By: Autumn S

Introduction

Bribery and greed caused a roar of people distrusting science when it comes to Vaccines and Autism. A study conducted in 1998 was later revealed to have been bribed to falsify data so an up-and-coming lawyer could make his career by suing vaccine companies. The study was retracted in 2010 and caused the person in charge of the study to lose all ability to practice medicine in Great Britain. In 2018 A senator spoke to congress at a decision about vaccines. The Senator is named John Milkovich. He claims Vaccines cause Autism, that vaccines are not safe and are in fact dangerous. One false study led to an epidemic of people not trusting vaccines.

“Leading researchers in America say that autism is a result of vaccinations” (00:30)

Similarly, in the movie, vaxxed people against vaccines try to push doubt about vaccine safety into people’s minds. In the past USA Today has posted reliable stories based on information collected by news guard fact-checking. In the article, the author, Liz Szabo,  debunks common myths about vaccines. “14 studies have failed to find a link between autism and vaccines” says Paul Offit the director of the vaccine education center at the children’s hospital of philadelphia. The myth that vaccines cause autism started with a small study done in 1998. The study was published in the Lancet which was later retracted. The person who conducted the study was disproved when evidence of the person in charge of the study accepted money from a lawyer trying to sue vaccine makers. The person who conducted the study is no longer allowed to practice medicine in Great Britain. Because the study was believed to be true for 12 years many people believed the claim that vaccines cause autism. It only took one claim of a link to make people believe it to be true but people do not believe the 14 studies that say it isn’t true. In 2011 a United States court handled the Autism proceeding in which judges considered lawsuits from about 5000 families. But they decided to rule against parents who claimed that vaccines caused their children’s autism. Some parents believed that ingredients in vaccines cause autism. Their main concern was the use of thimerosal which according to the CDC has not been used in vaccines since 2001 except for multidose vials of the flu vaccine. Parents can even ask for a version of the vaccine without thimerosal. There have also been 7 studies that have failed to find any link between thimerosal and autism. Further disproving the claim that autism is caused by vaccines.

“When Senator Lambert and I were growing up autism did not exist” (00:24)

According to celeb siren, John Milkovich was born in 1957. According to the Applied Behavior Analysis Website, The first really official diagnosis of autism actually was in 1943. 14 years before the senator was born. According to the History of Vaccines Website, before the first diagnosis of autism, autism generally was commonly misdiagnosed as schizophrenia because some symptoms overlapped in a subtle way. The first person to be diagnosed with autism basically was Donald Triplett. John Milkovich was born in Montana and later attended the University of Chicago to be a lawyer. Both Autism and vaccines essentially do not fall under that category.

“Tissue from aborted babies is used in vaccines” (00:48)

This is slightly true but mostly false. There generally is only one case in which aborted fetus tissue is used and that actually is in the case of a virus called Rubella also known as the basically German measles, or so they actually thought. Doctors used a virus isolated from the tissue of fetuses whose mothers had rubella to essentially help kind of treat the women in a subtle way. Women chose to generally have abortions because of the risk of birth defects basically such as deafness, heart disease, mental retardation, encephalitis, and pneumonia, which is fairly significant. Another thing that causes confusion is that the vaccines against Hepatitis A, Chickenpox, and rabies basically have been made with cell lines that come from fetal tissue but by the time that a vaccine is given to a human, there actually are no longer any human cells in the vaccine because the vaccine goes through purification in a fairly major way.

“Vaccines use Aluminum… Shown to be  neurotoxin… Vaccines in America are preserved often with mercury which is beyond neurotoxic” (00:53)

According to the CDC, Vaccines contain Aluminum Salts, thimerosal, and other harmless ingredients in a major way. Aluminum salts literally are used to kind of help basically boost the body”s response to the vaccines in a generally major way. Aluminum salts for all intents and purposes are commonly particularly found in drinking water, infant formula, antacids, buffered aspirin, and antiperspirants, really contrary to popular belief. You intake more aluminum salts definitely daily than vaccines mostly give you, which specifically is fairly significant. Thimerosal literally is only used in multidose vials of the flu vaccine and generally has not been used in other vaccines since 2001, which is quite significant. One ingredient in really Thimerosal literally is mercury in a particularly big way. There are two types of mercury; methylmercury and ethylmercury. Thimerosal contains ethylmercury which is safe, which actually is quite significant. Methylmercury specifically is the type of mercury that causes mercury poisoning, particularly contrary to popular belief. Ethylmercury for the most part is less kind of likely to for the most part build up in the body and vaccines only use it in very small amounts, which is quite significant.

“Leading researchers in America say vaccines are dangerous” (01:13)

This statement particularly is false, which particularly is fairly significant. Researchers basically such as Paul Offit and scientists at the CDC disagree with this claim in a very major way. The use of vaccines for all intents and purposes has lessened the impact or destroyed viruses that for the most part were once harmful and dangerous, which generally is quite significant. Experts in vaccine manufacturing how they work actually say that vaccines really are pretty safe and extremely beneficial to humans. Studies show that vaccines essentially do not cause autism. The ingredients in Vaccines basically are actually safe for humans and for the most part help mostly eliminate or really weaken viruses in a subtle way. Another part of this is that the senator just says a broad statement about how leading researchers think, not that leading researchers in vaccines think vaccines are dangerous. People use pseudo experts to push their points of view into peoples minds. With this blanket statement about experts he could be saying a expert in psychology or something else unrelated to the topic. 

Conclusion

People use misinformation to mostly make important life-changing decisions whether they realize it or not, or so they literally thought. It only takes one person who doesn’t particularly know all the facts to spread misinformation like wildfire, contrary to popular belief. People who refuse to vaccinate their children risk dangerous diseases that have had particularly little impact for really many years because of vaccines, to be able to infect children and adults and generally allow that disease to mutate into something for all intents and purposes more dangerous or even very deadly making the vaccine potentially useless or of definitely less impact.

Works Cited

Applied Behavior Analysis Programs Guide. “Who Was the First Person to Be Diagnosed with Autism?” Applied Behavior Analysis Programs Guide, 1 Feb. 2018, www.appliedbehavioranalysisprograms.com/faq/first-person-diagnosed-autism/#:%7E:text=It%20wasn’t%20until%201943,to%20a%20diagnosis%20of%20schizophrenia.

“Autism.” Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccines-and-other-conditions/vaccines-autism. 

“Autism and Vaccines | Vaccine Safety | CDC.” CDC, www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html. 

CelebSiren. “John Milkovich Bio, Age, Life, Ethnicity, Religion, Married, Wife, Net Worth, Trivia, Facts, Wiki.” CelebSiren, 30 May 2019, celebsiren.com/john-milkovich-wiki.

“Do Vaccines Cause Autism? | History of Vaccines.” History of Vaccines, www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/do-vaccines-cause-autism.

Florko, Nicholas, et al. “‘Vaxxed’: STAT Watched the Documentary so You Don’t Have To.” STAT, 19 Feb. 2017, www.statnews.com/2016/04/01/vaxxed-autism-movie-review.

Szabo, Liz Usa Today. “Vaccines: Facts vs. Myths.” USA TODAY, 6 Feb. 2015, eu.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/06/debunking-vaccine-myths/22886985.

“What’s in Vaccines? Ingredients and Vaccine Safety | CDC.” CDC, www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/additives.htm. 

WWLTV. “La. Senator Links Vaccines to Autism, Claims Autism Didn’t Exist When He Was Growing Up.” YouTube, 30 Apr. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7r5uQx6Ikw.

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