Immunizations and Autism: A Review of the Literature

Doja, Asif; Roberts, Wendy

doi:10.1017/s031716710000528x

Cited by 92 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(41 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Some chemtrails conspirators take the increased number of articles on the subject itself as evidence that there must be something to their theory. This mirrors what we can observe with those arguing against vaccinating children, often for unwarranted fears of a link between vaccinations and autism (Doja and Roberts, 2006;Miller and Reynolds, 2009). Much like 'anti-vaxxers' are hardly persuaded by evidence against their theory, chemtrails conspirators, too, are apparent masters in picking 'evidence' to support their views, while ignoring evidence against them.…”

supporting

confidence: 70%

Solar geoengineering and the chemtrails conspiracy on social media

Tingley

Wagner²

2017

Palgrave Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Discourse on social media of solar geoengineering has been rapidly increasing over the past decade, in line with increased attention by the scientific community and low but increasing awareness among the general public. The topic has also found increased attention online. But unlike scientific discourse, a majority of online discussion focuses on the so-called chemtrails conspiracy theory, the widely debunked idea that airplanes are spraying a toxic mix of chemicals through contrails, with supposed goals ranging from weather to mind control. This paper presents the results of a nationally representative 1000-subject poll part of the 36,000-subject 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), and an analysis of the universe of social media mentions of geoengineering. The former shows~10% of Americans declaring the chemtrails conspiracy as "completely" and a further~20-30% as "somewhat" true, with no apparent difference by party affiliation or strength of partisanship.Conspiratorial views have accounted for~60% of geoengineering discourse on social media over the past decade. Of that, Twitter has accounted for >90%, compared to~75% of total geoengineering mentions. Further affinity analysis reveals a broad online community of conspiracy. Anonymity of social media appears to help its spread, so does the general ease of spreading unverified or outright false information. Online behavior has important real-world reverberations, with implications for climate science communication and policy.

show abstract

supporting

confidence: 70%

Solar geoengineering and the chemtrails conspiracy on social media

Tingley

Wagner²

2017

Palgrave Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In all cases it was noted by the Court of Federal Claims, or indicated in settlement agreements, that the children had autism or ASD [39]. On the other hand, numerous epidemiological studies have found no association between receipt of selected vaccines (in particular the combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine) and autism [10,[40][41][42][43][44][45], and there is no accepted mechanism by which vaccines could induce autism [46].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pilot comparative study on the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated 6- to 12- year old U.S. children

Mawson¹,

Ray²,

Bhuiyan³

et al. 2017

J Transl Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Vaccinations have prevented millions of infectious illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths among U.S. children, yet the long-term health outcomes of the vaccination schedule remain uncertain. Studies have been recommended by the U.S. Institute of Medicine to address this question. This study aimed 1) to compare vaccinated and unvaccinated children on a broad range of health outcomes, and 2) to determine whether an association found between vaccination and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), if any, remained significant after adjustment for other measured factors. A cross-sectional study of mothers of children educated at home was carried out in collaboration with homeschool organizations in four U.S. states: Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oregon. Mothers were asked to complete an anonymous online questionnaire on their 6-to 12-year-old biological children with respect to pregnancy-related factors, birth history, vaccinations, physician-diagnosed illnesses, medications used, and health services. NDD, a derived diagnostic measure, was defined as having one or more of the following three closely-related diagnoses: a learning disability, Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. A convenience sample of 666 children was obtained, of which 261 (39%) were unvaccinated. The vaccinated were less likely than the unvaccinated to have been diagnosed with chickenpox and pertussis, but more likely to have been diagnosed with pneumonia, otitis media, allergies and NDD. After adjustment, vaccination, male gender, and preterm birth remained significantly associated with NDD. However, in a final adjusted model with interaction, vaccination but not preterm birth remained associated with NDD, while the interaction of preterm birth and vaccination was associated with a 6.6-fold increased odds of NDD (95% CI: 2.8, 15.5). In conclusion, vaccinated homeschool children were found to have a higher rate of allergies and NDD than unvaccinated homeschool children. While vaccination remained significantly associated with NDD after controlling for other factors, preterm birth coupled with vaccination was associated with an apparent synergistic increase in the odds of NDD. Further research involving larger, independent samples and stronger research designs is needed to verify and understand these unexpected findings in order to optimize the impact of vaccines on children's health.

show abstract

“…Despite the overwhelming benefits reported for most vaccines, concerns are raised from time to time linking immunizations to different conditions such as autism [2] and autoimmune disorders [3] such as multiple sclerosis (MS) [4]. Unfortunately, in many cases, these studies are merely case reports, poorly designed observational studies, or welldesigned studies with a small number of participants from which valid conclusions cannot be drawn.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immunizations and risk of multiple sclerosis: systematic review and meta-analysis

2011

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The role of vaccinations in risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) or in risk of relapse has not been well established. The aim of this study was to estimate the effect of immunizations on risk of developing MS in adults as well as in subsequent risk of relapse. Systematic search for publications in MEDLINE (1966-January 2011), EMBASE (1977-January 2011) and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (1961-January 2011). Both randomized clinical trials and non-randomized studies addressing the effect of any Center for Diseases Control (CDC) recommended vaccine for children, adults or travelers and BCG on risk of MS or disease relapse were included. Two reviewers independently extracted information from articles selected using a predefined datasheet. No significant change in the risk of developing MS after vaccination was found for BCG (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.69-1.34), Hepatitis B (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.74-1.37), Influenza (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.77-1.23), Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) (OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.64-1.61), Polio (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.61-1.25) and Typhoid fever (OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.72-1.53). We found decreased risk of developing MS for Diphtheria (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.40-0.90) and Tetanus (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.54-0.84). Influenza immunization was also associated with no change in risk of MS relapse (RR 1.24, 95% CI 0.89-1.72). Risk of developing multiple sclerosis remained unchanged after BCG, Hepatitis B, Influenza, MMR, Polio and Typhoid fever immunization, whereas diphtheria and tetanus vaccination may be associated with a decreased risk of MS. Further research is needed for the remaining vaccines.

show abstract

Immunizations and Autism: A Review of the Literature

Cited by 92 publications

References 46 publications

Solar geoengineering and the chemtrails conspiracy on social media

Solar geoengineering and the chemtrails conspiracy on social media

Pilot comparative study on the health of vaccinated and unvaccinated 6- to 12- year old U.S. children

Immunizations and risk of multiple sclerosis: systematic review and meta-analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About