Navigating Vaccine Decisions– The Autism Debate Explained

Background

 

The Covid-19 pandemic and current governmental administration has once again brought vaccinations into the spotlight and mainstream media to levels rivaling that of 1998. At the time, Andrew Wakefield had just published an article, that has since been redacted, claiming a link between the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. While public concerns around the COVID vaccine focus on negative medical side effects, past claims of the MMR vaccine and others are being reignited. It has become clear that many people are still under the assumption vaccines lead to autism and therefore refuse some, if not all, vaccinations for themselves and their children. While vaccination should remain a choice, it should be a choice made while fully informed of the truth about autism, vaccine science, how these original claims from Andrew Wakefield came to be, and how the choice to not vaccinate may cause harm to yourself and those around you.

 

What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?

 

The Mayo clinic defines Autism as a developmental disorder that disturbs the way a person socializes and interacts with others around them and their environment (1). This is referred to as a spectrum as in recent years Autism spectrum has enveloped other disorders used in the past such as Aspergers, pervasive developmental disorder and childhood disintegrative disorder, as these closely resemble and have similar symptom to Autism (1). These newer inclusions to the Autism diagnosis relate heavily to the uptick in Autism diagnoses in recent years. Wider inclusion criteria enable wider diagnosis of conditions (2). The onset of Autism typically happens very early in life, with potential symptoms presenting in the first year of life. However, it is important to know that a child may meet early life developmental milestones with the first few years of life, only to regress heavily within those first years (1). This fashion of symptom onset fuels that fire that is the misguided belief that vaccines cause autism, given the typical vaccine schedule (3). Though with missing science to further prove this link, clinicians and researchers alike regard Autism as an early life onset developmental disorder.

 

Andrew Wakefield’s Hypothesis

 

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a now unlicensed medical doctor from the UK, had a paper published in the Lancet, a UK general medicine journal (4,5). Within the article, Wakefield claimed, “that MMR vaccine caused intestinal inflammation that led to translocation of usually non permeable peptides to the bloodstream and, subsequently, to the brain, where they affected development” and ultimately led to Autism (5). This piece struck fear in the public around the MMR vaccine and resulted in what we still see today around vaccine hesitancy. Despite the article being retracted in 2010 and Andrew Wakefield being found guilty of several types of fraud leading to a loss of his right to practice medicine, the damage had been done, and clinicians today still deal with the repercussions.

 

Rebuking Faulty Science

 

Various articles have been published in the aftermath of the Wakefield article pointing at the blatant flaws found within it. The first comes from Gerber & Offit in 2010, referencing the lack of control group use and the fact that causal claims were made from a total participant count of 12 children (5). Gerber & Offit also go on to rebuke the basis of the claim, stating the intestinal inflammation that was said to ultimately lead to Autism did not actually come before autism diagnosis within this subject group, and from research done previously on the MMR vaccine, it was never found to cause intestinal inflammation (5). Children's Hospital Pennsylvania highlights on their vaccine and autism page that at the time of the “research” from Wakefield, 90% of children in the UK received the MMR vaccine at an age when autism is commonly diagnosed, stating that it would be more common than not to see a child diagnosed with autism to have also gotten the MMR vaccine. To properly assess a link between the 2, vaccinated and unvaccinated groups must be studied, however this was not done by Wakefield (7). Further, an editorial from the BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal, points out further fraud within the Wakefield article, including fabrication of data and potential unethical treatment of the subjects. Also mentioned was a lawsuit Wakefield was involved with against MMR vaccine manufacturers (8). Another article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal by Laura Eggertson claims that the children used in the study were hand selected from previous research done by Wakefield and that some of the studies were funded by lawyers representing parents in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers (6). The Guardian reported that following the study, Wakefield suggested that instead of the MMR vaccine, parents should advocate for single disease vaccinations, and within the same month of the initial articles publication, Wakefield was applying for “ethical permission to run a trial of a new potential measles vaccine and set up a company called Immunospecifics Biotechnologies which would produce and sell it” (4). To further highlight Wakefield's poor ethics, one of the children's fathers from his study was to be the managing director of this new company (4).

 

Proper Vaccine Research

 

While novel scientific findings are exciting for researchers, it is equally important for them to replicate previous research. Although new and interesting research may be published, if another research group cannot duplicate the same or similar results, we know something is off. Since the publishing of Wakefield's article in 1998, hundreds of studies have been conducted to duplicate his results. Despite being unable to single out a specific cause for autism, scientists have found no link between vaccines and autism. Children’s Hospital points to a paper from Madsen et al. with research conducted from 1991 to 1998 including over 530 thousand children at an 80% vaccination rate, they found no higher risk of autism between the two groups (7). In 2010 Gerber & Offit published an article highlighting the various ways antivaccine advocates have shifted their hypotheses for the link between vaccines and autism. They showcased 13 studies that failed to find a relationship between autism and the MMR vaccine, and 7 more that failed to find a link with Thimerosal (5).

 

The thimerosal hypothesis came shortly after the MMR article and caused more panic because of this. Thimerosal is half ethylmercury by weight, was used for over 50 years at the time of this public scare and not used in any live virus vaccinations such as MMR. In 1997 the FDA required all food, and drugs quantify all mercury they contained within (5). This included ethylmercury found in some vaccines, not to be confused with methylmercury which is processed differently in the human body with a higher likelihood of accumulating (9). Despite the difference in presentation between mercury poisoning and autism, proponents of this hypothesis latched on to this idea. In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics and Public Health Service recommended the removal of thimerosal from all vaccinations given to young children (5). Since this removal, various studies have found a higher incidence of autism diagnosis after thimerosal removal, and others have compared thousands of children based on exposure to thimerosal and found no change in their chance of autism diagnosis (9).

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A popular theory today is the idea children receive too many vaccinations too soon in life. This theory came to light in 2008 in the case of Hannah Poling, a 19-month-old who developed a vaccine induced rash and diagnosed with encephalopathy due to mitochondrial enzyme deficiency months after receiving her 5 scheduled vaccinations (10). Hannah developed communication and behavior delays consistent with autism, but also the global encephalopathy she was diagnosed with. Hannahs parents filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services and won under the idea that vaccines led to her encephalopathy (10). However, this idea is unsupported by science. It was stated that vaccines may overwhelm the immune system through high pathogenic load. The pathogenic load within vaccines is substantially lower compared to the past, with less than 200 total bacterial proteins in 14 vaccinations in 2008, and over 3000 bacterial proteins in 7 vaccinations in 1980 (5,10). Further, compared to the average amount of illnesses children develop on a yearly basis in the first years of life, this effect of vaccines is even more minute (5). Vaccines have not been found to weaken the immune system either, but becoming ill from a vaccine preventable disease can (5). Finally, no evidence has been found to say autism is an immune system disease such as multiple sclerosis (5)

 

Why does it matter?

 

In all of 2024 there were 285 confirmed cases of measles with 0 deaths, but as of April 10, 2025 has already seen over 700 reported cases and 3 deaths. According to the CDC, 97% of cases reported in 2025 have come from unvaccinated or unknown status individuals (11). This substantial increase in case numbers, from an illness that is entirely preventable through vaccines, sheds light on how the misinformation discussed previously can cause incredible harm. Vaccines not only work in preventing yourself and loved ones from illness, but others who are unable to receive them or have weakened immune systems, such as infants, cancer patients or immunocompromised individuals.

 

Citations

 

1. Mayo Clinic. (2025, April 19). Autism spectrum disorder. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/autism-spectrum-disorder/symptomscauses/syc-20352928

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2. Rice, C. E., Rosanoff, M., Dawson, G., Durkin, M. S., Croen, L. A., Singer, A., & YearginAllsopp, M. (2012). Evaluating Changes in the Prevalence of the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Public health reviews, 34(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391685

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3. CDC. (2025a). Child immunization schedule notes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/child-adolescentnotes.html#note-mmr

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4. Meikle, J., & Boseley, S. (2010, May 24). MMR row doctor Andrew Wakefield struck off Register. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/may/24/mmr-doctorandrew-wakefield-struck-off

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5. Gerber, J. S., & Offit, P. A. (2009). Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses. Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 48(4), 456–461. https://doi.org/10.1086/596476

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6. Eggertson, L. (2010). Lancet retracts 12-year-old article linking autism to MMR vaccines. Canadian Medical Association journal, 182(4), E199–E200. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-3179

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7. Philadelphia, T. C. H. of. (2024, February 5). Vaccines and autism. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. https://www.chop.edu/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/vaccines-andother-conditions/autism

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8. Godlee, F., Smith, J., & Marcovitch ,H. (2011). Wakefield’s article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent. BMJ, 342. doi:10.1136/bmj.c7452

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9. Philadelphia, T. C. H. of. (2020, June 1). Vaccine ingredients: Thimerosal. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. https://www.chop.edu/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/vaccineingredients/thimerosal#:~:text=Some%20people%20have%20worried%20that,in%20vacci nes%20is%20not%20harmful

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10. Offit, P. (2008). Vaccines and Autism Revisited - The Hannah Poling Case. The New England Journal of Medicine, 358(30). doi: 10.1056/NEJMp0802904

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11. CDC. (2025b, April 18). Measles cases and outbreaks. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/measles/data-research/index.html