Vaccines and Autism Timeline

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This is a timeline of how this whole debacle began, and has been continuing since.  It starts with Wake field publishing his study, and on the left gives examples of pro vaccines-causing-autism things that have happened, mostly public thing like Jenny McCarthy's campaign; on the right it tells of some of the numerous studies showing no link between autism and vaccines.

Mercury proved not to cause autism (again).

Article
This article, from Fox news of all places, discusses a study that shows that mercury in vaccinations, an uncommonly used and commonly quoted additive to vaccines, does not cause autism. Though not the first study disproving a link, the rumor never seems to die, so people continue doing new studies. The kind of mercury that has specifically been called a concern is called ethylmercury. From the article, "The researchers collected urine samples from 54 children with autism spectrum disorders, and compared these with three other groups: 115 children from the general population, 28 children who attended special schools (mainly because of learning disabilities), and 42 children who didn't have autism, but had a sibling with the condition."

"An Elaborate Fraud?"

Article
 This article, varying from the basic format of articles severing the connection between autism and vaccines, is more about the backlash from the original infamous study, and why that study has been discredited, that why exactly autism and vaccines aren't linked. I'd like to address both of those points in their own sections.
Why the study has been discredited:
The number on reason the study has been discredited, and the reason most of his (Wakefield's), co-authors withdrew their names was that Wakefield  had been paid 435,000 pounds ($674,000) by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers using the results of the study. That is in incredibly large conflict of interest that he, unsurprisingly, failed to mention. The second, equally important but less-cited reason the study has been officially discredited is that there is strong evidence that Wakefield fabricated a large portion of the test subjects medical history, editing, excluding, and just plain making-up data that would have rendered his study inconclusive, false, or even just less convincing. Form the article, "Godlee, [BMJ]'s editor-in-chief, said the study shows that of the 12 cases Wakefield examined in his paper, five showed developmental problems before receiving the MMR vaccine and three never had autism." Essentially, though some of the data may possibly be useful, though personally I highly doubt it, the study itself needs to be thrown out. To the scientific community, it has been, but to most of the population "discredited" means nothing. Wakefield himself "was found guilty by the General Medical Council of serious professional misconduct in May 2010, and was struck off the Medical Register, meaning he could no longer practice as a doctor in the United Kingdom." (Wikipedia)
The backlash:
 Across the U.S. and the United Kingdom, as a direct result of this study, MMR vaccination rates have dropped, falling as low as 80% by 2004 in Britain, and measles and mumps outbreaks have happened at a frightening increase. According to the article, "In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Though the study has repeatedly failed to stand up to scrutiny, and has never been able to be replicated, for some reason it continues to be cited and defended.

More on Vaccines...

After reading my classmates blogs regarding autism and watching many videos posted by them, I decided to look into it myself, expecting to find the same results. And I did. Consensus states that there are many cases arguing a risk of autism involved in vaccinations, yielding no scientific proof. This article argues, "...teenage boys vaccinated as children were: Twice as likely to suffer from autism, four times as likely to have Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and boys and girls of all ages - vaccinated as children - were more than twice as likely to have developed asthma." This information is credited to "a June survey of more than 10,000 families," and no further information is provided about the survey. What I have not been able to find, is statistics on the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated, and the percentage of autistic children for both vaccinated and non-vaccinated patients. Why is this information not available, and if it has become such an issue, why are scientists not thoroughly researching the subject to avoid these consistent misconceptions? Many posts about autism cause by vaccines blame mercury levels in some vaccinations, however there are no studies readily available about the relationship between mercury and autism, or the level of mercury it would take to affect a patient regardless of its effects (autism, disease, death, etc). More in this article claims that vaccines cause allergies, depression and other psychological disorders. It becomes hard to decipher what the purpose of the argument is. To attempt to educate the public about the threats of vaccines and demolish all vaccinations, or an attempt to prevent and increase in autistic children and the potential of vaccinations increasing that number? I'm still waiting for the answers to my questions, and don't know why they have yet to be answered after how long this has been an issue.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/204991.aspx

How People Delude Themselves

Even though thimerosal--a mercury-containing and allegedly autism-causing chemical--has been removed from most vaccines, people continue to believe that vaccines cause autism. Why? The David/Goliath factor: big bad money-grubbing pharmaceutical companies vs. private-practice Dr. Dudenheimer. The general public is more likely to believe the friendly-looking Dudenheimer than the enormous corporate behemoth towering over his shoulder. But if Dr. Dudenheimer hears on the internet that vaccines cause autism and decides to test this, he will have some experimental bias. Say it with me, folks: BAD SCIENCE! The big pharmaceuticals will then have less power to debunk this; any attempts they make will reek to the public of the very bias that tainted Dr. Dudenheimer's results.

So the root cause of this disinformation can be traced back to fear-mongering and bias. Boatloads of bias.

Autism; the Facts

"Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others."  Autism Society of America 

• The Center for Disease Control issued an Autism prevalence report in 2009, stating that the numbers had risen to 1 in every 110 births, almost 1 in 70 for boys. 
• 1.5 million Americans are currently on the Autism Spectrum. 
• There are five classifications of the Autism Spectrum as follows; 
• Autism 
• Characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, repetitive and restricted behavior before the child is 3yrs old.  
• Asperger Syndrome 
• Characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development.  
• Childhood Disintregrative Disorder
•  Characterized by developmental delays in language, social function, and motor skills.
• Rett Syndrome

•  Almost exclusively affects females, limited to no verbal skills. Rett Syndrome is the nerodevelopmental disorder of the grey matter of the brain. 
• PDD-NOS
• Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified; Two main characterizations of PDD-NOS are difficulties with social interaction skills and communication. As the child ages, they will have trouble with non-verbal communication, sarcasm and figurative speech. 
• Autism affects information processing in the brain. The way the nerve cells and synapse in the brain are organized and connected are different in the Autistic than they are in developmentally functional brains, and the shapes and sizes of the brains can by seen on brain scans. (See Upper Right)
• About 30% of Autistic children engage in self harming actions. 
• Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability, 1,148% growth rate.