Study: Early Childhood Vaccines Don't Damage Kids' Development

Reader Comments
Back to blog

Sandy of WV- of all these children with a very treatable asthma,allergies,etc. how many died of smallpox/measles/meningitis/whooping cough? Which one who you rather have YOUR children get? Not to mention that those same things in vaccines are also in such items like contact lens solution and LED screens...gonna give those up, too? I have more...lightbulbs, MAKEUP! Please tell me, Sandy, that you nor your children use these items...oh & the quantities in the items I just mentioned are in much much higher amounts than vaccines. Stop using everything, ok almost everything...including your car!...and I will never say another word about the harm being caused my child...deal?

Desiree Saunders of WY 1:49PM June 27, 2011

I thought it would be useful for people to see the authors'own version of the results of their study.
"Mortality was lower in the group vaccinated with any vaccine compared with those not vaccinated, the mortality ratio being 0.74 (95% confidence interval 0.53 to 1.03). After cluster, age, and other vaccines were adjusted for, BCG was associated with significantly lower mortality (0.55 (0.36 to 0.85)). However, recipients of one dose of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis or polio vaccines had higher mortality than children who had received none of these vaccines (1.84 (1.10 to 3.10) for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis). Recipients of measles vaccine had a mortality ratio of 0.48 (0.27 to 0.87). When deaths from measles were excluded from the analysis the mortality ratio was 0.51 (0.28 to 0.95). Estimates were unchanged by controls for background factors."

Pat 5:55AM August 31, 2010

Here is an extract from Neil Z Miller’s book “Vaccines, Autism and Childhood Disorders”.
“On November 21, 2002 Congressman Dan Burton wrote to President Bush urging him to host a White House conference “to galvanise a national effort to determine why autism has reached epidemic proportions.” Four days later, attorneys for the US government responded by asking a federal court to conceal important documents linking vaccines to autism.”

Michael Haymar 11:18AM July 22, 2010

15 minutes of research will render you speechless. Or 10 seconds of common sense will justify peoples concerns.
If you own a business that sells keyboards, it would make sense to also own a business that sells computers and computer accessories. Yes? Of course!
So, if I owned a cough medicine company in a town of extremely healthy people should I sell cigarettes too?

Concerned Father of TX 11:11PM June 07, 2010

Unfortunately, there are not very many studies in today’s literature that compare the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. However, the few do indicate that unvaccinated children suffer FAR less in today's "normal" diseases such as eczema, asthma, ADHD, etc., as vaccinated children. Within the existing studies one must also consider that parents, who do not vaccinate their children, often use alternative therapies such as homeopathy. British Cohort Study (McKeever et al.: Vaccination and Allergic Disease: A Birth Cohort Study“, June 2004, Vol 94, No. 6, American Journal of Public Health) There were a total of over 30,000 children with DPPT (diphtheria, polio, pertussis whom were vaccinated against whooping cough, tetanus), compared with non-vaccinated children, the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella were vaccinated), which were non-vaccinated. Results: Increased risk of allergy towards vaccination A child which has been vaccinated against DPPT averages per life year, a risk of 5.04% of allergic asthma. In contrast to a child which has not been vaccinated against DPPT only has a 0.36% risk of asthma.
Salzburger Study
Results: of 1004 unvaccinated children, had Asthma, 0% (8-12% in the normal population) A-topic dermatitis 1.2% (10-20% in the normal population) Allergies 3% (25% in the normal population) ADHD 0.79% (5-10%) in children
Longterm Study in Guinea-Bissau (1 Kristensen I, Aaby P, Jensen H.:“Routine vaccinations and child survival: follow up study in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa”, BMJ 2000; 321: 1435–41
The children of 15,000 mothers were observed from 1990 to 1996 for 5 years.
Result: the death rate in vaccinated children against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough is twice as high as the unvaccinated children (10.5% versus 4.7%).
New Zealand Survey (1992) (http://www.ias.org.nz)
The study involved 254 children. In which 133 children were vaccinated and 121 remained unvaccinated.
Result:
Symptom
vaccinated
unvaccinated
Asthma
20 (15%)
4 (3%)
Eczema or allergic rashes
43 (32%)
16 (13%)
Chronic otitis
26 (20%)
8 (7%)
Recurrent tonsillitis
11 (8%)
3 (2%)
Shortness of breath and sudden infant death syndrome
9 (7%)
2 (2%)
Hyperactivity
10 (8%)
1 (1%)
NVKP-Study
The NVKP is an independent company; it consists of therapists, phycians and parents. The study of NVKP was completed in the Netherlands, in the second half of 2004 whereby Statements of parents of 635 children where made.
Implementation of the questionnaire: parents group vaccine critical Salzburg - Petra Cortiel - Period: 1 March 2001 to 25 July 2006
Number of participating families: 701
Very good: 953 (= 94,9%!)
(= vital, energetic, interested, rarely light infections)
Complete info of non vaccinated compared to vaccinated can be referenced at
www.impfschaden.info/en/vaccinations-in-general/vaccinatedunvaccinated.html

Sandy of WV 12:18PM May 26, 2010

Sarah, one thing you need to realize about statistics is when they do tests for statistical significance, they test a null hypothesis against an alternative. In this case the null hypothesis is that there is no benefit to delaying vaccinations. The alternative would be that there is a benefit to delaying vaccinations. But your reasoning takes you to the conclusion that there is no harm in delaying vaccinations, which is not a statement that the study tested. There is a significant difference in those phrases.
Cindy, you have to realize that research costs money, and the more data points we have, the more money it is going to cost. This of course is going to be more expensive because you are using live patients. Think also of how long the study conducted was. 491 children may mean arbitrarily small to you, but researchers try to get as many people as possible, making sure that the sample size is a statistically significant one. You would have to learn more about the details about the study to simply conclude that 491 is a small sample size. There is nothing fishy about having 491 cases not to mention there are mathematical ways in which to minimize distortions due to having a finite number of samples.
GOre of DE, I go to Einstein's famous quote: "If it we knew what we were doing, then it wouldn't be called research would it?" In your case, it seems that you have already made a stance on the issue, and so further research would not yield anything useful to you. Rather you are guilty of confirmation bias. Look it up.
Matt, although Autism wasn't specifically "tested" in this study, they did test things like "speech, language, achievement, fine motor skills, attention, and general intellectual function seven-to-10-years later." This may not specifically address autism but these characteristics certainly address autism. What you are arguing would be like saying, "Well they didn't specifically test alzheimer's disease" on a study that highlighted things like memory loss and mood swings.

Molesniper666 of TX 4:30PM May 25, 2010

I have a son who is 7 years old and has learning/sensory/auditory processing issues. He was a very normal developing little boy until he received the MMR vaccine. Now, I am not saying it causes the problems, but I think it could trigger issues when a person is predisposed (in DNA) for it to happen, or even could cause it to be worse. I think some children's immune system cannot handle some shots. We had my son tested at age 5, and the doctor said from the tests, it looked like he had the MMR shot only a few days ago, not 3 1/2 years ago. His body is not able to get rid of the shot. We have seen relapses of behavior when he has received other shots (polio). I just wish there was a way for the doctors to test a childs immune system before giving these shots. A one fits all schedule doesn't make sense. Everyone is different. If I could go back in time, I would NOT get the MMR shot until my son was older.

CJ of NC 1:30PM May 25, 2010

The rumor that vaccines cause autism is a sad case of superstition trumping the hard facts. No *properly conducted* study has ever shown a link between vaccines and autism, but many well-educated, intelligent American parents seem to cling to this belief. In some ways, the situation reminds me of the tremendous difficulty in preventing HIV/AIDS transmission in many African countries, where rumors such as “having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS” have been widely believed in spite of efforts on the part of public health workers to contradict these rumors.
Why do people believe the superstitions of their friends and neighbors over the findings of doctors and scientists who have devoted their lives to the study of human health and development? I suppose people are suspicious of research methods that they do not understand, and are convinced by conspiracy theories about the biases or evil intentions of medical researchers. It is unfortunate, though, because delaying or denying recommended vaccines endangers the health of the child with no benefit at all in terms of cognitive or behavioral development.
I speak as a person with no connection to medicine, but I have training in the research methods used in these studies, which are similar to those used in my field of early childhood education research.

Laura of PA 12:16PM May 25, 2010

I appreciate that research is being done to try to ease parental concerns regarding the number of vaccines given to young children. The fact is that children are most susceptible to these vaccine preventable diseases when they are young, which is why the recommended schedule exists. If studies show that there is no benefit to delaying the vaccines, than why put chidren at risk?
For more information on the risks of missing or delaying vaccines, check out the helpful videos at http://www.vaccinateyourbaby.org/ and join me in our online vaccine conversation at http://shotofprevention.com/.

Christine of VA 10:38AM May 25, 2010

Miss Diane you need to read the article again. Study was on children born between 1993 & 1997.
I'm the mother of an autistic child born in 1995.
I don't believe for one minute vaccines cause autism. If you as a parent decide not to vaccinate your child that is your decision. A very dangerous one, in my opinion.
You not only leave your child wide open for a bout with a deadly disease but also expose other children & people who cannot tolerate vaccines or have compromised immune systems.

sle of IA 10:11AM May 25, 2010