Vaccines, Autism, and Maintaining Friendships

I don't believe that vaccinations cause autism.

The more I learn about Dr. Wakefield, the more horrified I am by him.

I have friends who are certain that their autistic children are vaccine-injured.  I respect them, I know they truly believe this, and I even believe that some children are injured by vaccines - just that it is an extremely small number, and that the vast majority of people believed to have autism were not injured by vaccines.  In order not to offend those people who truly, deeply believe that their children were injured by vaccines, I don't post anything on Facebook about Dr. Wakefield, or vaccines, or the absurdity that I believe his dangerous, faulty "research" has wrought.   

They, of course, post a great deal about how awful they think Dr. Offit is.  They post to support Dr. Wakefield, for all he has done "for us."  I don't get it.  They look at "all the money" Dr. Offit earned.  They don't notice "all the money" that Dr. Wakefield earned or stood to earn from the tiny study he did, using unethically obtained tests from a too-small to be significant sample, drawing conclusions that had no support.  The damage that he has done is incalculable.  Aside from the people who have been exposed to and endured the diseases that they should, rightfully, have been vaccinated against, there is all that money that has gone into research, again and again, to disprove this connection.  And this continues to be done.  And the money that goes into publicizing the inaccuracies of Dr. Wakefield's theories - all this could have been used to research, publicize and provide services for individuals living with autism.  Legitimate research. Needed services.

How many children have been really injured from pre-natal exposure to measles, because so many are not being vaccinated?  How many have been really injured from the high fevers and other effects of the illnesses that these vaccines had all but eliminated?  

I don't know whether we live in an age of intense fear of conspiracies, or whether that was always an underlying "fear of the masses," but this kind of fear, which is based on a fundamental lack of understanding of the underlying science, is dangerous to everyone.  As science advances, and as the number of people who understand that science seems to decrease, proportionally, the fear and distrust is likely to increase ... to the detriment of all.