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Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent
Last week, I sat down with Dr. Bernadine Healy at CNN’s Women’s Health Summit in New York City. She is a remarkable person who has been the “first” at many things, including the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health. We talked about many things, including the persistent brain fog patients and their doctors have when it comes to heart disease and women. Everyone should know that heart disease is the biggest killer of women; in fact heart disease kills ten times as many women as breast cancer.
What I wanted to blog about today, though, is her response to a question I asked about autism. She had written a column about the topic in U.S. News and World Report and told me she believes the link between vaccines and autism is “biologically plausible.” Of course, that spurred several more questions from me (click here to watch).
Healy went on to say that many in the scientific world have been quick to dismiss the concerns of parents and have not conducted the necessary studies of causation to definitively rule out a vaccine/autism link. Healy’s comments have become a lightning rod in the medical community – with an infectious disease expert with the American Academy of Pediatrics calling CNN twice yesterday to express concern parents will misconstrue Healy’s comments and stop get their kids vaccinated – and that vaccines save lives.
| Annie Kate |
May 14th, 2008 9:16 am ET Dr. Gupta, Is there any evidence that points to a specific vaccine as a potential culprit in the causation of autism or is it just the childhood vaccines across the board. All my children received all their vaccinations on time and are up to date with their boosters. I wondered when I did it though what kind of risk I was taking but I knew from family history that diseases like typhoid, smallpox, tetanus, and measles can be big killers. Which risk is greater ? The risk of autism from the vaccine or the risk of catching the disease the vaccine prevents? Annie Kate |
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| Mello Doug NM |
May 14th, 2008 10:51 am ET The scientific community has not been quick to rule out the link of vaccines and autism. There have been numerous studies. However, there are numerous other areas that need to be looked at. The first area I would look at would be the increase in pollution including the medicines found in drinking water. |
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| Christine |
May 14th, 2008 3:54 pm ET I am not a parent and I probably won’t be ever, but all my friends and cousins who have children have had them vaccinated. I am one of the people who don’t believe vaccines cause autism. I read a very good article in the Post (4/20/08) by Robert Goldberg. It was very interesting. My feelings on the vaccines and autism might be found in the parents past. People have been vaccinated for years and if a study was done do you think autism would be found in large numbers? I don’t think so, so maybe the rise is in what people did in their past, what they are passing down in the genetics. |
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