Unproven fears of an autism-vaccine link are leading parents to make risky decisions that could endanger the lives of their children, Caryn Sullivan writes in the St. Paul, MN, Pioneer Press. An excerpt:

The decision to ignore vaccine schedules has far-reaching and dangerous implications. By delaying or forgoing vaccines, parents must be prepared to live with the outcome if their unvaccinated child dies a painful, but preventable, death from meningitis or tetanus, or causes another to become seriously ill or die.

It is time to push past the fear to rationality. Certainly, financial hardship, stress, and exhaustion are autism’s unwelcome companions. However, what does it say about our society that trepidation about an autism diagnosis drives a decision to delay or forgo life-saving vaccinations, imperiling our children? To make that decision, one would have to believe that living with autism is a fate worse than death. I passionately disagree.

Sullivan is a writer and the mother of a son with autism spectrum disorder.

(Photo from carynsullivanscribe.com)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 11:23 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, autism, commentary, personal stories, public attitudes, vaccine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.