In the summer of 1952, an epidemic of polio terrorized the nation, killing more than 3,000 people and paralyzing more than 21,000. Today, this seems unimaginable. Due to vaccination efforts, incidences of polio and nearly a dozen other infectious diseases have plummeted, resulting in increased life expectancies and decreased infant mortality rates for those with access to vaccines.
Yet these hard-won public health gains are in jeopardy due to pernicious misinformation purporting a link between vaccines and autism.
The modern anti-vaccine crusade began with a 1998 study published by British researcher Andrew Wakefield in the medical journal The Lancet alleging a link between vaccines and autism. Wakefield’s work has since been rebuked as deceitful, unethical and bursting with conflicts of interest — it was funded by lawyers seeking damages against vaccine manufacturers. The Lancet retracted the study in 2010, and the disgraced Wakefield is now barred from practicing medicine in Great Britain.
Still, in the aftermath of Wakefield’s publication, vaccination rates in the United Kingdom dropped, and cases of infectious diseases sky-rocketed. But some good did come from the Wakefield debacle. In the years since 1998, vaccine safety has been studied extensively, and as a result, the evidence has never been clearer: No scientific link has been established between vaccines and autism.
Now it is true that vaccines, like all medical procedures, do carry some risks. Potential side effects are documented well, but it is important to note that the development of autism is not one of them. Severe health events are occasionally observed in the time after a child has been vaccinated, but they are so infrequent that a causal relationship between the vaccine and the event cannot be established.
That vaccines and autism diagnoses coincide for some children is not evidence of a causal relationship but instead exactly what one would expect for a medical procedure performed millions of times each year on a population that is vulnerable to sudden, inexplicable declines in health. When studies are performed to determine if a causal relationship exists, the conclusion is clear: Vaccines possess a high degree of safety, and their benefits overwhelmingly outweigh their risks.
Anyone interested can read the peer-reviewed literature on vaccines. But do so with these considerations in mind: “What are the authors’ personal biases? Where is the data that supports their claims?”
Finally, those claiming a causal relationship between vaccines and autism are encouraged to conduct unbiased research and publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals. If it were found that a subset of the population is susceptible to severe complications from vaccines, it would be of public health importance and could merit a reevaluation of their vaccination schedule.
But until such a relationship has been established by proper scientific means, those alleging so are spreading potentially deadly misinformation and should cease to do so immediately.
