Has a Study of Autism Outcome in Vaccinated vs Unvaccinated been found?

A frequent commenter on this blog, Mike, is a skeptic on Yasko and the possible autism-vaccine connection.

On a recent post of mine, “News media accepting illogic on autism and vaccines again,” I said, “Research has NOT INVESTIGATED these further possibilities (of a link between autism and multiple vaccines). Here are the ones that come to mind:  

“1. The immature immune system (first day of life and following) cannot deal with the vaccines, at least in some cases.

“2. Taking multiple vaccines at the same time may overwhelm the young immune system.

“3. A vaccine ingredient, currently unidentified, is toxic to some children.

“These have NOT been tested. … As I have said before, a simple study could settle this question: comparing autism rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.  Are the medical people AFRAID to do it?”

Mike in response posted links to reports on a study that did compare autism outcomes in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, done by the Danish Epidemiological Center, published in 2003. It found no correlation between vaccination and autism. Here are the links:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12421889

And the follow up

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12523209

Thank you, Mike! I am interested to see this.

Unfortunately, at closer inspection, it isn’t the comparison that I am calling for. I would like to see a comparison of the full set of vaccinations that are currently required for kids in the US, against no vaccinations at all. There are enough conscientious objectors now that this is possible.

The kids in Denmark aren’t in the same situation as the kids in the U.S. Here’s why: the kids in the U.S. get three times as many vaccine shots as the ones in Denmark, according to a study by Generation Rescue in April, 2009.  That shows 36 required shots in the U.S., compared to 12 in Denmark.

This study Mike linked to simply asked the question whether and when the child received the MMR vaccine, and symptoms related only to that vaccine.  It is one of the studies that apparently proves that the MMR vaccine, as used in Denmark at the time, by itself does not cause autism. This was a large study, looking at more than 500,000 children, the kind of study that should uncover correlations if there are any.

So, now I am asking again for a study investigating the effect of multiple vaccines on American children. This study doesn’t answer that question.

By the way, the Generation Rescue study looked at published statistics from 34 developed countries. The US has the most required shots, or doses, of any of them, and also the worst mortality rate for children under 5 of any of them. The average number of doses is 13, for these 34 countries, compared to our 36.

Phyllis Wheeler