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

[MightyMartian]

Except those that can't be. We rely upon 90%+ of people to be vaccinated to protect the minority who, for specific reasons cannot be. For chrissakes, this isn't news. We've known about the notion of herd immunity for well over a century. This is as established a branch of science as one can get.

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

[gnick]

There is very convincing evidence linking childhood vaccinations with irreversible cases of adulthood.

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

[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

[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:Seven percent less likely means correlation

[TimothyHollins]

Like parents who don't vaccinate do so because they are noticing signs of autism and sometimes they are right. Or something else entirely. In either case, you can't claim both that there is no link and that vaccine cuts down on autism. If authors really wanted to claim no link, they should have said that the difference is below statistical noise at their sample size.

No, they didn't want to draw those conclusions since there were confounding factors.

From TFA:

"Another drawback is the potential for some kids to have undiagnosed autism before getting the MMR vaccine, which could make the MMR vaccine appear linked to autism when it really isn’t connected, the study authors note. It’s also possible that the onset of autism symptoms might lead parents to skip the vaccine. "

They don't feel confident noting a correlation since the numbers are within the margin of error. What can safely be concluded is that there is no increase in autism in the vaccinated group.

Re:Seven percent less likely means correlation

[bobbied]

This has been studied many times in the last decade or two. Always with the same result....

What they are saying is there is no INCREASED risk of autism in kids who got the MMR vaccine and those who didn't. They are saying that correlation does not imply causation and in this case, MMR didn't cause autism. They are, however, acknowledging that the onset of autism happens to coincide with the giving of MMR vaccine. This is because autism is diagnosed at about the same time as it becomes apparent in the developmental delays about the same time as the vaccine is given. They are debunking the logic error used by the antivaxx dogma to push their mistake.

Re:Learn something

[jellomizer]

The problem is a lot of people are looking for 100% safe. Nothing is 100% safe, it never will be.

The direction towards progress is choosing the options that are safer then the options.
So the problems you get with a Vaccine is in general much less then the problems you have without it. Sometime when I get my Work Mandated Flu shot, I feel a little ill for a week. But that is still better then actually getting the Flu, and spreading it to people who may not be able to get the Flu shot (Immune system problems).

Vaccines work by telling your body there is a dangerous infection in your body. So your body creates Antibodies to fight it. This puts extra stress on your body, but if you are of relatively good health you can deal with it. And that stress will do less harm then the stress of an actual infection.

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".