The False Claims of Robert F. Kennedy Jr links autism to childhood vaccinations Now that President-elect Donald Trump has tapped him to lead the sprawling agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, a new investigation is under way. its budget is 1.7 trillion dollars oversees research on both autism and vaccines.
The myth that autism is caused by childhood vaccines – was proposed by a British doctor in 1998 later the practice of medicine was banned In Great Britain – has been thoroughly exposed. Hundreds of studies they found the vaccines to be safe. According to World Health Organization estimates, vaccines over the past 50 years It saved the lives of 154 million people all over the world.
Kennedy, who advocates a number of health conspiracy theoriespointed to vaccines to explain the significant increase in autism diagnoses in recent decades, which has ballooned beyond what was estimated. 1 in 150 1 in 36 children in 2000 today. Studies show that this increase is high related to the increase in awareness and screening for the situation; changing definitions of autism to include milder conditions in the spectrum not recognized in previous years; as well as advances in diagnostic technology.
“For too long, the anti-vaccine movement has exploited the families of people with autism. promoting a market for pseudo-scientific treatments they don’t provide the answers they seek and can expose people with autism to real harm,” said Ari Ne’eman, co-founder of the nonprofit Autistic Self-Advocacy Network and associate professor of health policy and management. Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. “More discredited conspiracy theories linking autism and vaccines are not the answer.”
Timothy Caulfield, director of research at the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta in Canada, who studies health misinformation, said people are often more inclined to believe conspiracy theories about diseases like autism, the causes of which are complex and not fully understood. clear reasons.
People, for example, seem less inclined to speculate about alternative explanations for Down syndrome, which has long been known to cause intellectual disability. may cause an additional copy Chromosome 21.
“It’s a real shame because there are vulnerable families [of people with autism] Who needs our support,” said Judith Miller, a clinical psychologist and chief scientist and director of training at the Center for Autism Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Every dollar and hour spent debunking a conspiracy theory is a dollar and hour wasted trying to figure out how to help families.”
A complicated situation
Finding the causes of autism is complicated because it is not a single disease, said Manish Arora, a professor of environmental medicine and climate science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
“Autism is a spectrum, not one narrow disease,” Arora said. “There are many, many things under one umbrella.”
Although people diagnosed with autism often are similar powers and difficulties, “There are many pathways to autism and many presentations of autism,” Miller said.
Scientists have found various risk factors for autism – most of them present before birth – but there is no single cause of the neurological and developmental condition affects the interaction of people communicate, learn and behave with others.
Some of the characteristics that are sometimes seen in people with autism—such as being sensitive to loud noises or having trouble interpreting social cues—are also found in people who have not been diagnosed with autism. Arora, the startup’s founder and CEO, says doctors diagnose autism based on a person’s behavior, noting that there is no simple test for the condition like there is for Covid or diabetes. investigates biomarkers for autism and other neurological conditions.
Finding the cause of an infectious disease like the flu caused by the influenza virus is much simpler.
Kathryn Lord, a psychologist and researcher at the UCLA David Center for Autism Research and Treatment, says that while researchers continue to study factors that influence the development of autism symptoms, “the one thing that we know doesn’t cause autism is vaccines.” Geffen School of Medicine.
Genetic vulnerability
Doctors have long known that genes play a big role in autism, they just noted that autism can run in families. For example, in identical twins who share all their DNA, if one twin has autism, the other usually has it as well. In fraternal twins—who share about half their DNA—the chance that one fraternal twin has autism varies from 53% to 67%. based on the analysis of research studies.
According to Miller, scientists have identified more than 100 genes associated with autism, and genes are believed to play a role in 60% to 80% of cases.
“The genetics of autism have never been better understood,” he said. “We are making leaps and bounds about the known genetic causes of autism.”
However, genes do not clearly explain every case of autism.
Autism is very different from conditions such as sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis, which are caused by a single gene. Scientists believe that people develop autism traits as a result of genetic susceptibility and environmental exposures, Lord said.
“People have found a lot of different genetic patterns associated with autism, but none of them are exclusively associated with autism, and none of them are always associated with autism,” Lord said.
For example, fragile X syndrome, which is caused by a mutated gene on the X chromosome is the most common cause from autism. But only a fraction of children with the genetic mutation develop autism, Miller said. It is possible that this mutation makes some people more susceptible to developing autistic traits, while others with the same mutations do not develop autistic traits because they are protected by yet-to-be-identified protective factors.
Some people have blamed the measles-rubella vaccine for autism because symptoms of the disease often appear between 12 and 15 months of age, the same time infants receive the vaccine. But Miller points out that “most of the genetic conditions that affect our lives and health are not visible at birth. Symptoms or characteristics may not appear later, but the genetic code will be with us all the time.
Prenatal sensitivity
Many of the known risk factors for autistic traits appear prenatally or at birth, Arora said. Whose babies experiencing complications during childbirthlike the umbilical cord wrapping around the neck, the risk of autism is higher.
Babies too born prematurelyperhaps because of something that happened in the womb.
Children are more often diagnosed with autism if they have great ancestors and maybe if they have older mothers, Miller said. It’s not clear whether something in the biology of older parents causes a child to have a higher risk of autism, or whether socioeconomic issues may play a role. It’s possible that older parents have better access to health care, making their children more likely to receive an autism diagnosis.
Multiple studies have shown that a mother’s health affects her child’s risk of autism in several ways: Mothers of children are more likely to be diagnosed with autism. they were exposed to high levels of air pollution or developed a serious infectionsuch as flu or pneumonia during pregnancy.
While Ne’man of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network said she is not opposed to basic biological research into autism or its causes, she said that research does little to overcome the obstacles people with autism face in their daily lives.
He notes that only 8.4% of the $419 million spent on autism research in the United States dedicated to support and services for people with autism.
“We need an autism research agenda,” he said, “that reflects the real priorities of people with autism and our families: lifelong support and community inclusion.”