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If It’s Vaccines, Then Why Are There Autistic Kids Who Are Unvaccinated?

Although we know that vaccines aren’t associated with autism, anti-vaccine folks can’t let go of the idea.

Paul Thomas misses the one thing his data is telling him...
Paul Thomas misses the one thing his data is telling him…

So how do they explain all of the autistic kids who are unvaccinated?

If It’s Vaccines, Then Why Are There Autistic Kids Who Are Unvaccinated?

Of course, anti-vaccine folks have a ready answer – it’s vaccines, but it’s not just vaccines.

I guess that’s how they explain the fact that there are so many autistic adults too! Well, actually no. Most anti-vaccine folks are surprised when you point out that there are so many autistic adults, as it doesn’t fit in with their idea that autism is new and caused by kids getting more vaccines than they used to.

Well, I guess mostly caused by giving so many more vaccines than we used to – there are also the autistic kids who were never vaccinated.

How do they explain those kids having autism?

Like their competing theories about how vaccines are associated with autism (it’s the MMR vaccine, no it’s thimerosal, no it’s glyphosate contaminating vaccines, etc.), they have a lot of ideas about how everything else causes autism. From fluoride and chlorine to acetaminophen and aluminum-lined containers, plus mercury, arsenic, aspartame, MSG, and the vaccines your child’s great-grandmother received – they think that just about anything and everything can cause autism. Or at least anything that they think they can sell you a treatment for, such as their supplements, special diet plans, or other “cures.”

Makes you wonder why they still focus on vaccines…

But they do, even as more studies have shown that vaccines are not associated with autism. And since vaccines don’t cause autism, it shouldn’t be surprising that there are unvaccinated children with autism. The only reason there aren’t more is that most parents vaccinate their children, so, of course, most autistic children are going to be vaccinated.

Another reason is that some parents stop vaccinating their kids once they have an autistic child. But since vaccines aren’t associated with autism, which is highly genetic and inheritable, younger unvaccinated siblings born after older siblings were diagnosed often still develop autism.

Now if vaccines didn’t cause autism in these unvaccinated kids, why would anyone still think that they caused autism in their older siblings?

“I must admit that it was through conversations with a coworker that I began to suspect something might be wrong with my youngest son. It concerned me so much that I started looking for information online. I read some of the stories and they sounded similar to what I was experiencing with my son – with the symptoms, the regression and the age at which it all started to become apparent.”

Lara’s Story: Growing Up Anti-Vaccine

Unlike some other stories you might read online, Lara’s story is about her unvaccinated autistic child.

She isn’t alone. You only have to look at personal stories and posts in parenting forums to see that there are many cases of autism among unvaccinated and partially vaccinated children:

  • “It is highly likely my 4-year-old son is autistic. And he is completely 100 percent vaccine-free. And I am just at a total loss.”
  • “I have unvaxxed kids on the spectrum, and my friend does as well.”
  • “A good friend’s son is autistic. He is totally non-vaxxed.”
  • “I seriously delayed vaccinating my son, so had very few vaxxes at the time he was diagnosed”
  • “We have autism in our unvaxxed children”
  • “I know two little boys who are both autistic, completely non-vaxxed”
  • “I have two unvaccinated children who are on the autism spectrum and have never vaccinated any of my children.”
  • “I am not sure what caused my son’s autism, but autistic he is. He is completely unvaxxed as we stopped vaxxing 10 years ago.”
  • “I have a 10 year old daughter with autism spectrum disorder… My daughter has never had a vaccine, a decision I made shortly after she was born, after much research.”

Unfortunately, while realizing that unvaccinated children can develop autism does help some parents move away from anti-vaccine myths and conspiracy theories, others get pushed deeper into the idea that it is just about toxins. It is not uncommon for some of these parents to blame vaccines they got while pregnant or even before they became pregnant, Rhogam shots, or mercury fillings in their teeth, etc.

Fortunately, most don’t though.

Take Juniper Russo, for example.

She “was afraid of autism, of chemicals, of pharmaceutical companies, of pills, of needles” when she had her baby. She just knew that vaccines caused autism when she first visited her pediatrician after her baby was born and knew all of the anti-vaccine talking points. She also later began to realize that her completely unvaccinated daughter had significant developmental delays. Instead of continuing to believe that vaccines cause autism, Ms. Russo understood that she “could no longer deny three things: she was developmentally different, she needed to be vaccinated, and vaccines had nothing to do with her differences.”

And she understands that her autistic child isn’t damaged, as hard as folks in the anti-vaccine movement still try to push the idea that she is.

More on Autistic Kids Who Are Unvaccinated

7 thoughts on “If It’s Vaccines, Then Why Are There Autistic Kids Who Are Unvaccinated?”

  1. No one is claiming that vaccines are the only cause of Autism. 1 in every 40 getting autism (vaccinated) vs 1 in ever 715 (unvax) – undeniably there is something going on here

    1. Except that :
      – the “1 in 40/59” includes every children, including unvaccinated ones
      – that guy think that the children in his small practice are a representative sample exempt of bias ; when studies on far more children don’t find a difference between vaxxed and unvaxxed children.

  2. I was born autistic. I’m fully vaccinated, as are my parents and my 2 younger siblings.

    None of us need to worry about dying of meningitis! Or having severe shingles ruin our quality of life like a guy my mom knows. I can’t even remember the last time my brother got sick.

    I’m glad I’m vaccinated. I prefer being alive and autistic to being dead. I think my life is worth living.

  3. If Cobra bite kills, Then Why did my great grandma die Who was never bitten by a Cobra? For a number of people (like me and my daughter) who are genetically and/or environmentally primed, vaccines happen to be the last straw breaking the Camel’s back.
    This is from my experience and not because I enjoy being an anti vaccine fanatic! ( As I think are the most antivaccine parents who saw their children toddle into the spectrum right in front of their eyes )

  4. Pingback: How Simon & Schuster Became an Anti-Vaccine Publisher - VAXOPEDIA

  5. I want to see the behaviors of these unvaccinated children/people. The definition of autism has become so broad it hardly has real meaning anymore. There’s people that say “I have autism.” Sure you do. My two autistic sisters are in their 30’s and have the mentality of 4 year olds but there’s high functioning people out there living independently that have a diagnosis of “autism?” Where was the study on unvaccinated individuals with autism 30 years ago when NO ONE knew what autism was?

  6. Pingback: Vaccines and the Latest Autism Prevalence Report - VAXOPEDIA

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