Spacing out Vaccinations Is Not the Answer

The ongoing national debate about vaccines and their alleged connection to autism flares up every so often, much as it did a few weeks ago following the latest GOP debate. Fear over the side effects of vaccines and suspicion of public health campaigns that promote them is not a new phenomenon. In fact, vaccines have been controversial since they were first developed back in the 18th century (for readers interested in this topic, Arthur Allen’s book “Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver” provides an excellent history on the subject). Their alleged connection to autism is more recent, dating largely from the 1998 publication of a Lancet article that claimed to have found a link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism. The study—which was based on findings from 12 children—was later thoroughly discredited and retracted, and its principal author lost his medical license due to allegations of serious medical misconduct. But the idea that vaccines might contribute in some way to autism lives on, despite study after study after study failing to find a link.