Autism and Vaccination: Addressing Concerns with Research and Evidence

This essay critically analyzes the claimed link between autism and vaccination, focusing on parental concerns and the scientific evidence. The essay examines the original research that sparked the controversy, particularly the work of Andrew Wakefield, and details the claims made by those who believed in a connection between vaccination and autism. It then presents the counter-arguments, citing numerous studies and reviews that have refuted the link, including large-scale epidemiological studies and meta-analyses. The essay addresses the questions raised by parents, such as when autism can be identified, the causes of autism, and how parents can help their children. It highlights the importance of vaccination in protecting vulnerable individuals and communities from preventable diseases. The essay concludes by emphasizing that there is no scientific evidence to support a connection between autism and vaccination, and underscores the significance of relying on credible sources and evidence-based information when making healthcare decisions. The document aims to provide a balanced and informed perspective on this important public health issue.

Link between
Autism with
Vaccination

Student’s Name:
Student’s ID:

Target Audience
 There are two groups, vaccine-hesitant parents and parents with vaccinated children
 Vaccine-hesitant parents are Emily and John who are hesitant to take decisions for the vaccination of their children
 Parents with vaccinated children are Alison and Paul who are not against the vaccination. But their daughter Sarah could not be vaccinated due
to compromised immune system and allergies
 So, the focus group will be on Alison and Paul who are having difficult time while coping with the stress to take care of Sarah due to her
frequent illness and compromised immune system
 Alison is concerned for Sarah contracting whooping cough and measles. She need help for getting information so that she can utilize that
information to persuade Emily vaccinate her children and protect Sarah from those diseases that can covered by vaccination
Key Question
 Medical science has still not solved the mysterious cause of autism. No blood test or any other process could recognize the spectrum of autism
in the children
 Vaccination has been a matter of controversy for the parents and application of vaccination had reduced in several nations in spite of much
discussions on the safety of vaccination, and absence of evidences regarding the connection between autism and vaccination
 So the key question is “Is there any link between autism and vaccination?”

Key Points including for and against Points
 For Points
 The claims of a connection between vaccination and autism has been examined extensively and found to be false
 Potential links between autism and vaccination has been a topic of debate for several years and made the parents concerned about the safety of
their children (Filliter et al., 2017)
 Anxiety has increased rapidly from 1990 when a medical team led by Wakefield declared that vaccination might be the cause in the growth of
autism (Zerbo & Klein, 2018)
 From this publication, vaccination has been a matter of controversy for the parents and application of vaccination had reduced in several
nations in spite of much discussions on the safety of vaccination, and absence of evidences regarding the connection between autism and
vaccination (Glickman, Harrison, & Dobkins, 2017)
 The connection was first recommended in the year 1990 and came in notice of the public from The Lancet published in the year 1998 by
Andrew Wakefield (Donzelli et al., 2018). The research paper linked autism with vaccination

Continued…
 The publication of Wakefield in the year 1998 has consecutive reports of twelve patients with loss of acquired language as well as stomach
pain and diarrhea (Gromis & Liu, 2018)
 After a multisystem examination, no definite abnormalities were found except the colitis and hyperplasia in nine out of 12 children (Hooker,
2018)
 It was reported of symptoms of gastrointestinal of these children by their parents. Initially, Wakefield did not made a direct connection with
vaccination, and rather he commented on the connection between temporary connection with vaccination and measles and inflammation of
gastrointestinal with autism (Jain et al., 2015)
 The sentiment of his claims continued to be delivered to the parents in the meetings of autism all over the world.
 In the year 2017, a survey by Autism Society of USA specified that almost 50% of the parents agreed that they feel that the vaccinations were
the primary reason for autism in their children (Zerbo et al., 2018)

Continued…
 Against Points
 The cases of autism rose dramatically between 1990 and 2000 and are mainly attributed to the changes in the practices of diagnostic although
it is not known the number of changes (Qin, King& Broder-Fingert, 2018)
 The development came from real changes in the existence of autism and moreover not linked with vaccination was illustrated
 In the year 2004, European Union examined 120 research papers and considered unplanned impacts of vaccination and concluded that though
vaccination is linked with negative and positive impacts, a link between autism and vaccination is doubtful (Uno, Uchiyama, Kurosawa,
Aleksic & Ozaki, 2015)
 In the year 2006, literature found no relation between autism and vaccination. In the year 2007, the original paper of Wakefield was reviewed,
and the researches gave compelling proofs against the fact that vaccination is linked with autism
 In the year 2009, a study on the connections between autism and vaccinations was discussed, and it was found that controversy of vaccination
is one of failure of biological and epidemiological researches in the field of medical science
 In the year 2012, almost 14,000,000 were studied and proved that there are no evidences of involvement of vaccinations with autism
(Venkatraman, Garg & Kumar, 2015)
 In July of the year 2014, a review with systematic methods discovered solid evidences that autism is not linked with vaccination
 In March of the year 2019, large-scale research carried out by Statens Serum Institute followed more than 600, 000 children for almost ten
years and found no connection between autism and vaccination even in children those who have autistic brother or sister (Waye & Cheng,
2018)

Questions and Answers
 Alison and Paul have some questions in their mind. They are given below:
 Q: How early autism can be identified in children?
 A: Recognizing autism is difficult before the age of 1 year, but a diagnosis is possible by two years. Delay in social skills and language
development and repeating the same behavior patterns are some of the early symptoms of autism.
 Q: What are the causes of autism?
 A: Scientific studies had suggested different factors such as both hereditary and environmental factors can be the causes of autism by affecting
the early development of the brain.
 Q: How parents can help their children with autism?
 A: The parents have a vital role in supporting their children with autism. They could help them to make sure that education and health services
are accessed and motivating and nurturing environments as their children grow up. A recent study has shown that the parents could also offer
behavioral and psychosocial support to their children.
 Q: Are vaccination in childhood responsible for autism?
 A: Epidemiological reports had shown that there are no evidences of the connection between autism and autism. Earlier researches which have
suggested of the causal connection had been proved to be severely flawed. There are no evidences which indicated that no vaccination in
childhood might maximize the risks of autism in the children.

References
 Donzelli, G., Palomba, G., Federigi, I., Aquino, F., Cioni, L., Verani, M., & Lopalco, P. (2018). Misinformation on vaccination: A quantitative
analysis of YouTube videos. Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 14(7), 1654-1659.
 Filliter, J. H., Dodds, L., MacDonald, N., Shea, S., Dubé, E., Smith, I. M., & Campbell, L. A. (2017). The next vaccine-autism question: Are
school-aged youth with autism spectrum disorder undervaccinated and, if so, why? Paediatrics & child health, 22(5), 285-287.
 Glickman, G., Harrison, E., & Dobkins, K. (2017). Vaccination rates among younger siblings of children with autism. New England Journal of
Medicine, 377(11), 1099-1101.
 Gromis, A., & Liu, K. (2018). The roles of neighborhood composition and autism prevalence on vaccination exemption pockets: A population-
wide study. Vaccine, 36(46), 7064-7071.
 Hooker, B. S. (2018). Reanalysis of CDC Data on Autism Incidence and Time of First MMR Vaccination. Journal of American Physicians and
Surgeons, 23(4), 105-110.
 Jain, A., Marshall, J., Buikema, A., Bancroft, T., Kelly, J. P., & Newschaffer, C. J. (2015). Autism occurrence by MMR vaccine status among
US children with older siblings with and without autism. Jama, 313(15), 1534-1540.

Continued…
 Qin, S., King, S., & Broder-Fingert, S. (2018). Factors Affecting Vaccination in Children and Their Siblings after Autism Spectrum Disorder
Diagnosis. JAMA Pediatrics, 172(10), 985-985.
 Uno, Y., Uchiyama, T., Kurosawa, M., Aleksic, B., & Ozaki, N. (2015). Early exposure to the combined measles–mumps–rubella vaccine and
thimerosal-containing vaccines and risk of autism spectrum disorder. Vaccine, 33(21), 2511-2516.
 Venkatraman, A., Garg, N., & Kumar, N. (2015). Greater freedom of speech on Web 2.0 correlates with a dominance of views linking vaccines
to autism. Vaccine, 33(12), 1422-1425.
 Waye, M. M., & Cheng, H. Y. (2018). Genetics and epigenetics of autism: A Review. Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 72(4), 228-244.
 Zerbo, O., & Klein, N. P. (2018). Factors Affecting Vaccination in Children and Their Siblings After Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis—
Reply. JAMA Pediatrics, 172(10), 985-986.
 Zerbo, O., Modaressi, S., Goddard, K., Lewis, E., Fireman, B. H., Daley, M. F., & Getahun, D. (2018). Vaccination Patterns in Children after
Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis and in Their Younger Siblings. JAMA Pediatrics, 172(5), 469-475.