The aforementioned question is like a loaded gun these days. It is a question that causes intensively heated debates among parents and medical health care professionals. The proponents of each side make convincingly good arguments in defense of their beliefs and each person is driven by a strong sense of love for their child in support of their belief. In order to understand the situation and make a proper decision either in support of or in opposition to vaccinations, one has to be armed with enough information with which to analyze the facts and eventually reach a decision that he or she will be comfortable with as the parent of a defenseless and helpless child. I think that I should start off this paper by first clearly defining what Autism is. The reason I wish to do this is so that as a reader, you will have enough of an understanding of the meaning and causes of autism which will in turn, help me portray any relations and reactions, if any, pertaining to the mingling of vaccines and the potential causes of autism.
Autism is defined by the Autism Society of America as ” a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first 3 years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Both Children and adults with Autism typically show difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities.” they further explain that the illness is something that medical studies indicate as rooted within genetic vulnerability, metabolic imbalances, and quite possibly, viral infections. Viral Infections, that is the keyword that seemingly connects vaccinations as a major cause of autism.
Typically, a child is vaccinated against well known childhood illnesses such as mumps, measles, and rubella. A vaccine is a weakened or dormant form of the illness which is introduced into the healthy system of a child in the hopes that his body will eventually recognize the virus and force itself to develop antibodies with which to successfully fend off the virus should the child become exposed to an active form of the same. Vaccines have been given to a majority of children for decades without any adverse effects on the child. The MMR vaccines provided children with healthy, illness free lives until October 3, 1999 when CNN aired a news report about a possible adverse effect of vaccinations upon a child. According to the October 3, 1999 investigative report of CNN, the parents of then 3 year old Liam Reynolds believed that the MMR vaccine caused their child to become autistic. The report indicated that, “The parents of three-year-old Liam Reynolds stated that he had developed autism two weeks after receiving measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine” This claim was supported by Louisiana physician Stephanie Cave, M.D. who specializes in treating autistic children. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics belied this claim within the same report indicating that there is no plausible reason to believe that there is a connection between the two. Due to the horrific video portrayal of little Liam’s illness, most parents who saw the report declined to have their children vaccinated.
Autism is typically believed to be a genetically based disorder that develops early on within the unborn child. I believe that the only reason that this belief is advocated is because parents are looking for somebody or something to blame for the disability of their child. A disability caused by genetics and nothing more. The reason I say this is because the signs and symptoms of autism, such as no babbling or cooing, gesturing, and lack of speech functions by the age of 16 months usually become physically evident in a child between the ages of 12-15 months. The same age wherein the MMR vaccines in question are usually administered. If anything, this is only a case of coincidence.
One of the medical studies that tried to link vaccinations to autism was done in 1998 and was published in the British journal Lancet. The journal report stated that ” Based on data from 12 patients, Dr. Andrew Wakefield ( a British gastroenterologist) and colleagues speculated that the MMR vaccine may have been the possible cause of bowel problems which led to a decreased absorption of of essential vitamins and nutrients which resulted in developmental disorders like Autism.” However, the theory remained unsubstantiated by scientific analysis and therefore remains inconclusive. Adding even more to the confusion of parents and fueling the speculation that vaccines can cause Autism is the fact that children are given too many vaccines in one blow so that a child’s mental and physical system is incapable of dealing with the barrage of dormant toxins on his immune system.
However, in 2002, a study on the relation of vaccines and autism was done in Denmark and published in the New England Journal of Medicine utilizing information gathered from health records of children born between 1991 – 1998 (approximately 537,000 children). Repeated analysis of the information failed to prove a direct link between autism and vaccinations. According to CNN, the news organization that published the report, ” Even when other factors, such as age at vaccination, were taken into account, there was no difference in autism rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated children. There was no difference in the number of diagnoses of other developmental disorders related to autism in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.”
However, even though doctors like Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, director of the International Child Development Resource Center in Palm Beach, Florida believes there is no link between vaccines and autism because, in his opinion, if that were the case, the solution would be as simple as changing the vaccine components, he suspects that the MMR vaccine, if introduced into a child with a predisposition or existing autism condition, will aggravate the preexisting or already existing autistic condition of the child.
Work Cited
Autism Society of America. (2008). What are autism spectrum disorders?. Web.
Gorman, Christine. (2002). Do vaccines cause autism?. Time. Web.
Mauro, Terri. (2008). Do vaccines cause autism? Web.
Quackwatch. Misconceptions about Immunizations. Misconception # 9: Vaccines Cause Autism. 2008. Web.
Statson.org. What is vaccination? 2008. Web.