Green Mom: Don't Believe Everything You Read- Part 1

Disclaimer: The following three entries reference some controversial topics. I am not trying to take sides one way or the other. I firmly believe that every parent needs to choose what is best for his/her family no matter what the media says. My child does not have autism, nor am I a medical professional.

I’ve recently read a few articles that have really opened my eyes to the way public health scares begin and how information is delivered. Because they are topics that are top of mind for me (BPA, Autism, Breastfeeding) I’ve really taken note.

Part 1: Autism and Vaccines
The first article I read was a Newsweek article on the link between autism and vaccines. It outlined how this theory got started and how it spread from there. Basically, one doctor was doing research on something else, and saw a minor link between the MMR vaccine and children having autism and announced it. It ran in a well-respected medical journal and spread like wildfire. It was later revealed that this study was highly flawed and only done on a test group of 12 children. However, it managed to cause worldwide panic and gave birth to the theory that we need to “green our vaccines.” Because of well-known spokespeople like Jenny McCarthy, this theory gets more air time than the more medically proven ones. Think about it — as a parent, are you going to relate more to another mother that is desperately trying to figure out what caused this in her child and how to fix or cure it (especially if you are a parent of an autistic child) or some doctor that you’ve never heard of from some prestigious hospital? The article goes on to talk about how it’s very hard to prove a negative (ex. vaccines do not cause autism) especially once the general public has already been scared into believing otherwise. The moral of this story is that because one well-known researcher presented a scientific theory that was not properly formulated, millions of dollars are being spent to disprove something when that money could be going towards helping families afflicted by this disease.