Jenny,
First of all, I'm so sorry your child has a diagnosis of autism; it's a heart-breaker.
However, it is critical that you realize that immunizations save far more lives than any problems that they may or may not cause. And the autism link has been investigated ad infinitum and discovered not to exist.
Prior to immunizations, children died pretty frequently from diseases that we now have little reason to fear in the U.S. They died of measles, Jenny. They became disabled after having polio. It is before your time, but there was a time in the not-too-distant past when parents were afraid to send their children to swimming pools in the summer because polio could spread via swimming in the same pool. Crowds were avoided, because the more people, the greater the odds of contracting polio.
And did you know that at least 80% of the population has to be immunized for herd immunity (population-wide immunity) to occur? So if you talk enough people out of immunizing their children, not only will it endanger those children themselves but it will endanger others.
And the unimmunized child who gets a case of the illness can spread it to others, who may not share your philosophy.
Sometimes life delivers things that are sad and difficult, and we don't always know the reason. It may be that someday we find the reason(s) for autism, for breast cancer, for everything else that strikes people so cruelly. But even if we do, there will always be risk analyses that need to be done.
Immunizations are a very good thing. Ask anyone with polio or anyone whose child died of measles.
Jenny, it is wrong to preach what you're preaching. I know you mean well and you fervently believe you are saving others. But you're not. Some, if not all, of those parents who listen to you will discover the hard way that you are wrong.
In Africa and India, leaders spread a false rumor about the polio vaccine being a Western plot to spread, I believe, AIDS. People were afraid to get immunized and get their children immunized, so immunization rates fell dramatically. And that's how polio, which was close to being eradicated worldwide, made a new resurgence.
And did you know that, for every person exhibiting signs of polio, polio experts estimate that there are 200 other people who have the virus and who are contagious? That's why, when epidemiologists see even 2 or 3 people with polio, they know they have trouble on their hands.
So please, please, please, think about what you're doing before you cause the suffering and death of many children and perhaps a health crisis for many others.
I hope you think better of your crusade and recognize that it is possible to believe deeply in a cause and also be deeply mistaken.
Sincerely,
Marcy Manning (manningm@mindspring.com) | 
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