If vaccines don't cause autism, why are there so many studies claiming to show that it does?
If vaccines don't cause autism, why are there so many studies claiming to show that it does?
Wow. I mean, just wow. Brainwashed to the nth degree.
There are exactly zero scientific studies linking autism to vaccines. Zero, nada, zilch.
There was a paper written by Andrew Wakefield in 1998, which made the claim of a link between the MMR vaccine and Autism. That paper was later retracted, and Wakefield lost his medical license when it was found to be entirely fraudulent. Unethical practices, manipulated data, and undeclared conflicts of interest.
Wait, that sounds familiar… Oh yeah, exactly the kind of lies RFK Jr is pushing on the American people right now.
Think for yourself. Research the actual science for yourself.
Over and over again, studies have consistently found NO LINK BETWEEN VACCINES AND AUTISM.
We’re born this way, and that’s ok.
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EDIT: Since this post has been getting more and more views, I realise the need to add the actual science about the difference between an increase in autism diagnoses, which is fact, and the perceived increase in children with autism, which is not.
There is an extremely simple reason behind the rise in autism diagnoses – the DSM-IV-TR, which was released in 2000. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is how we define and diagnose autism.
The DSM-IV-TR significantly widened the net on how we classify autism. Instead of autism just being narrowly defined to those with high support needs (those with obvious autistic presentation), autism now includes many traits that are largely internal in presentation. The DSM-IV-TR is when Asperger’s Syndrome first appeared as a diagnosis. The release of the DSM-IV-TR and it’s wider classification alone changed the prevalence of autistic diagnoses from 1 in 2,500 in the 80s to 1 in 150 in the 00s.
Then the DSM-V was released in 2013, which eliminated Asperger’s as a separate diagnosis and folded it under the umbrella term Autism Spectrum Disorder. The DSM-V also further widened the diagnostic net, leading to diagnostic rates of around 1 in 54.
Further awareness and advocacy of the ‘hidden,’ low support needs forms of autism in the years since, particularly among adults, has further increased diagnostic rates to around 1 in 31. Now, more parents are seeking diagnoses for their children than ever before, and more school teachers have become aware of the more subtle signs of autism.
Most telling has been the rise in adults (such as myself) seeking out and receiving first-time diagnoses late in life. I was just diagnosed with ASD two years ago at age 50. I didn’t suddenly develop autism; I just have low support needs further masked by high intelligence. But I have struggled internally my entire life with many of the symptoms of ASD; I just didn’t have the language to explain why before my diagnosis. A recent study by King’s College London estimated that 89% of autistic adults over age 40 remain undiagnosed.
Older autistic people need more help after years of misdiagnosis, review finds
Further, there has been no statistical increase in the prevalence of high support needs autism, as was defined by the DSM in the 80s, between then and today. Public awareness has increased, however, as we shake off the social stigma and shame that was attached to autism in the 80s, when parents would often hide away their autistic children.
That is the actual science behind the large increase in diagnoses. Also, autism does not affect just a certain age group; it is a lifelong condition. We just have a better understanding and wider clinical definition of autism that didn’t exist when previous generations were growing up. That is how people such as myself slipped through the diagnostic cracks and learned to mask our outward presentations so well that we were only labelled “quirky” or “a bit weird,” and spent our lives trying to change aspects of ourselves that are unchangeable, often burning ourselves out in the process.
