Do immunizations cause autism?

Factual Questions
1

This seems a bit conspiracy-theory-ish to me, but it came up the other day. I was talking with a friend and somehow we came on the topic of the rising number of autism cases. She seemed pretty convinced that the reason for this was immunizations. Apparently, in China autism was quite rare until modern western medicine bashed down the door and brought evil, evil vaccinations upon the locals, and autism quickly became “rampant.”

I have a hard time believing this. Is there any truth to what she says?

2

None whatsoever.

3

[QUOTE=WoodenTaco]
This seems a bit conspiracy-theory-ish to me, but it came up the other day. I was talking with a friend and somehow we came on the topic of the rising number of autism cases. She seemed pretty convinced that the reason for this was immunizations. Apparently, in China autism was quite rare until modern western medicine bashed down the door and brought evil, evil vaccinations upon the locals, and autism quickly became “rampant.”

I have a hard time believing this. Is there any truth to what she says?
[/QUOTE]

The issue has been the mercury-containing preservative Thimerosal in some vaccines. Some people have said that the minuscule amounts of mercury increase the risk of autism. However, large studies indicate otherwise.

4

A study in 1998 that “proved” that the MMR caused autism & iIBS was based on just 12 children and later retracted by most of the authors - but apparently not doctor Wakefield who still has his name attached to the theory. Several other studies afterwards found their findings to be baseless, but the meme remains amongst parents to this day anyway.

Japan banned the MMR but their autism rates continue to climb…

5

[QUOTE=elfkin477]
Japan banned the MMR but their autism rates continue to climb…
[/QUOTE]

And the U.S. banned thimerosal from vaccines quite a while ago, but there is no sign at this point of diagnosis rates falling …

6

[QUOTE=AndrewL]
None whatsoever.
[/QUOTE]

Ditto.

7

Autism is strongly associated with genetic transmission, and is thought to be a dominant, reinforcing trait, i.e. two parents with mild autistic traits are more likely to have a demonstratably autistic child. There is some speculation–as far as I know, as yet unsubstanciated–that certain common viruses may contribute to or trigger autistic conditions. The claim that autism results from vaccines has been as thoroughly debunk as the claim that it is the result of “emotionally cold” mothers.

Stranger

8

Weird. I watched as my son “coincidentally” lost skills within days of each vaccine. The “large studies” have all been paid for by those with the most to lose if the studies proved that vaccines are in fact not as safe as we’d like to believe.

I really don’t think it’s just the thimerosol. I think it’s a weakness in the blood-brain barrier that few children have. I believe my son has that weakness, and that each assault sent him further away.

Today, I found out that the rate of Autism is currently 1 in 150 children in the US. When I was pregnant with my son, the rate was 1 in 10,000.

Clearly, if it’s not vaccines, it’s something. That kind of increase is NOT just better diagnosis.

I won’t debate this. I documented my son’s first 2 years. I KNOW what I saw. Read “What You Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations”. Lots of real live medical doctors contributed to that one.

9

What I read somewhere is that the age autism usually shows up was around the same age as certain immunizations are given.

ETA: I mean, it’s one of those “correlation doesn’t imply causation” and that.

10

[QUOTE=Guinastasia]
What I read somewhere is that the age autism usually shows up was around the same age as certain immunizations are given.
[/QUOTE]
This is indeed what was taught in my genetics class in medical school, as part of the unit on autism (Fall 2006).

If a person denies a child the MMR vaccine based on fears of autism, they are not doing their child any favors. Thimerosal has nothing to do with autism. But even if it DID, an autistic child is better than a dead one, no?

11

[QUOTE=WishIHadACoolName]
Today, I found out that the rate of Autism is currently 1 in 150 children in the US.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know where you got this figure but this is utterly unsupported, even if you class together all people who clearly fall into the DSM-IV Autistic Specrtum Disorder pathology and Asperger’s Syndrome. There are certainly a lot of people running around claiming to be autistic (Steven Spielberg, for one, claims to have autism, even though he is clearly unimpaired and socially functional without remediation) but while the diagnoses of autism have increased in the last couple of decades–though nothing on the order of what you claim–this is likely due to an increased awareness of autism as a pathology rather than classifying Auties/Aspies as merely “retarded” or “not right” along with an acknowledgement that autistic behavior, like attentional disorders, encompasses a much broader spectrum than previously allowed for. If you’re going to classify the traditional “geek” who has trouble with body language and social interaction as an ASD sufferer then you’re artificially inflating the scope of the problem.

As for your personal experience I can’t say anything more than that studies–run by the CDC, the WHO, and other non-pharmaceutical sources–have failed to demonstrate any causal or even statistically correlative link between autism and environmental impulses, including vaccines, and that researchers and diagnosticians give low weight to the personal observations of parents for a very good reason; what they observe and remember is often colored by their emotions (fear, anxiety, remorse, et cetera). There could be an environmental link to autism, but so far no one has been able to demonstrate it in any clear way, and at least to my limited and admittedly nonexpert perusal of the issue the increases in autisic diagnosis seem more likely the statistical artifact of increased awareness, not actual incidence.

Stranger

12

Going into GD area, but the question has been answered IMHO I agree the answer is “no”. But some recent small studies did intrigue me as to one of the possible causes of autism, and that’s ultrasounds. That one to me personally hit closest to home as our daughter had a cyst in her brain that made my wife have numerous extra ultrasounds to monitor our daughters progress. Autism has so many faces, so many different aspects, again IMHO I think there is no one cause, but finding even one cause may help us find a way to prevent it.

13

[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train]
I don’t know where you got this figure but this is utterly unsupported, even if you class together all people who clearly fall into the DSM-IV Autistic Specrtum Disorder pathology and Asperger’s Syndrome. There are certainly a lot of people running around claiming to be autistic (Steven Spielberg, for one, claims to have autism, even though he is clearly unimpaired and socially functional without remediation) but while the diagnoses of autism have increased in the last couple of decades–though nothing on the order of what you claim–this is likely due to an increased awareness of autism as a pathology rather than classifying Auties/Aspies as merely “retarded” or “not right” along with an acknowledgement that autistic behavior, like attentional disorders, encompasses a much broader spectrum than previously allowed for. If you’re going to classify the traditional “geek” who has trouble with body language and social interaction as an ASD sufferer then you’re artificially inflating the scope of the problem.

As for your personal experience I can’t say anything more than that studies–run by the CDC, the WHO, and other non-pharmaceutical sources–have failed to demonstrate any causal or even statistically correlative link between autism and environmental impulses, including vaccines, and that researchers and diagnosticians give low weight to the personal observations of parents for a very good reason; what they observe and remember is often colored by their emotions (fear, anxiety, remorse, et cetera). There could be an environmental link to autism, but so far no one has been able to demonstrate it in any clear way, and at least to my limited and admittedly nonexpert perusal of the issue the increases in autisic diagnosis seem more likely the statistical artifact of increased awareness, not actual incidence.

Stranger
[/QUOTE]

All through the news today actually,

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/02/08/autism.prevalence.ap/index.html

14

Yes, it would be so much better if we had polio, smallpox and rubella back instead of autism.

15

[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train]
Autism is strongly associated with genetic transmission, and is thought to be a dominant, reinforcing trait, i.e. two parents with mild autistic traits are more likely to have a demonstratably autistic child.
[/QUOTE]

This may very well explain the rise in Autism. Since we can now fairly successfully treat milder forms, and since some of the milder forms (such as asperger’s) can have workplace value (think silicon valley), and since this then can lead to the union of two asperger’s “sufferers”, more Autism results. Read this article for more info: The Geek Syndrome

16

[QUOTE=RickJay]
Yes, it would be so much better if we had polio, smallpox and rubella back instead of autism.
[/QUOTE]

That’s disingenuous as the people who believe vaccinations cause autism usually specify the mercury (Thimerosal) as the cause and since that was removed in all but the flu vaccine then if* it was the cause I am thinking they could find a way to remove it from that as well.
*Not that I agree that there is a link at all.

17

There’s a side-plot on The Shield about this. Vic’s wife tries to get him to sign on for a class-action lawsuit against the vaccine companies, alleging that they caused his son’s autism. When I saw it I wondered if there were actually people who subscribed to this theory.

If the vaccines caused autism, why would they cause it in some children and not others? What is these people’s answer to that?

As for the “Geek Syndrome” article, I have to wonder how much of that is nature and how much is nurture. Have there been any studies on children of autistic parents? Or adopted children of autistic parents?

18

[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
There’s a side-plot on The Shield about this. Vic’s wife tries to get him to sign on for a class-action lawsuit against the vaccine companies, alleging that they caused his son’s autism. When I saw it I wondered if there were actually people who subscribed to this theory.

If the vaccines caused autism, why would they cause it in some children and not others? What is these people’s answer to that?
[/QUOTE]

While this is of course an insane theory, I have to point out that this line of argumentation is illogical. Some people smoke and never get lung cancer, but that doesn’t serve as evidence that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer.

19

[QUOTE=WishIHadACoolName]
Weird. I watched as my son “coincidentally” lost skills within days of each vaccine. The “large studies” have all been paid for by those with the most to lose if the studies proved that vaccines are in fact not as safe as we’d like to believe

…

I won’t debate this. I documented my son’s first 2 years. I KNOW what I saw. Read “What You Doctor May Not Tell You About Children’s Vaccinations”. Lots of real live medical doctors contributed to that one.
[/QUOTE]

There have been more than seventeen studies now, paid for by eveything from pharmaceutical companies to parents organizations to governments (and not just the US ones). They all show no effect. Autism rates are rising across the world, even in countries that do not routinely vaccinate at all.

Vaccines do not cause autism. Lack of vaccines do cause polio, german measels, mumps, whooping cough, and a host of other diseases that we almost wiped out, but are now on the rise. My county had hundreds of cases of whooping cough last year, attributable to parents not getting their kids vaccinated because of this nonsense. Polio is on the rise again, and if that doesn’t frighten you, it’s time to learn more about it.

Are there allergic reactions to vaccinations? Sure. Perhaps your child had one, but they’re rare. Children undergo massive, daily changes in their personalities, skills, and other abilities around age two – it’s why this myth is so pervasive (it’s also about as early as you can notice signs of autism). It could very well have been nothing but coincidence, or ir could be a vaccine reaction, or an allergy, or even real autism showing it’s face for the first time. I’m not a doctor.

“I will not debate this, I know what I saw” is disingenuous. We’re supposed to allow a scientific falsehood (vaccination causes autism) to go unchallenged out of pity for your son. Well, I am sorry for your son’s reaction, regardless of cause. But I won’t let this go unchallenged. Widespread childhood vaccination is one of the great success stories of our time, dramatically lowering dangerous diseases and child/infant mortality. It’s virtually eradicated some of these diseases in the US, and unsubstantiated nonsense is already eroding that success. This is the life and death of our kids we’re talking about here, not telephone psychics. The stakes are far, far too high for us to give this one a pass.

20

[QUOTE=RickJay]
While this is of course an insane theory, I have to point out that this line of argumentation is illogical. Some people smoke and never get lung cancer, but that doesn’t serve as evidence that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, but if I asked an oncologist why some people get lung cancer and others don’t, I assume he’d be able to tell me why. If the proponents of this autism theory were questioned similarly, would they be able to produce any explanation as to why some children are more vulnerable to autism caused by the mercury than others? If so, what would it be?