False claims about vaccines
Extensive investigation into
vaccines and autism
[1]
has shown that there is no relationship between the two,
causal
or otherwise,
[1]
[2]
[3]
and that
vaccine ingredients
do not cause
autism
.
[4]
Vaccinologist
Peter Hotez
researched the growth of the false claim and concluded that its spread originated with
Andrew Wakefield
's
fraudulent 1998 paper
, with no prior paper supporting a link.
[5]
Despite the
scientific consensus
for the absence of a relationship
[1]
[2]
and the retracted paper, the
anti-vaccination movement
at large continues to promote theories linking the two.
[6]
A developing tactic appears to be the "promotion of irrelevant research [as] an active aggregation of several questionable or peripherally related research studies in an attempt to justify the science underlying a questionable claim."
[7]
Claimed mechanisms
The claimed mechanisms have changed over time, in response to evidence refuting each in turn.
[8]
Vaccine-derived measles virus
The idea of a link between the
MMR vaccine
and autism came to prominence after the publication of a paper by
Andrew Wakefield
and others in
The Lancet
in 1998. This paper, which was
retracted
in 2010 and whose publication led to Wakefield being
struck off
the
United Kingdom medical register
, has been described as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years".
[9]
Wakefield's primary claim was that he had isolated evidence of vaccine-strain measles virus RNA in the intestines of autistic children, leading to a condition he termed
autistic enterocolitis
(a condition never recognised or adopted by the scientific community). This finding was later shown to be due to errors made by the laboratory where the
polymerase chain reaction
(PCR) tests were performed.
[
citation needed
]
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC),
[10]
the IOM of the
United States National Academy of Sciences
,
[11]
and the
National Health Service
[12]
have all concluded that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. A systematic review by the
Cochrane Library
concluded that there is no credible link between the MMR vaccine and autism, that the MMR vaccine has prevented diseases that still carry a heavy burden of death and complications, that the lack of confidence in the MMR vaccine has damaged public health, and that the design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies are largely inadequate.
[13]
In 2009,
The Sunday Times
reported that Wakefield had manipulated patient data and misreported results in his 1998 paper, thus falsifying a link with autism.
[14]
A 2011 article in the
British Medical Journal
describes the way in which Wakefield manipulated the data in his study in order to arrive at his predetermined conclusion.
[15]
An accompanying editorial in the same journal described Wakefield's work as an "elaborate
fraud
" which led to lower vaccination rates, putting hundreds of thousands of children at risk and diverting funding and other resources from research into the true cause of autism.
[16]
On 12 February 2009, a special court convened in the United States to review claims under its
National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
ruled parents of autistic children are not entitled to compensation in their contention that certain vaccines caused their children to develop autism.
[17]
Thiomersal
Thiomersal
is an
antifungal
preservative used in small amounts in some multi-dose vaccines (where the same vial is opened and used for multiple patients) to prevent contamination of the vaccine.
[18]
Thiomersal contains
ethylmercury
, a mercury compound which is related to, but significantly less toxic than, the
neurotoxic
pollutant
methylmercury
. Despite decades of safe use,
[19]
public campaigns prompted the CDC and the
American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) to request vaccine makers to remove thiomersal from vaccines as quickly as possible on the
precautionary principle
. Thiomersal is now absent from all common United States and
European Union
vaccines, except for some preparations of
influenza vaccine
.
[20]
(Trace amounts remain in some vaccines due to production processes, at an approximate maximum of 1 microgramme, around 15% of the average daily mercury intake in the US for adults and 2.5% of the daily level considered tolerable by the
World Health Organization
[WHO].)
[21]
[22]
The action engendered concern thiomersal could have been responsible for autism.
[20]
The idea that thiomersal was a cause or trigger for autism is now considered disproven, as incidence rates for autism increased steadily even after thiomersal was removed from childhood vaccines.
[8]
There is no accepted scientific evidence that exposure to thiomersal is a factor in causing autism.
[23]
Under the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) Modernization Act (FDAMA) of 1997, the FDA conducted a comprehensive review of the use of thiomersal in childhood vaccines. Conducted in 1999, this review found no evidence of harm from the use of thiomersal as a vaccine preservative, other than local hypersensitivity reactions.
[24]
Despite this, starting in 2000, parents in the United States pursued legal compensation from a federal fund arguing that thiomersal caused autism in their children.
[25]
A 2004
Institute of Medicine
(IOM) committee favored rejecting any causal relationship between autism and vaccines containing thiomersal
[11]
and rulings from the
vaccine court
in three test claims in 2010 established the precedent that thiomersal is not considered a cause of autism.
[26]
[27]
[28]
Vaccine overload
Following the belief that individual vaccines caused autism was the idea of vaccine overload, which claims that too many vaccines at once may overwhelm or weaken a child's immune system and lead to adverse effects.
[29]
Vaccine overload became popular after the
Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
in the United States accepted the case of nine-year-old
Hannah Poling
. Poling had
encephalopathy
, putting her on the autism spectrum disorder, which was believed to have worsened after getting multiple vaccines at nineteen months old.
[8]
There have been multiple cases reported similar to this one, which led to the belief that vaccine overload caused autism. However, scientific studies show that vaccines do not overwhelm the immune system.
[8]
In fact, conservative estimates predict that the immune system can respond to thousands of viruses simultaneously.
[8]
It is known that vaccines constitute only a tiny fraction of the pathogens already naturally encountered by a child in a typical year.
[8]
Common fevers and middle ear infections pose a much greater challenge to the immune system than vaccines do.
[30]
Other scientific findings support the idea that vaccinations, and even multiple concurrent vaccinations, do not weaken the immune system
[8]
or compromise overall immunity
[31]
and evidence that autism has any immune-mediated
pathophysiology
has still not been found.
[8]
Aluminium salts
As mercury compounds in vaccines have been definitively ruled out as a cause of autism, some anti-vaccine activists propose
aluminium
salts as the cause of autism.
[32]
This is based in part on the erroneous popular belief that aluminium salts cause
Alzheimer disease
.
[33]
There is no substantial scientific evidence that aluminium salts are linked to autism but anti-vaccination activists commonly cite a number of papers which claim that there is in fact a link.
[34]
These are mainly published in
predatory open access
journals,
[35]
where
peer-review
is virtually non-existent. Work conducted by
Christopher Shaw
,
Christopher Exley
and Lucija Tomljenovic has been funded by the anti-vaccination
Dwoskin Family Foundation
.
[36]
The work published by Shaw et al. has been discredited by the
World Health Organization
.
[37]
Celebrity involvement
Some celebrities have spoken out on their views that autism is related to vaccination, including:
Jenny McCarthy
,
Kristin Cavallari
,
[38]
Robert De Niro
,
[39]
Jim Carrey
,
[40]
Bill Maher
,
[41]
and
Pete Evans
.
[42]
McCarthy, one of the most outspoken celebrities on the topic, has said her son Evan's autism diagnosis was a result of the
MMR vaccine
.
[43]
She authored
Louder than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism
and co-authored
Healing and Preventing Autism.
[44]
She also founded
Generation Rescue
, an organisation which provides resources for families affected by autism.
[45]
In a September 2015
U.S. presidential debate
,
Republican Party
candidate and future
United States President
Donald Trump
stated he knew of a 2-year-old child who had recently received a combined vaccine, developed a fever, and subsequently autism.
[46]
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr
. is one of the most notable proponents of the anti-vaccine movement. Kennedy published the book
Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak: The Evidence Supporting the Immediate Removal of Mercury--A Known Neurotoxin--From Vaccines
.
[47]
He is also chairman of the board of
Children's Health Defense
, a group and website widely known for its anti-vaccination stance.
[48]
Public opinion
In December 2020, a poll of 1,115 U.S. adults found 12% of respondents believed there is evidence vaccinations cause autism; 51% believed there is no evidence; and 37% did not know.
[49]
References
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.
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,
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- ^
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.
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- ^
Even If It's 'Bonkers,' Poll Finds Many Believe QAnon And Other Conspiracy Theories
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