The Incidental Economist

This one is a doozy:

There is almost no topic in health and health policy that immediately polarizes people more than the idea that vaccines cause autism. Even thought the original big paper on this topic came out at the end of the last century, the anger this causes is still raw and potent. But there is a very, very large amount of research showing that vaccines and autism are unrelated. Please, watch the video before you jump down my throat.

For those of you who came here looking for references, here they are:

• The original paper (now RETRACTED) – Lancet, 1998
• Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: no epidemiological evidence for a causal association – Lancet, 1999
• Time trends in autism and in MMR immunization coverage in California – JAMA, 2001
• A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism – NEJM, 2002
• Neurologic disorders after measles-mumps-rubella vaccination – Pediatrics, 2002
• MMR vaccination and pervasive developmental disorders: a case-control study – Lancet, 2004
• Age at first measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in children with autism and school-matched control subjects: a population-based study in metropolitan atlanta – Pediatrics, 2004
• Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children – Cochrane Collaboration, 2005
• Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children – Cochrane Collaboration, 2012
• How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed by Brian Deer, BMJ, 2011
• Wakefield’s article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent – BMJ Editorial, 2011

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