Parker Scheer

Can Immunizations Cause Autism?

Childhood immunizations cause autism at the same rate that red M & M's caused cancer.

You may have read articles or seen advertisements from law firms claiming to represent children who have been diagnosed with autism as a result of receiving childhood vaccinations. These attorneys and firms are capitalizing on a parent's hope that they can uncover a reason for their child's diagnosis. This began in 1998 when the British medical journal the Lancet published an article linking the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) with autism. Autism is defined as a serious developmental disorder that manifests as problems with communication, social interaction, and behavior. The 1998 Lancet study followed just 12 children who were given the MMR vaccine. A more recent study in the Lancet looked at nearly 500 children and found no greater incidence of autism with children who were given the MMR vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control is currently researching the link between the two with the hopes of resolving this issue for good.

Understandably, parents have been increasingly concerned since that time because no one has been able to account for the increased incidence of the disease. To further complicate matters, recent news reports have attempted to link autism to vaccines that contain the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. This preservative has absolutely nothing to do with the purported link between the MMR vaccine and autism because the MMR vaccine has never contained thimerosal.

Prior to 1999, thimerosal was used as a preservative in childhood immunizations such as Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DPT) and Hib vaccines, as well as the Hepatitis B and flu shots. A study performed by the Food and Drug Administration in 1997 concluded that children, in the first six months of life, were exposed to a cumulative total of 187.5 micrograms (mcg) of ethyl mercury. This amount exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) guidelines for methyl mercury (same mercury that is found in certain fishes). There are currently no guidelines for ethyl mercury - the type used in thimerosal. To be safe, the FDA and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) decided in 1999 to eliminate the use if thimerosal in all childhood vaccines. Thimerosal is still found in adult versions of the flu shot. The children's version of the flu shot is thimerosal-free.

Research studies have been performed by various health organizations, including one performed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in 2003, which examined data from more than 120,000 children at two different HMOs and found no higher incidence of autism among children exposed to varying levels of thimerosal. In 2004, a study performed by the World Health Organization concluded that there was no link between thimerosal and autism. In fact, in that study, the incidence of autism was greater in children who were not exposed to thimerosal.

Because of the tenuous link between MMR and autism and thimerosal and autism, it is inconceivable that any attorney could prove that: (1) a product defect existed and/or exists with respect to the MMR vaccine or thimerosal-containing vaccinations; and (2) that the MMR vaccine or thimerosal-containing vaccinations caused the child's autism diagnosis. Most experts believe that autism may be at least partly genetically inherited and can imagine no biologically plausible reason that a vaccination would trigger it. It seems logical that without any scientific evidence to establish the causal link, any plaintiff's expert claiming that the MMR vaccine or thimerosal-containing vaccinations cause autism would be disqualified at a Daubert hearing.

I would encourage you to follow the Centers for Disease Control study with respect to this issue. Also, on March 16, 2006, Congress enacted a provision in the Labor/HHS Appropriations bill urging independent research using secret government Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) to identify or rule out an association between thimerosal exposure and an increased rate of autism.

For the foreseeable future, I think that it is reasonable to believe that the US government is not helping the drug manufacturers prosper at the expense of our children's health. I think it is also reasonable to assume that any claim predicated on this theory will fail, and any attorney seeking to recruit claimants is misinformed regarding the data supporting the link between vaccines and autism.