giants who are swearing blind it is all perfectly safe and extremely effective and that you are a horrible parent if you don’t vaccinate. This type of approach works far less effectively on wealthier parents as the threat of child services being brought in if you don’t vaccinate and other strong arm tactics are far less successful due to the abilities of these families to hire successful lawyers to deal with this type of abuse.

I would go as far as to suggest that the likely reason why wealthier parents are reducing the vaccination rates are two-fold. One they are realizing that coincidence does not happen at the rate of 1% and two that the success rate of vaccinations are lower then what they are being told and they are starting to question why they should be spending their money on something that they are starting to consider less effective then promised and with more risk then suggested.

While I personally vaccinate on most major illnesses, I am way less likely to waste my time vaccinate on things that are not that effective and frivolous to the extreme (flu shots and the like)

I do understand the elderly and those in serious at risk categories getting these shots but for those of normally healthy lifestyles I believe it is both a waste of time and extremely ineffective.