The word autism was first used to describe a “subset of schizophrenic patients who were especially withdrawn and self-absorbed” (Sole-Smith, Virginia). The meaning of autism has changed drastically since its initial definition. In 1991 the United States federal government made autism a special education category. This is when public schools began identifying children on the spectrum and offering them special services allowing them to get the proper assistance related to their needs. (Sole-Smith, Virginia) While many theories about the cause of autism have been proposed, a complete understanding of the causation is not known. It is generally accepted that autism is caused by abnormalities in the brain’s structure and function (Autism Society).
…show more content…
The MMR vaccine is not related to autism and there are valid studies to prove this. These studies are not rooted in a desire for a big paycheck from a law firm or supporting a competing vaccine. These studies also use control groups, with large diverse samples that last over the course of a year or more. One such study is titled “Autism Occurrence by MMR Vaccine Status Among US Children With Older Siblings With and Without Autism” that determined “of 95,727 children with older siblings, 994 (1.04%) were diagnosed with ASD and 1929 (2.02%) had an older sibling with ASD.” This not only debunks the fear that the MMR vaccine causes autism, but also that there is no link between siblings who have autism, who in theory should be at a higher risk. Another study was done by The New England Journal of Medicine. This study was conducted on “all children born in Denmark from January 1991 through December 1998” (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen et al.). Of the 537,303 children in the study 440,655 (82.0 per- cent) had received the MMR vaccine (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen et al.). There were “316 children with a diagnosis of autistic disorder and 422 with a diagnosis of other autistic-spectrum disorders” “the relative risk of autistic disorder in the group of vaccinated children, as compared with the unvaccinated group, was 0.92 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.68 to 1.24), and the relative risk of another autistic spectrum disorder was 0.83 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.65 to 1.07)” (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen et al.). This study also proved that there is no association between the age at the time of vaccination, the time since vaccination, or the date of vaccination and the development of autistic disorder. (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen et al.) While these are only two studies, there are hundreds of others that are just as valid and scientifically proven that pop up with a simple Google search, disproving all
The MMR vaccine is not related to autism and there are valid studies to prove this. These studies are not rooted in a desire for a big paycheck from a law firm or supporting a competing vaccine. These studies also use control groups, with large diverse samples that last over the course of a year or more. One such study is titled “Autism Occurrence by MMR Vaccine Status Among US Children With Older Siblings With and Without Autism” that determined “of 95,727 children with older siblings, 994 (1.04%) were diagnosed with ASD and 1929 (2.02%) had an older sibling with ASD.” This not only debunks the fear that the MMR vaccine causes autism, but also that there is no link between siblings who have autism, who in theory should be at a higher risk. Another study was done by The New England Journal of Medicine. This study was conducted on “all children born in Denmark from January 1991 through December 1998” (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen et al.). Of the 537,303 children in the study 440,655 (82.0 per- cent) had received the MMR vaccine (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen et al.). There were “316 children with a diagnosis of autistic disorder and 422 with a diagnosis of other autistic-spectrum disorders” “the relative risk of autistic disorder in the group of vaccinated children, as compared with the unvaccinated group, was 0.92 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.68 to 1.24), and the relative risk of another autistic spectrum disorder was 0.83 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.65 to 1.07)” (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen et al.). This study also proved that there is no association between the age at the time of vaccination, the time since vaccination, or the date of vaccination and the development of autistic disorder. (Kreesten Meldgaard Madsen et al.) While these are only two studies, there are hundreds of others that are just as valid and scientifically proven that pop up with a simple Google search, disproving all