Mayim Bialik

[smitten]

I have a friend that is absolutely convinced her son developed autism because of his vaccine. She says his behavior literally changed the next day. She tends to keep to herself on social media, but lately she has been all over it -- posting about the Truth coming out and the government conspiracy hiding what vaccines really do. She completely dismisses any study showing that vaccines don't cause autism.

She's tight with a group of men and women with autistic children and while I'm glad she has a support system, I feel like they all just feed off each other with misinformation. I don't really discuss it with her.

I've vaccinated my two kids, in fact 7 mo old sk2 had her second flu shot today. I'm letting her nap on me right now for that reason only, otherwise she sleeps in her crib, I swear!

[chonies]

Back to Mayim's work/life balance, just from my observations from grad school and working in academia, it's a small minority of women academics who have a marriage and children across all disciplines. The men I know who have families generally do not have wives in academia, or if they do, they are in non-teaching roles. Her observation rang entirely true with my anecdata-based evidence, and I don't fault her for that decision at all. She might have been able to find a way to do research/professor stuff but obviously she would have to drop the homeschooling, and probably a lot of the generally crunchier aspects of her life. I have no idea how long it takes to make soap, for example.

[azaleaqueen]

Bialik is a pain in the butt. "Ooh, ooh, look at me! I'm so perfect! I spend every minute of the day with my kids and yet find the time to get a PhD and make it in show business!" Blech.

That being said, my daughter made the acquaintance a short while back of a couple with an autistic son. His autism was indeed caused by immunizations, BUT not the immunizations per se. They stumbled on a doctor in New Orleans who ran tests on him and found that he has something in his DNA, inherited from his mother (who in turn inherited it from her mother) that reacted with the immunizations. He also told them it could have been avoided by spacing the immunizations out, not giving the combo.

[chonies]

Apr 2, 2014 17:54:39 GMT -4 azaleaqueen said:

Bialik is a pain in the butt. "Ooh, ooh, look at me! I'm so perfect! I spend every minute of the day with my kids and yet find the time to get a PhD and make it in show business!" Blech.

To defend Mayim, she got her PhD in 2007, and one kid was born shortly before that, which is fairly typical--done with research, writing the dissertation (or it could have been unplanned, but still) and the other one was born shortly thereafter. And she had already made it in show biz, to a certain point. I don't think she could have gotten the PhD and done AP and a career in Hollywood simultaneously under any circumstances, and that's why I want to like her, or at least why I find her interesting. She has an interesting life, because she has so many facets and like a lot of people prioritized different facets during her life.

[Augustus]

My main gripe with the current aversion to anything 'artificial/chemical' is this whole flawed notion that only all-natural is good for you. Lots of deadly toxins can be found in the natural world just as well, like ricin, botulism or deadly nightshade. And as a scientist she should know that plenty of natural compounds are very volatile, you only have a small window of opportunity before it potentially turns into something bad for us. That was the whole reason why people started to research how to produce it reliably in a lab, you know...to make it safer for everyone?

And indeed, we all react differently to medications, but to then claim they are therefore faulty and ineffective, so none of you should ever take it is just plain stupid in my book.

[azaleaqueen]

ITA, Augustus. Just think of the millions of people who have died, just in the past 100 years, from diseases which are now preventable or treatable. One person has a bad reaction and the extremists completely disregard the thousands of people which it saved.

[chonies]

Apr 2, 2014 10:57:41 GMT -4 @mulva said:

Maybe it's a mixture of this:

a more generalized philosophy that vaccines are unnatural

plus this:

a general distrust of medical professionals

plus a healthy dose of "Thousands of years ago, our caveman ancestors didn't vaccinate their kids and they turned out just fine!"

I agree (and high five to Borokat!)

I don't completely trust medical professionals but not in an "omg, conspiracy!" way. I've had some bad experiences with nurses and doctors, but also have had some good experiences. I considerate myself fortunate that I do not have a chronic condition that requires a lot of medical treatment, so my experience is limited. I would believe a diagnosis, but I would also research options.

To be generous, there is some reasonable pushback against a lot of common American medical practices: people are increasingly aware about the disparities in the health system and the real possibility that they might not be able to treat something, so they have to take medical health into their own hands. The drugs-r-bad-mmkay message has been seriously reversed--medical marijuana is real, and there is some evidence that cannabis might even be safe in pregnancy (in small doses).

There's also the subset of people who think they know better than the rest of you/us sheeple, and this is easy to step into, I suppose.

Topic--her April Fool's joke made me LOL lulzily. Mayim Bialik engaged to a Maccabeat.

[bklynred]

I have a friend with two autistic children. Both developed it immediately (within 2 weeks) of getting the MMR vaccine specifically. I've known her since grade school & she's a SAHM but her life is her boys 24/7. The hubby is rarely home b/c he's an exec so they can afford every therapy under the sun. She believes the vaccine PLUS other underlying symptoms (in this case, dad's then-undiagnosed autoimmune disease & God knows what is in genetics on either side) triggered what she refers to as a severe brain trauma. That makes sense to me. She runs around so much I worry about her; she doesn't eat a lot, sleeps even less, barely goes to the bathroom.

All that to say, in her personal instance, I think it was a tragic colliding of things that caused her (lovely--miss em so much!) kids' illness, but I can't stand behind anti-vax wholesale. It just doesn't seem rational. I'd be super pissed to get measles or chicken pox at 41 because someone's reading random (if compelling) crap on out-of-orbit websites.

On topic? It is odd that someone so smart would deny so much...science. I do find Bialik's blog interesting though.

[celerydunk]

Apr 2, 2014 17:54:39 GMT -4 azaleaqueen said:

He also told them it could have been avoided by spacing the immunizations out, not giving the combo.

That must be a tough thing to hear after the fact. Talk about guilt.

[Gigiree]

I would be interested in seeing data supporting that the MMR vaccine combo being a trigger for autism. From what I can find, the only research linking it was the Wakefield study, which has been completely repudiated. I'm also not really understanding the stance that the combo, which has been given for more than 40 years, is less safe than three individual shots. However, I'm open to seeing studies that support this conclusion.