Misconceptions that Kill #2: Vaccines Cause Autism

I've written several times in past years on the importance of vaccinating yourself and your kids from very deadly diseases.  Unfortunately there is a very deadly misconception that vaccines cause autism.  The science is very clear on this.  Vaccines do NOT cause autism.  Why does this misconception exist?  There are a couple of reasons.

For starters, in 1998 Andrew Wakefield, a British medical researcher, published a study linking the MMR vaccine to autism in kids.  Long story short, the article was retracted when the study could not be reproduced and Wakefield was later found guilty of intentional fraud with the goal of financial gain.  In other words, he cherry picked his data to produce the result he wanted for his own financial gain.

Further studies have found no connection at all between vaccines and autism.  But the damage is done.  There is a significant portion of the population that is fearful of vaccines and much of this fear comes from Wakefield's 'study'.  The result is the return of diseases that were nearly eradicated.  Measles is making a comeback, particularly so in certain regions of the U.S. where there are a larger number of vaccinated children.

Another reason leading to this misconception is the timing in which autism is often diagnosed in children.  Autism is typically diagnosed right around the time kids are receiving vaccines.  But this does not imply causation.  Many studies have analyzed the MMR vaccine and there is no evidence whatsoever this leads to autism in children.

Measles is a disease that kills.  Across the world in 2015, over 134,000 people died of measles, mostly in African countries where the rate of vaccination is very low.  Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine in the U.S. in the 1960s, several million people were diagnosed with measles and deaths numbered in the hundreds every year.  A simple, extremely safe, vaccine basically dropped those numbers down to zero.  In recent years the U.S. has seen an increases in measles diagnoses.  Numbers are still low, but it's scary to think we have the ability to completely eradicate this disease but people have the misconception the measles vaccine (and others) cause autism in children.

Therefore the 'vaccines cause autism' misconception is one that literally kills.