The Vax Vandals
Supahan said they’re stumped as to who did it. “We haven’t had complaints,” she said. “There’s been no parent concern about vaccinating. Our parents are aware we have a waiver.”
The Sheriff’s Department’s Godsey said Deputy Greg Barry, on his way to investigate the vandalism in Burnt Ranch, discovered the spray-painted K-rails along the way.
“So obviously whoever did this is mobile,” Godsey said.
Bray, at Trinity Valley Elementary School, said she figured the graffiti was done by adults “because they spelled everything right.”
Bray said she Googled “SV40” to find out what it means. “SV40” stands for “Simian Virus 40” and refers to a tumor-causing virus that was found in monkey kidney cells that were used to create the first polio vaccine. The cells’ use was eliminated by 1963, according to the SV40 Cancer Foundation’s Web site, but some people believe it was used into the 1990s.
Bray said she didn’t know why they’d been targeted. School kids have to get vaccinated for a number of things, including polio, whooping cough, mumps, measles and rubella, but parents can sign a waiver.
At the Willow Creek Community Health Center, RN Clinic Coordinator Erica Dykehouse said her first thought when she saw the graffiti was that perhaps it had been done by the parent or relative of someone who had been recently diagnosed with autism. It isn’t known what causes autism, she said. But about 12 years ago the medical journal The Lancet published an article linking the preservative thimerosal in the mumps-measles-rubella vaccine to cases of autism. And although it later was found that the article was based on altered data, and although subsequent studies have debunked the link, the myth persists.
“I wondered why we got hit,” Dykehouse said. “We don’t force parents to vaccinate their children, and we do explain to them the risks of it, and we do explain to them that even though there’s no link between thimerosal and autism, they went ahead and just took it out of vaccines in 2002.”
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meetings / 4 p.m. Sun Yi's Academy of Tae Kwon Do, 1215 Giuntoli Lane, Arcata. Help gather valid signatures to get the 'California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act' on the 2012 ballot. E-mail northernhumboldtlabelgmos@hotmail.com. 223-0424.
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ONE Comments
Comment / By Troy A / Oct. 2, 2009, 8:56 a.m.
In regard to the article that linked autism with vaccination: Not only was the article retracted, but it has been discredited by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and 4 of the article’s co-authors withdrew their previous professional opinions.