# Vax facts **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103 "2016-09-05T16:42:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/41 "2016-09-11T03:13:19Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > The other modern change for autism is linked to silicon valley. Well, not specifically silicon valley per say, but the valley is the epicenter. [Wired](http://www.wired.com/2001/12/aspergers/)has a really good article that came out about a decade ago covering this called “The Geek Syndrome”. Long story short, where you have very geeky, quantitative, engineer/programmer types that marry and have kids with other geeky, quantitative, programmer types, they have much higher than normal % of kids on the spectrum. While the link isn’t proven, common sense suggests that two borderline autism spectrum folks end up with more kids that reinforce those tendencies. > > I worked at MSFT for over a decade, and am part of a group of about 100 Chinese parents with kids on the autism spectrum in my area. A very high concentration of the parents work at Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook, and a very high % of the parents are definitely that borderline geeky functioning engineer with poor social skills (and likely would be diagnosed as autism spectrum today). Just anecdotal but it’s what I see a lot. It’s not just anecdotal, and it’s not just that people with Asperger’s are statistically more likely to have a child with autism. Fragile X, a disorder with lots of kids who have ASD too (I think 1/3 to 1/2), is a disorder that is proven to get worse in progressive generations. They learned this by going back two generations in boys with obvious Fragile X presentations, and by examining and interviewing their _grandfathers_, they could see that it had been mild in the grandpas, somewhat worse in these men’s sons, and much worse in the grandsons. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/42 "2016-09-11T03:35:47Z")
Yeah. Fragile X exhibits a phenomenon called genetic anticipation, in which symptoms get more severe and age of onset earlier with each generation. This is because it’s caused by an expanding triplet repeat. A section of DNA near a gene gets duplicated over and over again, expanding in size, until it messes up the regulation of the nearby gene. There are a bunch of diseases caused by triplet repeats that show anticipation. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2016, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/43 "2016-09-11T08:24:43Z")
I don’t remember, but fragile x condition is a very small percentage. We tested for it because insurance would cover it and our neurologist wanted to rule it it. We did a couple other genetic tests as well. It gets old after a while but I do what I can personally to add to the test pool. Fragile x is understood. No smoking gun yet identified for autism (please correct me if I’m mistaken). My daughter’s autism is likely birth trauma, but as yet this is not provable. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2016, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/44 "2016-09-11T12:26:30Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I would encourage everyone to look into this with an open mind. I dont have all the answers except I do believe their is something bad about vaccines. We should not be shooting heavy metals, antigens, and a host of other substances directly into the veins of infants. > > Here is one article going around on Facebook on [antigens](https://vaccinelinks.wordpress.com/2016/09/08/a-fact-by-fact-response-to-vaccines-101-too-much-too-soon/). I feel like it should be pointed out that blood is not just H[sub]2[/sub]O. There’s supposed to be a certain amount of heavy metals, antigens, and other substances in it. That is, in fact, the purpose of blood - to transport random stuff around your body. > **[List of human blood components](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_blood_components)** > > In blood banking, the fractions of Whole Blood used for transfusion are also called components. If you want to get together a list of the specific things found in vaccines, I’m sure that we could run through them, one by one, to find out why those were included and what research was done to verify their safety. Of course, given the strong correlation between vaccinations and the prevention of death, it’s sort of irrelevant to do so. The alternative is to _not_ prevent death. Certainly, there may be something in a vaccine that is harmful. But between losing a toe or losing a leg, I’d rather lose a toe. The world is not perfect and our knowledge of it is not perfect. Bad things will happen, and some of those would have been preventable if only we’d known more. The point would remain that it’s straight up dumb to advocate for the worst of two bad outcomes. If you have any power in your life to save lives, then save lives. Telling people to beware of something that you believe will have a 1 in a 10,000 chance of making them not as capable of interacting with society as a parent could ever dream, but will instead kill people, is evil. If you think autism is worse than death, and you have an autistic child, then you’d kill your child to spare them. If you haven’t done that, it’s a strong indication that you think death is worse. So if you’re sitting there arguing that other people should be doing something that will get their and other children killed, rather than take a vaccine, then you’re actively advocating to others something that _you yourself_ believe to be evil. And the point would remain that your belief that there’s something dangerous is wrong. There’s lots and lots of science that’s been done, with the goal of making sure that children are safe. that research was done by real humans, who have lives and children of their own, because they give a shit about keeping society safe. These are doctors, and that’s what they have dedicated their lives to doing. Your premise requires that thousands of doctors and medical scientists get together and conspire to fuck over babies and small children. If that’s not just straight up stupid, I do not know what is. The Moon landing hoax makes more sense by a million times and that’s still stupid. Believe what you want. But don’t get people killed. If you think there’s something fishy going on, learn science and do the research. There probably is some chemical in there that could be swapped out and make vaccinations safer than they already are. If you can find it, and find a good replacement, then go for it. But, you’re not going to find a link to autism, The science is in on that. There’s no link. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/45 "2016-09-11T16:17:16Z")
**Sage** , antivaxers are CTers. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/46 "2016-09-12T02:43:44Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > **Sage** , antivaxers are CTers. Only they’re dangerous ones, because some of these diseases are coming back – we’re seeing more and more measles epidemics thanks to these bastards. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/47 "2016-09-12T03:48:06Z")
When I was doing my student teaching back around the early naughts, the rumor swirling around in the schools was that if you wanted your kid individualized attention, then it was best to get them a diagnosis of autism so that they would not fall between the cracks in overcrowded classrooms with overworked teachers. This way, they’d get lots of solo help and attention. No one seemed to care if the diagnosis was legit, as long as the means suited the ends. So, if this was accurate, that could also be another reason for one part of the increase. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/48 "2016-09-12T04:42:17Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I teach my healthcare professional students to always remember that every “anti-vax” parent believes what they do because they are trying to do the best for their child. They are genuinely afraid they may harm their child. They’re generally wrong (barring allergies or other adverse effects), and need help understanding, but to keep compassion for them. IME, people who have allergic children, or children who cannot be vaccinated, or must have special vaccines (there’s an egg-free version of one of them, but sometimes getting it is difficult, and children who need it may not get vaccinated strictly on schedule, IIRC), or children living with someone with cancer, or children who genuinely, in rare circumstances, do get an alternate schedule, albeit, I’ve only known one case, and it had to do with potential epilepsy, and it was initiated by the child’s doctor. Anyway, parents of such children should not be lumped in with anti-vaxxers. I know one parent who had a child with leukemia, and couldn’t get her other two children vaccinated. When her son died, within two days, she had her other children’s shots brought up-to-date. In the midst of her grief, and everything you must do when someone dies, she got her remaining children protected. That’s very pro-vaccine. > [@elfkin477](#): > > It’s not just anecdotal, and it’s not just that people with Asperger’s are statistically more likely to have a child with autism. > > Fragile X, a disorder with lots of kids who have ASD too (I think 1/3 to 1/2), is a disorder that is proven to get worse in progressive generations. They learned this by going back two generations in boys with obvious Fragile X presentations, and by examining and interviewing their _grandfathers_, they could see that it had been mild in the grandpas, somewhat worse in these men’s sons, and much worse in the grandsons. I think you are misremembering what you read. A boy can inherit Fragile X from a maternal grandfather, but not a father. A boy inherits his X-chromosome from his mother, and a Y from his father. Now, women can have Fragile X as well, but are usually not as severely affected. You can have two siblings, a boy and a girl, with very similarly fragmented X-chromosomes, but because the girl also has a non-fragmented one, she may have a remediable LD or mild ADD, while her brother has autism and moderate MR. I read about a family once where they had an older daughter and a younger son. The daughter had some behavior difficulties, but was mostly just thought of as a trouble-maker, nothing worth referring for ADD or anything. Then when she was in the fifth grade or so, her brother was referred for an autism diagnosis, and eventually diagnosed with Fragile X. Finally, at that point, about two years later, when she was already halfway through public school, she was referred for testing, and she had Fragile X as well. She was sent for behavior modification therapy, and may have been briefly medicated (I can’t remember) to make the therapy more effective, and it changed her life. The thrust of the article was for educators to refer, refer, refer. Any time a child is even a little difficult, or a little behind, get it checked out before labeling the child a trouble-maker, because one way or another, the child gets a label, and “ADD,” or “ASD,” is better than “trouble-maker.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103/49 "2016-09-12T07:40:46Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I feel like it should be pointed out that blood is not just H[sub]2[/sub]O. There’s supposed to be a certain amount of heavy metals, antigens, and other substances in it. Heck, iron is a heavy metal (the heavy metals are the central part of the periodic chart, the low “bridge”)… try moving oxygen to your cells and carbon dioxide to the lungs without it. It’s completely essential to mammalian life. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vax-facts/765103.md?page=2)