US CDC does a U-turn on autism-vaccine link, Indian doctors reject claims

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention US CDC the national public health agency of America has quietly taken up an antivaccine stand hinting at the association between vaccines and autism However experts in India on Friday November 21 have thwarted the claimsOnce a key opponent of growing global antivaccine sentiment the change in CDC reflects an antivaccine stance by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr which is also endorsed by President Donald TrumpldquoThe claim lsquovaccines do not cause autismrsquo is not an evidencebased claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autismrdquo read the US CDC websiteThe updated page also says studies supporting a link ldquohave been ignored by health authoritiesrdquo and mentions that HHS is doing a ldquocomprehensive assessment of the causes of autismrdquoHowever the old webpage had stated ldquoNo links have been found between any vaccine ingredients and ASDrdquoDr Rajeev Jayadevan of the Indian Medical Association Kochi told IANS that the scientific evidence is clear that vaccines do not raise the risk of autismHe cited a large Danish study following more than 650000 children which found no link between the MMR vaccine and autismldquoThe adjusted hazard ratio was 093 with a 95 per cent confidence interval of 085102 basically showing that vaccinated and unvaccinated children had identical autism rates even in highrisk groupsrdquo the expert notedHe explained that the antivaccine movement first began with a fraudulent paper published in The Lancet by Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998 which falsely claimed a link between vaccines and autismWhile the paper was later exposed as fraudulent and fully retracted ldquothe myth had already taken hold And once a belief settles into public consciousness disproving it becomes extraordinarily difficultrdquo Jayadevan saidldquoDespite lack of scientific evidence several people around the world continue to believe that vaccines cause autism including some in positions of responsibilityrdquo he addedDr Shefali Gulati paediatric neurologist at AIIMS reaffirmed that vaccines do not raise the risk of autism or other diseasesldquoExtensive global research consistently shows no causal link between vaccines including MMR or thimerosalcontaining vaccines and autism While a few isolated studies have reported weak associations none have demonstrated any causal relationship and the highestquality evidence overwhelmingly refutes a connectionrdquo Gulati told IANSldquoDespite evidence the persistence of the debunked vaccineautism myth continues to drive hesitancy and contributes to the resurgence of preventable diseases such as measlesrdquo the neurologist saidShe also raised concerns that repeatedly settling such debates diverts vital resources from strengthening immunisation programmes and supporting early developmental interventionsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever