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Hayley Watson
Deby Jizi
UWRT 1102-09
29 April 2016
Vaccinations Causing Autism: Maybe or Maybe Not
In late March of 1953, the polio vaccine was created after the horrible disease claimed
many lives and destroyed many others. My grandfather was one of those young children that had
their world turned upside down by this disease. His case was caught early so he survived with
minor side effects as compared to others who contracted the disease. He received the polio
vaccine at the hospital as one of his treatments despite the fact that he had already contracted the
disease. As he told me his life changing story, he mentioned that he saw people he knew and
people around him greatly affected by this disease. However, when the vaccine came around, and
the number of new cases began to drop until there were no more, he was completely amazed. He
strongly believes in vaccinations and encourages the rest of my family to utilize them (Beaver).
Through this experience, I myself have always been a vaccine advocate because I know if we
vaccinate the majority of the population and maintain herd immunity we dont have to worry
about the horrible consequences of getting dangerous diseases. Herd immunity is the general
immunity of a population when at least eighty percent of the vulnerable population is vaccinated
(Knopf 1). Since, I was so moved by my grandfathers story, I decided to dedicate my senior
project to the subject of polio. I concentrated on the polio vaccination because it was relevant but
then something happened with a family friend that greatly heightened my curiosity. The family
friend had a son that was vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine also known
as the MMR vaccine. Soon after the vaccination, he was diagnosed with autism. His parents

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blamed the vaccine which made me wonder, could vaccines really do that? Are vaccines causing
children to develop disabilities?
Vaccinations impact everyone from new born babies to the elderly. More specifically,
parents must decide if they want their babies to be vaccinated. The next step is to decide whether
or not their child will receive all of the vaccines or just certain ones. The parents decision to
vaccinate is a very difficult one to make and some parents may not have all the information they
need to make this crucial decision. Parents trying to decide if they should vaccinate their children
could greatly benefit from my paper because it will give them background information on
vaccinations. I hope to be a parent one day and I want to protect my children from pain and
disease just like most parents. I want to be fully educated on vaccines so I can make the right
decision for my children. I am a vaccine advocate but I must say the allegation of vaccines
causing developmental issues did give me a scare and made me a little skeptical. This research
will help my parents and future parents decide whether or not vaccination is worth the risk.
An article entitled The Autism Epidemic, Vaccinations, and Mercury by Bernard Rimland
reveals the increase of autism between the years of 1987 and 1998 were alarmingly high. These
increases ranged from 273% to 346% depending on the degree of autism used. However, the
increase of other neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy and mental retardation was about
three percent (2). This statistic is astounding. This is a huge number and there has to be a major
reason. I have talked to my family about this number and most believe that it is just because we
know more about autism now than we ever have. I have also heard through friends and family
that the MMR vaccine might be the cause. I decided to research this topic hoping to find the
answers on my own. The article MMR vs. Autism: a False Choice by Alison Knopf describes
that more than a decade ago an English physician named Andrew Wakefield published a study

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that linked the MMR vaccine and autism. Soon after this publication he was discredited, lost his
medical license, and the study was retracted (1). Andrew Wakefield was the one who started the
big vaccine scare. I wanted to see if he had really found a correlation between autism and the
MMR vaccine or if he fixed the results.
Rimland had a student that discovered mercury poisoning and autism have similar
biological characteristics including immune system problems and abnormalities in areas of the
brain such as the cerebellum, amygdala, and the hippocampus (Rimland 5). In an article entitled
Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: a Medical Controversy by
David Kirby, Kirby's student also became curious about the similarities in the symptoms of
mercury poisoning and autism (59). Multiple people, including myself, became curious about
mercury poisoning and its close relation to autism. This new curiosity led me to find research
that showed children from America were exposed to mercury in levels that greatly exceeded the
limits set federally. One example involved a child at two months of age that weighed around five
kilograms who was subjected to about 62.5 micrograms of mercury at one time (Kirby 49). To
put this into perspective the FDA set a limit of .4 micrograms per kilogram per day (Kirby 49).
The statistics I read which compared the daily limit versus what children can be exposed to at
one time with vaccines, was completely outstanding. I was truly taken back by the amount of
mercury in vaccines and this made me hesitant of my choice to support vaccinations.
A video entitled The Vaccine War by the film media group interviewed an autism expert
who stated that the first symptoms of autism emerges around the same time the MMR vaccine is
given, around eighteen months. (The Vaccine War 27:01). With this new information, I am more
convinced that because we know more autism, it is more prevalent. In a book entitled Vaccine:
The Debate in Modern America, Mark Largent claims that by the beginning of the twenty-first

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century, both British and American medical establishments have stated that there is no
correlation or link between vaccines and autism in children of good health (73).This is yet
another study I came upon that did not see a correlation between autism and vaccines. I believe
the more studies I see, the more confident I become in my stance with vaccines. Studies have
shown that children who did not get vaccinated had the same chance of contracting autism then
those who received the vaccine. Other studies in Sweden, Finland, Britain and the United States
agreed that there was no correlation between MMR and autism (The Vaccine War 32:02). These
results make me question if vaccines have a correlation to autism. Maybe we are just more aware
of autism, so we are able to detect even the mildest cases. The CDC also found nine credible
studies from researchers located in different parts of the world reporting there was no correlation
between the vaccines and autism (Largent 73). There are a lot of studies from different credible
sources that claim there is no correlation between autism and vaccines which puts my mind at
ease about vaccinating my children.
Alison Knopf talks about an article, Pediatrics, that released a vaccine safety review
mentioning the potential notions that have led parents to refuse to vaccinate their children. As a
result there is a problem with diseases making a comeback (Knopf 2). Parents are no longer able
to rely on herd immunity (Knopf 1).
One example of vaccines saving lives occurred when an author of children books lost his
daughter to measles. After that experience he wrote a strongly worded letter pleading with
parents to get their children vaccinated stating that, one to two children of every 1,000 that get
measles will die because physicians do not have a cure they just have a prevention, vaccines
(Knopf 1). It is sad that the children's author had to go through this horrible event but I believe
that it allowed him to inspire many people to vaccinate their children. He could have persuaded

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many parents to vaccinate their children because they do not want to lose their children when it
could have been prevented. Over the last 100 years vaccines have increased the life span of
humans by thirty years (The Vaccine War 1:03). I did not know that vaccines helped improve life
expectancy. This shows that vaccines are beneficial and essential for a long life. Vaccines have
the capability to prevent sixteen different diseases (The Vaccine War 4:27). I plan on being a
mom one day and if I can prevent my child from getting sixteen different diseases, I will. It
would be hard for me to turn down that opportunity unless one day I find evidence that vaccines
are truly harmful. Humans are the only carrier for some diseases which means if we could
eradicate diseases, we could stop vaccinating our children (49:22). The thought of one day not
having to vaccinate children should be motivation for parents, and myself, to vaccinate children
in hopes of eradicating diseases.
Choosing to vaccinate is not a matter of choosing yes or no but merely a matter of how
many vaccines the child should receive and when. As a parent you make this critical decision
based on your beliefs and knowledge of vaccines. Therefore it is crucial that you understand how
vaccines work and what they are doing to your children. In other words, as a parent, you can pick
and choose what vaccines your child receives, if they receive any at all. Based on your
conception of vaccines and your beliefs you will decide to what degree your child will be
vaccinated.
Even at a young age, I was a strong vaccine advocate. I never understood why parents
wouldnt vaccinate their children, but as I grew older I began to question what I have heard about
vaccines. I heard stories about vaccines causing autism and other developmental disabilities so I
decided to start researching the topic for myself. I narrowed my research to vaccines and autism
instead of diseases and vaccines. Throughout this research I discovered that vaccines save lives. I

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have come to the conclusion that I will vaccinate my children, but I will prefer to get the
mercury-free vaccines. I believe this will change some parents mind about vaccines because it
will inform them about real tests that have been done to prove no correlation between autism and
mercury in vaccines. The FDA announced that infant vaccines today contain little to no traces of
thimerosal with the exception of the influenza vaccine (Largent 77). If parents are still skeptical
of the mercury in vaccines they now have the option of the mercury-free vaccine offered by
some physicians (Kirby 362).
A question that is unresolved in the research which I have began to question myself is the
methylmercury that is tested in some of the studies is not the same mercury that is in vaccines.
The mercury that is in vaccines is called eythlmercury which is digested differently in the body
thus needs to be researched more (Largent 77). If I got the chance to research more about
vaccines I would like to see the side effects of eythlmercury. I would also like to know if it had a
correlation between autism and vaccines. Why did they put mercury in vaccines in the first
place? I also wonder why they felt the need to make a mercury-free vaccines if there were no
negative side effects of mercury being in vaccines. If mercury does not cause autism or other
developmental disorders is it possible that something else in the vaccine is triggering the onset of
autism and other disorders? I would also like to research why some vaccines have booster shots
while others do not. Another question that has come up is due to the increasing average life span
of a person, would people need to start getting boosters for all vaccines or would the vaccine
given during childhood be sufficient for life?

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Work Cited
Beaver, Herbert. Personal Interview. 15 August 2014.
Kirby, David. Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: a Medical
Controversy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005. Print.
Knopf, Alison. "MMR Vs. Autism: a False Choice." The Brown University Child and Adolescent
Behavior Letter. 31 (2015): 1-2. Print
Largent, Mark A. Vaccine: The Debate in Modern America. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2012. E-book.
Rimland, Bernard. "The Autism Epidemic, Vaccinations, and Mercury." Journal of Nutritional &
Environmental Medicine. 10.4 (2000). Print.
The Vaccine War. New York, N.Y: Films Media Group, 2010. E-video.