The only problem is that there's no real evidence that the MMR vaccine, or any vaccine or vaccine component for that matter, causes autism.[6][3] At least four different studies by different labs and authors were launched to review the possibility that the MMR could be causing autism, and all concluded that the vaccine did not elevate the risk of developing autism in children.[1] The paper was fully redacted by the lancet in 2010, the same year that Wakefield's license to practice medicine was pulled for performing blatantly unnecessary procedures on the children in his studies, such as lumbar punctures and colon studies. Wakefield is also believed to have been paid to preform his study against the MMR by a law firm seeking to sue the vaccine manufacturers. Of course, this is all distraction- it doesn't matter much about Wakefield himself. We're here to talk about science and scary stuff.
On the matter of Mercury (thimerisol) in vaccines, not all Mercury is made equal. What people talk about when they say 'mercury' is an inorganic ethyl mercury salt, which is distinguished from the famous disease-causing organic methyl mercury salts you've been exposed to when you eat fish. It used to be in vaccines to prevent the growth of hazardous microbials like bacterial or fungal agents. The only childhood vaccine that still uses Thimerisol today is the inactivated influenza vaccine, since it's typically provided as a multi-dose vial. Thinerisol was voluntarily removed from most childhood vaccines in the late 90's at the request of the FDA- though it's still utilized as a preservative in a wide range of other pharmaceuticals. Even if it was still in vaccines, Thimerisol requires substantially higher doses than methyl mercury to begin causing disease- somewhere in the range of 2-3 milligrams, where vaccine thimerisol doses sit about 1000 times below that dosage. In fact, even though Thimerisol has been shown to be readily cleared from infant's bodies in their feces, the dose children receive does not exceed the FDA 'safe' level for Methyl mercury exposure. Numerous studies have also been done that establish the safety of thimerisol doses in vaccines, including addressing the charges about autism. [7 for all of that]
As for Aluminum, it's one of the most abundent elements in the earth's crust, it's a common additive in almost anything you buy, and it's an ingredient in vaccines. Now, since the 70's, multiple studies have implicated aluminum in neurological diseases, all of which were later debunked. Aluminum is specifically added to the vaccine as an adjuvant- something used to stimulate an immune response and ensure that the immune system picks up on the target antigens in the vaccine. Aluminum has been tested for its safety in vaccines and has been proven safe, but maybe you don't believe me. Maybe you'd be interested to learn that children only receive about 4 milligrams (.004 grams) of aluminum from vaccines in a six month period, while they receive ten milligrams from breast milk, forty from formula, and 120 (thirty times as much!) from soy based formula in the same period of time. Even if aluminum did cause autism, which it doesn't, cutting out vaccines isn't the answer. For more information, look at the source I've cited for this paragraph. [8]
So where's the scary? Well, I'm getting to that, stay tuned. One of the biggest side-effects of the anti-vaccine movement is the rise in deaths from vaccine preventable diseases- diseases like measles, which was eradicated from the US in 2000 and re-established in 2004 due to poor vaccine compliance. These are diseases that have no business killing anybody. That's right, measles kills. A little under 40% of the kids sickened have to get hospitalized, and about 1 in 1000 will develop encephalitis- a swelling of the brain that causes permanent disability or death. Rubella, another disease prevented by MMR, does not cause disability quite so obviously. Instead, if a pregnant woman becomes infected with Rubella during her first trimester, the child can develop what's known as Congenital Rubella Syndrome, which causes deafness, cataracts and retinopathies (eye disease), developmental delay, permanent intellectual disability, seizures, serious heart problems, abnormal muscle tone, and several other permanent problems. There is presently no specific treatment for congenital Rubella syndrome, and Rubella was never eradicated from the United States. [9]There'a still more, though- in the United States, we've had kids dieing from Pertussis (which there are mutant strains now that can circulate in vaccinated populations thanks in part to poor vaccine compliance), dieing from HIb pneumonia, dieing from influenza, all of which are preventable by vaccines. We're on the brink of eradicating polio from the face of the planet, making it the second ever virus that we've eradicated, but fear over vaccines is opening the possibility of polio re-establishing itself in the US. There is no excuse for exposing your kids to a 1 in 100 chance of permanent paralysis.
Not scared yet? Wait, it gets better. In some small portion of the population, some vaccines will not provide lasting immunity- we don't yet know why, as far as I am informed. We've previously been able to protect these people through a phenomenon called herd immunity, where if the vaccinated population was high enough, a disease would be unable to establish itself and spread through a population. Now that vaccine compliance has dropped, herd immunity is breaking down, and people who were protected are now at risk again. That's why vaccination isn't a personal health choice- it's a public health matter. Your decisions with vaccines can affect your neighbors, your friends, and your family. This isn't about 'maybe, in some kids, they cause autism', this is about real kids losing their lives to diseases that we've been able to prevent for years, and sometimes, it's because a stranger made the wrong decision. [4]
Before we finish, I'd like to take a moment to discuss Autism- what is it, what causes it? Autism is a neurocognitive disorder that, as current scientific evidence is indicating, you are born with due to genetic and/or pre-natal environment factors. There's a lot of good people doing a lot of hard work to figure this out. We're still learning how to define and diagnose it, and this increasing awareness and broadening diagnosis criteria has caused the sharp increase in autism diagnoses- so it's not a true epidemic. MMR specifically gets a lot of blame because of timing- its administration should happen around the one year mark of life, which is typically close to when the initial diagnosis of autism is made. The anecdotes are powerful, but that's all they are, and anecdotes aren't evidence. It's a correlating event, like saying that I was born in Oklahoma with brown hair, many Oklahomans have brown hair, therefor Oklahoma causes brown hair. Correlation, however, is not causation. Correlation, I think, is what upset parents have left to ponder on with their child's diagnosis, when science doesn't have all the answers yet. Really, it's the not knowing that's scary.
The autism science foundation has a good resource at source [2], and you can donate to their science fund or even volunteer for studies if you have autistic children. As always, you can make a difference by doing your homework and getting educated on this matter. Share your knowledge, get vaccinated, and encourage others to do the same.
Feel free to leave questions, comments, concerns , and/or suggestions on the blog or on my google plus account.
[9]http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001658.htm
[8]http://www.chop.edu/export/download/pdfs/articles/vaccine-education-center/aluminum.pdf
[7]http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228
[6]http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/patient-ed/conversations/downloads/vacsafe-mmr-bw-office.pdf
[5]http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/patient-ed/conversations/downloads/vacsafe-thimerosal-bw-office.pdf
[4]http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/unprotected-stories.hhttp://www.autismsciencefoundation.org/get-involved/donate
[3]http://www.autismsciencefoundation.org/autismandvaccines.html
[2]http://www.autismsciencefoundation.org/quick-facts-about-autism
[1]http://www2.aap.org/immunization/families/autismwakefield.html
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