[Greg F]

If enough kids aren’t immunized it creates a vector for an epidemic. However, if enough kids aren’t immunized it also creates an incentive for further research to more definitively answer the question of whether there is a correlation or not and to determine the causes of autism . . . which is an epidemic in and of itself.

[AnAmericanMother]

But two studies have already been done - one in the U.S. and one in the U.K. - that show absolutely no statistical correlation. The consensus seems to be a developmental defect in the brain, which is at least an improvement over the original psychiatric theory of punitive mother and absent father.

And people keep talking about the "epidemic" but there is absolutely no evidence of an epidemic. There have always been autistic children, they were just categorized as 'retarded' until autism was broken out into a separate category around the time of WWII. And the definition of autism has expanded so much in the past ten years that there is probably very little if any actual increase, but if there is one it can't be quantified because you're comparing apples and oranges.

But what with parents with difficult children (and don't get me wrong, I'm one of them!) hoping for some sort of solid diagnosis, a definite cause, and a cure, and researchers hoping for a grant, there will always be an group of people who believe that the incidence of autism has wildly increased, and that vaccines are to blame.