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Researchers Blast Another Link Between Autism and Vaccines
Filed under: Medical Conditions, In The News, Special Needs, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens, Research Reveals: Teens
Pediatricians say you don't have to delay vaccines. Credit: Getty Images
People who insist autism is caused by childhood vaccines saw their argument obliterated when scientists proved conclusively there's no link between the disorder and thimerosal.
Now, many are saying, it's not the thimerosal, but vaccines still cause autism because children get too many vaccines too soon. Their little bodies are overloaded.
Meanwhile, scientists are heaving a collective, exasperated sigh.
The Los Angeles Times reports an increasing number of parents are asking their pediatricians to space out vaccines and booster shots. There's no need to do that, according to pediatric infectious disease specialists Drs. Michael J. Smith and Charles R. Woods of the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
They released a study in the medical journal Pediatrics on Monday that states unequivocally there is no relation between autism and the frequency of childhood vaccines.
It was tough research.
The physicians obviously couldn't take a group of kids, purposefully delay their vaccinations and put them at risk of polio, rubella and other horrible diseases.
Instead, the Times reports, Smith and Woods analyzed data on 1,047 children from a previous study investigating the thimerosal claim.
The children were born between 1993 and 1997, and had been vaccinated on a schedule of their parents' choosing. They were later given a series of 42 neuropsychological tests between the ages of 7 and 10.
Smith and Woods report roughly 47 percent of the children received their vaccines on a regular schedule. Another 23 percent received their vaccines, but not on schedule. The remaining children received only some of their shots.
The researchers reported in Pediatrics that the spacing of the vaccines had no effect on whether or not the children developed autism.
"This study provides the strongest clinical outcomes evidence to date that on-time receipt of vaccines during infancy has no adverse effect on neurodevelopmental outcomes 7 to 10 years later," the authors write.
"These results offer reassuring information that physicians and public health officials may use to communicate with parents who are concerned that children receive too many vaccines too soon," they add.
Related: 10 Common Autism Myths
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-25-2010 @ 4:48PM
SKL said...Your use of the word "conclusively" and the like is inaccurate. It's just a small study based on another small study, not free of bias, that merely indicates something about the general population. To say it "conclusively" does anything is inaccurate / dishonest.
What they have yet to explain is why a child benefits from having so many vaccines so soon. Many doctors advise that a less aggressive vaccine schedule is just as effective. So if there is no good reason to be so aggressive, then why is this being pushed on parents who are not comfortable with it? Why all the unwarranted scare tactics and obnoxious eye-rolling?
I also think it is disgusting that the tactic they use is to insult parents. "You are so stupid. Who asked you to think? Just do what I say." If that's the best they can do to influence people, their position is obviously weak.
"Science" sounds so pure but in practice, we all know it has many flaws. Including some fatal flaws. Parents are right to be skeptical of what "scientists say," especially if it goes against what is intuitive and what they have seen in the world around them.
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5-25-2010 @ 10:57PM
Tara said...Why the rush to innoculate as soon as possible?? toodle on down to your local Victorian cemetary and check out the death dates on those tombstones....infant and toddler {and mommy} mortality was mindbogglingly high in those days, and it was fairly common for a woman to lose one, two or maybe five children in one week to a good bout of measles.Why risk your childs health by not vaccinating as soon as possible? People think kids Might get autisn from the shots, but its a certainty that many childhood diseases are fatal and/or or result in blindness and mental retardation. Who would ACTUALLY RISK GOING BACK TO THOSE BAD OLD DAYS???!!!!
5-26-2010 @ 4:24AM
SKL said...Tara, I was suggesting a scientific explanation, not a sensationalized rant.
Measles is hardly ever fatal to otherwise healthy children. Neither are most of the diseases they hyper-vaccinate against. Check the actual stats. Some of the shots (DPT) do make more sense at an early age. But when it comes to measles, chicken pox, etc., it would actually make more sense for adolescents / adults to be vaccinated than 12-month-olds. When was the last time your doc pressured you to get your measles booster?
Funny, they tell you not to give your kids eggs until they are over a year to avoid allergies, and people follow this, yet the MMR, which is produced with eggs and thus dangerous if you have an egg allergy (among other things), is pushed on the first birthday. They tried to force it on my kid even though she'd never eaten eggs. They also tried to tell me that my kid could die of chicken pox if I didn't have her vaccinated right then and there. Next thing you know they will be telling me she will die of a venereal disease if I don't have her vaccinated in elementary school. Oh yeah, they've already tried that.
5-25-2010 @ 5:29PM
Michelle said...I concur, to "conclusively" state something you have to actually prove it with direct science. Since it is difficult to get this type of research going with an at-risk group such as children (pregnant women and prisoners are also considered at-risk groups) they had to rely on previous study information. Since the original goal of the previous study had nothing to do with the current goal the findings are flawed.
I space out my children's vaccines because I believe it is the right thing to do. My oldest is 15 and the vaccine schedule when he was young was much less aggressive than the current schedule and there were fewer vaccinces to administer. Some of the vaccinces can be pushed up to school entry since diseases like polio are so rare in the US that unless you are traveling to a country where it is rampant you don't need the vaccine so early. I base my schedule on research and mutual discussion with my husband. We decide together what vaccinces to get and when.
Now do I believe that vaccines cause Autism, not really. I believe it is much more complex than that, but I would not rule out vaccines as a contributing factor along with other present factors. Remember the child(ren) with autoimmune disorders and brain disorders where the way they processed certain vaccines were shown to be contributing factors in their autism diagnosis? The vaccines were contributing factors along with other existing issues present.
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5-25-2010 @ 10:26PM
Jessica said...All a spaced-out vaccine schedule does is give your child time to be infected with otherwise preventable diseases. The current recommended schedule is what it is because it's when children can safely get the vaccines in the earliest amount of time to prevent disease. It doesn't overload their system anymore than an ear infection does or a cold does (actually, it's LESS hard on their system than either of those things. Not only do current vaccines have far less antigens in them than the vaccines of 20 or even 10 years ago, the viruses are significantly weakened, if not flat out killed).
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5-26-2010 @ 5:08PM
Dad Fourkids said...Jessica, I will ask you to explain for the forum a couple of simple questions, since you are so sure about your position.
Why, if all the shots our children are supposed to get so very vital to keep them from dying or otherwise suffering from preventable diseases, do many European countries have far fewer shots and yet their children have lower mortality and better overall health than our own?
Why do you make the assertion that fewer antigens is inheerantly safer when the adjuvants (which make less of the "active" ingrediant trigger a desired temporary immune response) actually carry as great or perhaps even greater risk than the actual target antigen?
Why do our spokespersons for the overbearing vaccine schedule not openly declare their own conflicts of interests, whether it is salary andother compensation from the makers of vaccines, royalties from developing their own product for the market or dependancy upon the funding from the makers of vaccines for the budgets of their home organiztions, and why should we believe that they are unbiased in their opinions any more than those paid spokespersons for any other industry?
Most importantly, why should we ever believe that "vaccines do not cause autism" when the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid our multiple damage awards for vaccines causing autism, most recently Poling and Banks which were not even contested by the Federal Government but awarded without ever having to go to the Special Master's hearing?
5-26-2010 @ 7:52AM
Tony Bateson said...No link, No link, No link says one court after another. Well that's just wonderful, but there's just one link only where I am waiting to hear, ever, from anyone at all, and that is that there is no link between autism and kids who have never been vaccinated compared to kids who have been vaccinated. Homefirst, Amish, UK unvaccinated - no autism in those groups. There is patently a link between being autistic and being vaccinated. I believe autism does not exist outside the vaccinated or Rhogam groups.
Tony Bateson, Oxford, UK.
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5-26-2010 @ 11:53AM
patienz said...Nonsense. No autism in the Amish? How about this?
"Preliminary data have identified the presence of ASD in the Amish community at a rate of approximately 1 in 271 children using standard ASD screening and diagnostic tools although some modifications may be in order. Further studies are underway to address the cultural norms and customs that may be playing a role in the reporting style of caregivers, as observed by the ADI."
[Prevalence Rates of Autism Spectrum Disorders Among the Old Order Amish (IMFAR 2010)]
No matter how frequently you make these unsupported claims, that's what they remain.
5-26-2010 @ 1:01PM
patienz said...Mr. Bateson, your statements have been repeatedly proven to be false—and you know it.
For example, you may remember your e-mail correspondence with Dr. Edward Danczak following Dr. Danczak’s letter to the Daily Telegraph entitled “MMR Smoke and Mirrors,” which was published 20 June 2003. In his letter, Dr. Danczak stated “I do have children with autism . . . that have not been exposed to vaccination of any kind . . . ” He reiterated that point in his correspondence with you (which is published at autismobserved dot net): “NO, I HAVE KIDS WITH ASD AND NO VACCINATION . . . “ (His emphasis.)
5-26-2010 @ 5:27PM
Dad Fourkids said...My reply is actually for patienz, but for some strange reason you cannot reply to his/her posts...
You reference an IMFAR study which strangely enough I cannot find in any peer-reviewed site, but just in sites like "leftbrainrightbrain" which have a decided bias against autism being anything other than predetermination at conception (which will be interesting to watch play out once an amnio test is developed and potential Autistics start getting aborted in large numbers).
I notice in your study that they found 1 in 271 autistic in the two target populations of Amish (7 out of the 1899 people under age 21 they encountered), which is about half the rate that we have in the general population. There was no mention of the ages of the Autistics they found, using a testing instrument the authors apparently developed themselves (as opposed to using commonly accepted testing instruments like CARS and GARS).
Additionally, they mention that they took the vaccination history of the target population, but then curiously there is no mention as to the vaccination status of the 7 Autistics they found.
i know that for about a decade, the CDC has been working at bringing isolated population like the Amish into the fold of vaccine compliance. IF these two groups were part of that effort by public health officials, I would very much like to know if the 7 Autistics this apparently un-peer-reviewed study found were indeed vaccinated or not. It could turn out that this study actually supports the link between vaccines and uaitsm, despite the prima facia supprt it gives to refuting the link.
5-26-2010 @ 11:44AM
kaelan said...SKL I agree with you about the attitude people get when they don't want to be submissive and do what their doctor tells them to. They act like it's JUST parents that feel a spaced out shot schedule or non-vaccination at all is better, but really there are also other doctors out there that are just as wary of giving shots; quite honestly long term side effects of shots cannot be studied, so we DON'T know what they may be, be it autism or anything else.
And autism isn't the only reason some people don't get their children vaccinated...there's other diseases such as Guillian Barre syndrome that are linked to vaccines such as the flu vaccine. No one warns you about Guillian Barre, but it's INCREDIBLY dangerous and occurs about two weeks after one gets the flu shot.
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5-26-2010 @ 7:59AM
popcares said...Maybe parents would be less hesitant to vaccinate their children if public health officials exercised caution when necessary. Recently, the FDA recommended continued use of two rotovirus vaccines they KNOW contain "pig viruses". Their explanation for not suspending these vaccines? There is no scientific evidence that pig viruses are harmful to humans.
Maybe public health officials should stop insisting "no evidence" is "evidence" of something .. such as .. stating there no evidence of a link between autism and vaccines .. as evidence proving there is no link.
or
"no evidence" that pig viruses are harmful to humans .. is evidence that pig viruses are harmless to humans.
By the way .. the same CDC that approves and recommends vaccines is the very same CDC that failed to warn the citizens of Washington D.C. that their water was contaminated with lead. Perhaps the initial report was simply due to incompetence .. but .. the CDC deliberately thwarted any attempt to unearth the true facts after they KNEW the water in Washington D.C. was contaminated with lead.
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5-26-2010 @ 10:44AM
michelle said...Exactly my point... Show me the ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES done on children to prove that these vaccines are safe. Oh wait you can't because they have NEVER been done! Or are so old they do not make the vaccines that way any longer. Some vaccines do harm, some have even killed in the past all in the name of "saving" the herd over people making informed choices. Fifty (50) years ago or more, yes you got the vaccines because these diseases were rampant. They are not now, so I have the luxury of waiting or spacing out vaccines as I wish. After all I am the parent to my children...not you and not the lieing CDC. If you want to be ignorant of the true facts and be told just what to do without thinking critically that is your issue, but don't judge me without at least giving me the credit that I thought about my decision. I didn't just say, "Oh...gee I guess I just won't give my kid a vaccine." I read the ingredients, looked at the side effects and their reported percentages, etc...and remember most people do not recognize vaccine side effects in children and are highly unlikely to report a vaccine side effect. This in and of itself makes vaccine manufacturer facts questionable.
5-26-2010 @ 9:07PM
patienz said...@Dad Fourkids
You can find the abstracts from the 2010 IMFAR meeting at the meeting site, as I did. I was unable to present links directly in the comments section of this site, just as you noted a glitch that prevents direct replies. (Try starting at IMFAR dot COMVEX dot com or searching for International Meeting for Autism Research--there's some interesting stuff.) Regarding the fact that ASD was reported in the Amish community at about half the frequency of the general population: The authors address that by stating that "Further studies are underway to address the cultural norms and customs that may be playing a role in the reporting style of caregivers," or in other words, evaluating whether an Amish child with ASD is as likely as some other child who happens to not be part of a relatively closed religious community with unusual customs and preferences to be diagnosed with ASD--note that there are marked disparities when you compare this probability across other other demographic groups.
Regarding your "strangely enough" and "curiously" comments: That information wasn't omitted from the abstract as part of a gigantic conspiracy--perhaps you should wait for the paper. Most meetings have an absolute limit on the number of characters that can be included in the abstract; in the last meeting abstract that I wrote for a multinational study, I had to devote about one-quarter of those characters to required authors and affiliations section--it was quite difficult to say all that should have been said in the space allowed. It's understood that these are, after all, abstracts.
Actually, I think that your last paragraph suggests the key point: Dan Olmstead of Age of Autism started the nonsensical notion that Bateson stupidly promotes when he wrote a very poorly-researched article in which he claimed that (1) the Amish don't vaccinate, and (2) there's no ASD among the Amish. Both points are false, as Olmstead could have found simply by checking, as demonstrated by this abstract.
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6-02-2010 @ 12:43AM
rhogam mom said...to mr. bateson-do you realize the purpose for rhogam? rhogam is for women, like myself, who have a negative blood factor? if a woman who has a negative factor is pregnant, after awhile her antibodies will attack the baby because the amniotic sac has a positive factor until the baby is born. there maybe a link between autism and vaccines and the rhogam shot-my two year old is showing some autistic tendencies such as hand flapping and not really talking and some sensory issues but she was also born 4 weeks early, maybe there is a link between premature birth and autism-but i would rather have an autistic child than no child at all, and by the way both of my children ARE healthy and up to date on their shots.
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10-13-2010 @ 8:46PM
spenser444 said...SKL: Wrong, wrong , wrong. MMR and Chickenpox are not made from eggs but from "Chick Embryo". Egg allergy is NOT a contradiction to thgese vaccines unless there was anaphylaxis from eggs. The reason they are given at 1 year is because the babby has passive immunity from the mother (placenta transfer) that lasts for 12 months and the vaccines would not work before 1 year.
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