Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism. Here's the scoop:

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1. Old Vaccine Myth Debunked: Why vaccines do NOT cause autism

   

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Heading: Old Vaccine Myth Debunked: No, vaccines do NOT cause autism

How do we know that vaccines don’t cause autism?

• There have been a number of studies, analyses, and reviews that carefully examined vaccination and the rates of autism that have found NO link between vaccines and autism

• For example: 

  • In 2019, a population-wide cohort study in Denmark, the largest to date, investigated the potential role of MMR vaccines and autism. They included a total of 657,461 children born from 1999 to 2010 who were followed up between 2000 and 2013 to an average of 8.6 years of age. In Denmark, children receive dose 1 at 15 months, and dose 2 at age 4 (prior to 2008, age 12).

  • 625,842 received the MMR vaccine. Of the entire cohort, about 1% of the children were diagnosed with autism at 6-7 years of age. When comparing vaccinated v. unvaccinated, there was NO link between MMR and autism.

  • This is consistent with a 2014 review in Vaccine that pooled 10 different observational studies and ALSO found no link between MMR and autism.

Despite the plethora of evidence that shows vaccines DO NOT cause autism, how did this myth originate?

• In 1998, Andrew Wakefield published a fraudulent case study in the Lancet, falsely linking MMR vaccines to autism.

Who is Andrew Wakefield?

• Andrew Wakefield is a discredited former British physician (gastroenterological surgeon), who DOES NOT possess a medical license

How do we know his 1998 ‘study’ was fraudulent?

• The ‘study’ included only 12 pre-selected children. This is an EXTREMELY small number to draw any claims.

• The ‘study’ relied heavily on parental anecdotes, in other words, stories from parents

• The ‘study’ included falsified data that was in favor of the claim

• The ‘study’ purposefully excluded data that was NOT in favor of the claim

• In 2004, 10 of the 13 authors of this study retracted the study’s interpretation

Why would he go to such lengths to falsify a ‘study’?

• Andrew Wakefield was paid €435,000 (the equivalent of over 527,000 US dollars) by a personal injury lawyer to develop a case against the vaccine industry

• Additionally, Andrew Wakefield was in the process of developing his own vaccine, from which he would financially profit. His vaccine would have competed against the MMR vaccine, and thus, he wanted to create distrust in the MMR vaccine.

• He also planned to develop a test kit for consumers to diagnose autism-related enterocolitis (44 million/year revenue)

• All financial incentives to ‘find’ a link between MMR vaccines and autism

What happened to Andrew Wakefield and his ‘study’?

• The fraudulent ‘study’ was retracted from the Lancet in 2010

• Andrew Wakefield lost his medical license

Unfortunately, Wakefield has since published books continuing to push the false claim that vaccines are linked to autism

Sources:

• https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347

• https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(04)15715-2/fulltext

• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1345/aph.1D293

• https://journals.lww.com/pidj/Abstract/2010/05000/Lack_of_Association_Between_Measles_Mumps_Rubella.3.aspx

• https://www.insider.com/jenny-mccarthy-became-the-face-of-the-anti-vaxx-movement-2019-4

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X14006367?via%3Dihub

• https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M18-2101

• https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/339620/Myths-and-facts.pdf✎ EditSign✎ EditSign

• https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02989-9

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X21003856?via%3Dihub 

• https://ascpt.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1038/sj.clpt.6100407