No, the MMR vaccine does not make children autistic, it is fake news

No, the MMR vaccine does not make children autistic, it is fake news

Can the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine make children autistic? We are debunking this fake news that has a tough skin with the emergency pediatrician To be or not Toubib.

The MMR vaccine protects against diseases that we really don’t want to get measles, mumps and rubellaand is part of the mandatory vaccinations in France since 1um January 2018.

Administration occurs in two phases: a first injection every 12 months of the child and a second approximately 16 months. The injection is administered subcutaneously in the thigh and is generally well tolerated. Like many vaccines, side effects such as pain at the injection site, redness or swelling, fever, and sometimes lymph nodes may occur within 8 to 10 days of receiving the vaccine.

Overall there is nothing bad, even if it is not pleasant. However, there continues to be fake news claiming this the MMR vaccine would make children autistic. But what is this thing?

Would the MMR vaccine really make children autistic?

For the little story, the origin of this controversy dates back to 1998when Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor, published a study in the main British medical journal The Lancet. He states it the MMR vaccine is, in its combined form, dangerous for childrenand it is better to choose a monovalent vaccine.

The doctor would get the results for his study testing the vaccine on 12 children and would have concluded that the MMR vaccine was responsible for a picture that combines autism and digestive disorders.

After a press conference held by Andrew Wakefield in a London hospital, the British press picked up the topic and gave it wide circulation, leading, as indicated by the site vaccination-info-service.fra significant decline in MMR vaccination coverage since 1998, causing a resurgence of measles. This disease, in constant decline since 1994-1995, has become current again since 2000, two years after the publication of the article. “.

Nevertheless, Andrew Wakefield’s study has been scientifically questionedproving that “ studies conducted in large populations have not demonstrated a link between measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination and autism spectrum disorders “.

More, ” it appeared that the data presented in this article were the result of fraud: among other things, the children had no digestive lesions, the time between vaccination and signs of autism was not what their parents reported, and their inclusion in the study was the result of their parents’ desire to sue the vaccine manufacturer and not the observation of a particular clinical condition “.

The story doesn’t end there, since then Brian Deer, journalist, decided to delve deeper into the issue and published an article on British medical journal which revealed the extent of the doctor’s fraud: the latter had been paideven before the publication of his speech by a law firm” with the aim of establishing a scientific link between vaccination and disease, which would facilitate the implementation of large-scale reporting ” AND it also planned to market a test to detect “autistic enterocolitis”with profitability estimated at several million pounds each year.

A deal that could have been fruitful, with dramatic consequences.

Fake news about the MMR vaccine

Years after this scandal, the MMR vaccine continues to stir controversy. While a Danish study, published in 2019, allowed this«to state, scientifically speaking, that the MMR vaccine would not increase the risk of autism or trigger itthe rumors continue to circulate.

We asked the emergency pediatrician To be or not Toubib who shares his advice sheets for parents on his social networks, but also in his book, what he thinks of this fake news:

As the doctor states in the video below, autism is a multifactorial developmental disorder, the cause of which has not yet been found. This is largely for this reason that it is difficult to treat, medically speaking. But in no case does the MMR vaccine “trigger” autism, nor amplify it, as we can sometimes read.

MMR is a vaccine that protects humansin particular children, against three viral diseases whose consequences can be serious and potentially fatal. But it doesn’t “make” you autistic, no. This is fake news.


Listen to Apéro des Daronnes, Madmoizelle’s show that aims to break down taboos on parenting.

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Source: Madmoizelle

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