C.D.C. Will Investigate Debunked Link Between Vaccines and Autism

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to conduct a large-scale study to re-examine whether there is a connection between vaccines and autism, federal officials said Friday. Dozens of scientific studies have failed to find evidence of a link. But the C.D.C. now falls under the purview of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long expressed skepticism about the safety of vaccines and has vowed to revisit the data.

 Finally HHS to investigate the link between vaccines and autism

Actress Jenny McCarthy has remained outspoken about the connection between vaccines and autism after her son was diagnosed following a round of shots. Of course, she was labeled as crazy, but now, she might finally be vindicated. “If they uncover now, if they are forced to admit now, after how many decades of telling everyone this is safe and effective and your children must have it, it’s mandatory for them to go to school,” she says, “I mean, it would be a total disaster for us to now have the United States government, the same government that told you to go get the shots that maimed people’s children to then say, ‘Actually, we were wrong this whole time.’”

The Autism Cover-Up Simpsonwood Scandal: 25 Years of Fraud & Corruption

The orchestrated autism cover-up from 25 years ago continues today. It’s time the truth is revealed. CHD will expose what happened behind closed doors at the secret Simpsonwood meeting in June of 2000, where CDC, FDA, WHO and pharma officials reviewed explosive data linking vaccines with autism and neurological damage… and then buried it. Tune in to uncover the shocking truths from leaked transcripts and learn how this clandestine summit still impacts the autism crisis.

The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public

The Big Autism Cover-Up explores how news outlets downplay the impact of autism while backing the official denial of any link between the disorder and vaccines. Despite never honestly and thoroughly investigating the link, mainstream news sources continue to challenge those who question the safety of vaccines and the mounting evidence that an unchecked, unsafe vaccination schedule is behind the exponential increase in autism. Anne Dachel has spent the last ten years monitoring how the press covers autism. She's seen the media promote the unrelenting message from health officials that autism hasn't really increased, but rather that it is simply a matter of better diagnosing of a disorder that's always been around. Meanwhile, autism remains a perpetual mystery, and scientists continue to guess at the genetic and environmental triggers.

Vaccines and Autism: New Study Confirms Risk

While the public health agencies, the CDC, the AAP, and most doctors are still repeating the old lie that “vaccines are safe and effective” and that there is no link between vaccines and autism, more and more data and studies are proving without a doubt that vaccines are indeed a strong cause of autism.

Vaccines Don't Cause Autism. Why Do Some People Think They Do?

How a retracted study from the 1990s undermined trust in vaccines and led to a persistent myth. I’m a scientist and I believe in the value of science. The science that has been done has shown that vaccines are very safe. They’re not perfectly safe; they do sometimes, very rarely cause adverse reactions. But when it comes to autism, the science has already largely been done. If you gave me a pot of money and said, let’s do more vaccine safety research, autism would not be high up on this list because the existing science is already quite compelling.

Why do false claims that vaccines cause autism refuse to die? Here are nine reasons

Evidence shows that vaccines do not cause autism or are the reason for increasing diagnosis rates. But it is also in the nature of science that it can neither verify nor exclude totally that vaccines contribute to autism in single individuals.

A massive study shows there’s no connection between measles vaccinations and autism

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Tuesday, collected population data — vaccinations, diagnoses and family history — on 657,461 children born in Denmark from 1999 through the end of 2010. Of those children, 6,517 were diagnosed with autism during the course of the study. There was no increased risk for autism among children who had received the vaccination, the researchers found. The kids who’d gotten the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination appeared 7 percent less likely to be linked with autism than the children who weren’t vaccinated. Children with zero childhood vaccinations were 17 percent more likely to be linked with autism.

Debunked myths that vaccines cause autism are increasing stigma

As parents resist vaccines over vague potential harms, advocates call it a case of ‘morals more than science’

Do Vaccines Cause Autism?

Childhood vaccines do not cause autism. Maternal vaccines have not been shown to cause autism. The Institute of Medicine (IOM), now called the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), concluded that the body of evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between autism and MMR vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines. MMR vaccine also prevents rubella disease, thus preventing congenital rubella syndrome and its associated cases of autism.

Here is how we know that vaccines do not cause autism

Vaccines do not cause autism. You’ve almost certainly read that before — probably hundreds of times. But many people do not believe it, perhaps because too often it is repeated without a real explanation of how we know that. So here is an attempt to offer that explanation.

How autism myths came to fuel anti-vaccination movements

While research has determined that thimerosal poses a negligible threat, the government report was enough to stoke fears that autism may be triggered by the mercury in vaccines, despite evidence to the contrary.

Massive New Study Once Again Proves No Link Between Vaccines and Autism

The study looked at more than 650,000 children born in Denmark from 1999 through December 2010 and concluded that, “MMR vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger autism in susceptible children and is not associated with clustering of autism cases after vaccination.” So why put all that time and energy into something we already know? Two words: Vaccine hesitancy. Despite doctors and scientists endlessly advocating for vaccines as the most effective way to prevent you, your family and those around you from developing dangerous diseases, people still have doubts. These doubts are so dangerous they threaten to reverse the progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases.

MMR Vaccine Does Not Cause Autism

Scientific evidence confirms that MMR and autism are unrelated. The question about a possible link between MMR vaccine and autism has been extensively reviewed by independent groups of experts in the United States, including the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (now named the National Academy of Medicine). These reviews have concluded that the epidemiologic evidence shows that MMR vaccine does not cause autism.

Muddied waters: setting the record straight about MMR vaccinations and autism

When it comes to scientific proof for vaccines causing autism, there simply isn’t any of good quality. But the possibility of the link has been studied extensively. Indeed, the largest study to look for a link between the MMR vaccine and autism involved all children born in Denmark from January 1991 through December 1998 of which 82% had received the MMR vaccine. The study found there was no link between the MMR vaccination and the development of autism.

New Study May Be the Final Nail in the Coffin of the Autism vs. Vaccination Debate

A research team from the Sydney Medical School in Australia released a comprehensive analysis this week that concluded what many hope to be the final nail in the coffin of the autism vs. vaccination debate — that there is no link between the two.

One Thing We Know About Autism: Vaccines Aren't to Blame

So what is causing an increase in autism? We don't know for sure, says Offit, but the best data are genetic, involving several genes required for brain development that may generate abnormalities even in the womb. Some researchers have found a connection between older fathers and an increased risk of autism in their children. Or the increase could be due to more awareness of autism and a broader definition of the disorder. Those theories require a lot more research. The vaccine theory does not. It was thoroughly investigated, and it doesn't hold up.

Research Finds Vaccines Are Not Behind the Rise in Autism. So What Is?

There is no one factor that causes autism — or explains its growing prevalence. Researchers are seeking explanations for the surge. Here are some possibilities.

Scientists should try to repeat more studies, but not those looking for a link between vaccines and autism

Scientists, professors, engineers, teachers and doctors are routinely ranked among the most trustworthy people in society. This is because these professions rely heavily on research, and good research is viewed as the most reliable source of knowledge. But how trustworthy is research? Recent news from the US suggests that the Trump administration wants to fund more “reproducibility studies”. These are studies that check to see if previous results can be repeated and are reliable. The administration’s focus seems to be specifically on studies that revisit the debunked claim of a link between vaccines and autism.

The history behind an enduring public health falsehood — that vaccines cause autism

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been a vocal skeptic of vaccination for years. In a Fox News editorial regarding the measles outbreak in West Texas, he did write that vaccines are, quote, "crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease," but he also stopped short of actually recommending them, writing, the decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Elsewhere, he has repeatedly made the debunked claim that there could be a link between vaccines and autism. That particular myth long predates RFK Jr.

The myth of vaccination and autism spectrum

Among all of the studied potential causes of autism, vaccines have received some of the most scrutiny and have been the topic of many evidence-based studies. These efforts have led the great majority of scientists, physicians, and public health researchers to refute causation between vaccines and autism.

The Vaccine-Autism Myth Started 20 Years Ago. Here’s Why It Still Endures Today

Stunningly, the vaccine-autism myth still persists. It was amplified by the British media during its early years, later by celebrity endorsement and more recently by worldwide social media. Wakefield has continued his own relentless personal campaigning, moving well beyond the initial MMR vaccine scaremongering to attacking the CDC in his controversial film Vaxxed. The film was pulled before screening at the Tribeca Film Festival but found its way into independent theaters in the U.S. and Europe.

Vaccination as a cause of autism—myths and controversies

In 2005, an investigative reporter alerted The Lancet's editors that Wakefield's study had been flawed by severe research misconduct, conflict of interests, and probably falsehood. After investigating the matter, The Lancet retracted the article, and the British Medical Association took disciplinary actions against Wakefield. Since the Wakefield report, any direct connection between autism and the MMR vaccine has been discredited by dozens of studies investigating the epidemiology of autism and the biological effects of MMR and the mumps virus. Decreases in the rate of exposure to MMR were not shown to correlate with similar decreases in the incidence of autism. On the contrary, although more and more parents were opting out of MMR vaccination, the rates of autism had been rising.

Vaccine Opponent Hired by RFK Jr. Scours Official Records for Link to Autism

An antivaccine activist recently hired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has started hunting for proof that federal officials hid evidence that inoculations cause autism, according to people familiar with the matter. David Geier, a longtime vaccine opponent hired this spring as a contractor in the health department’s financial office, is seeking Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that antivaccine activists, including Kennedy, have alleged was buried because it showed a link between vaccines and autism, the people said.

Vaccines and Autism: A Clinical Perspective

Extensive evidence reveals no credible link between vaccines and autism. Clinical experts explain our current understanding of autism and its potential causes.

Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses

A worldwide increase in the rate of autism diagnoses—likely driven by broadened diagnostic criteria and increased awareness—has fueled concerns that an environmental exposure like vaccines might cause autism. Theories for this putative association have centered on the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, thimerosal, and the large number of vaccines currently administered. However, both epidemiological and biological studies fail to support these claims.

Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism

It's rare in science and science writing to make definitive statements, particularly about causation. We like to add what I call "wishy washy" words like "may" and "probably" and "perhaps." So when scientists or science writers make definitive statements like "vaccines don't cause autism" and "vaccines save lives," it's because we have overwhelming evidence to back it up.

What We Know About Autism: Separating the Science From the Scandal

Shortly after pulling a controversial documentary linking autism and common childhood vaccinations from the Tribeca Film Festival, Robert De Niro issued a statement explaining that festival organizers and members of the scientific community “do not believe it contributes to or furthers the discussion I had hoped for.”

Why Have Vaccines Been Ruled Out as a Cause of Autism?

Perhaps the easiest answer to why vaccines were associated with autism to begin with is the age at which childhood vaccines are given and when the first signs of developmental delay are typically seen. In the United States, the vaccine schedule recommends certain vaccines be given between birth and twelve months of age. At the same time, signs of a developmental delay – like the delays seen with autism – show up around the time a child should start to speak and interact more fully with people around them. This is a classic case of confusing causation with correlation. People will look at that timing and associate one thing (vaccines) with another (an ASD diagnosis). This is also known as the Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc fallacy, which can be summed up this way: "Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X...” even when the two events are completely unrelated. In this case, X and Y are said to be correlated. To find out if the correlation is just that, a correlation, legitimate and well-conducted scientific studies are needed.