General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFactcheck.org: Debunking False Vaccine Claim (that the FDA said vaccines cause autism)
http://www.factcheck.org/2017/11/debunking-false-vaccine-claim/Q: Has the Food and Drug Administration announced that vaccines cause autism?
A: No. FDA statements are grounded in scientific evidence. There is no evidence that vaccination is linked to autism.
FULL QUESTION
FDA ANNOUNCED THAT VACCINES ARE CAUSING AUTISM! Is this true?
(4 paragraph DU rule, had to stop)
bearsfootball516
(6,377 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)bearsfootball516
(6,377 posts)"A 1998 study falsely linked MMR vaccine and autism. The paper was retracted and its author lost his medical license, but the idea stuck."
steve2470
(37,457 posts)sigh.
Takket
(21,634 posts)i never heard, even in rumors, that the FDA has said that. Is this some new rumor going on that factcheck is debunking?
steve2470
(37,457 posts)marylandblue
(12,344 posts)In which African Americans purportedly had an elevated risk of autism from vaccines, but the sample size was too small. It was racial breakdown of a larger study of the general population and the number of African Americans was too small. The antivaxxers ran with it anyway. The author of the study said his work was being misinterpreted, but that didn't matter.
3catwoman3
(24,054 posts)He based his conclusions on a sample size of less than 20 patients, IIRC. There were at least 10 other researchers whose names were also on the journal article, and they all retracted their support for that "study." Came right out and said they were wrong.
It was published in The Lancet, which also retracted its support.
steve2470
(37,457 posts)marylandblue
(12,344 posts)Because his research was deliberately fraudulent and he had a financial interest in some sort of alternative vaccine.
3catwoman3
(24,054 posts)Last edited Sun Nov 26, 2017, 01:36 AM - Edit history (1)
I find it interesting that people worry greatly about vaccines, but when I write a prescription for Amoxicillin for an ear infection, it doesn't seem to occur to any parents that that child could have an anaphylactic reaction to it even if they have taken it several times before.
Wakefield has certainly made my job harder. People who do not wish to be convinced will not be convinced, no matter what.
EllieBC
(3,042 posts)He was fraudulent and did shoddy research.
Sadly thanks to his lies we now have measles and mumps outbreaks.
Archae
(46,354 posts)Latest entry is an anti-vaccine loon.
http://americanloons.blogspot.ca/
Iggo
(47,571 posts)...and then, and then, and then...I got a cold.
So...yeah.
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)in males only. The brain of the newborn infant is still growing, and stress at birth can trigger changes in how it develops.
Hep B vaccine is given at birth to prevent transmission of Hep B from the mother to the baby to prevent chronic Hep B. This is a big problem in the Third World where a lot of people including young women have Hep B. However, in the U.S. , most women have had Hep B vaccine and are immune, meaning they can not give the disease to their babies, so why are we giving a vaccine at birth to babies for something they will not encounter until they become sexually active? Because decades ago, someone did a study which showed that it was cheaper to vaccination every baby born in an inner city hospital with a high number of drug addicted women than it was to test the mothers and give the vaccines to the babies of those who tested positive for Hep B. Yes, I wrote cheaper. Not safer. Not more effective. The universal Hep B vaccine was a cheaper way to vaccinate---at a time when few women had received the Hep B vaccine yet.
I am not an anti-vaccer. I believe that every other vaccine which we use is given at the right time and in the right way. However, Hep B vaccine prevents an std--like the HPV vaccine. We do not give HPV vaccine to baby's at birth. We should only be giving Hep B vaccine at birth to baby's of mother's who test positive--and it is very easy to test a woman who comes in to deliver a baby. You can do it along with the HIV test and the Type and Screen.
But by all means, go ahead and declare that I am an anti-vaxxer. It won't change the truth--or the fact the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends delaying that first Hepatitis B vaccine in premature infants--even though there is no point in giving it if you do not give it at birth since it's only job is to prevent maternal to baby transmission of a disease that very few American women have. You have to ask yourself--what is it about giving the Hep B vaccine at birth to preemies that has the AAP so worried that they would take the chance that the newborn might contract Hep B?
You will not hear anyone in public health talk about the results of this study, because they are afraid of starting a panic. But I recommend that any mother giving birth tell her baby's pediatrician "I know that I am immune to Hep B, so let's hold off on that one."
pnwmom
(108,996 posts)And that particular vaccine can wait.
This isn't being anti-vaccine, unless you believe that every country in the world that has a different vaccine schedule than we do is anti-vaccine.
EllieBC
(3,042 posts)Here in BC the first dose is given at 2 months. And even my preemies has it at 2 months, even though for my oldest 2 months was still only 33 weeks gestation.
But it's 2 months here, not birth.
marylandblue
(12,344 posts)Many people have Hepatitis B and don't know it. An infant can get it from its mother at birth. The mother many not know she has it. Even if tested, the test can have a false negatives. An infant can also get Hepatitis B from other caregivers or children who don't know they have it. The consequences of getting Hep B as an infant are severe, with a 90% probability of getting a chronic form that causes liver damage when they grow up.
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4110.pdf
AAP recommends that premature infants not get the Hep B vaccine right away due to concerns about effectiveness, not harm, and in any event recommends they get the vaccine before leaving the hospital.
I could only find one study linking the vaccine to autism in boys, and that is this one
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21058170
Heb B vaccine was first recommended for newborns in 1991. The study looked at boys born before 1999 and aged 3 to 17 (i. e. born 1982 to 1999) who were growing up during a time when autism diagnosis increased rapidly mostly due to better detection and a 1994 change in diagnostic criteria. Due to the rapid increase in detection, any study done across this time period will find a correlation with anything that changed in this time, such as the introduction of a new vaccine.