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WebMD defines autism as “… a developmental disability… characterized by problems in social interaction and communication and by the need for sameness or repetition of behavior.” Autism has been increasing; this could be due to the awareness, but also people are having their own idea as to why this is. No one quite knows what causes autism. Although many believe genetics could be the cause, there is no real proof for the cause of autism. There are also a group of people who believe that MMR vaccines, a vaccine meant to prevent Measles, Mumps, …show more content…
Andrew Wakefield, a British researcher, published a study in The Lancet claiming that the 12 children with neurodevelopmental delays (eight of whom had autism) he examined had the measles virus in their guts.” A YouTube video called “Vaccines and Autism Myth- Part 1”, published by khanacademymedicine, explained that he got the tissues of their guts and noticed that they were inflamed. He therefore proposed that the MMR vaccine was causing the inflammation. Due to the inflammation, he was saying that there is some sort of protein that could somehow make it through the gut and to the brain. People were seriously questioning whether there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in their children. However, journalist Brian Deer published several articles saying how Wakefield’s finding were inaccurate. People still have concerns, however, about the link between MMR vaccines and autism. One reason they continue to have these …show more content…
According to his family, after he received the MMR vaccine in 1986 he started to develop difficulties in communication and was diagnosed with autism in 1989. “Unlike the vast majority of MMR-vaccinated children, Eric had a serious reaction to the vaccine, his parents say” (WebMD). They are not the only parents who have these skepticisms. Parents were pushing people to do further research on whether or not they should vaccinate their children with the MMR vaccine. They didn’t want to give their kids a disease-causing