No Vaccine-Autism Link in Feds' Ruling

I suspect we will see more evidence of genetic markers for autism in the future.

In the meantime, I hope that clinicians will view the situation of this particular child as a sad but isolated case. Mitochondrial disorders are extremely rare—I have never seen one in my 20-plus years of practicing general pediatrics. And even among these patients, the benefits of vaccination still likely outweigh the risks.

Thimerosal has now been removed from all childhood vaccines except for multidose influenza vaccines, but the rates of autism have not abated, thus providing very strong epidemiologic evidence that thimerosal did not cause the upswing in autism spectrum disorder diagnoses that began in the 1990s and still continues. The antivaccine folks have begun switching their argument to say that it is multiple vaccines that cause autism and other neurodevelopmental problems by “overwhelming” the immune system.

In an effort to quantitate that, current research is looking at the effect on the immune system when a healthy child becomes colonized with common bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae. Thus far, we know that the immune “stress” associated with asymptomatic nasal colonization is quite a bit greater than that of the purified vaccines given to children today.

Infectious diseases are “stressful” to the immune system. Vaccines are not risk free, but they induce far less “stress.” We need to inform our patients and their families that while everything has some risk, the real question is risk versus benefit. From that perspective, vaccines are the clear winners.