Vaccination Debate

I definitely feel that there should be more research comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children. This is one that I've seen:
http://www.generationrescue.org/survey.html
http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/survey.pdf

What I find interesting is the chart showing the aggregated data of all the children in the study regarding ASD:

Diagnoses in unvaccinated children:
Aspergers's - 1%
PDD-NOS - 2%
Autism - 2%

Diagnoses in fully vaccinated children:
Aspergers's - 1%
PDD-NOS - 1%
Autism - 2%

There was also the aggregated data of all the boys in the study regarding ASD:

Diagnoses in unvaccinated boys:
Aspergers's - 2%
PDD-NOS - 1%
Autism - 2%

Diagnoses in fully vaccinated boys:
Aspergers's - 2%
PDD-NOS - 1%
Autism - 3%

Vaccination status didn't seem to make much difference in the incidence of ASDs when comparing fully vaccinated and fully unvaccinated children, yet the article spins the results otherwise. And even if you include partially vaccinated children with the fully vaccinated ones, you still see fairly similar results:

Diagnoses in unvaccinated children:
Aspergers's - 1%
PDD-NOS - 2%
Autism - 2%

Diagnoses in all fully or partially vaccinated children:
Aspergers's - 2%
PDD-NOS - 1%
Autism - 2%

So far I'm not seeing how, if vaccines CAUSE autistic spectrum disorders, we would see results like this. What's causing them in the unvaccinated children at such similar rates as the vaccinated children?

Good post.  I just lurk over here from time to time.  My kids all recieved their vac's.  I asked a lot of questions and did research especially this time with my son. 

My SIL does not have kids yet but works with severly disabled kids and asked me recently about vaccinations because she knows it is a hot topic in her work place with the parents etc.  My response was simply research for yourself, look at both sides of the situation, not just research that supports your suspicions...I did not find reliable research that made me believe that vaccinations were bad.  I understood the risks etc of both the diseases and the vaccinations.  We went ahead and got the shots.

I will probably link her to those studies as she is starting to wonder about vaccinations

From the data I read (in your link) what I actually denote is there is a statistically evident rise in ASD and AD(H)D, as well as asthma. What I did find interesting was the the stats related to Pdd-nos and Aspergers: no significant change.

Aspergers does tend to show a correlative link within families (ie: many aspies have a paternal relative that flirts with aspergers themselves-the fact it's only been in the DSMIV since 1994 may be a factor in this.)

Thus, does Aspergers and PDD-nos have a genetic connection? However, the data still shows a significantly enough increase of diagnoses in the other areas of ASD, Adhd and asthma I guess I am reading the stats differently than you are.

http://2ladsandalass.blogspot.com/

I do agree that there were significant differences in ADHD and asthma. That was definitely apparent, yes. I certainly don't think that vaccines are a totally benign thing. They can and do occasionally cause harm.

I just didn't see concrete evidence that vaccines are the smoking gun of autism, asperger's and PDD-NOS, which is what a lot of the hype surrounding vaccines often centers (in my experience). I want to know what causes these disorders as much as the next person, but studies like this make me think that we should be scrutinizing other possible sources as much as we do vaccines, because what I took from this study was basically this: 1 or 2 out of every 100 UNVACCINATED kids are ALSO being diagnosed with autism/aspergers. If further studies show the same thing, then I think it behooves us all to limit our criticisms and fears of vaccines to things they actually do cause, and to not use vaccines as a catch-all scapegoat for almost anything and everything that goes awry. We need to be careful that the feeding frenzy on vaccines doesn't distract us from other potential contributing factors. Know what I mean? (PS - I'm not saying that you do this, I'm just thinking out loud)

I just wanted to say that I also read them the same way you did, Dee. 

FWIW I am not at all convinced that all autism cases are caused by vaccination.  I do believe that some are or at least vaccination plays a role in the severity of the case. I believe that there is a genetic component to a lot of autism cases, underlying mitochondrial disorders, familial history of autism like behaviours, other environmental issues that are compounded by vaccination.  I think saying vaccination is the only culprit is misguided and myopic.  Same as the claim that vaccinations are absolutely not the cause.  I must reiterate a point I made in an earlier post, I really feel as though more research (independantly funded with no conflict of interest) is necessary looking into the connection between vaccination and autism.  This site explains why I feel that way: http://fourteenstudies.org/index.html