It’s the time of year that is commonly referred to as flu season. It’s often heard that illness spreads like wildfire through the dorm buildings and the flu shot is an important step to prevent getting sick. Everyone has their personal views in support of or against vaccines, but many parents are leaving their children unnecessarily vulnerable to disease in fear that getting them vaccinated will cause them to develop autism. Fortunately, there is no truth to this fear.

The supposed connection between vaccines and autism has been a topic in the media for many years, but the idea was first presented back in 1998. British surgeon and medical researcher Dr. Andrew Wakefield claimed to have discovered a link between vaccines and autism in a study that he published in The Lancet. The specific vaccine at fault was MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella). It is important to note that Wakefield’s study had no control group and was not based on statistics. The paper was later retracted and Wakefield’s medical license revoked, but the claim caught the attention of many and stuck. Although this has been investigated for over a decade with studies of over 25,782,500 children, “one in four United States parents believe some vaccines cause autism in healthy children”.

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An article in Oxford Journals explained the hypothesis connecting autism to the MMR vaccine. The article states, “the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism by damaging the intestinal lining, which allows the entrance of encephalopathic proteins”. Researchers in various countries performed studies addressing this hypothesis, and found no correlation between the number of vaccinated children and number of children diagnosed with autism. The CDC explained that, “since 2003, there have been nine CDC funded or conducted studies that have found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism in children”. An article written by PBS News also clearly states, “no link with autism – not to any vaccines – has been found”. In April of this year, the Autism Speaks organization published an article regarding this issue. The article discusses a study, the largest ever of its kind, which studied over 95,000 children. The article explains, “consistent with studies in other populations, we observed no association between MMR vaccination and increased autism risk”.

 
This topic relates back to the fourth pop quiz we had in this class, the article titled What Really Causes Autism? The article only briefly mentions vaccines, but also connects the vaccine fear to celebrities. This made me curious, since when do we trust celebrities more than certified doctors?

Even though, as we discussed in class, no vaccine is 100 percent safe, it has been proven that vaccines will not cause autism. Although it may leave your arm a little sore, it’s worth it to be vaccinated.