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

Re:You know what's frustrating?

[Registered Coward v2]

My mom, God rest her, was an anti-vaxxer and a nurse. A well trained Research Nurse for Pete's sake. This isn't anything new. I'd like to figure out why the anti-vaxxer crowd believes this crap. Not the ones selling books and movies, those guys are in it for the money. I mean the rank and file. They're not just stupid. Heck, a lot of them have college degrees. If anything that's what we need to research, how do you get so many people to believe something so wrong?

I wish I knew as well. It's not, IMHO, a function of education but fear and guilt that drives the anti-vaxers and gets people caught up in it. I knew and educated couple whose daughter was autistic. They blamed in on vaccines since she was diagnosed right after she was vaccinated. Trying to explain that correlation does not imply causation and that autism symptoms tend to be first noticed around the age kids get vaccinated was useless; all it did was cement their belief they were right. I would guess they did not want to believe they rolled the genetic dice and lost; they also believed their daughter would be cured if only the school system did what they wanted. I understand their anguish what I found bad was the mom would hand out anti-vax pamphlets to parents of young kids she saw at the bus stop "So they would not have the same thing happen to them." She did not like it when someone points out she is full of shit.

Wanting to believe something else was at fault, and not nature, is a powerful force. Add in the guilt form thinking you did something to harm your child is also a powerful motivator to strike back at the cause of the problem, even if it is not really the cause. Then you have celebrities that push your opinion and thus reenforce it; because by God if they are celebrities they have to be right and everyone knows the common man or women is smarter than some pointy headed intellectual .that has no common sense and is spending too much time in an ivory tower to see what is really happening.

Sometimes education can be a detriment, as you see patterns that aren't there because you are used to seeing patterns and drawing conclusions; and may have a world view where a giant vaccine conspiracy by big pharma makes sense. I've also run into plenty of highly educated idiots as well.

Re:But don't worry

[Opportunist]

Looks like it worked out for Austria. The socialist party was pretty much constantly part of the government since WW2 and Vienna (the capital) has had a socialist mayor since WW2 and has been topping Mercer's highest quality of living for the past years (i.e. since Mercer's been doing it).

And looking down the list of cities, I get to see Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, .... you have to go down to place 30 to find the first US city. Which is San Francisco. I may be wrong, but I don't see a single US city from a traditionally Republican run state in the first 50 at all.

Re: But don't worry

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

The math is well understood. Vaccines aren't 100% effective, so you need a certain large fraction of the population immunized so new outbreaks die off faster than they spread. And for the unvaccinated this still applies even if it was 100% effective.

This study shows there is no valid health concern. Rather than worry about profiteering drug companies charging a few tens of dollars, worry about profiteering talking heads disdaining vaccines charging tens of dollars for their book on TV and the Internet.

Re:But don't worry

[DNS-and-BIND]

There's no true socialist country to point to. Not one exists today. It used to be Venezuela, but now that the wheels have fallen off the narrative is that Venezuela isn't socialist and never was. Odd, for a country that Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders both called proof positive that socialism could be made to work.

Re:I mean, NO SHIT

[Talderas]

It's not based on religious views. The Amish and Mennonite religions don't have doctrine against vaccines.

Christine Science is a faith which follows prayer/faith healing. Their opposition to vaccines is part of a general rejection of modern medicine and that is an important distinction to keep in mind. No amount of efficacy or safety of vaccines is going to budge the doctrine on faith healing religions, compare that against other religions where objections were based on an erroneous belief of the use of blood in vaccines (Jehova's Witness) or based on beliefs that fetal tissue was used. These religions revised their doctrinal stance on vaccines when evidence was presented to them because they accept modern medicine.

These sects also happen to form a vast minority of the anti-vax movement population and its pretty easy to let them keep their religious exemption because the total population we're speaking of is unlikely to be a risk to herd immunity. There does need to be stricter guidelines on the usage of religious exemptions. Parents are abusing them and treating them equivalent to philosophical objections when they have no faith or belong to a faith that doesn't have doctrinal objection.