Why Do Vaccines Cause Autism?

The debate on vaccines and autism has been going on for years now and there still isn’t a definite answer to the confusion. The debate is still ongoing because some parents are still noticing changes in their children after being vaccinated, and the number of children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders are still rising at a very fast rate. This leads to parents being confused and scared for the health of their babies. Researchers have come up with a few reasons as to why vaccines could be causing autism.
What is autism? Autism is a developmental disorder. It affects the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills. There are five different autism spectrum disorders; PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Delay), Autism

(also called Classic Autism, Early Infantile Autism, Childhood Autism, or Autistic Disorder), Asperger Syndrome, Rett Syndrome, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. Each child that is diagnosed with autism is unique in their own way. Many children on the autism spectrum develop exceptional abilities in visual skills, music and academic skills. Some symptoms of autism can include delayed speech, increase or decrease in response to sensory stimuli, avoidance of human eye contact, repetitive motor behaviors, resistance to change, and sometimes aggression or self-injury. The obvious signs and symptoms start to show up between the ages of two and three years old. There are studies that show that autism is four to five times more common in boys than in girls. (Dr. Julian Whitaker) It is estimated that one out of 42 boys will be diagnosed, and one out of 189 girls will be diagnosed in the U.S. (Dr. Julian Whitaker) The roots of autism start to show up in early brain development. One known fact is that genetics play a major role in determining whether a child will be autistic or not. One in 91 American children appear somewhere on the autism spectrum, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health, and thirty years ago the rate was one in 2,500. (Dr. Julian Whitaker) With this, the rate in autism has increased a lot since 30 years ago. The exact cause of autism still has not been found. There isn’t any promises that a child won’t be born without it, but doctors give mothers some advice to help reduce the risks of their children developing it. Some examples would be to take prenatal vitamins that contain folic acid, or for the mothers to have a diet that is rich in folic acids during and after conception. They suggest having at least 600 mcg a day.
Between 18-24 months old is when parents start to notice behaviors of autism from their children, and when they are at that age, most childhood vaccines have already been given to them. The symptoms start to show up the same time routine vaccinations are scheduled. Because of that, parents start to assume that childhood vaccines cause the onset of autism. The current recommended immunization schedule for children aged 0-6 years in the U.S. is: six vaccines at two months and nine vaccines at 12-15 months according to the recommended schedule for vaccines. (Martin Downs) Over the past six years, the recommendations for vaccines have increased. At two months of age, the immune system is sensitive and compromised, which is why this is a challenge for many vaccines to be given to babies. It is said that the timing of introduction with vaccines, the type of vaccines given, and the increasing number of vaccines that are given to babies could be a cause of onset to autism. The percentage of parents who waited to have their babies get vaccines, or didn’t have them done at all, rose from 22% in 2003 to 39% in 2008. (Lauren Hansen) Medical experts are working to prove that childhood vaccine schedules are safe.
Scientists say that there are two different issues concerning vaccines and autism. (Martin Downs) One issue is the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The other issue has to do with the childhood vaccines that contain thimerosal. This all has been taken very seriously. In 2001, parents of autistic children filed petitions trying to get compensation through the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. This was all established in 1988 for the children who were hurt from childhood vaccines. There were 12, 850 cases filed, and out of all of the cases filed, 5,535 cases represented autism cases. (Lauren Hansen)
A preservative that is used in vaccines called thimerosal, is said to be toxic to the central nervous system, and that is what people thought was causing the rate of autism to be so high. Why was thimerosal added to vaccines? Many vaccines are stored in large multi-dose vials, so health workers could draw individual doses, which left the vaccine vulnerable to contamination every time the rubber top was punctured by a new syringe. Vaccine manufacturers started to add preservatives to all multi-dose vials of vaccines, because there were many deadly incidents of contaminated vaccines in the 1920s. (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction) Thimerosal used to be one of the most widely used preservatives in the world. It has been used as a preservative to stop the growth of bacteria and fungi in vaccines for over 70 years now. Sometimes people experience side effects from being exposed to thimerosal after being vaccinated, and they can include redness and swelling. Some studies were done in the late 1990’s by Mark Geier M.D. and his son David Mark Geier that showed that thimerosal triggered autism. They came to the conclusion that children who were exposed to thimerosal from vaccines were six times as likely to have autism compared to unexposed children. (Vaccines and Autism: Separating fact from fiction) They got their information on the analysis of data from the Vaccine Event Reporting System (VAERS). VAERS is a U.S. government reporting system that compares vaccine-related health complaints. In 1998 there were 30 different vaccines that had contained thimerosal that were given to children. The U.S. Public Health Service and the AAP asked the vaccine makers to take out the thimerosal that is used in vaccines. The vaccines given to children were all thimerosal-free by 2001. Since thimerosal has been taken out of vaccines, it is more expensive for the vaccine manufacturers now. They now store the vaccines in individual dose vials or prefilled syringes. Autism rates were still rising after the vaccine companies took out the preservative. Since the last 15 years, different medical institutions have looked over all of the cases and evidence. All of them came to the conclusion that being exposed to thimerosal and autism aren’t linked together. In August of 2003, an issue that came from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine was published and it showed the rates of Denmark and Sweden, where they stopped using thimerosal in vaccines in 1992. From 1987 through 1999, the rate for autism still continued to grow upward. (Vaccines and Autism: Separating fact from fiction) If there would have been a link between thimerosal and autism, the number of cases would have been expected to drop. Experts looked at the data point closely and the rise in autism rates does not correspond to an increase in exposure to thimerosal. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examined data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink in 2003. This is a database where eight HMOs keep track of their patients’ vaccine records, even adverse reactions. The records showed more than 120,000 children at two different HMOs. There wasn’t a difference found in autism rates, among children exposed to different levels of thimerosal. (Vaccines and Autism: Separating fact from fiction) The Institute of Medicine (a division of the National Academy of Sciences) evaluated research from an issue in 2004. “This included five major studies that examined the health records of hundreds of thousands of children from the U.S., Britain, Denmark, and Sweden. This institute came to the conclusion that “the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.” (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction) In February of 2009, a CDC-funded study published the issue of Pediatrics. It compared children who received DTaP vaccines containing thimerosal and then other children who received the DTaP vaccines without it. There was no neurological or developmental harm found to the children in the study who got the vaccines that had thimerosal in them. (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction) In the October 2010 issue of Pediatrics, a study was published. The study talked about prenatal and infants being exposed to thimerosal and how it doesn’t make the risk for autism any higher. There was 256 children with autism compared to 752 children without autism. The researchers found that the children with autism didn’t receive any more amounts of thimerosal in their vaccines than those who didn’t have autism. (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction) “The study was conducted by the CDC Haward Medical School Kaiser Permanente, and the University of California’s Center for Vaccine Research, among others.” (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction) In 2004, there was evidence from five epidemiological studies. Three of the studies had over 100,000 children involved. (Immunization Action Coalition) The studies didn’t support that there was a link between autism and thimerosal-containing vaccines.
A mercury compound called ethyl mercury is found in thimerosal.

Thimerosal contains a form of mercury that people suspect to be causing autism. Different symptoms of mercury poisoning can include: irritability, depression, anxiety, visual problems, speech problems, and sensory nerve problems. When it all comes down to it, mercury is and can be very harmful. “Methylmercury accumulates in human tissue and, at certain levels, can impair cognitive development in young children.” (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction) The mercury that was used in vaccines doesn’t accumulate in the body. The mercury found in contaminated fish and water is called methylmercury, and can build up in the body and cause severe nerve damage if ingested. Methylmercury is not the same as methyl mercury. The human body eliminates ethyl mercury faster than methylmercury, which means that ethyl mercury doesn’t accumulate in human tissue. U.S. public health officials had come to the realization that the mercury that was given to children in the vaccines exceeded the limit considered safe by government standards. It is said that babies might have been exposed to a cumulative dose of 187.5 micrograms from all sources during the first six months of their life. To this day, childhood vaccines contain no more than trace amounts of thimerosal. By the age of six months old, they are exposed to a cumulative dose of less than 3 mcg of mercury from vaccines. (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from

fiction)
Wasn’t there a link between the MMR vaccine and autism? MMR stands for measles, mumps and rubella. People sometimes confuse thimerosal and the MMR vaccine? Thimerosal has never been used in the MMR vaccine. Ten years ago is when the MMR scare first started. A report that was published in The Lancet that had cases with eight different children who had developed the symptoms of autism and digestive ailments. (Martin Downs) This didn’t happen long after they were vaccinated with the MMR for the first time. Researchers thought the vaccine triggered a form of regressive autism, which was unknown. (Martin Downs) It was suggested by the researchers that “maybe the measles virus in the vaccine lodged in the intestine, causing some kind of reaction that then affected the brain. “It was studied whether the MMR vaccine could cause autism or not.” (Martin Downs) The clues came from children who did and didn’t get the vaccine. There were 14 studies, with clues from over millions of children in different countries. (Martin Downs) It showed that there was no difference in the autism rates among children who did get the MMR vaccine and who didn’t get the vaccine. (Martin Downs) Another study on the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism was done in 1998. (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction) The study was published by the British medical journal The Lancet. Out of the 12 autistic children being studied, eight of the children, after they got the MMR vaccine, started to show symptoms of autism. It was hypothesized that the children were having a physical reaction to the vaccine. (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction) In 2002, it was concluded that the MMR vaccine wasn’t responsible for the rise in autism among children through the U.S. (Lauren Hansen) That was the second time the study was debunked since the original 1998 study. There was also 14 more epidemiological studies done by scientists that proved there wasn’t a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. (Martin Downs) “The bottom line: it’s very unlikely that the MMR causes autism, researchers say.” (Immunization Action Coalition)
There have been many large studies made to investigate the specific concerns from everyone, but there has never been a link found between vaccines and autism. To this day, autism and its causes still are not fully known by anyone. There are tons of evidence from scientists that say that vaccines are not a cause. (Immunization Action Coalition) Since 2004, more studies have been done and their conclusion between vaccines and autism still hasn’t changed. (Immunization Action Coalition)
Some parents still think to this day that vaccinations cause autism, and don’t have their babies get the required vaccinations to help keep them healthy. There are some risks to take when parents do not want their children immunized. The benefits of vaccinating children by far outweigh the risks. There is a certain percent of children who do have reactions to vaccines, but the incidents that happen are rare. Consider the large amounts of children vaccinated each year and many children they do not affect. Doctors remind parents of the number of serious diseases and how vaccinations can help control or eliminate them. Some examples are polio and measles. Polio hasn’t been in the United States for decades, with the help of vaccinations. Measles still kill children in Africa every day, but is eliminated from the United States for the most part. “Our vaccination program has been one of the most successful health campaigns - in terms of saving lives - in history. But it will only continue to be successful if people have their children vaccinated.” (Vaccines and autism: Separating fact from fiction)
After a lot of research on this topic, it is most likely not true that vaccines can cause autism. Vaccines are essential in helping to stay healthy and to help keep diseases away. To this day, there is still no definite answer for autism and what exactly causes it. There also is not a definite answer on the subject that has to do with vaccines and if they can cause autism. This is still a problem that parents are concerned with, and research is still happening today over the subject.