The Relationship between Vaccination & Autism
Today, the rise of cases of autism among children pose a serious problem and urges researchers and the public to look for the reason why the amount of children with autism grows. There are multiple factors that may lead to the rise of cases of autism among children, including the enhancement of registration of cases of autism, better information processing concerning statistics of cases of autism, and other factors. However, there is also a belief that vaccination is a risk factor that may trigger the development of autism in children.The Relationship between Vaccination & Autism
Research question:
Therefore, the research question is: What, if any, is the correlation between vaccination and autism and can vaccination trigger the development of autism in children?
Thesis statement: I will argue that vaccination is safe and cannot cause autism in children because there is no factual evidence of such interdependence between vaccination and autism as well as there are no specific mechanism of the impact of vaccination on children that could have triggered the development of autism.
Literature Review:
The development of the contemporary medicine and science brought considerable advancement in the technology and treatment of various diseases. However, some issues have aggravated, including the problem of autism. The rise of the frequency of autism in children has drawn the public attention to the problem and raised the main question concerning the cause of such a substantial rise of cases of autism among children. Among the variety of risk factors, vaccines became one of the primary concerns of people as well as some experts. Some experts believed that vaccines could trigger the development of autism to the extent that autism was viewed as a sort of side-effect of vaccination. Such a view on vaccination discouraged many parents from vaccinating their children. Nevertheless, such assumptions turned out to be erroneous and no factual evidence was found to prove any correlation between vaccination and autism. However, there were theories that suggested that vaccination increased the risk of autism or could trigger the disorder in children.
Three theories were developed with regard to the possible correlation between vaccination and autism. The first theory was grounded on the idea of the negative impact of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine as the risk factor that could have triggered the development of autism in children. Proponents of this theory (Plotkin, Gerber, & Offit 460) argued that the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine caused autism by damaging the intestinal lining, which allows the entrance of encephalopathic proteins. However, the detailed study of the possible correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism has revealed the fact that there was no close interaction between the disorder and the vaccine. Moreover, ultimately the MMR disappeared and was replaced by new vaccines, while the problem of autism persisted and even aggravated in a way.The Relationship between Vaccination & Autism
Another theory was grounded on the negative impact of ingredients used in vaccines which, according to some researchers (Offit 192) could have had a negative impact on children health and trigger autism. This theory focused on thimerosal, an ethylmercury-containing preservative in some vaccines, which was toxic to the central nervous system (Offit 193) . This is why proponents of this theory (Offit 194) believed that vaccination could trigger the development of autism because of the negative impact of ingredients of vaccines that contained ethylmercury preservative. This theory was not absolutely rejectable because ethylmercury does have a negative impact on human health. This is why later vaccines became ethylmercury-free. The FDA and other regulatory agencies and government bodies urged vaccine manufacturers to make it safer for patients. On the other hand, in spite of the revealed danger of ethylmercury contained in vaccines, there was still no direct evidence of the correlation between vaccination and autism. In other words, doses of ethylmercury contained in vaccines could not provoke the development of autism in children. Hence, this theory was not consistent either.
Finally, the third major theory which attempted to reveal the correlation and interdependence between vaccination and autism was the theory that held the premise that children simply received too much vaccines that eventually undermined their immune system and triggered the development of autism. To put it more precisely, according to this theory, the simultaneous administration of multiple vaccines overwhelms or weakens the immune system (Rice, et al. 1). This theory mirrored the increased amount of vaccines taken by children. The increase in vaccination was correlated to the rise of cases of autism among children. However, this theory also lacked the factual evidence and resulted in the failure to prove the negative impact of vaccination on children in terms of the development of autism. Theoretical assumptions did not bring any factual evidence to prove the effectiveness and accuracy of the theory. Instead, there was no direct correlation found between the number of vaccines taken by children and the development of autism.The Relationship between Vaccination & Autism
Methodology:
In terms of the proposed study, I would suggest using the literature survey as the key method of the study. The literature survey will help to identify the main issues related to the problem of the study and reveal the latest findings concerning the possible correlation between vaccination and autism. The literature survey reveals the key theories that current exist with regard to the impact of vaccination on the development of autism. Also such methodology would help to reveal the correlation between vaccination and autism. Existing studies explore possible risk factors associated with the use of certain vaccines, their side-effects and other issues. Therefore, it is possible to find out whether there is any correlation between vaccination and autism found in existing studies.
At the same time, the literature survey will help to have a different view on vaccination and autism. To put it more precisely, the literature survey will also focus on studies which prove the contrary, i.e. that vaccination does not have any impact on autism. In this regard, the simple comparison of evidence found by researchers, who stand for the interdependence between vaccination and autism and researchers, who are against such correlation, will show whether vaccination can trigger autism. At any rate, the key trends in the development of current studies related to the problem of the interdependence between vaccination and autism will show which view on the problem prevail among researchers. Therefore, it will be possible to make the conclusion whether the idea of the interdependence of vaccination and autism is relevant or not. If the literature survey reveals the prevalence of the view that there is no correlation between vaccination and autism, then there is likely to be no correlation between them. On the contrary, if the literature reviews shows that the view on vaccination as the risk factor of the development of autism prevail, then there is likely to be such a risk and there may be correlation between vaccination and autism.The Relationship between Vaccination & Autism
Conclusion:
Thus, the proposed study intends to reveal whether there is any interdependence between vaccination and autism and the study is likely to prove that there is no such interdependence. The preliminary literature survey shows that experts agree that there is no evidence of the negative impact of vaccination on the development of autism. Neither theory developed in the past concerning the interdependence between vaccination and autism has proved to be valid and relevant.
Works Cited:
Offit, P.A. Autism’s False Profits. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
Plotkin, Stanley, Gerber, Jeffrey S., and Offit, Paul A.. Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Vol. 48, Iss. 4, 15 February 2009, pp. 456–461.
Rice, C.E., et al. Evaluating changes in the prevalence of the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Public Health Reviews, Vol. 34, Iss. 2, 2012, 1.The Relationship between Vaccination & Autism