As you may know, we are proponents of vaccines because of the demonstrated good they do. People who grew up protected by vaccines have no idea what it was like when the diseases were the "usual common diseases." One of us (MV of course) is old enough to have had most of the diseases (measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, polio, and whooping cough) in the pre-vaccine era and has seen many of these diseases.
The accusations that vaccines cause autism has a sordid history. The people who accuse vaccines of causing autism are composed of true believers and opportunists. Some true believers have affected children in their family and deserve compassion. Some are conspiracy theorists who need therapy. Others are callous opportunists who have book, treatments or other schemes to sell. Scientific evidence is scorned.
There are two recent news items we would like to point you to.
1. The only peer-reviewed article which associated the MMR vaccine with autism was an article by Dr. Andrew Wakefield published in the British medical journal, The Lancet. He studied 12 children and found genetic markers for the measles virus in the colon of a majority of them long after they were vaccinated. He theorized that combining the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines into 1 vaccine had caused the rise in autism. However, the combining of the vaccines, which the UK did much later than the U.S., did not coincide with the rise in autism. Many parents in the UK and elsewhere were terrified and children were not immunized.
However, the story is much, much murkier. It turns out that the research was partially funded by lawyers for the test subjects who wanted to sue the vaccine manufacturer. When Dr. Wakefield's lab did not give the results he wanted, he contracted with a lab in Ireland who would give him the results he wanted. That lab was closed down several years later. Multiple attempts to duplicate his results failed, because they never existed.
As a result, parents were terrified and many children were not immunized. Measles rates have soared in the UK. Why? Well, Dr. Wakefield had a measles vaccine he wanted to market to replace the standard measles vaccine. He has since fled to Texas, where he works with an anti-vaccine group.
Please see this article: British Journal Retracts Paper Linking Autism and Vaccines - NYTimes.com
2. Thimerosal - 5300 cases were filed for injury compensation by the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Three test cases were presented before the special masters claiming that thimerosal caused their child's autism, even though its removal from vaccines in 2001 was associated with a doubling of the rate of autism. All of the expert witnesses who testified that thimerosal was not associated with autism were qualified as experts and deemed credible. None of the witnesses who testified in favor of the theory that thimerosal could cause autism were qualified as credible experts. Several of the "experts" had anti-vaccine testimony as their sole source of income. None had research or clinical experience in the field of autism or any remotely related field. In February, the court special master, George Hastings, ruled against the 3 families saying they had been "misled by physicians who are guilty,in my view of gross medical misjudgment."
Please see this article:U.S. Court Rules Again Against Vaccine - Autism Claims - NYTimes.com
We have seen patients sold "special autistic treatment fish-oil capsules" for $60 for 60 caplets. They looked a lot like fish oil capsules sold by Costco for less than 2 cents apiece. At the start of the 20th century, they were selling snake oil.
Want to buy a book? Lot's to buy. Chelation therapy? They don't tell you about the kids who have died.
We believe in the scientific method. Being on "Larry King LIve" is not a published scientific paper.
So what causes autism? There are several interesting locations on 3 different genes. But, we don't have, after a great deal of research, an explanation. However, we have loads of data saying it is not the MMR and not thimerosal. There is not one peer-reviewed scientific paper supporting the vaccine/autism theorists now that Dr. Wakefield's paper has been withdrawn. Buyer beware. P.T. Barnum was right.