Researchers Blast Another Link Between Autism and Vaccines

Researchers Blast Another Link Between Autism and Vaccines

"Some myths never go away; they just change form." that includes the debate about vaccines and childhood autism. One that never seems to go away. Here are the simple facts: there's no link between the disorder and thimerosal. So the anti-vacciners have simply changed the rules and now say that it's not the thimerosal, but vaccines still cause autism because children get too many vaccines too soon. "Their little bodies are overloaded." How they have determined this is hard to understand, and they have come up with alternative vaccine schedules, seemingly out of thin air.

The Los Angeles Times reports "an increasing number of parents are asking their pediatricians to space out vaccines and booster shots." But, "There's no need to do that, according to pediatric infectious disease specialists Drs. Michael J. Smith and Charles R. Woods of the University of Louisville School of Medicine." See the study here.

ULSM released a study in the medical journal Pediatrics, the leading journal in the field, that states unequivocally there is no relation between autism and the frequency of childhood vaccines. The authors, Smith and Woods, analyzed data on 1,047 children from a previous study investigating the thimerosal claim.

The children were born between 1993 and 1997, and had been vaccinated on a schedule of their parents' choosing. Later they were given a series of 42 neuropsychological tests between the ages of 7 and 10. Smith and Woods report roughly 47 percent of the children received their vaccines on a regular schedule. Another 23 percent received their vaccines, but not on schedule, and the remaining children received only some of their shots. From the results it is clear that the spacing of the vaccines had no effect on whether or not the children developed autism. The authors state "This study provides the strongest clinical outcomes evidence to date that on-time receipt of vaccines during infancy has no adverse effect on neurodevelopmental outcomes 7 to 10 years later....These results offer reassuring information that physicians and public health officials may use to communicate with parents who are concerned that children receive too many vaccines too soon." There simply were no differences, none.

Over and over again, with research study after research study, we see that vaccines have no relationship to autism, Asperger's Disorder or any neurological deficits.

What we should learn from these studies is that there is a group of individuals who for some philosophical or political reason seem to want to spread discontent among parents, who want to scare them, and for some reason return us to the medicine of 100 years ago. I fail to understand it. I just hope that the overwhelming evidence will sooner or later keep parents from wasting their time and money of treatments (like chelation, chiropractic and homeopathy) that are based upon the same woo science.

Dr. Jim Roche is a registered psychologist in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has offices in Burnaby (Coquitlam, Port Moody, Maple Ridge and New Westminster) and downtown Vancouver. His website can be seen at www.relatedminds.com and www.socialcognitivetherapy.com