Vaccine & Autism: NO Correlation

Vaccines save our lives from harmful infectious diseases, yet parent's are hesitant to get there children vaccinated after hearing the word "vaccine" and "autism" in the same sentence. In fact, USA Today reports that at least 10% of parents of young children skip or delay routine vaccinations.

The vaccine that many people have tried to correlate with autism is the MMR vaccine, which stands for three diseases: Measles, Mumps, and Rubella. This is a critical vaccine for infants to get because measles alone is the deadliest rash/fever illness a child can develop.


A lot of talk of vaccines and autism has sparked in the media because of  one celebrity,  Jenny McCarthy. McCarthy gained notoriety when she spoke out to the public after she believed her son developed autism after getting vaccinated. Mccarthy told Time Magazine a ludicrous belief that she thinks "it's going to take some diseases coming back to realize that we need to change and develop vaccines that are safe. If the vaccine companies are not listening to us, it's their f___ing fault that the diseases are coming back."To me, it  seems like McCarthy is in denial about her son being diagnosed with autism, so she is trying to find a source to blame, which is clearly not the solution because she thinks harmful diseases that "resurface" like Polio, will be the only way to make vaccines "safer" and preventative of autism.

Do you think there is any chance the vaccines cause autism?

Autism: Why is it so Much More Common in Boys?

As data from the CDC has come in, the rise in rates of autism is alarming, especially in boys. Now, the incidence of autism is 1 in 88, but in boys it is a staggering 1 in 54. I, and probably many other people are baffled by this data, so I would like to explore why it is so much more common for boys to be diagnosed with autism than girls.

First, it is important to really understand what autism is. According to Autism Speaks, autism is "Characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors".  Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning it can range from people having trouble understanding social cues, all the way to people unable to talk and barely able to communicate basic necessities. 

Now, one reason that there is such a large gap between boys with autism and girls with autism, is there is different symptoms displayed by each sex. According to an article in CNN, one hypothesis is "That perhaps higher-functioning girls with autism are missed by clinicians who are not experts in diagnosis. [Also] girls have better social skills than higher-functioning boys with autism and so are not diagnosed as readily". Because of the difference in symptoms shown by the child, the girls are not as commonly diagnosed because of their ability to have better social skills. Also CNN reports that since girls don't engage in as many repetitive behaviors as boys, like rocking or spinning (a hallmark symptom of autism), so the lack of that symptom could be deceive to inexperienced clinicians. 

Do you think there are actually more boys with autism than girls, or are girls being misdiagnosed? 

What is Regressive Autism?

Many of us have heard of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but what about regressive autism? According to Dr. Sid Finegold, a former professor at UCLA and leading researcher on regressive autism, "As the name suggests (regressive autism), these children develop normally up to about eighteen months of age, and then they begin to go backwards". By "going backwards" these children lose their social connections, have trouble with eye connect, and develop intestinal problems.

Although, there has been limited research on regressive autism compared to ASD research, scientists and doctors have found evidence that children who are on antibiotics at a very young age tend to be the ones that develop regressive autism because they are disrupting the normal growth of the flora developing in their gut, which can then harm the brain. The diagram to the right depicts a nice flow chart of how children develop regressive autism. Although in the first chart not all of the causes have been heavily research, they give a good idea of what some of the indicators can be. 

WInnetka Teen Stabbed-Breaking News. South Side Teen Stabbed-Just Another Story.

Last night, a confrontation broke out on a quiet suburban street in Winnetka, Il. One senior boy, who attends New Trier High School, was stabbed in the chest and rushed to the hospital for non life-threatening injuries. The student, who will remain anonymous, posted a picture on Facebook of himself at the hospital and said, "Stab wounds are dope...so r punchcard lungs". Dozens of people are making statuses on Facebook saying to "pray" for this victim. However, another Facebook stood out. It read, "A person got stabbed and sent to the hospital today in a domenstic violence case in a rich white neighborhood. Dozen of murders in the southbsidehtoday and nobody mentions it".

The words, "dozen murders in south side...nobody mentions it" especially caught my attention because this Facebook user brings up a really strong point. According to Chicago Red Eye, "In February alone 14 victims have been murdered" in the south side of Chicago. These 14 murders did not catch any attention from the media because of how common a murder is in the south side. However, in Winnetka, New reporters from all over the area are capturing the story of a stabbing that left both teens alive.

Any disputes between teens that lead to violence are tragic, but what stories do you think deserve to be extensively covered by the news?

Should Bone Marrow Donors Be Paid?

This morning as I watched Rock Center, one story caught my attention about an ill child in need of a bone marrow transplant. The mother, Doreen Flynn, waged a legal battle to make it possible for bone marrow donors to be payed for their donations; Flynn thinks because of the money, many more people would be willing to donate. Throughout the years thousands of donors have backed out of bone marrow transplants, but I wonder,  if the donor was paid, would they have gone through with the procedure?

Although there are many arguments for and against Flynn's case, Jeff Rowes (Flynn's Lawyer) argues something that many people wouldn't consider. Rowes argues that, “Bone marrow is just like anything else in the world... it’s valuable. And if you compensate people for it, you’re going to get more of it, it’s just that simple”. Rowes' argument is simple: supply and demand. The more in demand something is, the more it's worth.

Rowes brings up a good point about a constant American ideal of capitalistic solutions for solvable problems. In many cases, people are willing to cooperate more if money is involved for compensation. Unfortunately, this means that the people who would donate for the good will of others, aren't praised for their charity; it's the people who would never donate before that receive the bonus of money.

This is only one example of an "American Way" to solve problems using pure capitalism,  but do you think think market based answers are always an appropriate solution?

Is Race a Deciding Factor for College Admissions?

As Seniors in high school all around the country are receiving letters of admission or rejection to colleges, I can't help but think about how someones "race" plays a role in the decision.

We would like to think that race has absolutely no factor when applicants are being looked at by admission offices, but unfortunately that's not the case.

According to the New York Times, some highly selective schools, like Rice University, take race into account when looking at their applicants. Chris Muñoz, vice president for enrollment at Rice since 2006, says, “From an academic standpoint, the qualifying records, the test scores, how many AP courses, they may all look alike,  that’s when we might go and say, ‘This kid has a Spanish surname. Let’s see what he wrote about.’ Right or wrong, it can make a difference.” 

How much a "difference" does it actually make? Unfortunately, it's very unclear at Rice University and many other institutions. The one thing we can look at however is the numbers--they can't lie. Although its a small margin, multiracial applicants being admitted is 23%, while whites are being admitted at 19%. Four percent can really make a difference when looking at thousands of applicants. 

Do you think college admissions should take race into a factor when looking at applicants? 

The Facts of Racial Profiling.

 Although we like to think that there
 is equality between blacks and whites in our country, the truth is, we are far from it. There has bee a constant struggle ever since the 1800's to treat blacks as equal as whites. We start with slavery, then to black codes, then to Jim Crow laws: The list code go on forever. Although we are no where near where we used to be, we still are racial profiling, especially when it comes to looking for suspects breaking the law to become incarcerated.


Unfortunately, people of color have been arrested at much higher rates than whites even when committing extremely similar times. The Huffington Post, "Black males had an imprisonment rate that was nearly seven times higher than the incarceration rate of white men". Seven times is such a staggering number to begin with, but we should also take population into consideration, which will makes theses numbers even more unfathomable. White people make up the supermajority at 72% of the U.S. population, while Blacks only make up a mere 13%. So, if we take population into consideration, Blacks are actually being imprisoned at a rate of 35% compared to whites.

Is it because of history that has made it harder for us to wrap our brains around that it is just color defining the people? Or is it the fact that some people are still for segregation as we have seen the many attempts to halt desegregation throughout our nations history.

Why do you think we are still "judging" people by the color of their skin? Do you think blacks are treated as equally as whites?

All comments are welcome!