March 4, 2010
Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism
A nurse administers a vaccine to an infant (Photo Credit: James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
It’s rare in science and science writing to make definitive statements, particularly about causation. We like to add what I call “wishy washy” words like “may” and “probably” and “perhaps.” So when scientists or science writers make definitive statements like “vaccines don’t cause autism” and “vaccines save lives,” it’s because we have overwhelming evidence to back it up.
But 25 percent of parents in a recent University of Michigan poll agreed with the statement “some vaccines cause autism in healthy children” and 11.5 percent have refused at least one vaccination for their child. This is worrisome.
The now-discredited link between autism and vaccines was proposed by British scientist Andrew Wakefield in a 1998 paper in the Lancet. No one was ever able to reproduce the results of that study, and the paper has since been retracted by the journal. A recently concluded investigation of Wakefield found that he had conducted unapproved and unnecessary tests on children and even paid children at his son’s birthday party for providing blood samples. Wakefield has since resigned from the autism center he began in Texas.
Other studies that have examined childhood vaccines and autism have failed to find any link. When the Institute of Medicine reviewed the issue six years ago, they concluded “the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism” and recommended “a public health response that fully supports an array of vaccine safety activities.”
No one should die from a preventable disease like measles or pertussis, but they do, even here in the United States, when parents choose to leave their children unvaccinated.
Vaccines work. They don’t cause autism. Now, perhaps, scientists can spend their resources on figuring out what does instead of wasting them on a debunked theory.
(For more information on vaccines, read A Brief History and How Vaccines Work, Success Stories and A History of Vaccine Backlash from our Vaccine Week coverage last year.)
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Ms. Zielinski,
thanks for posting this. Groups pushing the autism/vaccine link have taken advantage of the fact that scientists will qualify their statements for years.
At the same time, they will make completely unsupported statements using absolute terms.
[...] the title of an article at Smithsonian.com. The introduction spells out one of the dilemmas that face skeptics to the “vaccines cause [...]
Fact 1. Autism began to surface back in the early 40′s, about a decade after the onslaught of childhood vaccinations were cast upon it’s victims as the “standard” routine.
Fact 2. As vaccinations continued to increase, the higher incidence of autism paralleled it.
Fact 3. The incidence of autism is vastly higher in America where the number of “standard” vaccinations is double that of any other country.
Fact 4. As you go down the list of countries that have less “standard” vaccinations the incidence of autism (and other diseases) also just happens to decrease proportionately.
That is just the infinitesimal tip of the proverbial iceberg of conclusive facts, but adequate proof that you are dead wrong.
Fact 1.
Langdon Down was describing autistic children in 1887
Down, J.L.(1887) Mental Affections of Childhood and Youth. London:Churchill (1990) re-issued as Classics in Developmental Medicine, No. 5. London: MacKeith Press.
Fact 2.
There is no parallel between changes in vaccine schedules and growth of autism. The epidemiology suggests a steady increase in prevalence over time, not sudden increases at times of changes to the schedule.
Fact 3.
There are very few reliable studies of incidence. Prevalence of autism in the USA is catching up to countries like the UK where we have always had more recorded autism and less scheduled vaccines than the USA.
Fact 4.
The only correlation between vaccines and disease is this. The more you vaccinate the less vaccine preventable diseases you have. Stop vaccinating and disease increases.
You are dead right Ms Zielinski. If we followed Jeb’s advice more people would be plain dead.
You’re right Sarah. Vaccines don’t cause autism. Autism is simply a term from the psychiatric DSM-IV manual. It’s nothing but a smokescreen. It provides an alibi for the drug companies who added mercury to vaccines at levels 250 times higher than hazardous waste levels (based on toxicity characteristics). It provides an alibi for the CDC, FDA, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the other drug company cronies who are responsible for the safety of our children. It provides an alibi for the spineless pediatricians who administered this poison. It provides an alibi for health insurance companies so they don’t have to pay for treatment for these sick kids. It provides an alibi for psychiatrists so they can force powerfull anti-psychotic drugs on these kids who are already terribly confused.
There will never be an identifiable cause for autism. There are though 14 published papers which identify the underlying medical condition of autism as neuroinflammatory disease. My favorite is “Neuroglial activation and Neuroinflammation in the Brain of Patients with Autism”. This was published by John Hopkins University. Now, do you want to debate whether mercury, a known neurotoxin, added to childhood vaccines at levels 250 times higher than what the EPA identifies as hazardous waste, causes neuroinflammatory disease? Do you want to debate whether brain damaged kids behave in a way so that some psychiatrist can label them as somewhere on the “spectrum”?
That, “Extensive research” which “has found no connection between autism and vaccines” is about to fall apart. One of the lead authors of the Denmark studies (on which the IOM report totally relied on) Dr. Thorsen, is now being investigated for fraud. Fraud that will make the Lancet thing look petty. Be one of the first to break the story!
Sorry Honey, Vaccines are not just for children anymore. Can you give us the dates on when you recieved your H1N1, seasonal flu shot (s), MMR booster, Td, Pneumococcal, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Meningococcal and HPV vaccines? What? You haven’t had yourself injected with any of these. Call my bluff Honey. Put up the evidence.
Joe Kamel –
I could swear the use of thiomersal (that’s the mercury-containing preservative in vaccines) was phased out almost 10 years ago. That means you should be able to demonstrate a correlated decrease in the number of cases of autism over the same time period.
Alternatively, you could talk down to a scientist and journalist, refer to her as “honey” and tell us all we need to know about your ability to think critically.
Whichever helps you sleep at night.
“fraud that will make the Lancet thing look petty”?
Nothing will make “the Lancet thing” look petty. I hope I never live in a world where a doctor like Wakefield can perform invasive tests on disabled children, with no other reason than to collect data for litigation, and have it be “petty”.
I can not believe people still believe in the so called link between autism and vaccines.
First, as stated earlier, the absolutely convincing “link” (mercury preservative) was phased out long ago. Surprisingly autism rates have not decreased.
Second, increasing autism rates correlate with decreasing of other mental diseases/disorders. In other words, the standards for diagnosing autism have increased. Some children that are currently being diagnosed with autism would have been diagnosed with something else (or nothing at all).
Third, autism is more well known now than in the past. This will also cause a higher diagnosis of autism.
Forth, who says there was no autism in the past. As stated earlier it was described in 1887. I believe there were cases well before then. Those children were just “possessed” or whatever term people without the concept of medical diseases and disorders would have labeled these children.
Fifth, I do believe that the rate of autism and other child-hood and adult diseases and disorders have increased. Link – vaccines, they save lives. Therefore people are able to live to an age that might present a disease/disorder that would not have shown if death occurred early in life.
Nice website about autism. i am from germany and i search for interesting articles so that i can link other autism website from my german autism project autismus1.de
[...] parents who choose to skip vaccinating their own children because of unwarranted fears of autism are putting putting their own and other children at risk. More unvaccinated children leads to more [...]
[...] children dying from preventable diseases such as measles). But a quarter of parents in a poll released last year said that they believed that “some vaccines cause autism in healthy children” and 11.5 percent [...]