Does vaccines cause autism?
The link between autism and vaccine was made by a 1997 study published by Andrew Wakefield, a British surgeon. It was published in a prestigious medical journal call the lancet and made the claim that commonly administered vaccines such as ( measles, mumps, rubella) was increasing the rate of autism . In 2004 ten of the study’s authors issues a retraction stating “in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient.” In 2007 the British general medical council began hearings and investigated wake fields research. They found that wake field: Improperly obtained blood for research purposes from normal children attending his son’s birthday party, Subjected autistic children to colonoscopy, lumbar punctures, and other tests without approval from a research review board, Failed to disclose that he had filed a patent for a vaccine to compete with the MMR and Starting a child on an experimental product called Transfer Factor, which he planned to market. In 2010 his paper was retracted from the medical journal and he lost his medical license. (Murch et al.)
Recent research conducted by the center of disease control concerning vaccines specifically “thimerosal” a mercury based preservative that is used in vaccines and was believed to be the cause of thing like autism. The CDC has conducted a total of nine studies concerning this, concluding that there is no link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. Since 2001 most vaccines no longer contain thimerosal because of its mercury base or are only in trace amounts. The only vaccines that still contain thimerosal is the flu vaccines but this only in multi dose vials to prevent contamination but single dose vials and prefilled syringes of flu shot and nasal spray flu vaccine do contain this as they are only meant to be used once. (Stehr-Green et al. 101-106)
Does vaccines cause cancer?
Between 1957 and 1963 some batches of injectable polio vaccines that were contaminated with a simian virus (called SV40) that may be linked to the development of some cancers. The virus came from the monkey kidney cell lines used to produce the vaccine. It is known that SV40 can be found in certain types of human cancer, but there has not been any concrete evidence of SV40 being the cause of cancer or what it really does. A study done by the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, conducted a study in which they analyzed Population-based cancer incidence data from 1943 through 1997 that were obtained from the Danish Cancer Registry. The relationship between exposure to SV40-contaminated vaccine and cancer incidence was evaluated by examining incidence in birth cohorts that differed in exposure to SV40-contaminated vaccine. After 19.5 million person-years of follow-up, incidence of all cancers combined, of intracranial tumors, and of leukemia among children aged 0-4 years it was found that cancers are not associated with SV40 exposure. (Vilchez, Arrington and Butel 1249-1249)
References
Stehr-Green, Paul et al. “Autism And Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 25.2 (2003): 101-106. Web.
Murch, Simon H et al. “Retraction Of An Interpretation.” N.p., 2018. Print
Vilchez, R. A., A. S. Arrington, and J. S. Butel. “Re: Cancer Incidence In Denmark Following Exposure To Poliovirus Vaccine Contaminated With Simian Virus 40.” JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 95.16 (2003): 1249-1249. Web. 21 May 2018.
