Episode 3: Vaccine Safety Series 1: Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism

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Welcome to my series devoted to helping parents sort through the propaganda and fear-mongering regarding vaccines. I'm really happy you stopped by and I hope I can clear up some common misconceptions about vaccines for you. 

Episode 1 is all about vaccines and autism.

This episode is an updated version of my original blog post from 2018.

I believe all parents want to do what's best for their kids. I really do. And even I, a virologist, had to deal with concerns about vaccines when I found out I was pregnant with my son. For me, that meant doing what I did best: researching and talking to pioneers in the field. I learned a lot and am hoping to convey it to you. To give this topic the attention it deserves, I will be presenting it in many parts; each addressing an important concern that parents have when deciding whether or not to vaccinate their children. Let's be real, the anti-vax movement has had devastating consequences, as children and adults die without vaccines. However, wherever you fall on the anti-vax-wanting-to-understand-vaccines spectrum, I welcome you here. Thank you for taking the time to hear me out.

Autism and Vaccines.

You've heard it. People have been screaming about this for a long time now. Feb 28th, just yesterday in fact as I type this, was the 27th anniversary of Andrew Wakefield's falsified study published in 1998, That piece of garbage paper, that was pulled for being fraudulent, really kicked off this entire movement, so it gets its own episode and I urge you to listen to it or read it if you want to know what went down to get us here. For this episode, I focus on evidence-based science.

But, I get it. All good parents want to make sure they are doing what's best. One of the biggest concerns when it comes to vaccines, is this idea people hear from anti-vax proponents that vaccines give children autism. And while a lot of people with autism live wonderful and fulfilling lives, no parent wants to unintentionally give their child autism by making a bad choice, right? Of course not. And there are many people saying it can happen while others say it can't. So what risk is there, really, of getting autism from a vaccine? Spoiler alert. None. Zip. Zilch. Don't take my word for it. Let the evidence speak for itself. It's here.

I researched this particular subject exhaustively when I was pregnant and I had an advantage over a lot of parents. Because of my education and training, I not only knew where to go to get the info, I knew how to understand what I was reading. Not just the words, but the statistics and structure of the studies. I also had experts in my circle I could talk to about it. This is my privilege. At least part of it, right? That's why I'm here sharing this info.

And here's the bottom line: all scientific evidence shows that vaccines do not give children autism. All of it. I talk about a few critical ones in a bit and also link a list of papers showing this further down. We have indisputable data that vaccines do not cause autism. But if that's the case, then why do people keep saying it does? Good question. My thoughts? There's a distrust of science that has been cultivated by people with an agenda. Carl Sagan predicted it in The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. We're living it. How do we combat disinformation? That's a whole other topic for conversation but in a nutshell, look at someone's credentials. Don't take their word for it. Ask for their sources. Where did they get that info? Just because it jives with something else you heard or believe doesn't mean it's legit. Be willing to question what you thought you knew. The beauty about science is that as we gather evidence, our theories evolve. Our minds are changed. Don't be swayed by lies that are not backed by real evidence. Conversely, don't refuse to be swayed by facts that are backed by real evidence. We should really just cheat off the smart people again. Not the ones who have to tell you they're smart because they're full of shit, but the ones who do the work. The ones you cheated off in school. The ones who got As because they knew their stuff not because they paid off the teacher. And never be afraid to say you were wrong. It means you learned something.

Ok, back to autism. So, way back in the late 1900s (GenXer here, so that hurts lol) the early 1990s to be exact, we started noticing that the incidence of autism was increasing and it seemed to show up around the same age as children were vaccinated. So we absolutely needed to find out if the one caused the other. And we will come back to this because it's important, but one thing at a time. So, we needed to find out if there was a relationship between vaccines and autism and we did! We found out! We now have >30 years of data showing zero correlation between vaccines and autism. In fact, an article was published in 2019 that put this debate to rest. The largest study so far into vaccines and autism, this study concluded there is no link, even in children with a higher risk of developing the disorder. The study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at 657,461 children born in Denmark from 1999 through 31 December 2010, with follow-up from 1 year of age and through August 31, 2013. They found that children with siblings with autism were seven times more likely to be diagnosed with ASD than children without a family history of the disorder, and boys were four times more likely to be diagnosed than girls. However, even in these higher-risk groups, there was no link between getting vaccinated and being diagnosed with autism. None. As far as science is concerned, this is now a non-issue. This has been shown over and over and we should be done studying this. Researchers should be allowed to spend their time trying to discover what really does cause autism.

But online echo chambers are still spreading disinformation. People with a financial stake in the antivax movement, including Andrew Wakefield, are still spreading lies about vaccines. Wakefield and a co-author were stripped of their medical licenses. After the extensive investigation, The Lancet formally retracted the paper in 2010 and Wakefield was struck off the UKs medical register. He disappeared to Texas and people pay him to speak at anti-vax events and make propaganda films furthering their agenda. In Feb 2024 he premiered the trailer for his first feature film Protocol-7, at the Autism Health Summit in San Antonio. The film claims the mumps vaccine causes serious long-term health issues. WHICH IS A LIE. Spoiler: he was never anti-vax. His entire agenda back in the day was to disparage the MMR vaccine formulation, because he had his own patented formulation and he wanted to sell it. He was never antivax until it was the only way he could earn a living. He hurt kids to do it, too.

Can you see why it's upsetting?

So we know vaccines don't cause autism but what about that perceived rise in autism? Let's talk about it.

Was there really an increase in autism? Not really. Not like you might think. But there are some things we need to understand when we look at the statistics. The truth is that there has been an increase in the number of kids diagnosed with autism, while the number of kids with autism has not increased.

Sounds like doublespeak, I know, but hear me out.

It turns out that the difference, based on extensive and well-designed studies, is that rather than an increase in the number of people with autism, we saw an increase in the number of people identified as having autism. The two are not the same. So, previously, there were people on the autism spectrum who were not identified as such; their numbers were not counted. As those people started being identified, it gave the illusion that more people were on the spectrum , but that wasn't the case. It means we are now finding and identifying those people and counting them. They were there before we counted them. Make sense?

This happened for a number of reasons. First, physicians began looking for autism. If they looked for it and found it, they diagnosed it. Before the 1990s we weren't looking for it, so all but the most severe cases went undetected and undiagnosed. Not only that, but the diagnostic criteria for autism changed - it became a spectrum disorder - that then means that children who would not have met the previous criteria for autism, but who fall on that spectrum, are now diagnosed as having autism. This alone dramatically increases the number of children diagnosed with autism. So now we are looking for it, the criteria to be given the diagnosis has changed, and finally, it's being recognized as something that kids can get help for in school, so parents are more willing to look for and accept the diagnosis, even when the child is on the very mild end of the spectrum. Again, this increases the number of kids diagnosed with autism.

When you take all the data on children with autism or on the spectrum, from 1990-2010 we find: "In 2010 there were an estimated 52 million cases of ASDs, equating to a prevalence of 7.6 per 1000 or one in 132 persons. After accounting for methodological variations, there was no clear evidence of a change in prevalence for autistic disorder or other ASDs between 1990 and 2010." That is from The epidemiology and global burden of autism spectrum disorders. Another excellent and easier to read article is The Real Reason Autism Rates are Up in the US.

Since 2010, autism spectrum diagnoses have continued to rise and for the same reasons. Now though, it's more related to people who weren't diagnosed as children. A paper published in JAMA late last year suggests that for some, ASD may be going undiagnosed in childhood, and only getting recognized in early adulthood when challenges in daily life become unmanageable. There has been no drastic increase in autism. There's been an increase in identifying people of all ages who are on a very wide spectrum.  

So that's the explanation.

And we are left with the glaring fact that studies by dedicated, hardworking scientists many of whom are parents, show over and over that vaccines don't cause autism. If you need more convincing check out the Autism Speaks website. They also do a great job providing links to the evidence I've talked about. You truly can rest easy and protect your children because Vaccines do not cause autism.

There are some really loud voices out there working to convince parents that autism is from vaccines. Or that vaccines are just unsafe and turn you into reptiles or make you trans. The fearmongering doesn't stop. But the truth is that they are using fear to advance their own agendas. The two biggest problems with the anti-vax movement are that in addition to putting lives at risk from preventable infectious diseases, they make it really hard for scientists to work on the real problem. You may think I have an agenda too, and I do. I am trying to help parents make informed choices that will protect their children as well as those in their communities who cannot be vaccinated. We need to protect our children and each other. Vaccines are a marvel of the 20th century and when studies show they are safe we need to use them.

Right now there's an ongoing measles outbreak in west Texas (as I'm typing this it's March 16, 2025). At this time, 259 cases have been identified since late January. Thirty-four of the patients have been hospitalized and one unvaccinated 6 year old Mennonite girl has died so far. It's ongoing and will only get worse. Check out my measles episodes for more details on the disease, the virus, and the vaccine. The total cases across the US have already surpassed the entire total for last year.

Surviving measles also comes with a cost. Measles can lead to serious long term health problems. One of the most severe is called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), which is a very rare, but fatal disease of the central nervous system that results from a measles virus infection. SSPE generally develops 7 to 10 years after a person has measles, even though the person seems to have fully recovered. The risk of developing SSPE is higher for a person who gets measles before they are two years old.

Other severe complications include pneumonia and encephalitis (swelling of the brain). Patients may need to be hospitalized and could die.  As many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. About one child out of every 1,000 with measles will develop encephalitis that can result in convulsions, deafness, or intellectual disability. And finally, for every 1,000 children with measles, one or two will die. There was a reason the measles vaccine was a game changer for parents when it first came out. It saved lives. Anti-vax propaganda is exactly why we are seeing frightening increases in measles. 95% of those currently sick with measles are unvaccinated.

We are also still in the middle of flu season. Ten pediatric deaths were reported this week, bringing the 2024-2025 flu season total to 57 pediatric deaths. CDC estimates that there have been at least 24 million illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations, and 13,000 deaths from flu so far this season.

Am I fearmongering too? Maybe, and I'm sorry for that. Well, sorry not sorry. In this case, the danger is all too real. Just ask the mom mourning her child in Texas.

One more thing I'd like to convey. In 2017, after his first inauguration a letter was written to trump and signed by 9 pages of scientific organizations, asking him to speak out in favor of vaccines, to help curb the anti-vax movement. He didn't, of course, but I linked it in the original blog post because after the 9 pages of signatures, there are 18 pages of studies - summaries and links - that all show that vaccines do not cause autism. They are powerful evidence of the truth about vaccines. The link now leads to nothing. The letter was removed from that website. Removing access to scientific information is dangerous. But I got the letter. So I'm pasting it here for you. It's a ton of evidence, even before the 2019 study, showing vaccines do not cause autism. It is

Vaccine_Safety_Letter_020717.pdf

Download PDF • 315KB

Vaccines don't cause autism, they cause adults.

You have to check out the episode on Wakefield so you understand how this started. It's all there. I'm sure you'll agree he should be in jail. Bottom line is please don't take someone's word for something this important. Even mine. I link all my sources. They are there for your scrutiny. I'm a virologist and mom who wants to protect her son. To do that best, I make sure he's vaccinated. I hope you do the same.

PS. I've learned that there are some people who aren't interested in learning here, but just want to argue their point. I've spent countless hours compiling evidence for some of them to put their minds at ease, because I'm not a dick, but they had zero intention of even considering the evidence. I'm not here for that anymore. I've provided all the evidence and explained it as best I can and if it helps one person it was worth it. But I have to protect my energy these days so I won't be baited. Peace out my dudes.

For informational purposes only, please discuss getting vaccinated with your physician. Feel free to show them this podcast.