Decade-Long Study: Measles Vaccine Doesn't Cause Autism, Even in High-Risk Kids (reuters.com)

The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine isn't associated with an increased risk of autism even among kids who are at high risk because they have a sibling with the disorder, a Danish study suggests. From a report: Concerns about a potential link between the MMR vaccine and autism have persisted for two decades, since a controversial and ultimately retracted 1998 paper claimed there was a direct connection. Even though subsequent studies haven't tied inoculation to autism, fear about the risk has weighed on parents so much in several communities across Europe and the U.S. that vaccination rates have been too low to prevent a spate of measles outbreaks.

In the current study, researchers examined data on 657,461 children. During this time, 6,517 kids were diagnosed with autism. Kids who got the MMR vaccine were seven percent less likely to develop autism than children who didn't get vaccinated, researchers report in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "Parents should not skip the vaccine out of fear for autism," said lead study author Dr. Anders Hviid of the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark. "The dangers of not vaccinating includes a resurgence in measles which we are seeing signs of today in the form of outbreaks," Hviid said by email.

Comments

But don't worry

[Opportunist]

The idiots will find a new reason to avoid vaccinations. If anything fails, the study will be dismissed as fake from the pharma industry.

Re:But don't worry

[MightyMartian]

But they don't have a right to endanger other people. If you don't want your kids vaccinated, they shouldn't be allowed in public schools (or heck, probably most private ones), or anywhere else where other children or immune-compromised people congregate. Your freedom to be a complete moron and endanger your own children should not extend to giving you the liberty to cause harm to others.

Re: But don't worry

[jeff4747]

They can only get each vaccine when they are old enough, and many vaccines require multiple doses spread out over years. Eventually they'll be fully vaccinated, but eventually isn't today.

Also, vaccines are about 95% effective. We rely on herd immunity to protect the roughly 5% where the vaccine does not "take". My kids may be the unlucky 5% for some particular disease that an anti-vaxxer's snowflake gives them.

Re: But don't worry

[jeff4747]

Herd immunity isnt âoescienceâ

Uh...yeah, it is. It's a major part of the sciences of biology and public health, backed by experiments. That's why we know what percentage of a population has to be vaccinated for herd immunity to be effective.

Re:But don't worry

[Nidi62]

DNC doesn't have a right to fight a border wall. When 49,000 US citizens are violently attacked by illegals every year, a wall is common sense, sanctuary cities need to be punished for protecting criminals.

In 2013 there were 73,505 firearm related injuries and 33,636 deaths. GOP doesn't have a right to fight gun control. When 107,000 US citizens are violently attacked with firearms every year, gun control is common sense.

Re:But don't worry

[Anonymous Coward]

If I made a survey of cities based upon freedom of activity, low tax burden and lack of government restriction and oversight not one of those cities would make the list. I know in which group I would rather live.

Let's have a think about cities that qualify on the basis of your list, shall we?
Aden; Mogadishu; Kinshasa; Ashgabat; Lagos; Dhaka; Tripoli -- all of them have a low tax burden, lack government restrictions and oversight, and allow you great freedom of activity. Why, they are even freer than your very own top US cities: after all, it's much easier to find yourself a child prostitute in one of these cities than in Houston, and you can act with impunity.

So why don't you fuck off to Kinshasa and live there for a year and wank on to the locals about the benefits of no government interference? They could do with a laugh, in between being shot at by militias.

Re:But don't worry

[Nidi62]

2nd amendment, read it.

I have, and also own 4 handguns, a shotgun, and 2 rifles. In literally the 1st 3 words of the Amendment are the words "well regulated". There are multiple common sense and reasonable controls that could be put on firearm ownership without infringing on the ability to own firearms, as I have laid out in Slashdot numerous times. Mandatory initial and recurring training provided by local governments (funded by a nominal tax on ammunition and of course the NRA-surely they of all people gladly would support training firearm owners in proper firearm storage, handling, operation, and relevant laws, yes?) would be a great start. More rigorous reporting and administration of background checks. And in an important but tangential action, substantive improvements to mental health treatment in the US.

Re:But don't worry

[Darinbob]

And we have no politicians in the US advocating for Venezuelan style socialism. We do have some wanting more socialist policies similar to that in Scandinavia. The mass hysteria on the right against some prominent politicians is just silly; No one is abolishing capitalism, no one is banning hamburgers, and no one has an agenda to make your children gay. For every delusional person you can point to on the left there is also a delusional person you can point to on the right.

The New Deal was essentially a socialist policy and it pulled us out of the Great Depression when the prior solutions had been failing. Social Security and Medicare are socialist policies backed by a large majority in the US (and yes, they need some fixing).

The problem is that we've got a political system based upon divisiveness today. Everyone politician is anti something, usually anti-the-other-side. Finding common ground is considered a traitorous act. Compromise is a dirty word. But a mere thirty years ago it was still considered a good thing to reach across the aisle, and moderates were seen as the intelligent voices who made things work.

I mean, NO SHIT

[Anonymous Coward]

Morons who don't vaccinate their kids should be dealt with by Child Protective Services.

Re:I mean, NO SHIT

[gtall]

"religious beliefs that preclude the use of vaccines" And just what might those religious beliefs be? Non-belief in modern science and medicine? Belief that kids are parents' property to do unto as they please? Belief in endangering the rest of the pop. that doesn't share those beliefs? Religious beliefs my ass, those holders are deluded if those beliefs constitute religious beliefs. I don't recall any the Bible or the Koran admonishing followers to shun modern medicine of whatever age they live in.

Re:Great but

[bobbied]

They have their ONE study, performed by a now discredited doctor who lost his medical license for his lack of ethical research techniques and lack of effective peer reviews. The study has been condemned as wrong for decades, but you can bet they will quote from that one....

In the mean time, 120,000 kids a year die around the world from the illness prevented by the MMR vaccine.

Re:Seven percent less likely means correlation

[gweihir]

Fighting epidemics is not totalitarianism. It is species survival. It justifies killing people if nothing else is available to stem the tide. If some people think they can endanger society as a whole, force has to be applied to stop their behavior. This is not nice, but necessary. If you do not get that, you have no place in society.

Re:Learn something

[Opportunist]

Nobody pretends there are no side effects from vaccines. Vaccination is a matter of chances. How likely is it to catch a disease? How likely are lasting effects? And how likely are lasting effects from the vaccine?

And there are VERY few cases of vaccines that are offered to the public AT ALL where that chance balance doesn't tip heavily towards "you're a fucking moron if you refuse vaccination".