Guess Who Thinks Vaccines Are Connected to Mass Shootings?
Not surprisingly, they weren’t done…
A recent discussion on an anti-vaccine Facebook group asking if there was a connection between vaccines and mass shootings got nearly 1000 comments.
What’s the overall consensus of the group?
Of course they do!
“NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is deeply saddened by the tragic events that occurred over the weekend in Texas and Ohio. These mass shootings are far too common and impact every corner of our nation. Every time we experience a tragedy like this, people with mental illness are drawn into the conversation. The truth is that the vast majority of violence is not perpetrated by people with mental illness. Statements to the contrary only serve to perpetuate stigma and distract from the real issues.
NAMI sees gun violence as a national public health crisis that impacts everyone.”
NAMI Statement on Mass Shootings in Texas and Ohio
Even Larry Cook, the groups founder, has his own secret theory about how vaccines are associated with mass shootings. My guess is that his conspiracy theory involves nanobots…
Have you noticed that anti-vaccine folks like to elevate the status of anyone who says things that they agree with?
So a scientist or researcher who suggests that vaccines are dangerous is all of a sudden a leader in their field or the very best in the world.
In the real world, it doesn’t work like that…
You have to earn your reputation.
Who Is Romain Gherardi?
Well, I guess that works both ways.
Most of the researchers that anti-vaccine folks praise have indeed earned a reputation, just not the kind they would like.
So who is Romain Gherardi?
He is basically a French researcher who thinks that the aluminum in vaccines is bad and scares folks with his poorly done studies and his book, Toxic story: Two or three embarrassing truths about the vaccine adjuvants.
“Gherardi is a fierce advocate for the existence of a causal relationship between containing aluminum adjuvants and a clinical condition which he first called ‘Macrophagic Myofasciitis (MMF)'”
Gherardi : a media story (2 or 3 embarrassing truths about his research)
But what about Macrophagic Myofasciitis (MMF), isn’t that a real disease?
“There is no evidence to suggest that MMF is a specific illness.”
WHO on Questions and Answers about macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF)
Nope.
That’s not to say that some people do not get some inflammatory changes at vaccine injection sites that could be caused by the aluminum in a vaccine.
But these are local reactions. They are not part of a disease.
As far as his research, consider the critique of one of his recent papers that he co-authored with Christopher Shaw, Non-linear dose-response of aluminium hydroxide adjuvant particles: selective low dose neurotoxicity.
“The article states that it was supported by grants from CMSRI. What is not stated is that CMSRI (Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute) is funded by the vaccine-critical Dwoskin Family Foundation. It is also worth noting that three of the authors of this manuscript, Exley, Shaw and Gherardi, sit on the Scientific Advisory Board for CMSRI, with Shaw as the Chair and Gherardi as the Vice-Chair. Whilst it is unknown if any of these authors receive financial compensation for their role at CMSRI it is clear that these competing interests should have been disclosed.”
David Hawkes et al on Questions about methodological and ethical quality of a vaccine adjuvant critical paper
In addition to the funding issue, they found problems with the methods of the study and ethical problems.
Amazingly, the response to Hawkes’ letter had to be retracted by the journal!
It is not hard to find other criticism and complaints about his research either.
Paul Thomas misses the one thing his data is telling him…
So how do they explain all of the autistic kids who are unvaccinated?
If It’s Vaccines, Then Why Are There Autistic Kids Who Are Unvaccinated?
Of course, anti-vaccine folks have a ready answer – it’s vaccines, but it’s not just vaccines.
I guess that’s how they explain the fact that there are so many autistic adults too! Well, actually no. Most anti-vaccine folks are surprised when you point out that there are so many autistic adults, as it doesn’t fit in with their idea that autism is new and caused by kids getting more vaccines than they used to.
Well, I guess mostly caused by giving so many more vaccines than we used to – there are also the autistic kids who were never vaccinated.
How do they explain those kids having autism?
Like their competing theories about how vaccines are associated with autism (it’s the MMR vaccine, no it’s thimerosal, no it’s glyphosate contaminating vaccines, etc.), they have a lot of ideas about how everything else causes autism. From fluoride and chlorine to acetaminophen and aluminum-lined containers, plus mercury, arsenic, aspartame, MSG, and the vaccines your child’s great-grandmother received – they think that just about anything and everything can cause autism. Or at least anything that they think they can sell you a treatment for, such as their supplements, special diet plans, or other “cures.”
Makes you wonder why they still focus on vaccines…
But they do, even as more studies have shown that vaccines are not associated with autism. And since vaccines don’t cause autism, it shouldn’t be surprising that there are unvaccinated children with autism. The only reason there aren’t more is that most parents vaccinate their children, so, of course, most autistic children are going to be vaccinated.
Another reason is that some parents stop vaccinating their kids once they have an autistic child. But since vaccines aren’t associated with autism, which is highly genetic and inheritable, younger unvaccinated siblings born after older siblings were diagnosed often still develop autism.
Now if vaccines didn’t cause autism in these unvaccinated kids, why would anyone still think that they caused autism in their older siblings?
“I must admit that it was through conversations with a coworker that I began to suspect something might be wrong with my youngest son. It concerned me so much that I started looking for information online. I read some of the stories and they sounded similar to what I was experiencing with my son – with the symptoms, the regression and the age at which it all started to become apparent.”
Lara’s Story: Growing Up Anti-Vaccine
Unlike some other stories you might read online, Lara’s story is about her unvaccinated autistic child.
She isn’t alone. You only have to look at personal stories and posts in parenting forums to see that there are many cases of autism among unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children:
“It is highly likely my 4-year-old son is autistic. And he is completely 100 percent vaccine-free. And I am just at a total loss.”
“I have unvaxxed kids on the spectrum, and my friend does as well.”
“A good friend’s son is autistic. He is totally non-vaxxed.”
“I seriously delayed vaccinating my son, so had very few vaxxes at the time he was diagnosed”
“We have autism in our unvaxxed children”
“I know two little boys who are both autistic, completely non-vaxxed”
“I have two unvaccinated children who are on the autism spectrum and have never vaccinated any of my children.”
“I am not sure what caused my son’s autism, but autistic he is. He is completely unvaxxed as we stopped vaxxing 10 years ago.”
“I have a 10 year old daughter with autism spectrum disorder… My daughter has never had a vaccine, a decision I made shortly after she was born, after much research.”
Unfortunately, while realizing that unvaccinated children can develop autism does help some parents move away from anti-vaccine myths and conspiracy theories, others get pushed deeper into the idea that it is just about toxins. It is not uncommon for some of these parents to blame vaccines they got while pregnant or even before they became pregnant, Rhogam shots, or mercury fillings in their teeth, etc.
Fortunately, most don’t though.
Take Juniper Russo, for example.
She “was afraid of autism, of chemicals, of pharmaceutical companies, of pills, of needles” when she had her baby. She just knew that vaccines caused autism when she first visited her pediatrician after her baby was born and knew all of the anti-vaccine talking points. She also later began to realize that her completely unvaccinated daughter had significant developmental delays. Instead of continuing to believe that vaccines cause autism, Ms. Russo understood that she “could no longer deny three things: she was developmentally different, she needed to be vaccinated, and vaccines had nothing to do with her differences.”
And she understands that her autistic child isn’t damaged, as hard as folks in the anti-vaccine movement still try to push the idea that she is.
