As reported in The Huffington Post in the article “Top US Panel: Some Vaccine-Autism Research is “Appropriate,” “Worthwhile” and “Warranted” by David Kirby:
“On Tuesday, the Federal Government’s leading immunization advisory panel unanimously approved a sweeping list of vaccine safety research recommendations for the US Department of Health and Human Services, including several that are directly or indirectly linked to the vaccine-autism debate. The endorsement, from the highly influential National Vaccine Advisory Committee, will surely intensify the argument.”
In my humble opinion this is a big step forward and way overdue. The proposed study is to be an observational one, looking at the outcomes of children who were vaccinated according to the recommended immunization schedule, children who were not vaccinated and children who were alternatively vaccinated. And their reason for not looking at this sooner… for fear that a study of this kind may be unethical!
“How and whether to conduct such studies — which would be costly, complicated and subject to ethical questions — is a hot-button question in itself. For example, prospective clinical trials, where children would be randomized into vaccinated and placebo groups, would be patently unethical, and therefore impossible.
But public participants in the NVAC process suggested an alternative plan: An “observational study” to look at “natural variation in vaccination schedules, including some children where vaccination is declined through parental intent,” the NVAC wrote. In other words, if parents decided not to vaccinate their kids on time, or at all — even after they had been strongly urged to do so — then it would not be unethical to enroll their children in an observational study of health outcomes.”
PUHHLEEZ…I find it unethical that our children are getting sicker and no one “official” is willing to listen, until now. I think the bottom line is and always will be cost and liability, not ethics.
I commend the hard work of a passionate community who’s endless questioning is finally seeing results:
“Without influence from autism and vaccine safety groups, it is unlikely that the august NVAC (see roster of NVAC members, including experts from CDC, HHS, academia and the pharmaceutical industry) would have unanimously endorsed first-step measures to study and compare vaccinated, unvaccinated, and “alternatively vaccinated” groups of children for a number of immunological and neurological disorders — including autism.”
Keep fighting for what you know is right for your child!!
I also encourage you to read Dr. Sears’ take on these recent events in his article, “Government and CDC Finally Agree to do Extensive Research into Vaccine Safety . . . Maybe“. He provides a great perspective on the issue.
It seems to me that the link between autism and vaccines has not been established. An issue that certainly is a problem is that our vaccine adverse event reporting system is flawed. This may be stopping us from hearing about the bad side effects.