Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism
Louder for the people in the back
A personal essay that I wrote for HuffPost three years ago showed up on the front page of the Buzzfeed today. It was about my kids and the prom.
I was a little surprised when people started texting me about it for a couple of reasons. One, I didn’t know that Buzzfeed still existed. Two, I thought I retained full ownership of the article after six months, but somebody else gave it to Buzzfeed and profited, because I didn’t. Sigh. I would make inquiries, but I'm too busy this week to bother with $50 for the article.
My bio on that article included a link to this newsletter. Hey, new subscribers! Welcome. Just some explanations. Laura McKenna’s Apt. 11D is a newsletter about politics and culture with occasional articles about autism. If you only care about autism, then check out my autism newsletter called, “The Great Leap” and a newsletter for my autism consulting business, which is going to get swallowed up by a bigger autism nonprofit business this spring. If you like random chatter, then stay here. Happy to have ‘ya.
Since we’re joined by many autism-interested subscribers, let’s talk about autism and this election.
I’m fairly certain that the Harris vibes are strong. The new polling data is showing stronger than expected early votes from older white women — GO KARENS! — because the Dobbs decision is important to them. Dudes continue to go their own way, and Democrats do need to deal with that problem, but that’s a long-term issue.
Nate Silver is essential reading this week.
Trump is his own worst enemy, ranting away at his rallies without a fascism filter. Tired and disoriented, it all just spews out of him. It’s hard to focus on one scary statement, where there are so many to choose from. Since I’ve got some new autism-interested readers today, let’s talk about Trump’s plan to nominate RFK, Jr and to roll back vaccine requirements.
To remind everyone. There is ZERO evidence that vaccines cause autism. Andrew Wakefield, the doctor that originally made that claim, falsified his data and had his license taken away. I’ve been writing about this fraud for years.
Despite a mountain of evidence showing that autism is not caused by vaccines, that conspiracy theory lingers on. Why?
Some families struggle with the support needs of their children, especially those with higher behavioral issues. It can be challenging to support a child, who is non-verbal, violent, doesn’t sleep, and tries to run out of the house. Even autistic children with lighter needs still have needs, and it’s hard for some parents to accept that their kids won’t necessary be like other kids. Understandably, those parents are sad and are vulnerable to all sorts of outlandish ideas. Some are looking for a “bad guy” to blame for their life situation. Big Pharma is easy to hate.
In addition, a lot of children first exhibit autistic behaviors and even regress around age two, which is around when they receive their vaccinations. Correlation becomes causation. And, viola, a conspiracy theory is born.
Autism is caused by a combination of genetics and environment. Older dads are more likely to have children with autism. People in certain professions, like engineering and computer science, are more likely to have children with autism. When engineers and computer scientists marry each other and make babies, those babies will have an increased chance of having autism. There’s a lot going on there, because autism isn’t just one broken gene. One thing we know for sure is that vaccines don't cause autism.
Donald Trump has vowed to give RFK, Jr. a leading role in his administration, if he’s elected on Tuesday. RFK, Jr. is a well know anti-vaxxer, who believes that they cause autism. If RFK, Jr. is able to lift vaccine requirements for children, our country’s autism rates will stay the same, but our kids will also be susceptible to polio, measles, mumps, and more. We’re already seeing problems.
Bad ideas drain energy and resources that could be used in a more constructive manner. Instead of distracting the public with lies, wouldn’t be better to focus their limited attention on the need for community centers or better-quality schools? Families need more help getting diagnoses and support with accessing services. Bad ideas suck energy away from good ideas.
There is no magic wand to wish autism away. Autism is here, so let’s support autistic individuals and their families, rather than waste energy on bad ideas.
I’m very hopeful that Trump loses on Tuesday and goes peacefully into the sunset. But if he doesn't, we’re going to be dealing a huge host of problems, too numerous to name here. But one of them will be an uptick in deadly childhood diseases.
Amazing how posts sometimes resurface long after originally being (well) posted. I think topics founded on intuition and surface appeal are particularly likely to reappear. Given an idea that has appeal ("Hey, my autistic kid has digestive problems...and I heard about this chemical that's involved in digestion. Getting her more of that chemical might-could solve the autism riddle for her.") and a dash of supportive evidence from a quasi-clinical trial...it's off to the races!
The summer of 2024 I saw a resurgence of interest in administering secretin as therapy for autism. In the summer-fall of 1998, I reported that the evidence for beneficial effects of secretin was quite thin (https://web.archive.org/web/20180215201352/http://special.edschool.virginia.edu/information/secretin.html). But, interest resurfaced about 10-12 years later; the evidence was still thin, so I posted about it again (https://web.archive.org/web/20170206190833/http://ebdblog.com/2011/04/secretin-still-does-not-help/) in 2011. Then, it was back again about 10-12 years later...sigh. So, I dropped another post on Special Education Today https://www.specialeducationtoday.com/p/secretin-and-autism. If the 10- to 12-year cycle continues, we should predict a resurgence of interest in secretin in, say, 2035-36.
Why should we be bothered by the rise and fall of enthusiasm for ideas such as secretion and vaccines? It's not just that that fervor deceives people (dashing any hopes is a bummer, but I find dashing false hopes is especially saddening), but it's also that those deceptions stir up the environment, creating muddier waters. And, there's also the so-called "opportunity cost": Time and effort spent on pursuing misleading solutions is time and effort kids and families do *not* spend employing supports that actually do benefit them and scientists do *not* spend identifying and refining those helpful supports.
So., congratulations on having your post picked up by Buzzfeed (even without compensation--sigh). I hope that it helps divert people from pursuing both the vaccines false lead as well as false leads in general.