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How do vaccines cause autism?
Category: Health
Published: December 19, 2012
By: Christopher S. Baird, author of The Top 50 Science Questions with Surprising Answers and physics professor at West Texas A&M University
Vaccines do not cause autism. No reputable scientific study has ever been able to link the two. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that "there is no relationship between vaccines containing thimerosal and autism rates in children." The Institute of Medicine conducted a scientific review of this topic and stated in their publication Immunization Safety Review that, "The consensus of most scientific experts is that autism is generally caused by early prenatal exposures (such as to valproic acid (Moore et al., 2000) or thalidomide (Stromland et al., 1994)) or is linked to early developmental genes (Ingram et al., 2000; Persico et al., 2001; Wassink et al., 2001)." This review committee concluded that "the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. The committee also concludes that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism." The one publication that made a connection between vaccines and autism was later shown to be fraudulent. The ongoing survival of this myth is perhaps due to the fact that the symptoms of autism first reveal themselves at about the same age that a child receives many vaccines (2-3 years old). According to Dr. Stanley Plotkin's book Vaccines, more lives have been saved by vaccines than by any other medical approach, including antibiotics. It would be irrational and unethical to throw out the life-saving application of vaccines based on an unproven link with autism.
