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Hayley Watson
Deby Jizi
UWRT 1102-09
11 April 2016
Vaccinations Causing Autism, Maybe or Maybe Not
Once upon a time the polio vaccine came about 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
after effects compared to some who contracted the disease. He received the polio vaccination at
the hospital as one of his treatments, even though he had already contracted the disease. He saw
people he knew and people around him greatly affected by this disease and 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. I myself have always been a vaccine
advocate because I know if we vaccinate against some diseases we dont have to worry about the
horrible consequences of getting those diseases. As I dedicated my senior project to the subject
of polio I found myself greatly interested in vaccinations. I concentrated on the polio vaccination
for that project 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 and soon after was
diagnosed with autism. His parents blamed the vaccine which made me wonder, could vaccines
really do that? Are vaccines causing children to develop disabilities?
Vaccinations impact everyone and anyone from new born babies to the elderly. Vaccines
impact everyone especially babies and their parents. The parents must decide if they want their

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babies to be vaccinated. If they decide to vaccinate 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 or not
is a very hard decision 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 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 it is worth it to vaccinate their children.
The article The Autism Epidemic, Vaccinations, and Mercury by Bernard Rimland reveals
the increase of autism between the years of 1987 and 1998 were alarmingly high ranging from
273% to 346% depending on the degree of autism used but the increase of other neurological
disorders such as cerebral palsy and mental retardation was about three percent (2). This statistic
is astounding, I cannot believe this percentage. 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 herd through friends and family that
the MMR vaccine might be the cause. I decided to research this. 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 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 this big vaccine scare. I wanted to see if he had a
point or if he fixed the results.

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Rimland had a student that found that 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 the article
Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: a Medical Controversy by
David Kirby, his student also became curious about the similarities in the symptoms of mercury
poisoning and autism (59). Multiple people became curious about mercury poisoning and its
close relation to autism. This made me curious and guided my research. Research showed that
children from America were exposed to mercury in levels that greatly exceeded the limits set
federally. They gave an example of a child at two months that weighs around five kilograms
could have been 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). These
statistics I read about the daily limit versus what children can be exposed to at one time with
vaccinations blew my mind. I was truly taken back by the amount of mercury and this made me
hesitant of vaccinations.
This video The Vaccine War by the film media group interviewed an autism expert that
stated that the first symptoms of autism emerges around the time this vaccine is given, around
eighteen months. (The Vaccine War 27:01). Knowing this about autism I am more convinced of
the idea that maybe because we know more autism is more prevalent. In the book Vaccine: The
Debate in Modern America, Mark Largent claims that at the beginning of the twenty-first century
the British and American places of medicine 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 that

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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 result make me wonder if
quite possibly vaccines do not have a correlation to autism. Maybe we are just more aware of
autism now than before 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 is a lot of studies out there from
different credible sources that claim there is no correlation between autism and vaccines which
puts my mind at ease about vaccinating my children.
Pediatrics 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, this happens when the
majority of the people in a community is immune to a disease that has a vaccine such as the
measles (Knopf 1). Parents not being able to rely on herd immunity could is scary. An author of
children books lost his daughter to measles. After that experience he wrote a strong worded letter
pleading with parents to get their child 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 author had to go through this horrible event but I
believe that it allowed him to reach many people by his story. I believe he could have persuaded
many parents to vaccinate their child because they do not want to lose their child 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

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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 will
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 germs and diseases which means if we could
eradicate the diseases we could stop vaccinating our children (49:22). The thought of maybe one
day not having to vaccinate children would be motivation enough for me to get my children
vaccinated in the hopes that one day these horrible diseases would be eradicated.
Vaccinating your children is not a matter of whether you should or not but merely a
matter of how many your child should receive and when. It is not a simple yes or no answer. As a
parent you make this critical decision based on your beliefs and knowledge of vaccines so it is
crucial that you understand how vaccines work and what they are doing to your children. In life
things are not black and white, life contains grey areas, not one way or the other but simply a
combination of both. There is no exception when it comes to vaccines. You can decide to
vaccinate your child with some but not all of the vaccines offered. You can refuse vaccines all
together or you can decide to vaccinate your child with every vaccine available. 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.
When younger 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
began to start researching vaccines and diseases. I decided to focus more on vaccines and autism
instead of diseases and the vaccines that were made to protect us against those diseases.

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Throughout this research I have decided that it is extremely important to vaccinate your children.
I have come to the conclusion that I will vaccinate my children but I will probably 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 option offered
by some physicians (Kirby 362).
A question that is unresolved in the research that I have come upon is that 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 and if it had a correlation between
autism and vaccines. I am curious I would also like to research why they put mercury in vaccines
in the first place. I also wonder why they felt the need to make a mercury-free vaccine 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 them. 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 average life span of a person increasing
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
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.