In a teaser video published on Facebook by a controversial anti-vaccination organization, Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood claimed that “vaccines can and do cause autism.” The video goes on to say that “Nico’s Story” will be released on Tuesday.
The preview is part of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, an anti-vaccination documentary that is currently touring the country doing video interviews with people claiming to have been negatively affected by vaccinations. LaHood’s interview appears to be the most high-profile one so far.
In a phone interview with the Rivard Report on Monday afternoon, LaHood said he heard the makers of the anti-vaccine documentary “Vaxxed” were holding a screening in San Antonio. He attended the event. There, he told the filmmakers about the “change” in his son Michael’s behavior after getting his 18-month vaccinations.
“He was vaccinated from day 1,” LaHood said. “After he got his 18-month shots, he was distant and wouldn’t make eye contact. He was put on the (autism) spectrum.”
Impressed with the documentary, he held a private screening for family and friends. As a public figure, Lahood said he has an obligation to use his voice to advocate for an issue that is important to him.
“I’m an advocate in four ways,” he said. “I’m a daddy to an autistic child. I want to let doctors who disagree with vaccines to keep their medical licenses. I want parents to be able to choose whether or not to vaccine their children, and I want vaccines to undergo the same testing as other drugs by the pharmaceutical companies because right now they’re not.”
Stephanie Lutz, executive director of the Bexar County Health Collaborative, told the Rivard Report on Monday that the theory about a link between autism and vaccinations, which has been largely debunked by several studies and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is something the health community has been faced with time and time again.
“We need to be upfront with people and be able to fight the misconceptions about vaccines,” Lutz said. “It’s unfortunate that we have conflicting viewpoints out there and our job at the Health Collaborative is to educate families on vaccines so that they can make the choice that is right for them.”
Vaccines help prevent diseases, she said, but “at the end of the day, whether in public office or not, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What matters is education and choice.”
Dr. Anil Mangla, assistant director for communicable diseases at San Antonio’s Metropolitan Health District, had stronger words in response to LaHood’s claim.
“This is absolutely ridiculous. It’s absurd and completely flawed. This is all based on a faulty 1998 study that has since been proven untrue,” Mangla said in a phone interview. “Someone should do their homework and read the literature.”
Each study done on vaccines since has proven their effectiveness, he said, pointing to the eradication of diseases like smallpox and polio in the western world. “The only reason anyone gets those diseases here is due to international travel.”
To fight the perception put forward by anti-vaccinators, Mangla said a public panel discussion is needed that includes regional health experts, scientific researchers, and so-called “anti-vaxxers” such as LaHood.
“We need to clear this up as soon as possible,” Mangla said. “I don’t want to turn on CNN and read a headline about San Antonio that you saw about Los Angeles last year. That’s why we are trying to raise the vaccination rate.”
The vaccination rate in some affluent neighborhoods in Los Angeles was remarkably low in 2015 and 2014, rivaling the vaccination rates of South Sudan. There were outbreaks of whooping cough and measles.
LaHood is open to holding a panel as Dr. Mangla suggests, but it needs to be fair.
“This should be open to people on both sides of this issue,” he said.
This story has been updated with information gathered from an interview with LaHood.
Related Stories:
County Releases Health Assessment, Launches Community Health Plan Effort
Commentary: ‘Conscientious’ Vaccine Exemptions Are Anything But
I like Nico a lot and respect his ability as an attorney and his performance as District Attorney. But this position he’s taken is very disappointing. One is empathetic to his experiences as a parent, but that empathy does not extend to the absurd and highly dangerous notion that vaccines cause autism. It is perplexing and disheartening that such a smart and well-intentioned guy would buy into the nonsense non-science that, as the article notes, has been so thoroughly disproven.
Vaccines DO cause autism unfortunately, I wish they didn’t.
The CDC is lying to the public.
If you don’t get a chance to see Vaxxed at least watch this free documentary, ‘silent epidemic ” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1m3TjokVU4
I think you’re overstating your case. There *may be* a link between vaccines and autism—that’s the most the science that’s out there will let you claim. There is no silver bullet study. By overstating your case, you’re building expectations for honest inquirers that won’t be fulfilled if they wade into your claims. Better just to state what’s actually true and let honest inquirers make up their own minds.
Thanks for bringing attention to a dissenting opinion. I hope Rivard Report follows up on this issue with a true investigative journalism piece. This is an opportunity for y’all to continue to stand out for true journalistic excellence. Please don’t blindly join the anti-science Big-Pharma cronies (CDC,FDA,Merck,GSK,etc) establishment fear mongers. Do research beyond the bought and paid for mouthpieces and challenge the status quo. Instead of parroting the same ad hominem dismissals with labels like “absurd”, “dangerous”, etc. and blanket claims of “thoroughly disproven” observations, or “all the studies say…” without any evidence to back up those statements, please present the true, unbiased evidence. The people don’t need another state media arm. We need more truth in journalism.
Vaccines do not cause autism, they save lives.
It’s that simple.
Good for him! The anger and stigma against people who choose health freedom and don’t vaccinate is troubling at the least. What about the “science” that points out flaws in vaccine ingredients? What about the constant manipulation in studies and reports on disease control? Until all the ingredients in vaccines are GRAS and have no contact with human DNA and there are no cases brought up before the U.S. Vaccine Court I’m playing it safe and saying no to what I consider an unsafe medical procedure.
http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/i-dont-vaccinate-my-child-because-its-my-right-to–37839
I heard the polio vaccine is just tap water with traces of cat urine.
““This should be open to people on both sides of this issue,” he said.”
Yes, there should, and the placards on the tables will be labeled: one will say Fact, the other Fiction.
Mr. LaHood, your seat is in Fiction.
Science and facts are for losers! Just ask any Trump supporter.
That’s why LaHood is Democrat.
This is so incredibly irresponsible, uninformed and flat-out dangerous. Nico LaHood is an absolute moron and we can add this to the laundry list of reasons why he is unfit to be the DA for San Antonio. This is why we need to improve our schools–so the people voting for this idiot are educated enough to see that he is entirely ill-equipped to serve in the position of DA and choose someone else.
The comments under this article prove that scientism—i.e., not science—is the new religion. People who haven’t themselves done the reading and research will lash out at someone simply saying “hey, we should look into this issue more.” I mean….that’s science. If you’re opposed to people questioning the prevailing dogma and proposing further research be done, you’re doing science wrong.
These people intuit a correlation between an effect (autism) and a possible cause (routine childhood vaccinations)—now, maybe these people are all nutjobs. Maybe they’re just bad parents. But how do YOU, anti-anti-vaxxer, know that they aren’t onto something?—are you an ID expert or vaccinologist? Have you ever wondered why most of the people who are anti-anti-vaxxer are in the disease eradication business? In any other public policy issue, that would be considered a bias. Maybe those people would rather eradicate disease, no matter the collateral damage or incidental cost to a few kids who end up with autism? Maybe the ends justify the means?
Nico LaHood may be a moron. But questioning science where the science doesn’t definitively establish that vaccines are 100% safe—a claim no pro-vaccine person makes—is not anti-science! That IS pro-science. But if your religion is scientism, you won’t likely see that—you’ll just see a heretic or unorthodox or dissenter in your midst and want to burn him.
Note: Not that this is relevant to my argument, but since this is an ideological and quasi-religious issue for the people reading this article, I feel the need to clarify: I’m not an anti-vaxxer, I’m vaccinated, my kids are, too, etc. etc.
Vaccines save lives! Climate change is real! The amount of fiction science is peddling these days. Next thing you know it, they will say we evolved from animals and that the earth was created over billions of years!
It’s clear that he’s using his office to promote anti-vaccine hysteria. He should be recalled.
He says from behind his DA desk, “I’m the criminal District Attorney in San Antonio Texas and I’m here to tell you that vaccines can and do cause autism.”
Correlation does not equal causation! I’m sorry but I don’t understand how an idea like this can gain so much traction based off of one paper that has since been discredited by an author who no longer is allowed to practice medicine. Is that really the evidence you want to base your decision on when it comes to the health of your child? Also, its a first world privilege to not be afraid of diseases like the measles that can be incredibly dangerous and highly infectious. The decisions that these parents [the anti-vaxxers] make for their children impact every child. The lack of vaccinated children is a risk to herd immunity and can seriously endanger the lives of many children.
According to the Express News, “LaHood said he has a ‘strong opinion’ that the MMR vaccine left his son Michael, who turns 6 on Thursday, on the autism spectrum.”
But the controversy over vaccines and autism tends to focus on misinformation about a preservative called thimerosal.
Thimerosal isn’t in the MMR vaccine.
Why would you refer to Vaxxed as an anti-vaccination documentary in your article? Nothing could be further from the truth. I would highly recommend you watch it before labeling it. The crux of the documentary is about FRAUD. Fraud committed by the CDC during their landmark study on the connection between autism and the MMR. A study that the Director of the CDC had destroyed because there was significant evidence that there was indeed a link. Then the CDC re-wrote and manipulated the study in order to get the results they “needed”. That study began in 1998. Then they had the audacity to say the science was settled. They declared and shouted to the world that vaccines do not cause autism and we will no longer fund any further studies. Just to be sure you know : The science is never settled.
Correction. VAXXED is not an anti vaccine film it is about CDC fraud in relation to the MMR and autism. What is NOT fraud is the 1998 study you are referring to which was exonerated…signed by 12 doctors who simply stated that parents noted after their children received the MMR they developed severe GI issues. Get your facts straight before you publish lie after lie.