Resources & Links

What the Public Health Community Wants You to Know What Concerned Parents Say Autism Advocacy

What's Behind the Rise in Autism?
An excerpt from FRONTLINE's interview with epidemiologist and child psychiatrist Dr. Eric Fombonne

Vaccine Talking Points
Dr. Cynthia Cristofani's rundown, drawn from years of documenting, with video, the rare cases of vaccine-preventable illness that turn up in her ICU in Portland, Ore.

What the Public Health Community Wants You to Know

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Here's their main Web page for vaccines and immunizations. Two good places to start are their recommended schedule of vaccines, which includes schedules for different age groups and a "catch up" schedule; and their list of possible vaccine side effects.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
A branch of the National Institutes of Health directed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID's Web site contains information on vaccine development and clinical trials.

Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
A database where people can submit an adverse event following vaccination or examine the data others have reported. It contains both coincidental events and those truly caused by vaccines.

Vaccine Court
Here's the U.S. Court of Federal Claims' docket of Omnibus Autism Proceedings since 2002. These proceedings are a combination of claims from 5,000 families seeking compensation from the federal vaccine injury fund. All of the court's decisions are listed on this page, including three March 2010 decisions stating that thimerosal does not cause autism.

You can also read more about the background of the proceedings [PDF] and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program [PDF].

State Exemptions for Vaccination
This issue brief from the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics explains the history of vaccine exemptions, lists states that have exemptions, and addresses the potential dangers these exemptions could have on public health.

Immunization Action Coalition -- Vaccine Information
The IAC advocates for increasing immunization rates and receives funding from the CDC; its site contains a list of vaccine-preventable diseases with Q&As, photos, videos and case histories of individuals who have become sick or died from the disease. Simple and direct, this site contains "comprehensive information about a specific disease and the vaccine that prevents it. Each page includes a Q & A section, photos and/or video footage, true stories of individuals who have suffered or died from the disease, descriptions of public policies, and references to other resources." The organization is funded by the CDC.

American Academy of Pediatrics
Their Web page on immunization includes information on vaccine safety and contacts for your state's AAP chapter.
 

PKids Online
The Web site from Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases includes stories from families that have been impacted by vaccine-preventable diseases, and an "Ask the Expert" section, where you can e-mail medical professionals, including Dr. Paul Offit.

World Health Organization
The organization charged with distributing vaccines to the developing world -- read more about their immunization program, and visit their related sites, links and fact sheets on vaccines.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The Gates Foundation invests more than $800 billion per year to distribute life-saving vaccines to the developing world. Its Web site contains written, video and multimedia content -- check out this excerpt from Bill Gates' 2010 annual letter on "The Miracle of Vaccines" and this timeline titled "Progress Against Polio".

GAVI Alliance
Their mission: "To save children's lives and protect people's health by increasing access to immunization in poor countries."

What Concerned Parents Say

Generation Rescue
Actress Jenny McCarthy is the face of this organization, co-founded by J.B. Handley. It describes itself as "an international movement of scientists, physicians and parent-volunteers researching the causes and treatments for autism and helping more than 20,000 children begin biomedical treatment." This organization believes that autism is reversible and questions the safety of vaccines and vaccine schedules.

National Vaccine Information Center
The organization founded by Barbara Loe Fisher is "the oldest and largest consumer organization advocating the institution of vaccine safety and informed consent protections in the mass vaccination system." Read its FAQs about vaccines and other topics, and its collection of resources that include autism support groups and state-by-state advocacy organizations.

Age of Autism
An online newsletter with articles and blogs marked by a strong anti-vaccine sentiment. J.B. Handley and Dr. Andrew Wakefield are among the writers published.

Defeat Autism Now!
An organization of researchers and doctors who believe autism is treatable. It advocates for alternative remedies, including chelation therapy and diet changes, to rid children of toxins from vaccines and the environment. Its parent organization is the Autism Research Institute, a non-profit that was established in 1967.

AutismOne
A group of parents with autistic children started this group, whose Web site includes a blog, a collection of articles and videos.

Fourteen Studies
A Web site run by J.B. Handley and other founders of Generation Rescue, it focuses on poking holes in scientific studies that conclude that vaccines do not cause autism. Its findings include that "no real world studies of the vaccine schedule have ever been done" and "no one study compares vaccinated children to unvaccinated children."

Moms Against Mercury
This nonprofit organization advocates against the use of thimerosol in vaccines.

Center For Advanced Medicine And Clinical Research
Here is the Web site for Rashid A. Buttar, D.O., the doctor who treated Redskins Cheerleader Desiree Jennings after she reportedly suffered adverse reactions after receiving a flu shot.  Dr. Buttar believes autism is a result of toxicity, and therefore autistic children require treatments like chelation to rid their bodies of toxins that entered the body, in part, through vaccines.
 

Autism Advocacy

Autism Speaks
The Web site for "the nation's largest autism science and advocacy organization, dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families."

Two places to start reading are this interview with Dr. Geri Dawson, Autism Speaks' Chief Science Officer, about the organization's research funding and position on vaccines and autism; and this policy statement. The statement concludes that "ultimately, ensuring that open communication, flexibility and trust are hallmarks of your relationship with your doctor is your best strategy for making appropriate choices concerning vaccination and your child's health."