Childhood Vaccines Cleared of Autism, Diabetes Link

Miranda B. -- Yet another meta-analysis of vaccine research (this time from the US Institute of Medicine) has concluded that there is no link between vaccines and autism. The report, which has been two years in the making, covers vaccines for meningococcal disease, chicken pox, hepatitis B, HPV, DTaP, MMR, hepatitis A, and influenza, which generate the most of the claims for the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). Most of the side effects for which strong evidence of a causal relationship was found were relatively mild and temporary, such as fainting, allergic reactions, and localized swelling. The only vaccines which were strongly linked with severe side effects were MMR and chicken pox (seizures and fever and inflammation of the brain, and certain infections, respectively), and these side effects were found only in immunocompromised children for whom the vaccine is contraindicated anyway. This study offers even more convincing evidence against Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 MMR/autism study which sparked the anti-vaccine movement, and another report that linked MMR and DTaP with diabetes. However, this study is just one boulder in an Everest of evidence that vaccines do not, in fact, cause autism. By this point, any person who believes that vaccines cause autism will not be swayed by any evidence. There is one problem with this report, though- it effectively worked backwards, looking at case reports and trying to see links. This method increases the subjectivity of a report. They had to do it that way because of the lack of population studies for all vaccines but MMR and the cost of conducting studies huge enough to find rates of adverse effects. Basically, the report is flawed (although not fatally) because of the lack of clear and consistent rules for accessing patient data.

Really, this should not be an issue anymore. There has been one (1) study linking MMR to autism, and that study was conclusively proven to be fraudulent and shockingly poorly conducted. The diabetes link is based on one (1) case of diabetes that developed in the Boostrix DTaP clinical trials. Time after time, careful examination of empirical evidence (what some call “reality”) has revealed that antivaccer’s points are not valid. To illustrate these people’s complete lack of sense, one should consider that they complain about the presence of formaldehyde in vaccines, ignorant of the facts that 1) it’s the dose that makes the poison, and 2) humans actually produce some amount of formaldehyde on their own. At this point, any effort to show them sense is a wasted one. The US Institute of Medicine employed people for two years to produce this study, which will not reduce the antivaccer’s numbers. On the other hand, it did clarify the side effects of certain vaccines, so it will be useful to the NVICP. Overall, the article should have focused on that aspect, rather than the old news about autism.


Link:  Childhood Vaccines Cleared of Autism, Diabetes Link