Autism Soccer: Vaccination and Autism: Debunking the Myth

Confirm the veracity of this myth about vaccines and autism.

Knowing how to differentiate a myth from a fact can prove difficult sometimes. Most misconceptions are troublesome because they go way back in time, making them hard to stop existing. Sadly, there are many myths around autism. Between those, there’s a question that’s still in general discussion: Are vaccines responsible for autism? Before asserting a big “No,” let’s get some facts into this debate.

Public health, clinicians, and professionals have been in a constant fight against misconceptions related to vaccine safety for more than a decade. Numerous studies have completely dismantled this hypothesis and succeeded to prove there's no proved relation between autism and vaccines. However, there’s still an enormous amount of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children out of fear.

The current drop in immunization rates is directly related to the recent resurgence of several diseases (vaccine-preventable ones), which had even been eradicated for years. Most parents fear of vaccines with the concern of potential long-term side effects. This just worsens the risk of children contracting diseases (some of them with actual permanent effects or potential death risk) that could be prevented through vaccination in the first place.

Fear around vaccinations is entirely unfounded. The main source of this fear comes from an old study published in 1997, by Andrew Wakefield. It wasn’t only because of the study, but because it was released in The Lancet (a prestigious medical journal), that most readers ended up believing this misconception.

The article stated that the measles, rubella and mumps vaccine was increasing the autism rate in the children population. Luckily, these studies were discredited due to ethical violations and serious procedural mistakes. The paper was immediately retracted, and Andrew Wakefield lost his medical license afterward.

Even though this "study" was completely debunked, the hypothesis stayed in people’s minds, causing a snowball effect that has survived to this day. Thankfully, technology today has helped to fight this off, partly thanks to that in most of the cases the evidence of autism is discovered before the kids receive any vaccine.

No, vaccines do not trigger autism, they prevent diseases instead. Don’t think twice and get your children protected from any future complications. Also, there’s another tool you can get to lend your children a hand: put them to play some sports with Autism Soccer! They have been supporting the autism initiatives for many years now, contact them, and your children will thank you later!