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While I do not personally believe that there is a link between the MMR vaccine and Autism, as a parent myself,  I can understand why parents of children with Autism would want to find answers and understand the medical rationale as to why their child has autism.  However, the research does not support the correlation.  I found it interesting that the Autism Speaks website highlights that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and Autism.  The article "

No MMR-Autism Link in Large Study of Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated Kids" discusses a case study in which almost 100,000 children's' health records were analyzed.  The article credits the Journal of American Medical Association for publishing the results.

https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/no-mmr-autism-link-large-study-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-kids

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This topic was discussed throughly in my special education courses in college. From what we have discussed and the parents, doctors, and articles I've read I don't believe there is a link between MMR and autism.
I find it interesting that even with massive amounts of research vaccination rates have dropped.
According to the article from Autism Speaks, "Of the 95,727 kids who received the MMR shot, 1% were diagnosed with autism in the follow up."
https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/no-mmr-autism-link-large-study-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-kids

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I don't have children so this issue is one I will not have to deal with personally. I do not have a preconceived answer for either side of the debate so I have to look at the research.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/four-vaccine-myths-and-where-they-came
According to the article above by Science Magazine in April of 2017, there is no link between the MMR vaccination and autism.    After looking at the research, I would say that there is no link for the MMR vaccine and autism.

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The causal relationship between MMR and Autism has been refuted through numerous scientific studies over many years.  Although minor adverse reactions to a vaccine such as fever, rash, or gastrointestinal issues are possible, they are the outliers and not the normal outcome of standard vaccines for children such as MMR. The study I linked below by Woo, Winiecki, Scott, Arya, Deepa, and Beeler concluded that no major safety concerns were found in the 206 cases they examined and they suggested using this research to open up dialogue about the risks and benefits of vaccination for infants who might be exposed to these life-threatening diseases.
http://journals.lww.com/pidj/Fulltext/2016/08000/Adverse_Events_After_MMR_or_MMRV_Vaccine_in.15.aspx

Furthermore, for a vaccine to be approved, it takes years of research, trials, and testing before it even comes close to being distributed throughout the population. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/basics/test-approve.html
It seems a little ridiculous that this is even still an issue up for debate given the rigorous amounts of research directed at this vaccine in particular.

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There are many articles and websites available saying there is no connection between MMR vaccinations and Autism.  This includes the autism speaks website: https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/no-mmr-autism-link-large-study-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-kids

I also found an article reviewing a documentary about vaccinations.  There are few rules to testing vaccinations before they become things consumers purchase and use. It lists people in power who could have possibly changed data to fit their needs as one of their next jobs was with a vaccine company.  It is possible that a loosely regulated vaccine had the wrong amounts of an ingredient inside but nobody noticed until it was already out in the public.

Saltzman, S. (2016). Vaxxed: From Cover Up to Catastrophe, Part II. Vol. 109 Issue 4, p9-12. 4p. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=13&sid=6a17cd25-708e-4315-997b-6aa056f3a4c6%40sessionmgr102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=awh&AN=120086474

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I had no information regarding if there is a relationship between MMR and autism before. That is why I will have to rely on research I did this week.

According to my research many websites talk about "NO relation."
I will focus on one of them here.
The website that found (https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/no-mmr-autism-link-large-study-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-kids) claims that the researchers analyzed the health records of 95,727 children, including more than 15,000 children unvaccinated at age 2 and more than 8,000 still unvaccinated at age 5 and they found no link between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. According to www.autismspeaks.org that is even true among the children at high risk for the disorder. The “children at high risk” means children who have sibling(s) with disorder. The website got the information from a report which was on the website http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama. The report (2015) (http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2275444 ) specifically mentions that autism rate were lower in the vaccinated groups than the unvaccinated groups. But, parents might delay or avoid vaccination when they see early signs of autism, it says. The article (2015) in the website http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2275426 also says that the age, severity and the risk of ASD does not differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

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The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine was created in the 1970s and has helped prevent the widespread effect of these diseases. In 1998 Andrew Wakefield published a study that claimed that he had found a link between the MMR vaccine and children getting diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. This study upset people around the world and called for several follow up studies from other scientists. After at least 9 studies, the National Academy of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both agree that there was no link between the MMR vaccine and a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder.

It is important for all people to get MMR vaccinations to keep others, especially newborn babies, safe from these diseases.

https://hpsrepository.asu.edu/handle/10776/11462

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In response to the video we watched this week, I decided to look at the CDC and mercury in MMR vaccines. The video stated that the controversy was that MMR vaccines had thimerosal in them, which contains ethylmercury. The controversy explained in the video is that this causes autism; however, the CDC states, "Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines do not and never did contain thimerosal."
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/thimerosal/index.html

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I often wondered what parents thought the connection between ASD and MMR was. It was very interesting to have the opportunity to do a little research. From what I discovered, most research states that there are no links between MMR and ASD. AutismSpeaks.Org states, "consistent with studies in other populations, we observed no association between MMR vaccination and increased ASD risk" (2017). Also, on the CDC website it states that they are still conducting research on what causes Autism. So, I do not believe that there is a link and I believe that children should still get vaccinated.

https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/no-mmr-autism-link-large-study-vaccinated-vs-unvaccinated-kids

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/patient-ed/conversations/downloads/vacsafe-mmr-color-office.pdf

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I found the following website that outlined the stance that vaccines DO NOT cause autism. https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/learn-more-autism/what-causes-autism

Before I was an education major, I was a nursing major. My mom is a nurse so healthcare has always been near and dear to my heart.

To quote the article, "We know there is no one cause of autism." Let's be honest here, if vaccines caused autism, we would have seen a spike in numbers a long time ago. The world around us is changing and environmental factors vary by the day. We cannot believe that vaccines cause autism. We must protect our public health and vaccinate our children. This is something that I have always felt very strongly on because if we do not prevent diseases, aren't we setting ourselves up for an epidemic?

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Most current research appears to disprove a clear, specific connection between vaccines and autism, and it is clear that Wakefield's original paper claiming proof of a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism, which set all of this off, has been shown to be largely exaggerated. That being said, I have personal connections/experiences with my own children and their cousins which involve vaccines, and I have worked closely with children through adults who have autism, and their families, and have heard heart-wrenching stories of when/how the symptoms began, often so extremely connected to vaccines it appears there has to be a connection at some level. I don't think the overwhelming amount of anecdotal, personal information suggesting some sort of connection can be discounted even though it is not scientifically proven to have a direct connection at this time. My personal thought is that vaccinations probably do not cause autism directly but may possibly be a trigger, combined with other triggers, in an individual predisposed to it.

When searching for articles in this arena I did not want to discount any articles showing that there isn't a link just because of my personal leaning towards a possible sub-level connection, but I was very concerned that every single article I found which appeared to deny a connection was either funded, written by, or had other strong connections to vaccine manufacturers and developers. This suggests a possible bias in the research and I became determined to find a study done by parties not biased one way or another. I did not find one! I decided, then, since most recent studies are likely "biased" to a  non-connection, to discuss an article that may actually be "biased" to a connection between vaccines/autism, as a counterbalance to the discussion here because I believe ongoing discussion and consideration of all angles is important!

The study I found was "Subcutaneous injections of aluminum at vaccine adjuvant levels activate innate immune genes in mouse brain that are homologous with biomarkers of autism" by Li, D., Tomljenovic, L., Li, Y., & Shaw, C., to be published in the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, December 2017. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2017.08.035)

The authors discuss current research which suggest neuro-inflammation and immune dysfunction are bio-markers for autism and they suggest aluminum may be a toxin that increases these conditions. As pointed out in this study, and as I found elsewhere, aluminum is present in food as well, but it is processed differently by the body and does not interact with our systems at nearly the same level as that introduced directly by some vaccines. Injected aluminum travels to distant organs and remains present and active in the body for at least a year.

The authors injected the type and levels of aluminum present in standard immunizations to young mice at similar "age" to children, then studied the levels of macrophage function and inflammation present in the different parts of their brains. A control group of mice was not given injections, and differences between male/female mice was tracked. They found mice injected with aluminum to exhibit significantly higher levels of immune response/inflammation factors, with male mice reacting more strongly than females, particularly in the frontal cortex and cerebellum. This correlated with a study by Vargas, which this study cited, showing human autistic (post-mortem) brains to have evidence of neuro-inflammation in the cerebral cortex and cerebellum. This study concluded that aluminum, as introduced by vaccines, triggers the neurological and immunological responses which are shown to be present in autism.

As I stated earlier, this study was funded by foundations/people which appear to be anti-vaccine, so this may not be a non-biased study. Unfortunately neither are any of the studies I found discounting a link between vaccines and autism. I believe this controversy will continue for some time due to the complexity of the issue and I remain leaning one way (possible indirect link) but eager for all information and open to turning where the (non-biased) evidence points!

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I am not 100% sure there is not some type of link between autism and the MMR vaccine, but I do not think that the vaccine is the sole cause of autism.  People are always looking for the “reason” behind things that happen and the MMR vaccine seems like a good justification for what caused their child to have autism.

Shari Hopkins believes persuasion has much to do with the recent link between autism and vaccinations.  “Recent public debate about whether there is a connection between autism and vaccines indicates that some individuals -- many of them parents of autistic children -- have been persuaded that such a link exists, whereas others -- especially in the scientific community -- state that there is no connection and that vaccines are safe and effective (2).

According to Alison Knopf, the “rumor” that vaccines cause autism was based on a study done in 1998 with a total of 12 subjects.  The study was later deemed to be fraudulent but it gained enough momentum that scientific data has been unable to squash the idea.  “Large studies have found no connection between vaccines and autism. This includes thimerosal, a preservative in some vaccines” (1).

If vaccines cause autism, why don’t all vaccinated children have autism?  What other medical links are there between children with autism versus children without autism.  Do some children have an “allergy” to something in the vaccine that others don’t have?  (Similar to how some people are allergic to bee stings while the majority of people aren’t.)

Hoppin, S. (2016) Applying the narrative paradigm to the vaccine debates.  American Communication Journal, 18(2), 45-55.

Knopf, A. (2017). Vaccines do not cause autism: Pediatricians fight back against anti-science.  Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 33, 1-2.

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According to a study conducted by Jain, Marshall, Buikema, Bancroft, Kelly, Newschaffer, (2015) there is no observed association between MMR vaccinations and ASD.  The study included a large sample of privately insured children with older siblings.  In the study, receipt of the MMR vaccine was not associated with increased risk of ASD, regardless of whether older siblings had ASD.

I wonder how individuals began to believe that there is in fact a link between MMR vaccinations and ASD. In whatever case, it influenced many concerned parents to avoid vaccinations in fear that it can potentially harm their offspring(s).  Although I do agree that MMR is not linked to ASD, I do believe that many environmental factors play a huge role in possible diagnosis of ASD.  Additionally, I wonder what factors confirmed anti-vaccination groups’ belief that MMR vaccines were harmful.  Are these same factors not considered in the article that I read.  For instance, is it a certain age group, during a certain time in life, age of parents, vaccine type/batch that I may have overlooked that could be the possible link?
J
ain, A., Marshall, J., Buikema, A., Bancroft, T., Kelly, J. P., & Newschaffer, C. J. (2015). Autism occurrence by MMR vaccine status among US children with older siblings with and without autism. Jama, 313(15), 1534-1540.

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King (2015) in his article

Promising Forecast for Autism Spectrum Disorders

is in response to a primary study,

No MMR-Autism Link in Large Study of Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated Kids,

(Jain, Marshall, & Buikema, 2015) that finds no correlation between MMR and autism in children ages 2-5.  First as a side "learning" from King's article, he suggests that controversies such as these are good because it drives us to continually learn and not become stagnant on matters of health.
Jain, Marshall and Buikema (2015) found that "Consistent with studies in other populations, we observed no association between MMR vaccination and increased ASD risk (and) “We also found no evidence that receipt of either one or two doses of MMR vaccination was associated with an increased risk of ASD among children who had older siblings with ASD.”
Concluding statements reveal that the study provides evidence that even with increased probability for ASD because of older siblings diagnosis, MMR was not correlated with the acquisition of ASD. "These findings indicate no harmful association between MMR vaccine receipt and ASD even among children already at higher risk for ASD."

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According to the SABIN Vaccine Institute. Scientific evidence shows that there are no links between vaccines and autism. It is interesting how people believe in immunity in ways to protect their children's health. Parents are extremely concern about their children's health and demand vaccines. It is also interesting that parents are afraid to face the reality that their children may develop a disability.  According to this article "2015 study that included more than 95,000 children similarly found no relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism, even in children considered to be at high risk of developing autism."http://www.sabin.org/updates/blog/vaccines-dont-cause-autism-0

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing ASD” (CDC, 2015). They go on to cite studies that have specifically analyzed the ingredients within the vaccinations to determine there is no connection.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports this claim. “Claims that vaccines are linked to autism, or are unsafe when administered according to the recommended schedule, have been disproven by a robust body of medical literature” (AAP, 2017). They released this emphasis on the safety of vaccines following the 2016 Presidential Election in which Donald Trump, a vaccine skeptic, won.

After researching there seems to be more research and studies to support that there is no link. Furthermore, the studies I was able to find that questioned a potential link were either dated, or came from sources I couldn’t verify. I also have no personal experiences that would make me question a connection between vaccinations everyone in my family has had and Autism.

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I am not sure how I feel about the subject in particular. My sister and I both had the MMR shots in the mid to late 1970's and there were no problems. This might be because we are girls or we had a good batch of vaccine.  I don't know. I don't have children so I never had to deal with deciding about vaccinations for children.

Through my research, many website articles claim that MMR  vaccination is not the cause of Autism.

The Mayo Clinic states
from July 15, 2017 that
“No link between vaccines and autism spectrum disorder.

One of the greatest controversies in autism spectrum disorder centers on whether a link exists between the disorder and childhood vaccines. Despite extensive research, no reliable study has shown a link between autism spectrum disorder and any vaccines. In fact, the original study that ignited the debate years ago has been retracted due to poor design and questionable research methods.

Avoiding childhood vaccinations can place your child and others in danger of catching and spreading serious diseases, including whooping cough (pertussis), measles or mumps.”

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/autism-spectrum-disorder/symptoms-causes/dxc-20337869

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According to the CDC (2015). Vaccines do not cause autism. It states that although there has been speculation, the ingredients are safe except for very rare instances. There are two ingredients in vaccines, thimerosal and antigen, that have had concerns about causing autism. The amount of Thimerosal was greatly reduced between 1999 and 2001 and has shown no signs of causing autism. In fact, the CDC has had nine studies researching this very topic where it was concluded that vaccines do not cause autism!

Center for Disease Control. Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism (2015, Nov.) Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/autism.html