MMR vaccine does not cause autism, even in those most at risk

Log in with your Medical News Today account to create or edit your custom homepage, catch-up on your opinions notifications and set your newsletter preferences.Sign up for a free Medical News Today account to customize your medical and health news experiences.The furor surrounding vaccines and their relationship with autism has been rumbling along for decades.A paper published in 1998 first described a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.Both the findings and the lead researchers have since been entirely discredited.Anyone who takes an interest in science might be asking whether we need to carry out any more research in defense of the MMR jab. After all, strong evidence has already been collected, confirmed, and replicated.The author of the study that sparked the storm, Andrew Wakefield, has since been stripped of his clinical and academic credentials.Vaccination rates dropped after the panic began, and they still have not returned to the levels needed to protect children from disease adequately.The authors of the latest study write that "Measles outbreaks are not uncommon in Europe and in the United States, and vaccine hesitancy or avoidance has been identified as a major cause."Clearly, not everyone is convinced that the MMR vaccine is safe; scare stories are difficult to forget and worryingly easy to perpetuate.By continuing to publish high-quality evidence, the fears surrounding vaccines might, one day, be extinguished once and for all.Some people have criticized earlier studies that found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Omer and Dr. Inci Yildirim from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.With an air of frustration, the authors write, "Even in the face of substantial and increasing evidence against an MMR-autism association, the discussion around the potential link has contributed to vaccine hesitancy."The editorial sets a rather bleak tone, stating, "It has been said that we now live in a 'fact-resistant' world, where data have limited persuasive value."The authors explain that measles — a disease which can have severe complications — was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000.