Autism-Vaccine Research and Why It Won’t Matter

There has been a new research study that has looked into the potential relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism. You can find the research findings in this article from the Journal of the American Medical Association. You can find a news report on it here. Not surprisingly, they found that there was no link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

As someone who does not believe that there is a link and as someone who sees the current trend to not vaccinate as being dangerous, I welcome these results.

But it won’t matter.

It may change a few minds of people without a direct connection to autism but for autism parents who believe that vaccine brought on the autism, these results will not change and will perhaps only strengthen their convictions.

How could someone reject the results of study after study and hold onto the findings of the one study that found a link even though that researcher has been shown to have messed with the results?

Here are some reasons:

• No matter how many research studies are produced, anti-vaxxers can always claim that the results are inaccurate at best and falsified at worst. No amount of research will change some people’s minds.
• Pharmaceutical companies are too easy of a target. If you are looking for conspiracy theories, super rich corporations that control our health are pretty attractive.
• There are enough stories of children who showed signs of autism after being vaccinated. Even if the research is conclusive, people always have stories of, “My child was fine and then after he was vaccinated, he lost all of his language and retreated into his own world.” That does happen, but that does not mean that vaccines are the cause.
• This is the strongest motive. People need someone to blame. Speaking of a parent of two children with autism, it is very hard to lose the dreams that you have for your child. My children are 12 and 14 and I still grieve the loss of the life they could have had. We have had many “I hate autism” days and our anger looks for a target. It is not particularly satisfying that the cause of autism is probably genetic with a few environmental factors thrown in. I would rather say that there is this one thing that is the cause and that my righteous indignation could be satisfied at the same time as preventing other parents from going through what I am going through. Unfortunately, the research does not give me this option.

So, I am thankful that researchers are still studying autism. But I am not going to hold my breath that the anti-vaxxers will change their views.

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