Over recent years there has been controversy over vaccines and whether or not they cause autism. These questions have led many people to quit vaccinating their children due to the fear of developing autism. Despite many parents concerns, multiple studies on vaccines have proven the assumption wrong; vaccines do not cause autism. There are many different factors that could lead to the development of autism, but most of the time it has been said to be a genetic defect or inflammation of the brain. Although children can develop problems after receiving vaccines such as the MMR vaccine, and others that contain aluminum, none have been found to be the leading cause of autism.
The Wakefield studies that once supported the idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism was proven incorrect when many researchers like Brent Taylor and Madsen realized that the original study had many flaws. Because of this realization, the study was then reevaluated. In 1998 Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a paper claiming that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine caused the development of autism. Both of the studies were found to be flawed due to the fact that the only way to know whether or not the MMR vaccine caused autism is by studying autism in both vaccinated and unvaccinated children which in this case it was not done. One person who was able to provide a valuable study was Brent Taylor who developed a study that tested for autism in vaccinated and unvaccinated children which was able to conclude that “The onset of symptoms of autism did not occur within two, four, or six months of receiving the MMR vaccine” (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2018, p. 6). This is able to help support that from receiving the MMR vaccine it is not what caused autism if there is no symptoms developing within that time frame. Another person who developed an accurate study was Madsen and his co-workers that were able to prove that with the children who have been vaccinated and the ones who do not have the possibility of having autism was the same for both groups. Dr. Wakefield was the first person to provide the idea that the MMR vaccine had anything to do with developing autism which made parents question giving their children their vaccines. There have also been many other ways that the idea that vaccines may cause autism has been proven incorrect. Identical and fraternal twins were examined and the outcome was that “approximately 92 percent of identical and 10 percent of fraternal twins have autism. Therefore, autism clearly has a genetic basis” (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2018, p. 8). If autism was to have another reason of what could be causing it, then it would not be considered based on genetics like it has been proven to be. Home movies are another way that was able to show that the MMR did not cause autism because the symptoms of autism were existent way before the MMR vaccine was even given to the children. In most cases, symptoms of autism will be present before the children actually even get diagnosed with it. Also, the home movies help prove that the symptoms were present during infancy before the children even received many of the vaccines like the MMR vaccine. There has also been evidence that proves that children with autism have structural abnormalities of the nervous system meaning that the abnormalities could only have occurred in the nervous system in the womb (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2018, p. 1-11). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018), “Getting MMR vaccine is much safer than getting the measles, mumps, or rubella disease. Most people who get the MMR vaccine do not have any problems with it” (p. 7). With the MMR vaccine, it usually does not have that severe side effects except for the severe events that very rarely occur would be deafness, long-term seizures, coma, and brain damage. Even though all those side effects can happen, but unlikely the list does not say anything about it leading to the development of autism (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018, p. 7). Overall, even though the Wakefield studies claimed to be right with the idea that the MMR vaccine does cause autism it has since been proven incorrect concluding that the MMR vaccine does not cause autism.
Many people have also brought up the idea that aluminum in vaccines could be a reason why children were developing autism. Aluminum is used in many different things like food, beverages, health products, and some vaccines. It is said to be used in safe amounts not harmful to the body. Some of the vaccines that children receive that have small amounts of aluminum adjuvants contained in them would be the hepatitis A, hepatitis B, diphtheria-tetanus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and pneumococcal vaccines. The MMR, varicella, and rotavirus vaccines do not contain aluminum adjuvants in them. The adjuvants are in vaccines to improve the immune response to the vaccine. According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (2018), “Typically, adults ingest 7 to 9 milligrams of aluminum per day” (p. 2). With that being said it almost clearly shows that even if vaccines did have some aluminum in them people’s body already get aluminum from many different things and it does not harm them. It was also stated that “The quantities of aluminum present in vaccines are low and are regulated by the Centers for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER)” (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2018, p.3). Although some vaccines contain aluminum in them they have such low amounts that it has been tested many times and regulated to make it safe to be in the vaccines. It has been said to be that aluminum is considered toxic specifically to the central nervous system. Some studies have been conducted to try and prove that there is a connection between aluminum exposure and developing autism. Overall even though the studies have been conducted it does not support that vaccines with aluminum have anything to do with the development of autism. As Principi and Esposito (2018) states “ … the total Al exposure from immunization is likely significantly lower than the level that causes neurotoxicity” (p. 5). People have thought that exposure to aluminum was a leading factor in developing autism, but it was proven in many different ways that it does not cause autism even though it may still be considered neurotoxic.
There have been many cases where children have developed problems after receiving their recommended vaccines making people believe that the vaccines may have been the cause of their problems. There was one case with a nine-year-old girl named Hannah Poling that when she was nineteen months old she received five vaccines. Before she received the vaccines she was a typical little girl who was playful, but after receiving them only ten days later she developed a rash and then months later she was diagnosed with encephalopathy which had the same features of having autism. Her parents believed that vaccines are what caused her disease so they decided to take it public where it was said that “For years, federal health agencies and professional organizations had reassured the public that vaccines didn’t cause autism” (Offit, 2008, p. 2). With Hannah’s family going public many other people came forward saying that they believed a certain vaccine caused their disease. It was concluded as “Indeed, features reminiscent of autism are evident in all children with profound impairments in cognition; but these similarities are superficial, and their causal mechanisms and genetic influences are different from those of classic autism” (Offit, 2018, p. 4). Even though in most of the cases they all had autistic features they did not actually have autism proving that it was not vaccines that caused it (Offit, 2018, p. 1-4).
Some parents believed that with the vaccines containing mercury it was what caused their children to develop autism. Most parents that believed that was the case they would stop vaccinating their children. Many parents have different views of it one parent said: “So now my goal is never to put a mercury substance in him…” (Kaufman, 2010, p. 16). Another parent said “After all, autism is present in kids who have been vaccinated. It’s a combination of genetic susceptibility- lots of genes- along with one or more environmental triggers” (Kaufman, 2010, p. 17). The parents do believe that mercury should not be in vaccines, but if the vaccines do not contain it then they are safe and do not cause autism (Kaufman, 2010, p. 1-27). Every vaccine can always have side effects that may happen after receiving them, but more than likely most people will not have any effect from them. With almost all of the vaccines that are recommended for children the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that most of the vaccines there is no problems that arise from them, but some could always have mild problems. For example with the meningococcal vaccine, it is said to be that there could be mild problems that arise after receiving the vaccine like redness or soreness near the location the shot was given but should go away within a day or two. Although with some vaccines children receive they can have problems develop after receiving them, there is not a place that shows that autism or anything very serious is caused right from vaccines (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018, p. 1-15).
Overall, even though children can develop problems after receiving vaccines there are many reasons that prove that vaccines do not cause autism. With the studies being done after the Wakefield studies and along with the studies done with the aluminum and MMR.