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February 2015
Since the measles outbreak in California, there has been a lot of online and media discussion about vaccine safety. Is there a link between vaccines and autism?
When making decisions about your child’s health care, it can be hard to wade through all the information and make a choice you feel good about. All parents carry some burden of guilt or worry when our kids are hurt or sick.
Here is some information we hope you’ll find useful in guiding your decisions about vaccinating your children.
In 1998, a study of 12 children published in the U.K. first suggested a link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and developmental delays in those children. This single study spawned a wave of criticism of the government-recommended vaccination schedule for children in the U.K. and in the U.S. It also shined a spotlight on the lead author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, and prompted scientists to launch much larger-scale studies to verify his findings.
In 2004, Wakefield was found to have had conflicts of interest in conducting that research: he accepted money from a law firm that was planning a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers, and he had a financial interest in an alternative MMR vaccine product that would benefit from discrediting the standard combined vaccine. The publication retracted the study’s data interpretation, and 10 of the 13 authors retracted their contributions in light of these conflicts of interest.
In 2010, the paper was fully retracted when Wakefield was found guilty of ethical violations related to mistreatment of the children in the study and of misrepresenting the data. He also lost his medical license.
Since 1998, dozens of studies – on thousands more patients, at the epidemiological level, with stringent scientific methods – have concluded that there is no link between vaccines and autism.
Health professionals who perpetuate Wakefield’s refuted findings are not supported by the evidence, including findings published here, here, and here.
Any medicine, even an over the counter pain reliever, carries risks. For many people with conditions like asthma or gastrointestinal disorders, aspirin can make their conditions worse. Patients with liver disease risk liver failure if they take ibuprofen. And, there will be patients who have adverse reactions to vaccines. The CDC maintains a Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund to assist those patients who discover their adverse reactions after being immunized.
Vaccines, however, do not cause autism.
At the Thompson Center, we see patients with autism spectrum disorders for diagnosis and treatment. But, we also see lots of children with other developmental concerns, including premature birth, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and multiple developmental disabilities. Some of these children have compromised immune systems stemming from their primary medical conditions. Some cannot tolerate even the very low risk of infection in vaccines and therefore can’t be immunized.
If an otherwise healthy and unvaccinated child were to contract measles, that child has an excellent chance of recovering. However, if a premature newborn or an immune-compromised child like some we treat were to come into contact – at the doctor’s office, the park, the grocery store, anywhere in the community – with a child incubating measles, that patient is at far greater risk of death or permanent disability.
We are certain that fears that vaccines cause autism are unfounded. And for the benefit of all of our patients and the wider public health, we urge all families to consider not only their own family’s situation but others in the community whose health is also affected by these decisions.