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Vaccine-Autism Link Knocked Down Again

slimvictor

slimvictor

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Dec 29, 2008
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Increasing exposure to vaccine antigens in the first 2 years of life was not associated with the development of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), researchers found.

After adjustment for potential confounders, the odds ratios for ASD for each 25-unit increase in total antigens were 0.999 (95% CI 0.994 to 1.003) for exposure up to age 3 months, 0.999 (95% CI 0.997 to 1.001) for exposure up to age 7 months, and 0.999 (95% CI 0.998 to 1.001) for exposure up to age 2 years, according to Frank DeStefano, MD, MPH, of the CDC's Immunization Safety Office in Atlanta, and colleagues.

Antigen exposure also was not associated with autistic disorder or ASD with regression, defined as the loss of previously acquired language skills among those with the disorder, the researchers reported online in the Journal of Pediatrics.

"These results indicate that parental concerns that their children are receiving too many vaccines in the first 2 years of life or too many vaccines at a single doctor visit are not supported in terms of an increased risk of autism," DeStefano's group wrote.

Furthermore,"the possibility that immunologic stimulation from vaccines during the first 1 to 2 years of life could be related to the development of ASD is not well supported by the known neurobiology of ASD, which tends to be genetically determined with origins in prenatal development, although possible effects in early infancy cannot be ruled out completely," they wrote.

cont at
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/Autism/38165
 
I wasn't aware that the developmental neurobiology of autism was well understood. Last I heard they didn't even have an animal model for it, such that laboratory animals can be given a specific insult (this includes genetic knockouts or insertions) and reliably expected to develop this analogous disease. This is really the sine qua non of understanding any disease's etiology at the cellular level. Once scientists have bred a strain of mice that have a neurodevelopmental syndrome markedly similar to human autism in many quantifiable ways, then a study can be run where half the infant mice are from this autistic stock, and half from normal lab mouse stock, and half in each group are given the vaccine in question. When the null hypothesis stands, this will put an end once and for all to this tinfoil hat stuff.

I understand where parents are coming from. Ones who've had friends and family members with autistic kids, or previous children with autism themselves, are heartbroken and want answers. Vaccines are an easy focus for public fear, because:
1) They're mass-marketed by big corporations
2) They're marketed with the express intent of reaching all people, not just a special subset
3) They make changes in people's bodies that potentially last a lifetime with only one dose
4) They provide a locus of control for parental decision making in childrearing, i.e. the parent is free to accept or refuse it, which cannot be said about a lot of healthcare (and educational) policies that are foisted upon them with no choice.

So refusing to vaccinate happens because it feels empowering. That said, I can't imagine how disempowering it must feel to get stuck with a six-figure medical bill for your child's case of polio, on top of a child crippled for life, because your insurance company doesn't cover vaccine-eradicated diseases.
 
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