CDC Reopens Vaccine-Autism Debate—Why Experts Are Concerned
United States: Scientific proof disproving vaccine-autism connections did not halt the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from investigating potential vaccine-caused autism.
More about the news
Records show that Trump administration officials sent the study request to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Before his time as president, Donald Trump, alongside his HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., advocated that vaccines triggered autism despite scientific evidence refuting this claim for countless years.
According to HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon, “As President Trump said in his Joint Address to Congress, the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed. CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening. The American people expect high quality research and transparency and that is what CDC is delivering,” US News reported.
The rates of autism diagnosis have shown substantial growth throughout recent decades.
The United States currently reports that one out of thirty-six children receives an autism diagnosis, while eleven states show data indicating that autism affected one out of 150 children back in the year 2000.
Experimental data and revisions to diagnostic categories made by physicians explain most of the detected increase in autism spectrum disorders.
Factors impacting autism
Scientists continue research to uncover whether genes and environmental elements influence autism development.
Most scientific experts unanimously agree that autism does not arise from vaccine administration. A vast amount of research involving hundreds of thousands of children has disproved this connection.
Scientific evidence from 2019 research involving half a million Danish children proved that the measles mumps, along with the rubella MMR vaccine, fail to create autism risk, according to The Washington Post.
A discredited 1998 paper created the incorrect link between MMR vaccines and autism, even though the connection turned out to be false.
The journal article led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield later led to his medical license revocation after documentation proved his professional misconduct, as reported by The Post.
Experts argue that performing another study on this matter is both superfluous and unprofessional.
