If it can be caused by environmental factors then why not vaccines as well?? Truly just wondering. Chemicals in the environment affect hormone expression (that is, the amount of hormone in the blood) and can have direct neurological effects.
In order to understand why vaccines cannot possibly cause autism, you have to understand what vaccines are and how they work.
Vaccines consist of a killed or attenuated pathogen, or of proteins extracted from a pathogen. The immune system recognizes them as if they are the pathogen, and responds accordingly. The vaccines have no capacity to actually cause disease. This is important in the discussion of autism, because the *only* way that a vaccine could cause autism is if it had the same effect on the brain that a live pathogen has. Assuming that the disease being vaccinated against affects the brain (like meningitis), the proteins in the vaccine would have to actually enter the brain to be able to cause that effect. But they can't do that, because vaccines are not injected into the brain. In addition, the toxins from pathogens are detoxified when made into vaccines, so they do not and cannot have the same effect on the body that the actual pathogen has.
Since a vaccine would have to mimic a pathogen that affects the brain in order to cause brain damage, the obvious conclusion here is that vaccination against that pathogen would decrease brain damage, by preventing the illness that causes neurological damage.
Another consideration is that if the immune response to a vaccine were capable of causing autism, then the immune response to the disease being prevented would cause autism. Since the immune response to a disease is typically far more severe than the immune response to a vaccine, if this were the case, then we should have seen a massive drop in the number of autism cases corresponding to the roll-out of childhood vaccinations. We (meaning the scientific community, of which I am a member) have not seen this, so there probably is no connection between immune responses and autism.
There is some evidence that pregnant women who develop fevers during pregnancy have higher chances of giving birth to autistic children. So, vaccinating them against diseases that cause fevers would actually decrease the incidence of autism. I'm not sure how strong this link is, between fever and autism.
Free Republic's resident scientist speaks. Heed her words people for she is a
real scientist.
Love ya Mom, but you are always so full of yourself that I just feel obligated to point out the errors you make.
"Vaccines consist of a killed or attenuated pathogen, or of proteins extracted from a pathogen"
I think what you meant to say Mom was that
some vaccines consist of a killed or attenuated pathogen, or of proteins extracted from a pathogen. Was there some reason that you left out toxoid vaccines which protect against the toxins made by the pathogen and do not contain the pathogen itself (killed or attenuated) or proteins extracted from the pathogen? Diptheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines are examples of toxoid vaccines - I'm sure you've heard of them.
"The vaccines have no capacity to actually cause disease."
Not true in the case of shingles. Children vaccinated against chickenpox have an increased risk of shingles as adults. One of many cases where having (and surviving) a childhood disease leads to a more informed immune system.
Or how about the ability of tetanus immunizations to cause Antiphospholipid Syndrome?
Here is a study showing this ability in mice but still it refutes your contention that,
"vaccines have no capacity to actually cause disease" unless you would like to weasel out by saying a syndrome is not the same as a disease - yes, but it is a harmful condition caused by an immunization.
Vaccine model of antiphospholipid syndrome induced by tetanus vaccine "Successful induction of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) in two different non-autoimmune prone mouse strains, BALB/c and C57BL/6, was achieved by tetanus toxoid (TTd) hyperimmunization using different adjuvants (glycerol or aluminium hydroxide), and different adjuvant pretreatments (glycerol or Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA))."
Or maybe you would like to discuss encephalitis caused by pertussis and MMR vaccinations?
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program considers encephalitis to be a "table injury" in which the plaintiff has the presumption of compensation and is not required to prove injury by the preponderance of evidence if symptoms occur within 72 hours of the pertussis immunization or 15 days of the MMR immunization. Seems to be a matter of "settled science" by your fellow government
employees scientists LOL
"In addition, the toxins from pathogens are detoxified when made into vaccines, so they do not and cannot have the same effect on the body that the actual pathogen has."
No Mom, the attenuated viruses produce
less of their toxins but that does not mean they are "detoxified" as some of the toxins are still produced. Lets try to be precise here as befits a real scientist such as yourself.
"Another consideration is that if the immune response to a vaccine were capable of causing autism, then the immune response to the disease being prevented would cause autism."
Poor reasoning Mom. It doesn't have to be the disease being vaccinated against that would be the cause of autism. You fail to take into account the effects that adjuvants included in the vaccine have on the recipient's immune system. Sensitizing the immune system to increase its reaction to the vaccine's included pathogen also sensitizes the immune system to
other pathogens or even other biologically active materials that may be in the recipient's body at the time of the immunization
and the immune system's heightened response to any of these other pathogens or biologically active materials may be the cause of other diseases or syndromes.
The human body is a soup containing many live and biologically active materials which in small quantities are beneficial or even necessary to health but which in larger quantities are harmful - and an immune system sensitized by a vaccine's adjuvants may not be able to make this distinction and may be trained to attack even the small (necessary) amounts of these microbes and substances.