If you have concerns about vaccines and autism, know that I am here to reassure you and answer your questions. I understand that you feel fear and skepticism after being told that a medical procedure may have harmed your baby. So I’m going to tell you my story about becoming – but then not becoming – a passionate autism parent.
But first – and please don’t skip this part – I want you to know that the idea of autism being linked to a vaccine has been rejected. examined exhaustivelyand thoroughly exposed. Even Autism Speaks, founded by the family of a staunch anti-vaxxer, in 2014 he rejected the theory of a vaccine being linked to autism. There is now a “broad consensus” in the autism and medical science communities that genetics is a powerful determinant of autism, meaning that autistic people are born with autistic brains, so autism cannot be caused by vaccines.
You should also know that Andrew Wakefield, a researcher who sparked the autism vaccine scare during a 1998 press conferencehe had the autism vaccine studies formally withdrawn and him withdrawal of medical license. You should know that the mainstream media, after a decade of “taking both sides” as a direct result of the Wakefield vaccine and autism hoax, is now recoiling in horror as they say: politicians’ attempts to link autism with vaccines. You should consider this the decline in vaccination rates threatens the health of our children; and that when anti-vaxxers like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spread anti-vaccination information, children can and do die diseases that can be prevented by vaccination:
“Kennedy visited Samoa in June 2019 and spread anti-vaccination rhetoricand then a measles epidemic broke out in the island nation, killing more than 5,700 people and killing 83 people, including many diminutive children.”
Still no quantity evidence seems to be satisfactory parents who still believe in the causation of autism after the vaccine. I want to say again that I understand these concerns and that I have been there. It was back in the Stone Age of 2003 when my two-year-old son was diagnosed with autism and was falling further and further behind the developmental milestones of his peers. AND she came from outside the world of autism and disabilityso I was prepared to want what “normal” parents want: a “normal” son. To support my boy be that son, I needed options that would support him catch up, and quickly.
I began to explore alternative theories of autism such as reason for the vaccine.
Indeed, I found several alternative autism specialists who encouraged me to forget about the sweet, loving autistic boy I already had and instead focus on a theoretical “recovered normal boy” from the future. I also found myself overlooking their promotion of scientifically questionable approaches while putting up with their wallet-busting fees because I was obsessed.
These anti-vaccination people were passionate about “curing” autistic children. I was full of passion! I wanted to cure my autistic child! I did what they told me. I doused my son with the dietary supplements he prescribed. I put him on a special, constrained diet that they recommended.
And I stopped vaccinating my children.
My youngest child was born in 2004, eighteen months after my son’s diagnosis and during my craze for alternative treatments for autism. Since every source of alternative autism activism I came across claimed that my son’s autism was caused by an injected environmental factor, I decided there was no way my fresh baby would get any vaccine. Even vitamin K.
As this fortunately well baby grew and developed, yes The number of preventable and potentially fatal diseases has increased; I wasn’t the only parent who was afraid to throw out my kids’ vaccination schedule.
Even I couldn’t ignore the editing evidence rejecting any link between vaccines and autism. But I still wanted answers about what caused my son’s autism, so I signed him up MIND Institute autism and regression research. MIND researchers tracked the emergence of autism traits in my son by reviewing our home videos, medical records, and my own journals.
Their verdict? They found no evidence that my son regressed into autism after vaccination. Like many newborn autistic children, his autistic features emerged gradually but steadily. And although his autism became more obvious around the same time he received most of the vaccines, there was no evidence of regression or explosion of autistic traits after the shots. The moment was coincidental. Nothing more.
I had my answer. So I thought long and challenging. And I decided it was time to resume vaccinating my children.
I started slowly, under the supervision of a patient pediatrician who was willing to talk about my residual concerns. My youngest child initially only received one injection at a time, only if she was well and with a month’s caution between doses. Once everything went well, I worked to get the baby and my oldest on the standard pediatric vaccination schedule. Me too I resumed vaccinating my son– you know, the autistic one.
All three children are now well adults and fortunately have never had a vaccine-preventable disease.
I now know that the real problem – the reason I was so afraid in the first place – was fear and a misunderstanding of what it meant to be autistic. My son’s disability is nothing fresh or occasional. And it’s not broken. But he needs very specific support, and it shouldn’t be that challenging for me to learn to be the parent he needed or find the support he deserves.
And this is the heart of the concerns about autism and vaccines, the source of the rot: it is it is not enough for people to know that vaccines do not cause autism. We have to too confirm that autism is not something to be afraid ofthat autistic people are worth living and supporting, and that autistic people deserve to exist and be loved. I know it now. I wish I had been exposed to resources and people earlier who could have helped me have this attitude since my son’s diagnosis. I am grateful these resources already exist.
Unfortunately, despite my and other parents’ awakening to autism misinformation regarding vaccines, the effects of vaccine panic have not gone away. A few years after I decided to vaccinate my children again (and even… became a supporter of vaccines spokesman), There was a measles outbreak at Disneylandand it became an epidemic. People have become wiser about the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases. California, where I live, quick banned personal and religious vaccine exemptions. The media stopped hiding concerns about vaccines and started reminding readers and viewers that vaccines are extremely secure and well-tested. And I thought we had entered the post-anti-vaccination era.
Except The COVID epidemic in 2020 brought a fresh flood spreading disinformation about vaccines. And now we have the upcoming 2025 administration in which both the president-elect and his nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services are not only openly hostile to vaccinesbut I have it resurrected the established topic of autism vaccines as worthy of re-examination. This is not the time for pro-vaccination complacency.
Too many people make critical decisions about their children’s health based on the opinions of celebrities and regressive, conspiracy theory-flogging politicians, not pediatricians. I am asking for your support in regaining my balance to ensure this science-based views oppose the grave but misinformed sensationalism in the flow of information in the autism and parenting communities.
I know that some people will never vaccinate their children, regardless of the arguments and evidence. I also know that some children cannot be vaccinated because they have health problems or are too newborn. Herd immunity will compensate for this disease and protect unvaccinated children from disease If enough other children are vaccinated. That’s why we need to reach out and talk to parents who are still formulating their opinions about vaccines, to educate them with facts, not shouting, and to have the confidence to spread the word about what we know, and refute a wall of harm built by anti-vaxxers.
This essay was originally published in 2010. It was rewritten in the shock and horror of vaccine disinformation spread by the fresh US administration in 2025.