Dear Trump: Vaccines do not cause autism.

Let's make this clear: vaccines do not cause autism. Vaccines do not interact with other vaccines to cause autism. There are no neurotoxic chemicals in vaccines that could cause autism.

There are no heavy metals in vaccines that could cause autism.

Vaccines are not associated with autism nor do vaccines increase the risk of even potentially developing autism.

Vaccines save lives, prevent life-threatening childhood disease, and discouraging the use of vaccines puts people's lives at risk.

Meanwhile, the president-elect of the United States says this:

This is particularly problematic. Not only does President-elect Trump misinform the public about vaccines, he suggests that doctors purposefully and willingly lie to patients.

Consider how many people that now may be less willing to seek general treatment due to this.

As a scientist, it is unfortunate that science and politics have now merged, but statements like this coming from the new leader of the United States is a clear threat to science, health care, and population health.

Science is objective and non-partisan, but statements like these -- whether democrat or republican --are entirely false and dangerous. Scientists must speak out against such blatant misinformation.

Here are the facts:

"A child’s risk for developing an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not increased by receiving “too many vaccines too soon,” according to a new study published in The Journal of Pediatrics .

Although previous scientific evidence has shown that vaccines do not cause autism, more than 1 in 10 parents refuse or delay vaccinations for their young children. A main safety concern of these parents is the number of vaccines administered, both on a single day and over the course of a child’s first 2 years of life.

In the first study of its kind, researchers from the CDC and Abt Associates, Inc. compared vaccine records for over 1000 children born from 1994–1999, some of whom were later diagnosed with ASD. The researchers calculated the total number of vaccine antigens each child received between birth and age 2, as well as the maximum number of antigens each child received on a single day.

The study found that the total number of vaccine antigens received was the same between children with ASD and those without ASD. Additionally, antigen number was also found to be unrelated to the development of two sub-categories of ASD—autistic disorder and ASD with regression.

The researchers concluded, “The possibility that immunological stimulation from vaccines during the first 1 or 2 years of life could be related to the development of ASD is not well-supported by what is known about the neurobiology of ASDs.”" 

- https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2013/autism-risk-unrelated-to-total-vaccine-exposure-in-early-childhood.shtml

References

Journal of Pediatrics - http://www.jpeds.com/content/JPEDSDeStefano

National Institute of Health - https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2015/04/28/no-link-between-mmr-vaccine-and-autism-even-in-high-risk-kids/