The Vaccine Controversy

            Skepticism surrounding vaccinations have been on the rise throughout the past three years. There have been a growing number of parents that have elected not to get their children vaccinated due to a false belief that vaccines are associated with autism spectrum disorder.  For this reason, many children have been unvaccinated throughout the nation. As a result, there was an outbreak of measles within the last year tracing back to California. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 84 people in 14 different states had measles during January of 2015.  News breaks began to circulate following the outbreak detailing that most of those who were infected were exposed either from Disneyland or from a host person who went there. Due to the growing controversy and adverse effects of those electing not to vaccinate their children, schools demanded that those who were not vaccinated to stay at home due to the outbreak of measles. Individuals were disregarding the Center for Disease Control’s recommendation to receive a measles vaccination between the ages of 1 to 4, as well as between the ages of 4 to 6.

            I feel as though taking the position of anti-vaccination is a stance that can be disproven through evidence-based practice. Within the past decade, many reputable organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control (CDC) have disproven the claim that there is an association between vaccines such as the measles vaccines and autism spectrum disorder. Those choosing not to vaccinate their children are causing harm to their children and children throughout the United States due to making uninformed decisions. Not only is there research to prove there is no association between the two, the original report made by Andrew Wakefield that made claims of vaccines being a causation in 1998 has been retracted.

            The World Health Organization was advised by The Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) in 2003 to further investigate the measles vaccine and autism spectrum disorder. The WHO performed a literature review to present to the GACVS to receive it’s considerations. Several relevant studies were reviewed extensively which concluded that there was no association between autism and the measles vaccines. Therefore, the GACVS released that there is no evidence leading to an association between the measles vaccine and autism. Furthermore, in 2011, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report involving eight different vaccines given to children and adults that were found to be extremely safe. The Center for Disease Control also contributed to the findings in 2013 with research performed that investigated antigens levels from vaccines in children with autism and without autism. Therefore, it was concluded that vaccines do not cause autism (DeStefano, F., Price, C. S., & Weintraub, E. S., 2013). In March of 2014, the Global Advisory Committee released a Vaccine Safety Statement in which two studies were declaring a relation between aluminum in vaccines and autism spectrum disorder. It found serious faults and shortcomings in the two studies that discredited their value

            There is much evidence to show that vaccines such as the measles vaccine does not cause autism. In fact, the GACVS recommended when disproving the false claim of an association between autism and vaccines, that the committee suggested that rather, autism and it’s etiology be further investigated.  Not only are vaccines safe, but they save lives! We have a responsibility as informed citizen to be advocates for what is true, right, and what is best to protect future generations.

Clayton, E. W., Rusch, E., Ford, A., & Stratton, K. (Eds.). (2012). Adverse Effects of Vaccines:: Evidence and Causality. National Academies Press.

DeStefano, F. (2007). Vaccines and autism: evidence does not support a causal association. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 82(6), 756-759.

DeStefano, F., Price, C. S., & Weintraub, E. S. (2013). Increasing exposure to antibody-stimulating proteins and polysaccharides in vaccines is not associated with risk of autism. The Journal of pediatrics, 163(2), 561-567.

Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety Statement on the continued safety of HPV vaccination (2014, March 12)

Hoyer, M., Reilly, S.  (2015, February 5). Some parents focus only on own kids, experts say, USA Today, pp. 05A,

Plotkin, S., Gerber, J. S., & Offit, P. A. (2009). Vaccines and autism: a tale of shifting hypotheses. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 48(4), 456-461.

Sabra, A., Bellanti, J. A., & Colón, A. R. (1998). Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. The Lancet, 352(9123), 234-235.

Szabo, L (2015, January 30). 14 states see infection; 'This is a wake-up call.’ USA Today, pp. 01A

Taylor, L. E., Swerdfeger, A. L., & Eslick, G. D. (2014). Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies. Vaccine, 32(29), 3623-3629.