Austism and Vaccines Essay

In the article, “Vaccines Cause Autism,” Michael Snyder, an attorney and writer, attempts to convince parents of young children that autism is directly linked to childhood vaccinations. He claims that numerous toxins, including thimerosal, are present in vaccines that are forced into the bloodstream, later causing neurological and brain damage to children. He says that autism has risen by 78 percent over the past decade, and that 1/88 children in the US have an autistic disorder. Snyder believes that most autistic individuals start out completely normal, and that the vaccinations they are given are harming them. He blames the pharmaceutical companies for being too

170). Thimerosal was first introduced in the 1930’s and is a preservative that eliminated the bacterial contamination in vaccines, but could possibly sit in the brain and cause neurological damage (Mooney, 2009, p. 60). Before 1989, American preschoolers had to only receive three vaccines; for polio, diphtheria-pertussis, and MMR. In 1999 the FDA and CDC decided that vaccine users should reduce or even get rid of the amount of thimerosal used in vaccines. The CDC also recommended that newborns should wait to get the Hepatitis B vaccination until a thimerosal free vaccination became available (Miller & Reynolds, 2009, p. 170). According to head of the chemistry department at University of Kentucky, Dr. Boyd Haley, “‘You couldn’t even construct a study that shows thimerosal is safe, it’s just too darn toxic. If you inject thimerosal into an animal, its brain will sicken. If you apply it to living tissues, the cells die. Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one inject it into an infant without causing damage’” (Kennedy, 2005, p. 59). With the being said, vaccine manufacturers began working to find a way to make a thimerosal-free vaccination, and eventually they made one. Then a decade later, children were receiving a total of 22 vaccinations by the time they started first grade. As the number of vaccines that children needed went up, the autism rate stayed

Throughout research done on the possible link between vaccines and autism, there have been three hypotheses: (1) the combination MMR vaccine causes autism by damaging the intestinal lining, which allows the entrance of encephalopathic proteins; (2) thimerosal, an ethylmercury-containing preservative

But there was studies by the Institute of Medicine, where they gave children eight different vaccines and there were no reports of autism (CDC 1). It is a rare exception if there is some illness caused by the vaccinations. Someone might argue that the ingredients that the vaccine is made of might be the slight chance their child develops autism, but there is also no link. The Institute of Medicine studied thimerosal that is use to prevent contamination of multidose vials of vaccinations. They concluded that the evidence rejects any evidence that the ingredient causes ASD, measles, mumps, or rubella in children. (CDC 1). As a precaution, thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccinations except for some flu

In the 1950s, the polio vaccine was introduced and life in America was forever changed. We vaccinated children against polio and many other diseases and America as a whole became a much healthier place. Soon, parents could quite reasonably expect to have a happy and healthy child. Vaccines were like miracle drugs. Then, in 1998, everything changed. Andrew Wakefield, a physician from the United Kingdom, published a study stating that he had found a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Thus began the dangerous trend of refusing vaccines for children. Although many people believe vaccines to be dangerous, in fact, they are one of the safest medical procedures done.

Vaccinations are considered to be one of the greatest medical advancements of our time. The first vaccine was created in 1796 and many more have been created since. These deadly diseases such as smallpox, polio, and diphtheria are now being prevented. Since vaccines have been doing their job, we do not see them around anymore. The media is now displaying vaccines in a negative way and people are listening to the misconstrued knowledge. Parents are worried about the risks associated with the vaccines instead of the diseases they are preventing. They believe there may be a link between vaccines and the development of autism. Parents also believe there is an issue with the current immunization schedule. They believe that the children are getting too many vaccines at one time and this might cause other health related problems. This does not only affect the child who is not being vaccinated, it is a danger to children who cannot receive the vaccine due to weakened immune systems or other health related problems. The CDC states that there is no connection between vaccinations and autism. They also state that the immunization schedule is safe. Since more and more children are not being vaccinated, this might cause a global health epidemic in the future. These deadly diseases that were prevented from vaccines may reappear. It is important for health care workers to be up to date on the scientific facts regarding vaccinations so they can provide parents with accurate knowledge.

If parents do not vaccinate their children, the kids are exposed to many diseases like mumps, measles, chicken pox, and even polio. Whenever a parent who makes sure her children are vaccinated sees another parent ranting on how vaccines gave their child autism, of course it is natural for that other parent to start getting a little fearful of vaccinations. Then eventually they will decide to not give the kids vaccinations anymore. Not only are the parents that go on about how vaccines cause autism are basing their theory on something that they have no real evidence over, they are also tricking other parents into thinking that they are right. Moreover, it has been proven that autism is caused by “genetic factors like mutations, deletions, and copy number variants” (Landrigan). Autism is essentially a brain disorder, and there are mutations in the brain that messes with the behavioral part of the brain. While doctors can’t screen a child to see if they are autistic, the child’s behavior lets the doctor know if they are autistic. While some people might argue and say since the doctor can’t tell if a child is autistic or not by screening them, then it is possible that the chemical thimerosal that is used to preserve vaccines from contamination can cause autism. However, this is an unbacked claim. There is essentially no evidence that can prove that thimerosal-containing vaccines causes autism. This is proven in the Michelle Cedillo case of 1997. A

Some base their allegations that it leads to autism on certain ingredients in the vaccines. An article published from the CDC states that, “Since 2003, there have been nine CDC-funded or conducted studies that have found no link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and ASD, as well as no link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and ASD in children.” Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative used to prevent contamination of multi-dose vials of vaccines. While this isn’t the only vaccine ingredient people have had concerns about, no vaccine ingredients have been found to cause

Researching about vaccines on the internet tends to bring up websites and forums that support immunization; however, a small alteration of the search using anti-vaccination key words will quickly take you down a rabbit hole of anti-vaccine websites and sensationalist headlines that tread dangerous waters that are far from the factual shore. Although most anti-vaccine beliefs are fringe conspiracy theories that are scarcely mentioned, there are three main myths that have repeatedly come up: the MMR vaccine-autism link, the Thimerosal-autism link, and the immunization schedule debate. While it is important to discuss these popular myths, it is essential to begin by defining what vaccination entails.

Many people question the safety of vaccines, therefore they refuse them. Most popular is the idea that vaccines can be a cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder. The CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, states that this is false. The CDC repeatedly says that there is no link between these two. There have been studies showing that the ingredients in vaccines are not the cause of Autism. “One vaccine ingredient that has been studied specifically is thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used to prevent contamination of multidose vials of vaccines. Research shows that thimerosal does not cause ASD” (Centers for Disease Control). “The most recent Cochrane systematic review of research on the MMR vaccine included six self-controlled case series studies, two ecological studies, one case crossover trial,

Over the past 20 years or so our nation has seen a sharp increase in the rate of children diagnosed with autism. This increase has caused much alarm, as it should, throughout our country. With this drastic increase has come the obvious question, why. Parents who watch their children slip away are devastated and left without answers as to why. A popular theory suggests that childhood vaccines are the culprit for this devastating diagnosis. The catalyst for this preposterous idea was made prevalent in a fraudulent research paper published in a British Medical Journal. There has never once been a study that supports this theory in any way. In an online article at healthychildren.org, a list of studies that support the safety of vaccines is published.

Within the past two decades, it has been rumored that the mercury content in commonly-recommended vaccines is responsible for the development of autism in young children. The rumor has caused many parents to deny their children the acceptance of vaccines such as the one given to prevent measles, mumps, and rubella. Despite the fact that scientific research has conclusively disproved the claims made against immunization, many new parents are choosing to raise their infants naturally, that is, without injecting foreign substances into the children's developing bodies.The new age ideals of the anti-vaccine community seem like a desirable approach to raising a healthy child, however, the lack of immunization in the younger population is causing outbreaks of harmful diseases that had previously been eliminated from our first world society.

For hundreds of years, vaccines have been preventing dangerous and deadly diseases such as polio, the measles, hepatitis, and more. However, as long as there have been vaccines, there has been strong opposition to their use. Perhaps the most common belief is that vaccines—specifically the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, is tied to an increased risk of autism. Media coverage, based on inaccurate evidence and disproved by scientific studies, has led to a large public fear that autism can be caused by vaccines. These beliefs stem primarily from a 1998 publication by British doctor Andrew Wakefield; yet even after this paper was deemed inaccurate, these fears did not recede, and have only seemed to become more prevalent in society.

The recent outbreak of measles has cause more debate between people who support vaccinations and anti-vaccination groups. One of the major debates against vaccines is that it is causing autism in children, but, according to CNN, they have found no link to vaccines and the rising number of children with autism (Christensen and Kounang, 1). Andrew Wakefield, “Father of the Anti-Vaccine Movement,” has said that ““The responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of those that have been involved in vaccine policymaking, which is totally inadequate and bordering on dangerous” (Ziv, 1). Vaccines have been proven to be safe, and these arguments continue to be proven to be incorrect.

Vaccines are one of the most effective tools in maintaining the health of a country. Vaccines are extremely diverse in the sense they have the potential to prevent fatal diseases such as polio as well as smaller illnesses such as the flu. With vaccines, the costs stay relatively low and the benefits are high. Vaccines in the most basic terms, introduce a weakened or dead disease into your body, so your body can produce antibodies which are specialized in fighting that disease cell (How Vaccines Work, 2016). Through this, if your body encounters the disease again, the body can quickly produce the antibodies to kill the disease before it has the chance to spread. While the benefits of vaccines are great, the risks are relatively small. Because of this, most major health organizations recommend vaccination, at least for deadly diseases such as polio and rubella virus (WHO, 2009). While scientific research tells us the risks of vaccinations are very small, there are still groups of anti-vaccinators who claim there is a link between vaccinations and autism. Those claims have repeatedly been disproven in numerous complete studies, which have shown no connection between autism and vaccination (Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism, 2015). When focusing more specifically on the effectiveness of immunizations, they have been so successful that diseases such as smallpox and measles are essentially extinct outside of a laboratory. Despite vaccines being generally effective,