Explaining the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines

Vincent Iannelli, MD

7 years ago

Vaccines have nothing to do with autism.

It’s not the MMR vaccine. It’s not thimerosal. It’s not anything else about vaccines.

It has been proven time and again.

“The parental focus on vaccines as a possible cause of autism has been encouraged by the recent growth in popularity of ‘unorthodox biomedical’ theories and therapies in autism…”
Fitzpatrick on MMR: risk, choice, chance

Not surprisingly, that hasn’t stopped some parents from continuing to blame vaccines, mostly because they didn’t notice any symptoms of autism until after their child got their routine vaccines as a toddler.

Recognizing the Early Signs of Autism

In 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines for universal screening of all children for autism at 18 and 24 months. Since then, many kids are getting diagnosed at an earlier age.

That’s good news, as an earlier diagnosis should mean that more kids will be able to benefit from earlier supports and accommodations.

“…the average age of diagnosis for those born before 2005 was just under four years old; for those born during during or after 2005, it was roughly two-and-a-half years old.”
AAP on Children are Diagnosed with Autism at Younger Ages Since Push for Universal Screening

Looking at the early signs and symptoms of autism, it is easy to see why autism isn’t always recognized that early, even with a screening tool, like the M-CHAT-R:

What if you don’t recognize that your child isn’t really speaking single words because he or she is simply parroting or echoing what you are saying without knowing what the words mean?
What if you don’t recognize that your child isn’t responding to his name being called because he responds to other noises, so sometimes coincidentally turns when you call his name?
What if you don’t recognize that your child isn’t bringing objects to share with you (as an interest), because he or she sometimes will bring them to you to have you help open or use them?

And if your child is eventually diagnosed with autism, will you recognize that those were early signs that were just difficult to detect, or just think that your child didn’t have any developmental differences and then lost those skills?

Explaining the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines

Many people understand the idea that “correlation doesn’t imply causation.”

So just because your child was vaccinated and you soon noticed signs and symptoms of autism, that doesn’t mean that it is really linked to vaccines.

“Temporal binding is a phenomenon that reinforces that assumption of cause and effect once we have linked two events causally in our minds. The effect biases our memory so that we remember the apparent cause and effect occurring closer together in time. In experiments we tend to remember the cause as happening later and the effect happening earlier.”
Steven Novella

Of course, a phrase about correlation and causation isn’t going to be enough of an explanation for most parents, especially if they have already heard a bunch of vaccine scare stories.

Fortunately, there is plenty of evidence to back up that idea, including that:

many studies have shown that there is no link between vaccines and autism
unvaccinated kids develop signs and symptoms of autism at the same time as children who were vaccinated
some studies have shown that even when parents think that their child’s first signs and symptoms of autism didn’t occur until right after a specific vaccine, like the 12 month MMR shot, when experts looked at the child’s home movies, they could detect subtle signs at a much earlier age, well before the child got those vaccines
while regressive autism is real and some kids with autism regress significantly in their development, losing many of the early skills they had picked up, even then, these children often had some subtle, early developmental delays. They don’t usually have a sudden regressive type of autism.

What about package inserts? Don’t they say vaccines cause autism? No, they do not.

And all of the studies that anti-vax folks say support a link between vaccines and autism? They aren’t what you think they are.

Mostly remember that the scientific evidence overwhelming supports the fact that vaccines have absolutely nothing to do with autism!

What to Know About the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines

Vaccines having nothing to do with autism, even though it might sometimes seem to you that your child’s signs and symptoms of autism are correlated with recently getting vaccinated.

Recognizing the Early Signs of Autism

Explaining the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines

What to Know About the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines

More About Explaining the Correlation of Autism After Vaccines

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