New study confirms absence of vaccination-autism link

A new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry finds that autism diagnoses in California children kept increasing from 1995 through 2007. This, even though a mercury-based preservative in vaccines, thimerosal, was gone from virtually all childhood vaccines by early 2002 (thimerosal has been blamed for autism by some parents, few fringe scientists and by antivaccinationists). Conclusions from the new study:

"Our findings are in concordance with the rigorous 2004 review of at least 12 previous published and unpublished studies12-25 by the IOM Immunization Safety Committee, which concluded that the body of evidence rejected a causal relationship between TCVs (thimerosal-containing vaccines) and autism. In one of these studies, Hviid and colleagues16 found that the prevalence of autism in Denmark increased from 1991 through 1996 despite the exclusion of thimerosal in routine childhood vaccines. Epidemiologic data published after the IOM Immunization Safety Committee report also fail to support a causal relationship between thimerosal exposure and autism. Fombonne and colleagues recently calculated the prevalence of pervasive developmental disorders in more than 27 000 students in the greater Montreal area of Quebec, Canada, born from 1987 through 1998. Children born from 1996 through 1998 received routinely recommended vaccines that contained no thimerosal, yet their prevalence of pervasive developmental disorders was significantly higher than that of older children who had received vaccines with thimerosal (8.3 per 1000 compared with 6.0 per 1000)."


http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/65/1/19


This study provides more major evidence debunking the alleged link between vaccination and autism. Now that this theory has fallen further into deserved disrepute, is there increased hope for children's health, in that parents will have more confidence in vaccination to protect their kids? Will parents of autistic children reject phony "cures" like expensive and potentially dangerous chelation therapy aimed at removing mercury?

Perhaps most importantly, will the failure of attempts to demonize vaccination result in more attention and funding to find the real cause(s) of autism? Tweet