Posted on 05/18/2004 11:56:40 PM PDT by neverdem
An examination of scientific studies worldwide has found no convincing evidence that vaccines cause autism, according to a committee of experts appointed by the Institute of Medicine.
In particular, no link was found between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine or vaccines that contain a mercury preservative called thimerosal. The committee released its eighth and final report yesterday in Washington.
Some parents of autistic children immediately protested. Mark Blaxill, the father of an 8-year-old girl with autism, said the committee's conclusions were premature. Studies are under way that should not be dismissed, said Mr. Blaxill, who is a director of the Coalition for SafeMinds, an advocacy group that finances research on the possible connection between autism and vaccines.
Representative Dave Weldon, a physician and a Republican from Florida who is an advocate for the parents, said the report was "based on preliminary, incomplete information and may ultimately be repudiated."
The report will not "put to rest the concerns of parents who believe their children were harmed" by vaccines, Mr. Weldon said.
Autism is a disorder of brain development that has been the subject of much publicity in recent years as parents and researchers hunt for its underlying cause or causes. The issue has been fueled by a rise in the number of children found to have autistic traits in the last decade, though experts disagree on how large the increase is.
Dr. Marie McCormick, a professor of maternal and child health at Harvard who led the investigation, said that most "parents should be reassured" and should not worry about getting their children vaccinated. In the meantime, she said, research on autism should focus on "more productive" areas, like genetic and environmental factors. The debate over vaccines and autism began five years ago when a British researcher, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, reported that a small number of autistic children had signs of measles infection in their intestines after getting the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.
A separate dispute soon broke out when researchers noted that many childhood vaccines contained a mercury preservative, though the measles formulation was not among them. Could an increase in the number of mercury-containing vaccines given to infants be an underlying cause of increased rates of autism?
The Immunization Safety Review Committee at the Institute of Medicine, which is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences, was formed three years ago to examine those issues. The group, composed of expert physicians and scientists with no connections to the pharmaceutical industry, met nine times to gather evidence on the claims.
The committee emphasized that it carried out its mandate from a neutral position: the weight of evidence would indicate only whether it was possible to favor or reject a link between vaccines and autism. "You can never really prove a negative," Dr. McCormick said.
In 2001, the committee issued two reports. The first concluded that the measles vaccine was not likely to cause autism based on the epidemiological evidence. The second found that there was not enough evidence to reject or accept a causal link between vaccines with mercury and neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. To be on the safe side, it recommended that infants get vaccines without mercury preservatives. By 2002, mercury had been removed from most childhood vaccines.
The report released yesterday was based on previous evidence and new studies since 2001, and goes further than ever in discrediting claims that vaccines cause autism. On the subject of vaccines with mercury, five epidemiological studies worldwide show there is no evidence of a link with autism. Three studies found evidence, but the committee said the research methods were flawed.
As for the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, 14 epidemiological studies have shown no evidence of a link. The committee dismissed two studies that did show a link as flawed. The committee examined a number of possible biological mechanisms to explain how vaccines might cause autism, but said that all were theoretical and that there was not sufficient proof.
Fewer children today receive vaccines that contain mercury, Mr. Blaxill of SafeMinds said, so if the mercury hypothesis holds true, rates of autism should fall in the next couple of years. The number of cases in California, where autistic children are carefully tracked, declined slightly in the last six months, he said, but it is too soon to know if the drop is a trend.
Autism is notoriously complex, Dr. McCormick said. Many scientists believe that it may involve numerous genes that appear to interact with a variety of environmental factors and other nongenetic influences.
A generation or two ago, kids would actually play with mercury --- get the beads on their hands if a thermometer broke --- it seems mercury used to be more common than today, plus more lead was in paints and gasoline than today.
I don't know...I don't think you would find an abnormally high incidence of preemie babies in the pool of autistic children. I'm just basing this on the 100 or so autistic children I have known. I don't think it would add much to the trends.
Where else would you find medical and scientific information for the general public? They usually refer to articles in peer reviewed jourals such as that can be found in the current issues the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Nature, etc. Do you think the general public is prepared for the professional literature typically written by specialists with doctoral degrees? Do you think think the Times and WaPo are part of a cabal with the Institue of Medicine?
From the CDC website:
"Madsen et al. (2002) conducted a study of all children born in Denmark from January 1991 through December 1998. There were a total of 537,303 children in the study; 440,655 of the children were vaccinated with MMR and 96,648 were not. The researchers did not find a higher risk of autism in the vaccinated than in the unvaccinated group of children. Furthermore, there was no association between the age at time of vaccination, the amount of time that had passed since vaccination, or the date of vaccination and the development of any autistic disorder. Though there were many more vaccinated than unvaccinated children in the study group, the sample was large enough to contain more statistical power than other MMR and autism studies. Therefore, this study provides strong evidence against the hypothesis that MMR vaccination causes autism."
The study does not eliminate other vaccines from the suspect list, but it does seem to rule out the MMR shot as the culprit.
I don't know either but I wonder if there could be any correlation with time spent in an incubator --- which has to be a pretty unfriendly, unnatural way to get started. I know one couple whose baby was almost a year in the pedi-ICU and there were being advised the baby was certainly autistic because she'd cry and scream anytime a nurse or doctor or lab tech would touch her and seemed to want to be left alone --- but she turned out fine and normal IQ but her mother knew all alone she wasn't autistic because she would respond to her parents --- and her mother came every day to sit and hold her.
Maybe it is a vaccine --- I would suspect one of the live vaccines like polio that affect the brain more --- kids coming down with polio often died or left with partial paralysis --- and the polio vaccine is a live virus which causes a real infection but is supposed to be mild.
That's definitely out of the ordinary. Most kids don't show overt signs of autism before 18 months. And the stereotype of the autistic child that does not like any physical contact--I don't know where that myth came from. The vast majority of austics LOVE physical contact. My son loves to be tickled, held, squeezed, "rassled," etc. My son HATES eye contact, and will only socially interact when forced to, but lives for tactile contact.
They were looking to rule out or rule in by statistical analysis whether the MMR vaccine or thimerosal showed any correlation with the prevalence of the autism after they discarded what they considered poorly designed studies.
Apparently, they ruled out. Those invested with ruling in are upset. I have a link to the WaPo article in comment# 5, IIRC. I believe that article is more informative.
"The companies making vaccines rarely profit from vaccine production, except maybe the flu shots."
Then why produce them?
I guess we can say your mind is made up.
However, I respectfully disagree with your conclusion that this issue is settled. I would still like to see further data.
There is always another side, unless you close your mind to science.
Yes it is.
However, I respectfully disagree with your conclusion that this issue is settled. I would still like to see further data.
How much? When would you say "enough"? Has there EVER been an issue where there has been total agreement? You said earlier that you would wait until all the data agreed, that is an unreasonable, and unattainable goal.
There is always another side, unless you close your mind to science.
What a ridiculous statement.
Is there "another side" to germ theory? How about gravity? Does beliving glycolysis mean I have a closed mind to science?
The question is, is that "other side" plausible? You are beginning to reming me of the believers that the Apollo missions were hoaxed. I'm always told to "have an open mind" and "consider alternative resources". Face it, the IOM looked at EVERY study done and found NO EVIDENCE of a link. For a quasi-governmental panel, that is remarkable. They are always asking for more study.
Thanks for the link.
Of course! The Swiss (who are behind everything) have their hands (and infamous bank accounts) in everything.
Yep.
Where else would you find medical and scientific information for the general public?
Science News, Berkeley Wellness Letter, MIT's Technology Review are good resources.
Watch out for black helicopters and get your MOPP suits and tin foil hats ready.
*Mission Oriented Protective Posture - NBC as in Nuclear, Bioligical and Chemical protective gear was called in the Army.
It never ceases to amaze me that the government is worried about mercury levels in fish, but that the little fish swims around absolutely unharmed by the relatively higher level of mercury in his system than we would have in ours if we ate him.
this is total crap
vaccines cause major problems, as they did to my daughter.
there needs to be much more circumspection to administering vaccines to small children. period.
anyone who thinks otherwise is a complete idiot.
I'm sorry something happened to your daughter. May I what happened?
I've always been skeptical of the blame-the-vaccines crowd.
No no no...
This is a needlessly inflammatory statement (from post 6):
"...injecting, on average, 25 micrograms per shot (this is thousands of times higher amounts than could be found in tuna or the air) of mercury directly into the bloodstream of infants for the last 30 yrs..." emphasis mine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.