I was vaccinated a lot as a kid (and again as a teenager when we went to live in Africa). We all were in the sixties, in Germany smallpox vaccination was mandatory though it caused ugly scars with almost everyone and raised terminal or near-terminal effects for 2 out of every 100.000 vaccinees (and serious illness for hundreds more) or 0,00002%, still a staggering ratio by today's vaccination standards, people would be rioting in the streets if it were still mandatory. It is no longer mandatory, because smallpox was eradicated off the face of the earth via mass vaccinations. BTW and putting things a little in perspective: The death ratio with smallpox was at least 10%. Your chance of dying from smallpox as opposed to the vaccination against it was 5.000 times as high ...
You already see where I'm coming from, I'm wary of how in the last twenty years or so "vaccination discipline" has deplorably declined in Germany and elsewhere. (My kids were both vaccinated. Is my son autistic? Sure he is, like most male teenagers coming to grips with their life and hormones!
). Not good for your immune system, causing allergies, attention deficiency syndrome (which my son really has, don't they all ...) and now - good grief - even autism. Every couple of years some new hidden ill effect is discovered and dragged through the streets.
I'm no medical doctor (the ones I know are all for vaccinations and worried how vaccination rates go down), I can't rule out that a shot of something can trigger a chain of effects in a child that may lead to autism once in a while. The Amish example though brought out the cynic in me:
You can probably be very autistic before someone in an Amish community would raise an eyebrow given how that particular sect has declared cultural and sociological autism to be their way of life. Oh, and while you're at it, check the hereditary diseases of that fine little bunch of incestuous close-knits too ...
There is
possibly also a lesser number of autistic kids in the slums of Mumbai. And
definitely a much greater number of child deaths due to lack of vaccination plus polio cripples. Life is full of choices, except that some people don't even get a choice.
Uwe