[Gráinne]

Allison is right. The autism-vaccination "study" was flawed; autism is far more complicated than that, and we don't have a great understanding of "it" (there are many degrees of autism and its behaviors).

I was born just as vaccines for polio and measles came in. Polio left its victims paralyzed and/or in breathing tubes-if it didn't kill them. Measles, mumps, diptheria, and rubella were all fatal in the first half of the 20th century. Smallpox was of course a killer for centuries, and its more mild cousin, the chicken pox, can leave you vulnerable to shingles later in life and is just miserable. There's a shot for that nowadays, but I have immunity the old-fashioned way. You name it, my kids and myself got the vaccine. My daughter also had a shot against cervical cancer, even though that is much newer.

I know parents have the right to not vaccinate, but I have the right to keep them away (when they were younger).