Vaccinations and Autism

Portia Iversen discusses the controversy relating to autism and vaccines and concludes that there is insufficient data to draw a definitive conclusion.

Well, I tell scientists, "look, I’d say the majority, I’d say at least 75% of parents who have an autistic child, had a child who went in and got a vaccine, and came out autistic. Within weeks or just a couple of months that child went from (to those parents) seeming normal to being autistic. And it’s worse in the regressive cases, you have kids who are talking and had hundreds of words who, in a matter of weeks, go to having no words." No wonder people feel vaccines are involved. And the fact is, we really don’t know if they are or they aren’t, and if you really want to be scientific about it, that’s what you have to admit, because there isn’t good evidence. There are some studies, for instance, there’s a large study in Denmark and then the IOM came out with a statement maybe a year and a half or so ago, leaning towards there is no association, but I think anybody who is a scientist would agree that these studies are not the definitive end-of-the-story. I think that as a scientist, you really have to weigh, who are we talking about, who are these children, who are these families? If the families are feeling like the vaccines are causing autism, you have to take that very seriously. It doesn’t mean it is, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t. So, the jury’s out is my answer.