Some parents still refuse to immunise their children with the MMR vaccine although there is little medical evidence to substantiate a link between the vaccine and autism.
A study which has analysed 20,000 reports published between 2010 and 2013 has determined that there is nothing to vaccines and autism a finding Time magazine says “researchers hope {the study} will dissipate fears propagated by antivaccine campaigners such as Hollywood stars Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey.”
The study appears in this month’s Journal of Pediatrics and is co written by Margaret Maglione, a policy analyst at RAND Corp. It demonstrates that children vaccinated with the MMR can sometimes exhibit severe symptoms of the injected virus, but that it did not lead to increases in autism.
She said the study was:
“one of the greatest public-health achievements of the 20th century for their role in eradicating smallpox and controlling polio, measles, rubella and other infectious diseases in the United States.”