Do Vaccines Cause Autism?
At this point, the evidence is so utterly overwhelming that there is not a whiff of a hint of a whisper of a correlation between vaccines and autism that it has become irritating that the anti-vaccine activists keep pressuring scientists to do the same study over and over again, coming up with the same results over and over again, and then seeing antivaccinationists fail to believe those same results over and over again.
When the media presents scientists on one side and natural news on the other, it’s creating a false equivalency. The anti-vaxxers have no credible scientific evidence supporting their position, but placing them opposite a scientist makes it seem like there are two legitimate sides to this debate. There aren’t.
Now, as a starting point for you, here’s a roundup of trustworthy scientific resources for you to read on your own. Everything is peer-reviewed, or contains links to peer-reviewed articles:
- Immunization Safety Review: Vaccines and Autism http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25349
- Vaccine Safety studies (several studies with notes about what they mean): https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/immunizations/Pages/Vaccine-Studies-Examine-the-Evidence.aspx
- Concerns about vaccine safety (this is really great, and written in layman’s language): http://www.immunizationinfo.org/issues/vaccine-safety/concerns-about-vaccine-safety
Andrew Wakefield, the British “researcher” who performed studies that claimed to show a link between vaccinations for MMR and Autism, faked his data for profit. His medical license has been revoked as a consequence.