# Diet Coke is worse than vaccines! It really causes autism! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 27, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-is-worse-than-vaccines-it-really-causes-autism/990792 "2023-09-27T21:53:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2023, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-is-worse-than-vaccines-it-really-causes-autism/990792/41 "2023-09-30T22:24:28Z")
That autism also happens in higher numbers in children from multiple pregnancies, who are also much more likely to be premature, suggests to me that prematurity may indeed be a contributing factor in some cases. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-is-worse-than-vaccines-it-really-causes-autism/990792/42 "2023-10-01T13:12:52Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > (Although honestly, from my mother’s description, i think the problem was that i caught measles from the vaccine, not that i had a weird vaccine reaction. Unless you had an immunodeficiency disorder, this is not a credible scenario. A defective vaccine would have caused an outbreak traceable to the vaccine. > [@](#): > > Because their immune system is working hard after vaccination, some children who get the vaccine can have mild symptoms such as a fever or rash, but it’s not measles, just the body building immunity to the measles virus so that they don’t get sick if they’re ever exposed. [Measles Vaccination: Myths and Facts](https://www.idsociety.org/public-health/measles/myths-and-facts/#:~:text=Myth%3A%20The%20MMR%20vaccine%20can%20cause%20measles.&text=Because%20their%20immune%20system%20is,if%20they%27re%20ever%20exposed). ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-is-worse-than-vaccines-it-really-causes-autism/990792/43 "2023-10-01T13:55:53Z")
This was very early in the history of the vaccine. It was a live attenuated vaccine. My cohort was told we needed to be revaccinated because the vaccine wasn’t uniformly produced, and some batches were too attenuated to work properly. While it might just have been that my brother had traditional measles symptoms and i was sick for a month due to a weird immune response, it also seems plausible that our batch wasn’t attenuated enough and we caught measles. It is because i was afraid it was a weird immune response, and not a case of measles, that i got tested for immunity, though. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-is-worse-than-vaccines-it-really-causes-autism/990792/44 "2023-10-01T22:27:53Z")
Back in the early days of polio vaccines, there was The Cutter Incident, where a batch containing a strain of super-strength polio virus accidentally made its way into the live-virus vaccine pool. I can’t believe it isn’t better known, although I’ll grant that it’s faded into the mist of medical history. > **[The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1383764/)** ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-is-worse-than-vaccines-it-really-causes-autism/990792/45 "2023-10-02T00:45:43Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Back in the early days of polio vaccines, there was The Cutter Incident, where a batch containing a strain of super-strength polio virus accidentally made its way into the live-virus vaccine pool. There were multiple problems leading to the tragedy, including failure by Cutter to inactivate vaccine virus and insufficient safety testing. Paul Offit explains what happened in [this book](https://www.amazon.com/Cutter-Incident-Americas-Vaccine-Growing/dp/0300126050). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2023, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-is-worse-than-vaccines-it-really-causes-autism/990792/46 "2023-10-02T18:21:37Z")
I’ve read it. It was a failure on multiple levels. The issue is addressed in the PBS “American Experience” program about polio, but don’t watch the snipped 1-hour version. Watch the full 2-hour program to get more of the story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diet-coke-is-worse-than-vaccines-it-really-causes-autism/990792.md?page=2)