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Study Confirms No Link Between MMR Vaccine and Autism

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-that-evidence-is-helpful-with-those-people dept.

An anonymous reader sends word of a new study (abstract) into the relationship between the MMR vaccine and kids who develop autism. In short: there is no relationship, even for kids at high risk of developing autism. From the article: [Researchers] examined records from a large health insurer to search for such an association. They checked the status of children continuously enrolled in the health plan from birth to at least 5 years old during 2001 to 2012. The children also had an older brother or sister continuously enrolled for at least six months between 1997 and 2012. "Consistent with studies in other populations, we observed no association between MMR vaccination and increased ASD risk among privately insured children.We also found no evidence that receipt of either 1 or 2 doses of MMR vaccination was associated with an increased risk of ASD among children who had older siblings with ASD." ... [An accompanying editorial said,] "Taken together, some dozen studies have now shown that the age of onset of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, the severity or course of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, and now the risk of ASD recurrence in families does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children."

9 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. The antivaxers will ignore this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... Because this discovery was made by science.

    They will just claim this is
    1) Big pharma conspiracy
    2) Jewish conspiracy
    3) Both of the above

    Antivaxers will only refer to science when it supports their own theories.

    1. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by ArylAkamov · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Same thing with any group that has an agenda to push. Support and praise science when it supports your views/goals, discredit it any way possible when it conflicts with your views/goals. Business (Or politics) as usual.

    2. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by rogoshen1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think this is a common thread with any dogmatic conspiracy theory. Any amount of evidence you throw at discounting the claims, the more they are able to dig in and claim it's a fabrication. Moon landing, JFK, 9/11, Han shooting first, Firefly being cancelled.. etc.

    3. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by taustin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One of the doctors who announced he would no longer accept unvaccinated children as patients nailed it with the question "If you don't trust my judgment on the extensive scientific research on the safety of vaccines, how can you possible trust my judgment on anything to do with your children?"

      If you really believe that the entire medical profession, literally every one of them, is either criminally incompetent or part of some massive conspiracy, then your only rational choice, when your child is sick, is to sit there and watch them die.

    4. Re:The antivaxers will ignore this... by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The people you're describing drive me insane. We have a pediatrician who said what you did: either you trust her to recommend vaccinations, or you find someone else to work with. She doesn't want patients who continually argue against everything she says.

      Here's a test. You know all those godless communist governments that want to take over America and sap our precious bodily fluids? They don't have profits, right, because they hate our freedoms. They also don't care about their disposable citizens. Right? OK. So why is it that those countries vaccinate their citizens? It's not for the profit motive of drug companies, because those are owned by the evil socialists. It's because they cheap out and practice preventative medicine so that they can keep working the proles 112 hours a week, and you can't do that when they're sick.

      But tossing aside the Fox-news-watcher-ready wrapper, it's true: absent a profit motive, every organized country in the world immunizes their citizens so that they don't get sick as much. Do you really think China gives a crap about GlaxoSmithKline's margins? Hell no. They use vaccines because it's far and away the best possible investment into keeping people healthy.

      There is literally no valid greed-based explanation for vaccinations. It's dumb when you consider the American health system, and utterly braindead when you look at the other 95% of the world's population.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  2. How vaccines cause autism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    http://howdovaccinescauseautism.com/

  3. Does it matter? by wile_e8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it even about autism anymore? I'm lucky enough to have some family members that are anti-vax and post about it frequently on Facebook, and it's never about autism. Now everything is about "chemicals" and "toxins" and staying natural and how measles didn't kill our grandparents. They've made up their mind, so it won't matter if science shoots down an excuse that was never in doubt to anyone that cared about science. They'll just come up with another excuse that is just as baseless.

  4. Re:That's the problem with such studies by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because not everyone can be vaccinated. Infants can't be vaccinated, along with people with certain kinds of immune problems. Those individuals are kept safe by herd immunity.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  5. Re:Somewhere in the middle... by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    T 1. Why have vaccines and autism rates both grown exponentially in the last 25 years? (no, detection does not come close to answering)

    According to at least one study, changes to the diagnostic criteria and including outpatient diagnosis accounts for much of the rise. In essence, creating an autism spectrum diagnosis resulted in more diagnosis. That doesn't mean actual cases are on the rise since there is no way to rediagnosis those prior to the change. As for vaccines, correlation does not imply causation, something the recent study on the vaccine / autism link proves yet again.

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.