Fact or Fiction – Vaccines & Autism

If you Google information about autism, sooner or later you’ll probably come across “anti-vaxxer” groups. Anti-vaxxers are people who believe that vaccines cause autism and that children should not receive vaccinations against common childhood diseases.  Below, we breakdown anti-vaxxer arguments and discuss how the anti-vaxxer movement got started.

Vaccines DO NOT cause Autism!

There is no credible evidence to suggest that the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, or any childhood vaccination causes autism. Multiple studies have been conducted concerning the safety of childhood vaccinations and their link to autism, but no connection has been found.

Do Preservatives in Vaccines Cause Autism?

Since the anti-vax movement began, some have called into question the use of thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury, in vaccines.  After many studies concerning the safety of thimerosal, the scientific community determined that thimerosal is safe to use in vaccines and does not cause autism.  Even though it is safe, thimerosal was removed from or reduced to small amounts in almost all childhood vaccines as a precaution and to reduce vaccine hesitancy.

What Started the Anti-Vaccination (Anti-Vaxx) Movement?

In 1998, a then-doctor named Andrew Wakefield published a paper in which he claimed that the MMR vaccine may cause autism. Thus began the anti-vax movement. Wakefield’s original paper was flawed: it misrepresented data to make it look like there was a connection between vaccines and autism. This misrepresentation later caused the publisher to redact the paper. Andrew Wakefield’s medical license was revoked, and the scientific and medical communities rejected his claims about vaccines. Since the late 1990s, many studies have been conducted to determine whether there is a link between autism and vaccines and to confirm the safety of vaccines. No link between vaccines and autism has been found.

You can read more about the history of vaccines and the history of the anti-vax movement here: Do Vaccines Cause Autism? | History of Vaccines.

This website explains the flaws of the Wakefield study in more detail: Vaccines and Autism

More Resources about Vaccines and Thimerosal: 

Below is a list of scientific studies and resources that examined whether or not there was a link between autism and vaccines. The consistent conclusion was that there is no link between ASD and vaccines (click on the title of each subpoint to see the entirety of scientific article to which we’re referring).

• Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses. This review was written to address three specific concerns that have been raised: 1) Does the MMR vaccine cause autism?  2) Does thimerosal (a preservative sometimes used in vaccines) cause autism?  3) Do vaccines given simultaneously weaken a child’s immune system?  This paper reviewed many different studies and determined that: The MMR vaccine does not cause autism.  Thimerosal does not cause autism.  Giving multiple vaccines at once is safe and does not overwhelm or weaken the immune system.

• Autism and Vaccines This website provides links to many studies that investigated whether vaccines caused autism, if preservatives in vaccines caused autism, and other questions concerned parents may have.

• Autism and Vaccines | Vaccine Safety Here, the CDC writes about the safety of vaccines and thimerosal. They also provide a list of scientific articles for further reading about vaccine safety.

• https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/pdf/cdcstudiesonvaccinesandautism.pdf This informational poster provides summaries and citations to many of the studies conducted on the safety of thimerosal.

The Importance of Vaccinations:

• Protecting your Child: By vaccinating your children, you are helping their immune systems learn to recognize and fight off an illness before they even get sick. Vaccines are a safe and effective way to protect a person from deadly and/or life-altering illnesses.
• Protecting the Community: Vaccinations not only protect the vaccinated individual, but they help protect the community from the disease as well! When many people are vaccinated in a community, it becomes harder for diseases to spread from one person to another. This concept is called “herd immunity.” Herd immunity is important because it helps protect those who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons. By vaccinating yourself and your family, you are helping prevent the spread of disease in your community!
• You can learn more about the importance of vaccinations here!
• You can learn more about herd immunity by clicking on the topics below:
  • Herd Immunity Animation
  • Herd immunity

Article by Katie Mcgraw and The Autism ToolKit