Flu season is just around the corner and pharmacies are starting to advertise that you get your annual shot to prevent you from getting sick this winter. For many, myself included, we just ignore this psa because we’ve gotten through the last couple years without a shot and without getting sick. There are other reasons why some ignore these suggestions, and they are for more medical reasons. In the past decade, there have been debates about whether vaccines cause Autism in children and that has led to some parents not allowing kids to get vaccinated. Is that healthy, safe or even possible? What we are looking at are vaccines(x-variable), causing Autism(y-variable).

http://www.thesfnews.com/the-children-of-our-vaccination-nation/22054

To give a brief background about what is being tested is to see whether vaccines with Thimerosal (ethyl mercury) make children autistic. In 2001, children 6 years and younger were given Thimerosal-free vaccines, but there is still concern that some vaccines still have it in there. I will be looking at several case studies seeing if correlation equals causation between vaccines and autism, or whether it appears not to be the case. The first two studies are the Wakefield and Denmark Case studies.

Wakefield Case Study:

In 1998, the Wakefield study suggested a correlation between vaccinations and autism. This study only had 12 people being tested here, so that is a very small margin of people that could have autism. There was a bias here because the 12 that were chosen had shown autistic signs when given an MMR vaccination(mumps, rubella, German measles, etc.). There were many study flaws with this study in that the amount of people tested was too small, “selection bias, ethical concerns.” The doctors were not able to prove their hypothesis.

Denmark Case Study:

This study was much better than the Wakefield study because a larger sample was being observed and tested. In most cases, experimental studies are much better because you can see the outcomes and not just make inferences by what you are observing like in the Wakefield case. Also, in the Denmark study,  there is less bias because this looks like a Randomized control trial. What the results are showing is that there are not that many people reporting autism from getting vaccinated or not. So from this case study, correlation does not equal causation, and there is no correlation. There could be third variables affecting the results of the people that did get autism. What this study didn’t mention was whether those people had autism before the study or whether it was after. Also, there could be a correlation between sexes and autism, what type of environment they live in, genetics and other confounding variables. There are so many things that could be affecting that 5-6/10,000, but vaccines are not part of the problem.

There is one case study I read about in TIME Magazine about a girl that had gotten autistic-like symptoms after receiving 9 vaccinations. The parents said that one day after those shots she started fainting and having trouble communicating, when before the vaccination she was talkative. Doctors also noted that Hannah, happened to have a mitochondrial disorder that could have helped in the autistic symptoms. Another thing that could have led to a negative reaction was giving too many vaccines to a child too soon. What doctors concluded was that there is still not enough evidence to designate vaccinations as the cause of autism. But that there should be more studies and it is possible. In the meantime, children should not be given too many vaccinations because their bodies aren’t mature or strong enough to handle all those drugs in their system.

Hannah’s case was special and should not be seen as proof that vaccinations cause autism. In the TIME article, this was a Texas Sharpshooter case because they thought that because something “positive” with their hypothesis came true. This could be considered a fluke, but obviously there are not enough studies or evidence that it is a causation. All we can do is stay healthy and try to figure out why the autistic children born each year are growing.