One Less Study Links Vaccines to Autism
No parent who receives the diagnosis of autism for their child forgets that day. For us, it was February 2, 2004. Our son was almost five at the time.
The military child psychologist gave us advice the same day. First, she suggested we take some time to digest the diagnosis and read some of the materials and resources she recommended. Second, she recommended we become familiar with the standards for scientific research and peer review. And finally, she encouraged us to stay away from the Internet and parent support groups until we had a firm understanding of autism. She expressed her concern about misinformation, bad scientific research and emotional responses to autism found on the Internet and in parenting groups. We took her advice.
On January 28, 2010, England’s General Medical Council found Dr. Andrew Wakefield acted unethically in his research linking the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine to autism. The Lancet, a leading general medical journal which published the 1998 study, retracted the study from their journals on February 3, 2010.
The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) primarily financed by the Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC), published a list of 24 studies since 1998 which refute the connection between the vaccination and autism while listing only three studies making a connection. All three studies are under scrutiny. Two of the three studies are from Dr. Wakefield, including the study just retracted. This IAC report shows that in the same year as Dr. Wakefield’s study, the Lancet published another study by Peltola H et al negating a connection between the MMR and autism. Dr. Wakefield’s study included 12 children, while the Peltola study researched 3,000 doses of the MMR vaccine.
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