JEP fin

Table of Contents
Letter From The Editor……………………………………………………..3
Autism Speaks: A Look Inside………………………………………….4-5
Andrew Wakefield Fraud……………………….………………………8-9
Spread of Preventable Diseases…………………………………….10-11
Importance of Vaccinations…………………………..……………..14-15
Common Vaccination Myths Debunked…………………...……..16-19
Time Exclusive: Andrew Wakefield Interview….………………..22-23
Autism: The Debate Continues…………………………..………...24-25
Thimerosal: A Safe Preservative……………………………………….26
A Viewers Story…………………………………………………………...27
Brief History of Vaccinations………………………………………..28-29
Vaccinated Vs. Unvaccinated…………………………………………..30
The Effect Of MMR Withdrawl…………………………………………31
From The Mailroom…………………………………………………..32-33
Annotations…………………………………………………………….36-52
2 TIME May 31, 2017

Letter From The Editor
Hi and welcome to Time magazine.
Our goal here is to provide you with the
best information possible so you can
make the right choice when it comes
to the important health decisions. You
may be asking yourself “what makes
a Time magazine editor qualified to
be giving out medical advice.” After
ten years as the CEO of the Center
for Disease Control, I know my way
around the mercurial 1 health industry,
and will put my knowledge that I have
acquired in that time to work for you.
I have dedicated my life to the wellbeing
of others and holds true especially
when it comes to the carefully
chosen content of this special edition
of Time magazine. I was raised in a
small, medical orented family with
both parents and my brother working
in the medical field, they were what
sparked my interest for the topic and
eventually backed my fervent 2 pursuit
to attending Harvard University,
where I earned my MD. Back in 2001
I was lucky enough to further my career
with the help of Time magazine.
After years of working with the team
I was able to reach my current position
of editor. I have picked up a few
tricks over the years and have built
up . They work tirelessly to provide
vast knowledge to you, the reader,
with what you need to know going
forward in the ever changing medical
field. When taking on new staff,
each candidate is carefully assessed 3
and goes through a trial period where
they get to show how well they can
work with our team. We do this so we
hire the best of the best. All the information
in our issues is handpicked by
our team of staff, all experts in their
rightful areas. The team’s diversity allows
us to create content that is accurate
and un bias across a vast array
of medical topics so you get the most
for your read here. In order to not adumbrate
4 any of the information in this
special issue of the magazine, covering
vaccinations and autism, I have
taken it upon myself to call in numerous
experts on the topic throughout
our writing. Such experts include Bob
and Suzanne Wright founders of Autism
Speaks, representatives from the
Center for Diseas Control and Prevention,
as well as represetatives from the
US Food and Drug Administration.
Sincerely,
Michael Elliot
Fig 2: “Michael Elliott: TIME International Editor Dies at 65.” Time. Time, n.d. Web. 29 May 2017.
May 31, 2017 TIME 3

Autism Speaks: A Look Inside
Written By: Ben Goldberger
A
utism Speaks, founded by the
vice chairman of General
Electric Bob and his wife Suzanne
Wright, is a trechant 5 autism advocacy
organization within the United
States that sponsors autism research
and conducts awareness and outreach
activities aimed at families, governments,
and the public. This organization
was founded in 2005, a year
after their grandson was diagnosed
with autism, as a way to abridge 6
the time it takes to make the proper
diagnosis. Ever since then, they been
rhaposodized 7 in remarkable work as
they “are dedicated to funding global
biomedical research into the causes,
prevention, treatments and a possible
cure for autism.” Although some
people may attack Autism Speaks as
a hate group, or believe that people
with autism do not support the organization,
or that they cater to the parents
of autistic children rather than autistic
children themselves. Some people
even believe they are bad for wanting
to find a cure for autism, but all these
ludicrous claims do not tarnish their
goal. Visiting their website greets you
with the sight of their logo which is a
puzzle piece, although it is controversial.
The origins of the puzzle piece,
trace all the way back to 1963. It was
created by Gerald Gasson, a parent
and board member for the National
Autistic Society, which was formerly
The Society for Autistic Children,
in London. The board believed autistic
people suffered from a ‘puzzling’
condition, hence their decision to take
up a puzzle piece as a logo. They adopted
the logo because it didn’t look
like any other image used for charitable
or commercial use. Included
with the puzzle piece was an image
of a weeping child. The weeping child
was used as a reminder that Autistic
people suffer from their condition.
If you visit their website at www.autismspeaks.org,
you will find information
about the signs to see if your
child has autism spectrum disorder,
and what to do if you have recently
received a diagnosis for autism. There
is also information on local fundraiser
walks, events, corporate sponsors
you can support, and also contact
information for an advocate in your
state. According to the website, “The
4 TIME May 31, 2017 Fig 3: “Autism.” Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2017.

Autism Response Team (ART) is specially
trained to connect people with
autism, their families, and caregivers
to information, tools, and resources.”
This is helpful to those who may have
difficulty fitting into society, as they
may be able to help. “Autism Speaks
is enhancing lives today and accelerating
a spectrum of solutions for tomorrow.”
Building upon the legacy of
three leading autism organizations,
Autism Coalition for Research and Education
(ACRE), the National Alliance
for Autism Research (NAAR) and Cure
Autism Now (CAN), who merged with
the organization, Autism Speaks has
made extraordinary advancements
in the autism community, and has
drawn the support of many prominent
individuals throughout its creation.
Fig 4:“Pequot Library’s Annual Meeting Features Guest Speaker Bob
Wright.” Fairfield Sun. N.p., 19 Oct. 2016. Web. 29 May 2017.
Fig 5: Twittikat. “ALL about Max Restaurant Group.” Champs Et Frites. N.p., 02 Apr.
2017. Web. 30 May 2017.
SUPPORT THE CAUSE TODAY!
EVERY BIT COUNTS AS WE FIGHT
TO RAISE AWARNESS FOR
AUTISM SPEAKS
May 31, 2017 TIME 5

DO YOU KNOW THE
CONSEQUENCES
OF NOT GETTING
VACCINATED?
For more information regarding vaccinations,
please visit www.CDC.gov or call 800-CDC-INFO

Fig 6: “Images by Klinikadiva.” Klinik Pratama Adiva. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2017.

Andrew Wakefield: Fraud
Written By: Jonathan Woods
Andrew Wakefield, now known as
a fraud 8 in the medical field by
many and those who choose to believe
it, and it is for a good reason. Afterall,
he caused a massive spike of fear
within parents throughout the world in the
late 90s about vaccine safety, by publishing
a denounced 9 study that had a “link”
between autism and vaccines. His study
was published in 1998, and has since
been retracted, as many scientists proved
that his data was wrong. 10 out of 12 of
the people that worked with Wakefield
on this study voted to retract the information.
Wakefield got himself into a lot
of legal trouble with his study. He was
a litigant 10 with the UK courtsytem, and
that caused the study to be retracted and
for Wakefield to lose his medical liscence
in the UK. He was found to have ties with
a competing vaccination company that
looked to profit from the chaos that it
created. The problem with his study was
that his sample size was very small, so
the data taken is not a good representation,
especially when you then try to apply
the data that they found to millions of
people. “The study had an uncontrolled
experiment design, so others who may
be looking to recreate the study would
struggle. Speculative conclusions were
also made by the group, further adding
for the decision to withdraw from the Lancet”
(Rao para 7). Court decisions found
Wakefield guilty of skewing results, and
on the grounds of taking money from
certain individuals in order to engender
11 fear around the MMR vaccine so
he could profit, by getting rid of the anticedent
12 . As a result, his medical license
was revoked. His study gained so much
8 TIME May 31, 2017 Fig 7:“Andrew Wakefield.” Health Impact News. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2017.

Fig 8: “Vaccines and Diseases.” Vaccines and Disease An Investigative Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2017.
attention because parents had fears because
the cause of autism was, and still
remains unknown, and then a study is
released revealing a link between the
measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine
and autism, naturally parents reacted.
Vaccination rates took a major hit because
people were no longer undulating
13 to get vaccinated, and that caused
an outbreak of measles, mumps and
rubella. This remains a concern today
because the same thing would happen
if a large number of people refused to
get a certain vaccination, or if vaccination
companies were not allowed to
give vaccinations anymore because of
regulations. If that were to happen, the
results would be catastrophic and felt
worldwide. “Despite the abjure 14 of the
public, and to no benefit of the public,
he has returned to the spotlight by meeting
with President Donald Trump” (Garrett
para 6), and with his 2016 movie
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,
which is an investigation in the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention’s destruction
of a study linking autism to the
MMR vaccine. He is still a vaccine critic,
and continues to push his agenda, but
his original study is annul 15 . “His meeting
with Trump at his inaugural ball raises
questions, as he talks about his call for a
overhaul of the Center for Disease Control
and Prevention“ (Ross para 1,3).
He walked around the ball talking about
looking for important individuals who
he could “prevail upon them to make a
world a better place for children with autism,
a safer place for children” (Garrett
para 2). His return may be problematic
for the vaccine industry, and more importantly,
parents and children. Like the
first time he published a study, an outbreak
of measles, mumps, and rubella
may occur if they were to overhaul the
Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
this time it might not be too belated
16 to act. The Trump administration
is a cause for concern throughout the
scientific community because of these
meetings that have been held with these
anti-vaccination people such as Andrew
Wakefield, who may be searching for
vindication, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
May 31, 2017 TIME 9

The Spread of Preventable Disea
10 TIME May 31, 2017
Fig 9-14Doucleff, Michaeleen. “How Vaccine Fears Fueled The Resurgence Of Preventable Diseases.” NPR. NPR, 25 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 May 2017.

ses Caused By Vaccination Fears
May 31, 2017 TIME 11

Fig 15:Handley, Jr. J.B. “’Vaccine Safety Commission’: 50 Studies the AAP Failed to Send President Trump.” Medium. N.p., 14 Feb.
2017. Web. 29 May 2017.

Importance of Vaccinations
Written By: Zoher Abdoolcarim
Vaccinations play a very important
role in protecting us, the people
of the world, no matter what your
ethnic, religious, or economic background
is. There are benefits of the masses
getting vaccines, one such benefit is
that even the people that do not receive
immunizations are less likely to contract
it. Immunity is a compound 17 effort. This
is important to keep in mind, as those
who are unable to receive vaccinations
for various reasons such as elderly,
those who are pregnant, and people
with severe allergies are still kept safe
with every other person that is vaccinated.
Gambia was able to get rid of their
Hib disease problem entirely when just
70 percent of their overall population
was vaccinated. The opposite can be
achieved if people decided they did not
need vaccines any more, for whatever
reason they may have. If a large number
of people stop receiving vaccinations,
then the chances of a disease outbreak
increase greatly. “The now refuted 18 Andrew
Wakefield study did just that, greatly
reducing the amount of people that
got vaccines by instilling fear in the people,
a fear of autism. His study effectively
caused a measles, mumps, and rubella
disease outbreak, which could have
easily been prevented if they kept on
receiving the proper vaccinations for the
disease” (Rao para 13). The number of
people affected by MMR was just several
dozen in 1997, but that number quickly
skyrocketed to over 2,000 cases in
2011. Outbreaks of the whooping cough
in the United States have been linked to
low vaccination rates. There are many
types of vaccines that someone can receive,
and each type has certain advantages
and disadvantages that go along
with them. The first type of vaccination
that you can receive is a live attenuated
vaccine, where a weak asymptotic form
of a virus is introduced into the body. It
is promulgated 19 that this form will not
cause sickness, instead it will allow the
body, specifically the immune system, to
recognize the antigens that the virus has,
and be able to fight it in the future, if you
were ever to encounter it again. This is
good for giving someone lifelong immunity
to a virus, as it is live and allows the
body to adapt to it. However, this form
of vaccination is not used on people with
weakened immune systems, as that could
lead to the virus causing sickness. Refrigeration
is required to keep the pathogens
alive long enough to be used. Common
vaccines used in this life style are
the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, the
chickenpox vaccine, influenza vaccine,
and the rotavirus vaccine. Inactivated
vaccines are those where the bacteria
or viruses are killed off with chemicals
or heat to accomplish a similar effect as
the live virus when introduced into the
body. The immune system is not inchoate
20 and is still able to learn from the
dead cells, and is able to fight live versions
of the virus or bacteria if it were to
encounter them in the future. This style is
much safer to give, as there is no risk of
the virus or bacteria mutating back into
its disease causing form, and it is able
to be easily stored as there is no risk of
killing the pathogens. Seeing as you are
14 TIME May 31, 2017

administering dead versions of the virus
into your body, it takes more doses of
the vaccine so that the body has a better
chance of later defending against it.
Vaccine that are typically introduced into
the body in this way are the polio vaccine,
the rabies vaccine, and hepatitis A
vaccine. Subunit vaccines are those that
scientists can isolate specific proteins that
when introduced into the body, train the
immune system to react with it, without
provoking sickness. This way has a much
lower chance of a reaction within the patient
happening because scientists only
inject part of the pathogen into the body.
Only certain vaccines can be produced
in this style because it is not always possible
to identify the best antigens in pathogens
that would train the immune system.
Vaccines that are introduced in this style
are pneumococcal, Human papillomavirus,
haemophilus influenza type b, influenza,
hepatitis b, meningococcal, and
pertussis. Another way that vaccines can
be used are toxoid vaccines, where scientists
are able to deactivate some toxins
that bacterial diseases secrete. This
is done with a mixture of formaldehyde
and water. Vaccines used in this way are
tetanus and diphtheria. A conjugate vaccine
is one where scientists link an antigen
from another recognizable pathogen to
a sugary coating of a camouflaged bacteria,
and the immune system is able to
recognize the camouflaged bacteria as
harmful, so it attacks it and the carrier
when it enters the body. Haemophilus Influenzae
Type B, or Hib, is a vaccine used
in this style. DNA vaccines are emerging
more and more today, but they are still
not perfected. This style would potentially
get rid of the need for bacteria or
viruses, instead having an injection of
Fig 16:“Vaccination - PRRS Control.” Vaccination - PRRS.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2017.
a few parts of a pathogen’s DNA, and
they would instruct the immune system to
produce the antigens for combating the
pathogens. As an added benefit, they
are easy and also cheap to create. Vaccines
for this style are for herpes and
influenza, but they are currently being
tested on humans, and not given to large
amounts of people yet. Another type of
vaccines that is similar to DNA vaccines
is recombinant vector vaccines. The experimental
vaccines introduce DNA from
a harmful pathogen into the body, and
this triggers the immune system to produce
the antigens, and also train itself on
how to identify and combat the disease.
They use a weakened virus or bacteria
that rides DNA, essentially taking harmless
pathogens disguised with the DNA
of a more dangerous disease, and training
the body to recognize it. This style of
vaccines are currently being developed
for HIV, rabies, and measles. Each vaccination
type has its own set of benefits
that come along with, as well as disadvantages.
With that said, they all serve
their own purpose in protecting the masses
from disease outbreaks.
Protect Society. Get Vaccinated.
May 31, 2017 TIME 15

Common Vaccination Myths Debunked
Written By: Dan Hirschhorn
Myth #1- Vaccines are a cause of autism.
This false myth is widely circulated
throughout the world over many years,
and “is the cause of a major drop in
vaccination rates, which in turn caused
many virus outbreaks, some more deadly
than others. This myth is widely believed
because of the 1997 study by the
notorious 21 Andrew Wakefield was published
in The Lancet, a prestigious medical
journal, and this study suggested that
the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine
was the cause of autism” (Abraham para
4). This led widespread concern from parents
all over the world, causing many to
go unvaccinated. This study was retracted
from The Lancet years later after the
incredibility was disclosed 22 to the public,
and among those who voted in favor
of the retraction were 10 of the 12 who
worked on the case. The retraction came
after reputable 23 scientific evidence was
found after that disproved the information
within the study. With the events that
transpired, Andrew Wakefield had his
study removed, and his career ruined.
The many court cases that followed left
Wakefield unable to practice medicine
(legally) once his medical license was
revoked. The courts found him guilty of
committing fraud. We still may not know
what causes autism, but many large scientific
studies have disproved this myth.
Myth #2- Infant immune systems can’t
handle so many vaccines that are currently
being given as they transgress 24
safetly.
This myth is also false. A common concern,
and for good reason, is around infants
and whether or not they can handle
so many vaccines. We understand that
as parents it is your responsibility for
the wellbeing of your children. Although
many believe this fractious 25 myth to be
true, it is not, and infants immune systems
are stronger than many believe them to
be. “Through many tests, scientists have
found that, because of the large amount
of antibodies present within the blood
of an infant, they are able to respond to
10,000 vaccines at one given time (theoretically).
If 14 vaccines were given at
once, they would only use up about 0.1%
of the baby’s immune system” (Abraham
para 8). The amount of vaccines given
can never overwhelm a child’s immune
system because they are constantly replenishing
cells within the immune system,
and the system is very resilient 26 . Vaccinations,
although increased in the number
give, are far more effective at doing their
jobs than they once were. Vaccinations
are carefully crafted and tested by scientists
in order to create a final product
that does not negatively react with humans
and their immune system. The goal
of vaccinations has and always will be to
prevent the acquiration of harmful and
deadly diseases and viruses. This is no
different when it comes to infants. They
to come into contact with harmful bacte-
16 TIME May 31, 2017
Fig 17:Raptor, The Original Skeptical. “The End of the Vaccines Cause Autism Myth.” Skeptical Raptor. N.p., 17 Apr. 2016. Web. 29 May 2017.

ia daily, and the results are just as deadly,
if not worse than the same in an adult.
It is imperative that all infants around the
world receive vaccinations, as there are
benefits to the masses receiving them that
one does not get if they are the only one
with the vaccination. It takes the crowd
to prevent deadly viruses. Most infants
have a really strong and healthy immune
systems that can take the ingredients that
are in vaccines, and come out on top of
the virus strain within the vaccine.
Fig 18:IThemesLab. “Panacea.” Panacea. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2017.
Myth #3- Natural immunity is better than
that from vaccines as it is less noxious 27 .
Sometimes natural immunity to a disease
results in stronger immunity than vaccines,
but it also produces many dangers. “For
a disease such as measles, natural acquisition
would result in a 1 in 500 chance
of death from the symptoms that would
follow compared to the 1 in a million
chance of having a reaction to the disease”
(Abraham para 10). Vaccines are
specifically designed to build up immunity
within the body against certain bacteria
and viruses making this myth false
in most cases. The vaccines can come in
a variety of ways, but all have a much
greater chance of the immune system
learning to fight it than if it were to encounter
the same bacteria or virus naturally,
where there is a greater chance for
sickness to occur. Natural immunity is in
no way controlled, so there is no way to
tell how the body will react to it, and if it
will be able to fight it off.
Fig 19: “Immunity (medical).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 May 2017. Web. 29 May 2017.
Myth #4- Vaccines contain unsafe toxins.
Concerns of the safety have been about
the use of aluminum, mercury, or formaldehyde
within vaccines. Although it is
true that these substance are toxic to the
human body in high levels of concentration,
vaccines approved by the FDA only
contain trace amounts of these substances”
(Abraham para 11), making this myth
false. According to the CDC and the
FDA, our body actually produces formaldehyde
in rates higher than the vaccine
introduces. No scientific evidence has
proven that low levels of mercury or aluminum
within vaccines is harmful or toxic
to the body. Vaccines follow specific
safety procedures to ensure that nothing
within them will be harmful to someone
who receives it.
Fig 20:Masout. “Hold On, before You Read This Article Flu Vaccine.” MedMag. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 31 May 2017.
Myth #5- Better hygiene and sanitation
are actually responsible for decreased
infections, not vaccines.
Although better hygiene and sanitation
does decrease infections, it is not solely
responsible for doing so and cannot be
May 31, 2017 TIME 17

depended on every single time, thus making
this myth false. Measles in 1963 is
an example of this, with nearly 400,000
infected, it dropped to about 25,000 infected
in 1970 because of vaccines. It is
important to mention that hygiene and
sanitation habits did not change much
over this time period. “Similarly, with the
Hib disease, rates went from 20,000 in
1990 to around 1,500 in 1993 after the
introduction of the vaccine” (Abraham
para 13). If we were to cease giving vaccinations
while keeping good hygiene,
you would see an increase in infections.
That is because vaccines are specially
designed to combat a majority of infections,
many of which are fatal to humans
if they were to get them.
at work is the MMR vaccination. The
Andrew Wakefield case sparked fear in
the people, and that lead to a greatly
reduced amount of the MMR vaccination
being received, and that lead to a measles,
mumps and rubella outbreak within
the United States and the United Kingdom.
Those outbreaks could have easily
been prevented if the people continued
to vaccinate their children. No credible
sources are available today that prove
that vaccinations cause harm to the body,
and are not worth the risk of getting. This
is because the vaccinations are carefully
crafted so that this is avoided.
Myth #6- Vaccines aren’t worth the risk.
Many parents think that vaccines are
not worth the risk, but children have
been vaccinated safely for decades, and
no credible study has linked long term
health conditions to vaccines. “The incidence
of death is so rare from vaccines,
it is about one per every 2 million injections”
(Abraham para 15), making this
myth false. Vaccinations when given to
large populations are effective in preventing
diseases from taking hold and
ravaging the population. Previous strains
of bacteria that killed off or left others
disabled can now be prevented by vaccinations.
An example of vaccinations
Fig 22:“Blog De La Beauté, Santé Et Bien-être Bio.” Bien-être Au Naturel. N.p., n.d.
Web. 31 May 2017.
Myth #7- Vaccines are something that
can infect children with the disease that
the vaccination is trying to prevent.
In very rare cases, those who are vaccinated
may get the symptoms of the
disease that was trying to be prevented,
but are then renovated 28 back to good
health. “In fact, of the less than one in
one million cases where someone does
have the symptoms, they simply are experiencing
a body’s immune system responding
to the vaccine, not the actual
disease itself. There has only been one
recorded instance where a vaccine was
proven to have caused a disease, and
this was with the Oral Polio Vaccine, a
vaccine that is no longer used today”
(Abraham para 16). Vaccinations within
the United States are under the regulation
of the Food and Drug Adminstration.
18 TIME May 31, 2017
Fig 21:“Handwashing: Clean Hands Save Lives.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
27 Jan. 2016. Web. 30 May 2017.

Fig 23: Plait, Phil. “Antivaxxers Take Their Dangerous Message to the Streets.” Slate Magazine. N.p., 15 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 May 2017.
Myth #8- There is no need to get vaccinations because infection rates in the United States
are currently so low.
This is reposed 29 as false because infection rates in the United States being so low is
caused by the amount of vaccinations being received. “The more people that receive a
vaccination, the greater the chances are of protecting those who do not get the immunization,
through something called herd immunity” (Abraham para 17). When more and
more people opt out of getting vaccinated, whether it be for them or their children, a
collective danger is created and the opportunity for viruses and bacteria to spread. No
one is impassive 30 if vaccinations are skipped. “With the wide availabilty and ease of
international travel, diseases that may not be a threat within your area may become one
if the disease is carried abroad from an unvaccinated individual, especially since travel
is such a quotidian 31 routine today” (Abraham para 19).
Fig 24:“Vaccinate with Confidence.” Refutation to Anti-Vaccine. N.p., 08 July 2013. Web. 30 May 2017.
May 31, 2017 TIME 19

Fig 25:“HPV Vaccine Is Cancer Prevention.” City of Chicago :: HPV Vaccine Is Cancer Prevention. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2017.

Written By: Jonathan Woods
•Q: It is now eight years after the retraction
of your study, what have you been
up to?
A: Since the retraction of my study, I have
written and directed a documentary titled
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe
which is “an investigation into the CDC’s
destruction of a study linking autism to
the MMR vaccine.” CDC whistleblower
Dr. William Thompson plays a major role
in the documentary.
•Q: Do you believe that the trial for your
study was conducted fairly?
A: No, I think that it was superfluous 49
as my study was conducted fairly as I
went through “a process, and it was a
study of 12 individuals aged 3-10 years
who were reffered to a paediatric gastroenterology
unit” (Wakefield para 2). I
conducted my research and recorded my
results, and shared them with the world.
•Q: Do you think the court decision in
the UK was negligent 50 ?
A: Yes, I think that the court took it way
too far in the punishment from the case.
They are all working against me and the
people of the world, casting out those
like me who challenge the authority. If
my study were to reflect their views, and
not argue them like I did, then they would
have not came to the same conclusion,
instead they would have endorsed me.
•Q: How has the trial and everything circulating
it affected your ability to make
a living?
A: Although this is a major setback in my
career, and in the advancement of my
goal, I am still finding ways to make an
impact for the people. I have met with
those such as Kennedy and President
Donald Trump to discuss my agenda.
Many of you may have heard about my
discussion at Trump’s Inaugural Ball, and
22 TIME May 31, 2017
A Time Exclusive Intervi
I still hold this true. I still feel that the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention
needs an overhaul, and I feel that Trump
will be the president that will allow this to
happen. Also, while talking with Kennedy,
another supporter of my anti vaccine
campaign. “I want to make the world
a better place for children with autism,
a safer place for children.” “What we
need now is a huge shakeup at the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention.”
Hopefully in the near future I am able
to fulfil my goal, and help children for
years to come. With the new president
who supports ome of the same views as
me, I feel that we can accomplish our
goal, and not be stopped by the courts
like last time.
•Q: Why is it that 10 of the 12 people
who worked with you in the study were
in favor of the retraction?
A: I think that the ten of them that wanted
to retract our study that we conducted
feared the legal consequences if they
were to vote to keep it. Throughout the
study, Each person worked tirelessly to
get results, and then the whole thing
comes back to blow up in their face.
They were neophytes 51 just making sure
that they would still have a career when
the dust cleared, and they only chided 52
when the courts stepped in.
•Q: Do you think that the downward
trend in vaccines after your study was
published in The Lancet had a negative
impact on the people’s health?
A: No, I am not penitent 53 of the work I
conducted as it is for the benefit of the
peoples health, if there is a problem with
the vaccines they are giving their children,
I think that they have the right to
know. That is why I started the study and
it is also the same reason I push a similar
agenda today.

ew: Andrew Wakefield
•Q: Did you receive, or plan to receive,
money from an organization for your
work conducted in the study?
A: There is some speculation going
around that I conducted the study because
I was “part of a rivaling company
that wanted to make a name for itself
and also make some money at the same
time,” but this claim is simply not true. I
was not reciprocated 54 anything for conducting
my study.
•Q: If you were to conduct the experiment
again, what would you do differently?
A: If we were to conduct another similar
study today, it would be collateral 55
to the first and we would have a more
controlled experiment design, more participants
within the study, and the conclusion
would not be as speculative as the
first time. Doing this would ensure that
we have a study that is respectable, repeatable,
and is able to echo my goal to
the people.
•Q: Have you discussed with the UK
courts if it is possible to get back your
license to practice medicine again? The
United States?
A: I have not been able to get my license
back to practice in the UK as they are
restive 56 , and I am also unable to get one
in the United States as well. They made
a mistake by taking it away in the first
time, and are only trying to stop those
who get in their way of making the most
money possible. Despite the setback, I
am still looking for ways to get my message
across to the people, such as my
documentary, and meeting with important
political figures.
•Q: Do you think that your study lead to
a MMR outbreak?
A: I do not think that my study caused the
MMR outbreak, that was just a natural occurance.
It was no veneer 57 study either.
It is no coincidence that autism rates have
been increasing when the MMR vaccine
shows up, and those numbers continue to
increase with every new vaccination that
people get. If we were to eliminate the
problems within the MMR vaccine, then
we would be able to reduce the number
of autism diagnosis that occur.
•Q: Will you ever stop pursuing your
goal of getting rid of the MMR vaccine?
A: No, I will not stop pursuing my goal
because that would not benefit the people
that I am looking to help. The courts
just caused dilatory 58 in achieving my
goal. The more vaccinations that are taking
place are the cause of the increasing
autism numbers, and that is not good for
society. If we do not change the way that
the major organizations operate, there is
no hope in preventing autism. They are
the ones that are stopping us from advancing
our cause. They are in it for the
money, and there is more money in treating
autism than there is for curing and
preventing it.
•Q: What effect do you think your study
had on people around the world?
A: I think that my study got the public going
in a way that was necessary, but then
a majority of the people renunciated 59
my work after the cases surrounding it. I
am glad that it was able to reach so far
and spread my message about the MMR
vaccine. I do not believe that my study
Affected the people negatively, but the
time that they did not receive the MMR
vaccine was not great enough so we are
not able to see a reduced amount of cases
of autism.
May 31, 2017 TIME 23

Autism: The Debate Continues
Written By: Belinda Luscombe
T
he autism debate continues
throughout 2017. Sites such as
Focus for Health are in renunciation 32
of the majority opinion that is backed by a
myriad 33 of scientific evidence. They state
that “many families insist that their child
developed normally, but then regressed
into autism after receiving routine immunizations”
(Mulvihill para 2) but give no
information on how they collected this information.
The scope of the demographics
is not shown by this statement, and
this allows us to come to the conclusion
that the information is not credible. They
base their argument off of the United
States Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
“awarding financial compensation
to parents of autistic children” (Mulvihill
para 3). The USVIC program was created
as a no fault alternative to going
through traditional courts for resolving
disputes against vaccine companies. This
program was created when vaccination
rates were at a low and the vaccination
companies were struggling to survive because
of all the lawsuits that amassed on
them. The program allowed for the companies
to produce vaccinations and not
deal with lawsuits against them. In a rare
case that something were to happen as a
result from the vaccine, such as a severe
allergic reaction, this program allows for
parents to file a petition with the Court of
Federal Claims to start off the process.
From there the petition is reviewed to
see if it meets the proper medical criteria
for compensation from the program,
and they make a preliminary reccomendation.
The U.S. Department of Justice
receives it next and there they develop
it further with medical reccomendations
and the legal analysis, which they go on
to submit to the Court. A special master
appointed by the court then reviews the
petition and decides whether or not there
should be compensation, and if there is
going to be they also decide how much
and how the compensation will come. This
step also often offers a hearing where
both parties in the case can show their
evidence. The final step in the process is
the Court ordering the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services to award
compensation to the victim, and that is if
they decided that it should be awarded.
If they do not come to the decision, it is
also possible for the courts to order the
Department to cover the attorneys’ cost.
“In accessible 34 efforts to save vaccine
companies Congress passed a law that
made those harmed or negatively affected
by a vaccine could no longer sue the
vaccine producers” (Mulvihill para 5).
They think that this takes all the pressure
off of the vaccine companies, allowing
them to create vaccines that are less safe
than before, as the companies no longer
have to worry about getting sued if the
product does something it should not to
a user. Their goal is dissembled 35 behind
this law. They state that through 1940-
1980, autism rates remained stable, but
after 1980 is when we saw an increase
in autism because the vaccine schedule
expanded. Not taken into consideration
here is the fact that more parents came
forward to doctors, and the definition for
autism expanded, encompassing more
people that would have been considered
24 TIME May 31, 2017
Fig Raptor, The Original Skeptical. “The End of the Vaccines Cause Autism Myth.” Skeptical Raptor. N.p., 17 Apr. 2016. Web. 29 May 2017.

autism free before this time. That, and
not the use of the preservative thimerosal
in measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine,
is the reason for the increase in autism
rates. They also mention that the “Center
for Disease Control and Prevention
denies the link between the ingredients
within vaccines, thimerosal more specifically,
is a causing factor of autism, and
the Hannah Poling case is evidence of
this” (Mulvihill para 8).
Fig 26: “Hannah Poling.” AGE OF AUTISM. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2017.
The Hannah Poling case came to trial in
2007, five years after her parents filed
an autism claim in the federal vaccine
court. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation
Program awarded the family
1.5 million dollars for the measles,
mumps and rubella vaccines role in her
autism diagnosis. Hannah is no ordinary
case, as she had an unknow mitochondrial
disorder that was triggered when
she received vaccines for nine diseases,
including measles, mumps and rubella.
The court came to the decision to award
the family money because of this medical
disorder, and made no statement
which would indicate that vaccines cause
autisms, as some believe. This case is a
rare instance where vaccines might be at
fault for causing something such as autism,
and that is only because there were
other medical problems lying under the
surface that reacted with the vaccines.
Some have taken this case with acquiesce
36 that vaccines cause autism. On a
different note, they link the first diagnosis
of autism to vaccinations in the 1930s
that just started to contain the preservative
thimerosal. Again, this is not backed
up by scientific evidence and is just speculation.
It is just a coincidence that both
showed up around the same time, and
are not connected whatsoever. The Environmental
Protection Agency makes
many reccomendations when it comes to
certain substances in the medical field.
They say that “Despite reccomendations
from the Institute of Medicine back in
1999, infants today are still receiving
mercury from multidose vial flu shots”
(Mulvihill para 13). When consulting the
Environmental Protection Agency website
for thimerosal within vaccines, we
are linked to the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration website with information
about the use of it in vaccines. There,
they state that “all vaccines routinely reccommended
for children 6 years of age
and younger in the U.S. do not contain
the preservative thimerosal” (FDA para
1). In the past, the preservative was used
to prevent the growth of micribes within
the vaccine, and the use of thimerosal
has decreased because of reformulation
of vaccines, new preservatives becoming
available, and also with the development
of new vaccines that are single
use. Single dose vaccnes do not require
a preservative, while a preservative is required
in a multidose vial of vaccinations.
Organizations such as Focus for Health
bring evidence that is not supported by
facts, scientific evidence, or major organizations
such as the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention, the Environmental
Protection Agency, or the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration.
May 31, 2017 TIME 25

Thimerosal: A Safe Preservative
Avariety of studies have been conducted
that looked at the different
effects thimerosal had, or were
thought to have had on the body. A look
at 9 of such studies ranging from early
life exposure to thimerosal to ten years
later. The first study looked at the effect
that thimerosal exposure in early life had
any propogating 37 effects on brain functions,
language, behavior, and coordination.
It also looked at “the nueropsychological
outcomes 7 to 10 years later, and
it found that there were no associations
with thimerosal and the general intellectual
functioning, verbal memory, executive
functioning, behavior regulation, fine
motor coordination, and language in the
children that were exposed to thimerosal”
(Schuchat para 1). They did however,
find that there was a small association
between the thimerosal exposure and
tics in boys. A second study looked at thimerosal
exposure within the womb and
in infancy. It compared children with and
without autism, and looked at the exposure
that they had to thimerosal from vaccines
in infancy. It found that there was
no difference in the exposure to thimerosal
between the children that had autism
and those that did not have autism. A
third study, which was funded by the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention,
looked at the long term effect of thimerosal
exposure, which compared the neuropsychological
outcomes of the children
they randomly selected to receive a form
of diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussive
vaccine, or DTaP for short, within the first
year of life. One of these contained thimerosal
and the other did not, and ten
years later they were tested for 24 neuropsychocological
outcomes, and the results
did not show that thimerosal in vaccines
were harmful to children. A fourth
study looked at thimerosal in vaccines in
the United States, the United Kingdom,
and Denmark. This was an analysis of
data from “ the US health maintenace
orgainzations, the UK General Practice
Research Database, and the entire country
of Denmark” (Schuchat para 4). They
all also failed to find a link between thimerosal
in vaccines and causing autism.
A fifth study looked at thimerosal within
childrens flu shots. This study “measured
the proportion of injection site reactions
and the infections that were reported
to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
System after testing three versions of an
inactivated influenza vaccine in children
that were under the age of 2” (Schuchat
para 5). The three versions that they tested,
which had thimerosal present within
them and ones which did not contain any
thimerosal, found that there was no difference
between the proportion of ISR,
rash or infections. A sixth study looked at
whether or not thimerosal caused neurodevelopmental
disorders with in children.
This study only found “a few statistically
significant associations between exposer
from thimerosal and nueropsychological
functioning” (Schuchat para 6). The results
showed no link between neurodevelopmental
disorders within children and
vaccinations that contained thimerosal.
26 TIME May 31, 2017

Hi, I am Dawn Guzmann, and I grew up
in a time where autism was the new medical
condition to worry about, as more
and more people were being diagnosed
with autism than ever before. I have always
believed in vaccinations, and I
have always gotten them, as I know the
value that they have for me and even
other people. I received the vaccinations
that contained everything from thimerosal
to iron, even as an infant, and I am
healther now because of it. People in my
community were also resolute 38 on receiving
vacccinations, so the effect that
they had on curbing the spreading of
diseases were great. Without the communities
shared belief in the health benefits
that come from vaccinations viruses
and diseases would be wreaking havoc
on the people, making everyone sick.
Vaccinations work best when everyone
gets them, and I also experienced this
firsthand, as a town about 20 minutes
out from ours who are discordant 39 with
us on vaccines, and alleged 40 that they
would only hurt them and do no good
whatsoever to us. Although there was
a modicum 41 handful of people who
did receive vaccinations, and even they
were counfounded 42 when they did not
work for most of them. This is because
the community does indeed play a role
in whether or not someone is going to
get a disease. They were not able to gain
immmunity as there was an outbreak of
the disease within the community. This is
excactly the reason as to who I believe in
vaccinations and explain the very same
thing to my friends who do not believe in
A Viewers Story
vaccinations. The information throughout
this magazine has helped me even further
expand my knowledge that I had
obtained from other sources before this,
and solidified other information as truth
by repeating it.
My name is Kelly Conniff, and I am someone
that whishes that this magazine were
to have come out years ago, because I
feel that it could have caused me to go
through a lot less pain and suffereing as
I was deterred 43 from getting vaccinated.
As I grew up, I was not lucky enough to
have parents that were educated enough
in vaccination areas, and nor could they
afford them at times. If they knew what
information I have now, I know that many
of the diseases that I suffered through as
a child would not have been because of
vaccinations. My parents thought that
they were bad for us so they stayed
away from them at all costs. Because of
this magazine, I am spreading the word
of the benefits of vaccines, and am vaccinating
my children whenever a new one
comes out. I would do anything for my
children, and giving them these vaccinations
allows for them to live a much happier
and healthier life that is almost 100%
disease free. I am now aware of the time
and effort that goes into perfecting the
design of each vaccine so that they are
the most effective that they can be and
so that they do not cause the person who
is receiving the vaccine to become sick.
May 31, 2017 TIME 27

A Brief History Of Vaccinations
Prior to 15th Century- There is archealogical evidence that
the people of this time were able to see the connection between
exposure to diseases and immunity to those diseases.
For example, the Chinese are thought to have mashed up
the scabs from people with the smallpox disease and rubbing
that onto the skin of others in order to forestall 44 the
contraction of smallpox (Abraham para 3).
17th Century- Christopher Columbus and the
rest of the people that came to America with
him also brought smallpox, the whooping
cough, measles, the bubonic plague, and
typhus, which effectively wiped out 80 to
95% of the native population, as they had
not had any interaction with these diseases
before hand, so they had no immunity to it.
(Abraham para 5).
1930: Thimerosal is now usedd as a preservative
within vaccines to help prevent the contamination
of life threatening contamination with harmful
microbes. It contributes to the safety of multi-dose
vials (Gottlieb para 2).
1967: Psychologist Bruno Bettelheim is ascribed 45
with popularizing the theory that “refrigerator
mothers,” as he termed them, caused autism by not
loving their children enough. “Post-World War II,
there was a lot of psychoanalytic work done on autism
where researchers looked solely at the impact
of life experiences,” explains Parents advisor Fred
Volkmar, M.D., director of the Child Study Center
at Yale University School of Medicine and editor-in-chief
of the Journal of Autism & Developmental
Disorders. “They didn’t consider the role of biology
or genetics, which we now understand to be the
main cause.” Autism is also classified under schizophrenia
in the International Statistical Classification
of Diseases and Related Health Problems, although
scientists now know there is no link between the
conditions.
1908: The word autism is
now used to describe a
subset of schizophrenic
patients- someone who is
suffering from a breakdown
between thoughts,
emotions, and behaviorwho
are especially withdrawn
from society and
self-absorbed.
16th century- People of this time had to deal with
things such as the whooping cough, smallpox and
measles which would quickly spread through the
crowded conditions that took place living in the cities.
It is estimated that almost 30% of the children
at this time died before turning 15 from things such
as the whooping cough, smallpox, pneumonia,
dysentry, or the scarlet fever (Abraham para 4).
Fig 27:John Kelly, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. “1959: Early Vaccinations
Get Shot in the Arm.” NOLA.com. N.p., 10 July 2011. Web. 30 May 2017.
1991: The federal government makes
autism a special education category.
Public schools are now beginning to
identify children on the spectrum and
offering them special services.
28 TIME May 31, 2017

Fifteenth Century-Today
Fig 28:“How the Vaccine Schedule in the U.S. Has Evolved Since the 1950s (Part I).” March Against
Monsanto. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2017.
2010: The Lancet completely retracts Andrew
Wakefield’s study, admitting several
elements of the paper were incorrect. His
study had lead to a large decrease in vaccination
rates around the world, and also
increased studies pertaining to autism. This
retraction and the court cases that followed
him caused him to fall into disrepute 48 .
1998: A study published in The Lancet by Andrew Wakefield suggests
that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism. The findings
within the study were quickly debunked by adept 46 scientists
2012: A study finds that aluminum is causing the MMR vaccine
to be harmful (Batts para 5).
2000: ‘Vaccine manufacturers
remove thimerosal (a mercury-based
preservative) from
all routinely given childhood
vaccines due to public fears”
(Rasmussen para 5) about its
role in autism--even though,
again, the vaccine-autism link
has been debunked.
2011: “A systematic
review of immunizations
within the US reveals
that there was stong
evidence pointing to no
association between the
MMR vaccination and
the occurance of autism”
(Maglione para 3).
2004: Known as the “watershed year in the MMR-autism
debate” by vaccine sceptics becauseformer Florida
Representative David Weldon chastised the CDC and
IOM for using false data” (Wachtler para 5).
Fig 29:“Parents.” Learning Disabilities Association of America. N.p., n.d. Web. 30
May 2017.
2013: The DSM-5 puts all the once abstruse 47 subcategories of the condition into
one umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Asperger’s Syndrome
is no longer considered a separate condition. ASD is defined by two categories: 1)
Restricted and/or repetitive behaviors. 2) Impaired social communication and/or
interaction.
May 31, 2017 TIME 29

Vaccinated Vs. Unvaccinated:
A Large Study into the
MMR-Autism Link
30 TIME May 31, 2017
TWritten By: Dr. Bryan King
his 2015 study is an an analysis
conducted on the health records
of 95,727 children was carried
out using information from the Optum
Research Database. The researchers
were looking into whether or not the
measles-mumps-rubella vaccination was
a cause of autism in children. Of the
“95,727 records that were looked into,
more than 15,000 remained unvaccinated
at the age of 2, and more than 8,000
still remained unvaccinated by the age of
5” (Wright para 2). The health records
were of children born between the years
of 2001 and 2012, and were 5 years
or younger, and have an older sibling.
“More than 2,000 of the children in the
study were considered to be at a higher
risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
because they had an older sibling with
the disorder” (Wright para 2). Researchers
found that there was no link between
receiving the MMR vaccine and a higher
chance of getting ASD, and “the same
was true for those who were considered
a high risk for the disorder because of
older family members with it” (Wright
para 1). Overall, the study found that
994 of the children, or 1% within the
study were diagnosed with ASD in the
followup. Of the 95,727 children within
the study, 1,929 had an older sibling
with ASD, only 134 developed the autism
disorder, or 7%” (Wright para 9).
These results are similar to what has
been found in studies conducted earlier
which looked at the suspected MMR-autism
link. Concerns sparked by Andrew
Wakefield’s study are the likely explanation
of the lower vaccination rates of
MMR in families that have an older child
with ASD. “It has been found that 84%
of 2 year olds who did not have an older
sibling with the disorder received the
MMR vaccination, and the numbers go
up to 92% by the age of 5 years. However,
the vaccination rates were 73% at
2 years old, and 86% at 5 years old in
children who did have siblings with ASD”
(Wright para 6).
Fig 30:“Vaccinating Your Baby: When and Where.” The Pulse. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May
2017.

The Effect of MMR Withdrawl
Written By: Hideo Honda
A
rising belief that the MMR vaccine
is a cause of autism based on the
increase in the disorder in the
United States and the United Kingdom
around the time that the vaccine was
introduced. Although this seems like
a good conclusion, it is not backed by
scientific evidence. There is a multitude
of evidence out there that disproves this
statement, just like the study conducted
by Hideo Honda in the Kohoku Ward of
Yokohama, Japan. It looked at the incidence
of autism spectrum disorder in children
up to the age of 7 that were born
between the years of 1988 and 1996.
The study included all the cases of autism
according to the ICD-10 guidelines. This
study is relavent as “the MMR vaccination
rates in the city of Yokohama took a major
decline in the years of 1988 through
1992, and then in 1993 and the years
to come, not one single vaccination was
given” (Honda para 3). A significant rise
in ASD occured during the earlier years,
and the most notable increase was from
the births in 1993. This study found that
“the MMR vaccination was not a likely
cause of autism spectrum disorder, as it
would not explain the increase in incidence
of ASD when the vaccination saw
withdrawls in a town of almost 300,000
people” (Honda para 4). New diagnosis
of autism was at “0.3 for 10,000 people
in 1988, and jumped to 2.1 per 10,000
people in 1999, with the explanation
remaining unclear, but it is certain that
MMR is not a cause” (Kaye para 6-7).
Fig 31:“Japanese & British Data Show Vaccines Cause Autism.” Child Health Safety. N.p., 14 Dec. 2012. Web. 31 May 2017.
May 31, 2017 TIME 31

Q: What are some other materials that
have cause worry throughout the public
about their safety?
A: Materials such as aluminum and iron
have also caused much worry throughout
the public as they voiced their concerns
about the health problems some
think they cause. With that said, trenchant
scientific evidence has shown that
they are indeed healthy in vaccines and
do not cause an health problems. They
are within the vaccines for your safety,
and occur naturally in the human body.
Some people often require iron supplements
if their body lacks amounts of it.
They can be harmful to the body in extremely
large amounts, but no vaccination
gets anywhere close to a level that
would cause problems.
Q: Why was thimerosal removed from
vaccines if it was not the cause of autism?
A: Thimerosal amounts were reduced or
completely removed from vaccines because
we are able to create other preservatives
that can do the same job. This
stemmed from a public movement to take
action against the amount of thimerosal
being used, and we listened, but also,
and most importantly, still kept the vaccines
functioning. As far as the autism
claim goes, there is a wealth of scientific
evidence available to anyone who wishes
to see it, and it all proves that there
is no link between vaccines and autism.
The cause of autism is still very much unclear
to us. Thimerosal was used in the
32 TIME May 31, 2017
From The Mailroom
first place so atrophy 60 would not occur
in multi dose vaccines so they were able
to be used. Children are exposed to thimerosal
everyday, and it is within their
body, so the amounts within vaccines
such as MMR posed no real threat to the
child, except in rare circumstances when
other factors are in play within the child.
Q: What makes a vaccination work effectively?
A: In order for a vaccination to be subjugated
61 , multiple things need to occur.
First off, there needs to be a good
preservative so that no bacteria grows
within and ruins the vaccine. Then, it
is all about administering the vaccine
worldwide so that it greatly reduces the
chances of what it is trying to prevent
from coming up. Vaccinations only work
in a community effort, because there is
strength in numbers. In terms of vaccinations
themselves, they are worked on by
many scientists who strive to perfect them
through trial and error to end up with a
vaccine that does not harm the person,
just stirring enough in the body so that
the immune system reacts to the vaccination,
and then gaining immunity to the
specific disease it was designed for. Multi
dose vaccinations require preservatives,
such as thimerosal, to prevent microbial
growth that would render the vaccination
useless. Since the introduction of thimerosal
in vaccines in the 1930s, there
have been advancements in medicine
that allow for different preservatives to
be used, ones which do not use mercury.

Q: Do you think that people like Andrew
Wakefield or Robert Kennedy
will be able to follow through with
their goal of eliminating vaccines?
A: It is very unlikely that Andrew Wakefield
or Robert Kennedy will be able to
cause a stir like the first time his study was
published. At President Trump’s inaugural
ball, Wakefield called for things that
won’t happen, because they would be
devastating to the public if it did. Meetings
between Trump and Kennedy took
place and have stirred up the questions
within the public, but those concerns will
most likely not amount to anything at all,
as the majority of the public still knows
the benefit of vaccinations. There is not
much Wakefield can do as he still lacks a
medical license, so there will not be another
study out from him anytime soon
to stir up controversy as before, so the
only way he would be able to influence
vaccines would be by making powerful
friends to do his bidding for him. That
also seems like a long shot. If these two
individuals were to achieve their goal of
getting rid of vaccinations, the science
community would come together again
to disprove the information.
A: He hopes that he can influence as many
people as he can with the work, and
feels that it’s necessary to get his message
across. In a statemnt to us, he said
that “The longer that we delay in making
changes on our vaccines, the worse that
it will be. The Center for Disease Control
and Prevention is a program that is corrupt
and is all about making money, they
constantly put your health in the backseat
to this. I do not think that my study will
have that much of an impact on others
because of the legal surroundings of it
and the outcome for me. If there was no
legal involvement within, the study could
have had the driving force in preventing
autism that I intended it to have. My
study was a step in the right direction as
it caused many to question vaccinations
and not receive them. The major companies
that control the vaccinations, of
course would not allow for something to
get in the way of them making money, so
they were quickly able to put me under
wraps. I still think is important to get my
message across to the people, as not receiving
the MMR vaccine is the only way
that we will be able to stop autism. The
link that I found between the MMR vaccine
and autism is important and should
be kept in mind by everyone.
Q: Do you think that Andrew’s research
will affect how others will conduct
their research in the future?
Fig 32:UmHomemZangado. “As Incríveis Fotografias a Bebés De Evan Kafka.” Um Homem Zangado. N.p., 19 Jan. 2017. Web. 30
May 2017.
KNOW WHAT YOU ARE
PROTECTING
May 31, 2017 TIME 33

Fig 33:“Vaccines Are Like Hugs.” Vaccines Are like Hugs | Vaccinews Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2017.

Works Cited
Abraham, Anju. “Understanding Vaccines.” PublicHealth. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
In this source titled Understanding Vaccines that has a total of 5 subheadings which are about a
vaccine timeline, how they work, what goes into one, CDC recommended vaccines, and myths
debunked. The vaccine timeline starts us off at “Prior to the 15th Century” and then moves us
through century by century, concluding with a future of vaccines. The next subtitle, How Vaccines
Work, talks about how the vaccines train the immune system to recognize and combat
pathogens, and also how they protect an entire population once enough people are immunized.
This section talks about the different kinds of vaccines, as well as different ways to administer
them. The next section titled What Goes Into A Vaccine? looks at the ingredients of vaccines,
which include adjuvants, antibiotics, preservatives, stabilizers, antigens, and lists 6 common
ingredients with a description of their purpose and safety. The CDC-Recommended Vaccinations
section lists the vaccines that are required to enroll in public schools and college, and explains
what each is for and a description of what it is protecting you from. The last section, Vaccine
Myths Debunked, lists 8 common myths and explains why each is false. Some of the myths included
are “Vaccines contain unsafe toxins,” “Vaccines aren’t worth the risk
In comparison with Thimerosal in Vaccines, both confirm that thimerosal has been used as a preservative
in vaccines since the 1930’s, and how it has been removed or reduced from all vaccines
except for the influenza vaccine, and even that has the option to come without the preservative.
They both answer the question of why preservatives are needed in vaccines, and that is to prevent
growth of dangerous bacteria or fungus that would cause contamination. This source offers me
something that the other source did not, a timeline of vaccines in general, the large scale effect of
vaccines, which ones are recommended by the CDC as well as why they are, and it also answers
the common myths that people may believe. Overall, this source is reliable and objective, and the
goal of the source is to educate the reader about the history of vaccines as well as how it works.
This source will fit into the narration section of my research, as it has extensive information on
the history of vaccines, explains how they work, what goes into creating a vaccine and why, vaccines
CDC recommends everyone gets, as well as common vaccine myths. It changed the way I
think about my topic by having a timeline of vaccine progression through the centuries, and also
other common vaccine ingredients that may be a reason for some parents to fear vaccinations.
36 TIME May 31, 2017

Batts, Vicki. “Vaccines Can Cause Autism, According to Many Studies.” Vaccines News, 7 Sept. 2016.
In this source titled Vaccines Can Cause Autism, According To Many Studies, written by Vicki
Batts in 2016, she says that no matter how many studies prove this, the “media will never allow
such divisive information to reach the masses.” She claims that the “pundits, celebrities and
conventional medicine practitioners” who have insisted that the vaccine debate is over are “really
more like puppets -- that are crazy.” She says that Arjun Walia from Activist Post conducted an
in-depth review that revealed 22 studies which prove a link between vaccines and autism. One
study which happened in 2002 published in Journal of Biomedical Sciences found the causal
relationship in the measles portion of the MMR vaccine. Another study from 2012 was published
in the journal Entropy which “showcased a much stronger correlation between the MMR vaccine
and autism.” They found that aluminum was causing the vaccine to be harmful, not thimerosal.
In comparison with Understanding Vaccines, I found some very obvious differences in facts
about aluminum in particular. They claim that aluminum is what causes the MMR vaccine to be
harmful, and later lead to autism in children who have received this vaccine, and mention nothing
about thimerosal in the summary of this study. However, in my source from Public Health,
I looked at the section titled What Goes Into A Vaccine? and in the list of additional ingredients
that “are often a source of concern for wary parents and patients,” I found aluminum. Aluminum
is used as an adjuvant to make vaccines “more effective by strengthening the immune system
response.” One reason for health concerns with aluminum is not autism, and this has some
evidence to support that it causes brain and bone disease. The metal is found naturally in things
such as water, food, breast milk, and babies blood streams. The amount that is in vaccines does
not even cause a noticeable rise, even right after injection, in the levels of aluminum in babies.
It has been used “safely for over six decades in vaccines, with no scientific evidence indicating
otherwise.” This source is biased, and has unreliable information. The goal of the source is to
persuade readers that the vaccine debate is still going on, and to label those who think it is over
as crazy puppets.
This source fits into my research as I will be refuting, and it is helpful because it provides the
common beliefs some may have, and I happened to have the sources on hand to counter her
points. It changed the way I think about my topic when she said that aluminum in vaccines was
linked to autism. Up to this point I had only heard of the claim that thimerosal does this. This
May 31, 2017 TIME 37

works in my favor because of the source I compared this one to, has quite a bit on aluminum, and
also other myths, which I’m sure if she continued writing the article, she would state those myths
as truth.
Garrett, Laurie. “Commentary: Donald Trump and the Anti-Vaxxer Conspiracy Theorists.” Chicago Tribune,
Bruce Dold, 16 Jan. 2017.
In this news article by Laurie Garrett, talks about how Trump met with Robert F Kennedy Jr. and
the disgraced Andrew Wakefield, both are opposition to vaccines, saying that they cause autism.
Kennedy had a meeting with Trump on January 10th, and in a statement after said that he will
chair a commission “on vaccine safety and scientific integrity” at Trump’s request. Wakefield
conducted experiments on children that he claimed proved that they had gotten autism from
MMR vaccines, and he published this research in the British medical journal Lancet in 1998,
only to be retracted in 2010 because his claims were found to be false. His license to practice
medicine in the United Kingdom was stripped for “serious misconduct.” People think that the
increase we see in autism diagnoses in parts of Europe, the United States, and Canada is from
MMR vaccines but it is largely in part because psychiatric associations have widened the definition
of the disorder, now describing autism as a spectrum that ranges from the extreme to the
complete non functionality all the way to the socially challenged genius, or Asperger’s syndrome.
It has been found that boys are at least five times more likely to be diagnosed with autism
spectrum disorder than girls, yet the genders are equally likely to be vaccinated. Mercury used to
be used in vaccines such as these to keep it preserved in the doctor’s office, and Kennedy claims
that this preservative, known as thimerosal, is still used today as a preservative and causes brain
damage. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Food and Drug Administration
removed it from vaccines since 1999. Companies such as UNICEF, GAVI, the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, WHO, and countless other organizations, the mortality rates in third world
countries has gone down dramatically. Refusal or inability to get vaccines has caused polio to
return and eruption of measles across the Middle East. In early 1980s Soviet virologist Galena
Petrovna Chervonskaya made the first claim of association among vaccines, which led to a massive
drop in vaccination rates. The drop in rates caused an epidemic where 200,000 unvaccinated
children contracted diphtheria, and nearly ⅔ of the children died.
This source will be useful because it is a current event. It reiterates some of the same points that
other sources talk about, such as the effect of limiting access to vaccines. In comparison to the
38 TIME May 31, 2017

news article by Terence Kealey from Newsweek, talks about how if the public confidence in
vaccinations were to drop, vaccine rates would go down and in turn immunity levels would fall,
and “epidemics of preventable yet dangerous diseases will recur.” Garrett reiterates this same
point by saying that “millions of lives are at stake” if in fact, Trump pushes out the idea that vaccines
cause autism. Both sources confirm President Trump meeting with both Andrew Wakefield
and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This information is reliable, but slightly bias because it is an opinion
article from one person, defending a claim. The goal of the source is to educate the reader about
Donald Trump’s stance on the topic.
This source fits into my research by establishing the exigence, or importance that the topic still
holds. It is helpful because all of my other sources are back from the early 2000’s, and earlier,
so this brings a more up to date look on the topic. This may shape my argument from MMR
vaccines not causing autism to an approach where I may look at what the effect of making this
vaccine unavailable would be.
Gottlieb, Scott. “Thimerosal in Vaccines.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
In Thimerosal in Vaccines published on the FDA website, it makes many claims about the uses
of thimerosal as a preservative, the history, the toxicity of the substance, recent and future FDA
actions, as well as the safety review of thimerosal in vaccines conducted by the Institute of Medicine.
Thimerosal is one of the most used preservative in a number of biological and drug products,
including many vaccines, to help prevent potentially life threatening, and is approximately
50% mercury. As a preservative, it kills or prevents the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria
and fungi. Thimerosal in concentrations of 0.001% to 0.01% has been show effective at clearing
a broad spectrum of pathogens. The US Code of Federal Regulations requires a preservative
in multi dose vials of vaccines as tragic consequences have been felt when multi dose vials contained
no preservatives. The FDA Modernization Act of 1997 led to a list compiled by the FDA
of regulated products containing mercury or thimerosal. The list changed as some products were
no longer manufactured, and others were reformulated to contain no thimerosal. The National
Vaccine Advisory Committee sponsored meeting on thimerosal in 1999 brought concerns of the
ability of infants to expel the mercury from regular vaccinations. Blood studies at the University
of Rochester and National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda determined that the levels did not
exceed the safety guidelines for methylmercury for all of the infants that were in the study.
May 31, 2017 TIME 39

This source is in comparison to the Autism and the Vaccine Debate, which also addresses thimerosal,
saying instead that the “first cases of autism were diagnosed in children born during the
1930’s, when the first vaccines containing thimerosal...came on the market.” They also state that
the amount of thimerosal in the vaccines goes over the EPA safety mark for a 6 month old baby.
Also, saying that “despite recommendations from the Institute of Medicine in 1999 to remove all
thimerosal from vaccines, today, infants as young as 6 months old are still receiving mercury...
at levels higher than EPA safe limits.” We know from the FDA website, that blood studies found
that the levels did not exceed the safety guidelines for methylmercury for all infants in their
study. The source refutes the “mixed messages” in the Focus for Health article.
This source is helpful to my paper as it refutes my other source as well as providing information
about thimerosal uses, history, and guidelines on it. It will fit into the refutation section of my
writing, and has set my view for thimerosal usage in vaccines for infants. It brought into my view
safe thimerosal concentrations, the regulations that support the use of it as a preservative, and the
blood studies to determine if infants are able to expel the mercury.
Honda, Hideo, et al. “No Effect of MMR Withdrawl on the Incidence of Autism: A Total Population Study.”
Wiley Online Library, 18 Feb. 2005.
In this source by Hideo Honda titled “No effect of MMR withdrawal on the incidence of autism:
a total population study” he examined the relationship between MMR vaccines and occurrence
of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The method used in this study is as follows, the study examined
the cumulative incidence of ASD in all children were up to age seven and born between
1988 to 1996 in Kohoku Ward, Yokohama, Japan. This particular city in Japan had a population
of about 300,000. The types of ASD included all pervasive developmental disorders according
to ICD-10 guidelines. ICD-10 was first endorsed in May 1990 by the Forty-third World Health
Assembly, and is cited in more than 20,000 scientific articles around the world. The purpose of
the ICD-10 is to set an international standard for reporting diseases and health conditions, and is
a diagnostic classification standard for all clinical and research purposes. Vaccination rates in the
city declined from 1988 through 1992, with no vaccines administered in 1993 and after, with a
significant rise in the occurrence of ASD and an even larger rise once the vaccine was not administered
at all. The conclusion that we are given is “The significance of this finding is that MMR
vaccination is most unlikely to be a main cause of ASD, that it cannot explain the rise over time
in the incidence of ASD, and that withdrawal of MMR in countries where it is still being used
40 TIME May 31, 2017

cannot be expected to lead to a reduction in the incidence of ASD.”
In comparison with Andrew Wakefield’s article, which claimed a causal relationship between
MMR vaccines and ASD, we see that the method in this study is much more scientific and
therefore is more reputable. For example, the Wakefield study only looked at 12 individuals
with ages ranging from 3 to 10, and only one female was in the study, compared to the 31,000
children looked at in the study in Japan. Both dealt with those affected with something similar
to ASD. Other studies similar to Wakefield which have examined the relationship of trends in
MMR vaccination rates and ASD frequency and have noted a dramatic increase in ASD frequency
most strikingly in the late 1980s. But these have stirred major doubt “about the claimed causal
relationship between the MMR vaccine and ASD occurrence” as they do not show the increase in
the frequency of ASD after MMR was introduced. The information within the survey is reliable
as they had a large enough sample size in the study, as well as noting that it followed the guidelines
set by ICD-10. The source is objective and to inform the reader of the population study they
conducted as well as the results from that study.
This source will fit into the confirmation section of my writing to backup my proof. It is helpful
as a source because of how large the study was, and it expands my sources outside of something
from the United States or the United Kingdom. It may also be used when I am talking about
Andrew Wakefield’s study in my writing. The source shapes my argument in that it is yet another
large population study that supports my claim, whereas I have been unable to find a large population
study for the opposing argument. The fact that this study took place in Japan expanded
my knowledge of where the research about MMR vaccines were actually taking place, before I
thought it was all in the US and UK as that is what I have found in terms of sources.
Kaye, James A., et al. “Mumps, Measles, and Rubella Vaccine and the Incidence of Autism Recorded by Gener-
al Practitioners: A Time Trend Analysis.” The BMJ, 24 Feb. 2001.
In this source from James A. Kaye, we have a time trend analysis of vaccines causing autism in
the United Kingdom in children 12 and under, born between 1988-1993. The study was initially
supposed to be a case control analysis of those who received and didn’t receive the vaccine but
they did not have enough information to provide a meaningful estimate of relative odds. They
identified 305 children under the age of 12 whose autism diagnosis was between the years of
1988-1999, and reviewed detailed computer recorded information, and estimated the annual
May 31, 2017 TIME 41

incidence as well as age specific incidence for those children. Following analysis was conducted
on 114 boys who had a diagnosis of autism between the ages of 2-5. They found that the estimated
yearly incidence of those under the age of 12 increased sevenfold from 0.3 per 10,000 people
in 1988 to 2.1 per 10,000 people in 1999. The peak ages where autism was first diagnosed was
3 and 4 years. The median of the dataset was 4.6 years. It was known that autism rates in the
United Kingdom increased, and this study shows that increase was nearly “fourfold among boys
aged 2 to 5 years born in 1988-93.” The data supported the fact that there is no causal association
between MMR vaccination and the risk of autism.
In comparison with A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and
Autism, I found that both were a population study, and the latter was of children born in 1991-
1999. While the MMR vaccine was introduced to the United Kingdom in 1988, the vaccine was
first introduced in 1987. They both consulted research databases with information on autism,
ran a structured study, and came to the same conclusion that there is no causal relation between
MMR vaccination and autism. The second was on a much larger scale, with a total of 537,303
children in the cohort and 2,129,864 in follow-up This source is objective because it is a study
conducted from a relatively large sample size and is from a reputable site.
This source is useful as it is a time trend analysis that supports my claim. It will be used to support
the claim as well as provide information in the form of graphs for my JEP remix of a magazine.
It has not changed my view on my topic, instead it enhanced and supported what I know.
The fact that they conducted more research on a specific age group of children that were determined
to be at higher risk, with the same conclusion that I have, will be used to refute those who
say that the vaccine is more likely to cause autism in the first 5 years.
Maglione, Margaret A., et al. “Safety of Vaccines Used for Routine Immunization of US Children: A Systematic
Review.” AAP News and Journals Gateway, June 2014.
In this source titled “Safety of Vaccines Used for Routine Immunization of US Children: A
Systematic Review” conducted by Margaret Maglione and nine other individuals, addressed
concerns about vaccine safety that have lead to the the decline of vaccinations in children and the
increase of diseases. The systematic review that they conducted consulted sources that “included
PubMed, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices statements, package inserts, existing
reviews, manufacturer information packets, and the 2011 Institute of Medicine consensus report
42 TIME May 31, 2017

on vaccine safety.” The studies that they chose to use had to have a controlled mechanism and
active surveillance, and all were within the United States. The results of the study were “there is
strong evidence that MMR vaccine is not associated with autism.” The official conclusion from
the study is that “we found evidence that some vaccines are associated with serious adverse
events; however, these events are extremely rare and must be weighed against the protective
benefits that vaccines provide.” The ‘some vaccines’ mentioned in the results is in reference to
the moderate evidence they found about rotavirus vaccines being linked with intussusception, not
MMR with autism.
In comparison with Thimerosal in Vaccines I found that both talk about the safety of vaccines.
The FDA conducted a “comprehensive review of the use of thimerosal in childhood vaccines”
and found “no evidence of harm from the use of thimerosal as a vaccine preservative, other than
local hypersensitivity reactions.” They both mention the decrease in vaccinations due to concerns
of their safety, and they determined that they were safe through a study of its effects on the
youth. The vaccine safety source provides more background information about thimerosal in vaccines,
how it is used as a preservative, the toxicity, as well as the actions that the FDA has taken.
Whereas, my other source conducts a systematic review of vaccine work in the United States,
including sources from Pubmed and the Institute of Medicine. The results are also similar to each
other as well as to the results in most of my other sources.
This source will be used in my writing to support my claim, and is useful as it is a systematic
review of many studies on the matter, with selection guidelines so that it is controlled review. It
will be used in my writing to address concerns people have or have had about vaccine safety. The
research was conducted from that of reputable organizations, which helps me support the claim
further. This source brought to my attention the moderate evidence of rotavirus vaccines association
with intussusception, which is a treatable medical emergency.
Mulvihill, Shannon. “Autism and the Vaccine Debate.” Focus for Health. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
In this source published on Focus for Debate, their argument is that vaccines do cause autism. It
recognizes CDC’s official statement in the writing and then goes on to say that the United States
Vaccine Injury Compensation Program “has awarded financial compensation to parents of autistic
children because vaccines could not be ruled out as the cause of neurological damage.” An-
May 31, 2017 TIME 43

other focus of the article is about the changes in vaccine policy in 1986. Changes were brought
on because vaccine companies were losing so much money from the lawsuits that they threatened
to stop producing the life saving vaccines. Congress passed a law that said those harmed by
a vaccine could no longer sue the company that made the product, and instead they had to petition
the government funded program called the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
In 1999 the Institute of Medicine made a recommendation to remove all of the thimerosal from
vaccines, but children would still receive it if they were given multi-dose vial flu shots at levels
higher than the EPA safe limits.
This source fits into my research in the refutation section, as it it my counterargument. In comparison
to my source titled Vaccines cause autism: Supporting evidence I found that their numbers
within the articles are equally absurd. An example from this is in “just one decade, the rate
of autism increased 500%” and “rates of autism have skyrocketed 1000% since 1990” and even
saying that “Autism is a catastrophic epidemic with an increase of 1,500% in the UK in the last
decade.” Both sources fail to link any particular study at all to the numbers that they spit out.
They both say that the first case of autism occurred after thimerosal was added to vaccines. They
mention vaccines administered to babies, saying that “mercury ions alter the cell membrane of
developing neurons in babies and young children, directly contributing to autism” and Focus on
Debate simply says that the amount of thimerosal given to a six month old baby is a lot larger
than the EPA safety regulations. This will be used to set up the topic of thimerosal in my paper so
I can then shut it down with the source that the comparison is made with. It changed how I think
about my topic, as I found it as the first source on subject, and it lead to me finding the source
which is all about thimerosal.
This source is helpful as it is my counter argument for the use of thimerosal in vaccines. The
goal is to continue the autism and vaccine debate. They do this by bringing up the United States
Vaccine Injury Program awarding financial compensation to parents of autistic children because
“vaccines could not be ruled out as the cause of neurological damage.” The information with
the source does not appear to be reliable as they do not reference credible sources, and the data
seems to be skewed in favor of their argument. One such example of this is in “just one decade,
the rate of autism increased 500%.” They also came to their conclusion because the Compensation
Program in place, which was created so that the vaccine company’s could continue to create
the life saving vaccines. This source states that “The CDC denies any connection, stating that “no
links have been found between any vaccine ingredients and autism.” They then give two exam-
44 TIME May 31, 2017

ples to try and counter the CDC’s statement, the first being a description of a CDC whistleblower,
and the link they have for the proof comes up with “Nothing Found.” The second is the
Hannah Poling case where the NVICP awarded her family $1.5 million for “vaccine’s role in her
autism related diagnosis.” They did not even link supporting evidence for this, just the NVICP
website. What they did not say is that the Court clarified that the “Hannah Poling case “does not
afford any support to the notion that vaccinations can contribute to the causation of autism.”
Rao, T.S. Sathyanarayana, and Chittaranjan Andrade. “The MMR Vaccine and Autism: Sensation, Refutation,
Retraction, and Fraud.” Indian Journal of Psychiatry. National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Accessed 14 Mar. 2017. Originally published in Indian Journal of Psychiatry.
In this article by T.S. Rao’s article about MMR vaccine fraud, it labels the Andrew Wakefield
fraud as one of the most serious in medical history. It briefly goes into the flaws of Wakefields
experiment, how the public took the results, and the effect the case series when it came out and
even years down the line. To start, his experiment, he and 12 co-authors had a very small sample
size of 12 individuals, not nearly enough to gather accurate and sufficient data and apply it on a
massive scale later on. The experiment design was relatively uncontrolled, and the conclusions
were very speculative. These factors create results that are unreliable, but yet the case series
received widespread publicity after being published in the Lancet in February of 1998, leading
to a drop in vaccination rates due to the fear that they cause autism. Even though the paper was
minor, the effect was widespread, organizations spending large amounts of time and money
refuting the paper, and parents across the world not vaccinating their children out of fear of risk
of autism. This is the cause of the 2008-2009 outbreaks of measles in the UK, and smaller cases
of outbreaks in the United States and Canada. The article was then retracted in 2010 after the
British General Medical Council reported that “Wakefield had acted dishonestly, irresponsibly,
unethically, and callously in connection with the research project and its subsequent publication.”
Ten out of the twelve co-authors were in favor of the retraction, and a statement of the retraction
says that “no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were
insufficient.” Wakefield was later found guilty of deliberate fraud.
This source is useful, and will be used in my paper as it will build my refutation. In comparison
with a source by Frank DeStefano and Robert T Chen posted on The Lancet, I found that both
sources support the negative association between MMR and autism. Both also recognize the
hypothesis that some cases have created a lot of media attention in the UK, causing a drop in
May 31, 2017 TIME 45

acceptance of the MMR vaccines. This article says that they were “especially concerned that the
reported cases may have been due simply to temporal coincidence, and by the lack of supportive
laboratory evidence.” Similarly, Rao mentioned about the Wakefield article that “they reported
their sampling was consecutive when, in fact, it was selective” and “The British Medical Journal
has published a series of articles on the exposure of the fraud, which appears to have taken place
for financial gain.” The temporary coincidence factor and lack of supportive evidence is implied
in Rao’s article when he mentions the “small sample size (n=12), the uncontrolled design, and
the speculative nature of the conclusions.”
This source will fit into my paper under refutation, as I will use it to counter the claims that are
made in Andrew Wakefield’s case series, and discredit the argument that he makes. It shaped my
argument by debunking a large reason why many families did not vaccinate their children with
the MMR vaccine, and shutting down the points that are still used as evidence by some to support
their claim that MMR vaccines cause autism. This source lead me to finding my Negative
association between MMR and Autism, which is also what I compared to above.
Rasmussen, Sonja A. “Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism.” Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed
14 Mar. 2017.
In this source by the CDC titled Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism, I found out that about 1 in 68
children have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United Kingdom. They say that ASD is
a “developmental disability that is caused by differences in how the brain functions” and that
“people with ASD may communicate, interact, behave, and learn in different ways.” The 2011
Institute of Medicine report on “eight vaccines given to children and adults found that with rare
exceptions, these vaccines are very safe.” Although they do not say any particular reasons for the
rare exceptions, I can speculate that those exceptions were when injury came from an allergic
reaction with the vaccine. The 2013 CDC study was able to prove their claim by looking at the
number of antigens, which are substances within a vaccine that will cause your body’s immune
system to produce disease-fighting antibodies, during the first 2 years of life, and they found that
the number was the same in children with ASD and without it. Between the years of 1999-2001,
there was a national effort to reduce all types of mercury exposure in children, so thimerosal was
either completely removed or reduced in amounts in all vaccines except for some for the flu.
In comparison with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) from CDC which is a source that provides
46 TIME May 31, 2017

facts about autism, screening and diagnosis, treatment, data and statistics, and research. I found
the same in the other source that the ratio is indeed about 1:68 children with ASD, but I additionally
learned that it is about 4.5 times more common in boys than it is among girls. It says that a
diagnosis of autism at age 2 can be valid, reliable, and stable, which is why most of my sources
focus on this age and a few years after for testing. Additional facts that I learned that were not
mentioned in my other source is that the average medical cost per year for someone with ASD is
between $4,110-$6,200. Also, it introduced me to the Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee,
and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee. The source contains reliable information,
and is objective, with the goal of educating the reader about autism and vaccines.
This source is useful because it puts a number on the ratio of children with autism, and it is from
a reliable source. It will be used to explain a little bit about what autism is and how it affects a
person, as well as the portion that they included about antigens. It has changed the way I think
about my source in the terms of antigens, and what they do in a vaccine.
Ross, Casey. “Andrew Wakefield Appearance at Trump Inaugural Ball Triggers Social Media Backlash.” STAT,
21 Jan. 2017.
In the news article from STAT, they look at Andrew Wakefield’s appearance at Donald Trump’s
inaugural ball and what that could mean. A reason for concern among many is the video that Andrew
released at the ball where he called for an overhaul of the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, wanting to shake it up and make dramatic changes within. He had a meeting with
Trump in the summer where he “found him to be sympathetic to his cause.” Another person that
he has met with recently that is a vaccine skeptic is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He said that he would
be “chairing a new federal panel on vaccine safety. Both of these events have caused public stir
and raised questions as to whether the Trump administration will start another anti vaccine movement.
It also gives us a look into what Andrew Wakefield has been up to more recently, such as
directing the movie “Vaxxed” which “strikes a paranoid tone about the medical industrial complex
and alleges and an array of conspiracies to promote vaccines,” or his book where he frames
himself as the good guy and truth teller.
In comparison with my source titled MERCURY & VACCINES from Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s
site, I found out that he is pro vaccinations, and believes that they save millions of lives. I also
learned that he wrote the book Thimerosal: Let The Science Speak which “exposes the danger-
May 31, 2017 TIME 47

ous - -and wholly unnecessary -- use of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in vaccines
being given to millions of children and pregnant women here and around the world.” Since he
did not state that thimerosal causes autism in this introduction, it would be fair to say that his role
on the vaccine panel would be for the good of the people and their safety. But, later on he goes
to say that “Thompson, who is still employed at CDC, says that for the past decade his superiors
have pressured him and his fellow scientists to lie and manipulate data about the safety of the
mercury-based preservative thimerosal to conceal its causative link to a suite of brain injuries,
including autism.” Even after this he says that the “best science suggests that thimerosal’s complete
removal from vaccines is likely to prompt a significant decline in autism.” This is what
raises concerns about what effect Kennedy could have if the panel were created under the Trump
administration.
This source is helpful and will be used to look at what the Trump administration is possibly
doing and what that means for the public. It is also helpful as it looks at what Andrew Wakefield
is doing, and the role that he could possibly play in shaping the vaccine debate for a second
time. We also get to see what role Robert Kennedy could play in this debate if he were indeed to
chair a new federal panel on vaccine safety which would be about a dozen people, seeing as he
is a vaccine skeptic, that would raise public concern. If this subject were to advance more, it is
possible that I could follow up and look at, in depth, what the panel would do and the effect on
vaccines it would have.
Schuchat, Anne. “Science Summary: CDC Studies on Thimerosal in Vaccines.” Center for Disease Control and
Prevention. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
In this source from CDC that is a summary of the studies on thimerosal in vaccines. This is a
compilation of nine studies that each, in some way, show that thimerosal is non toxic in vaccines
and is instead just a preservative that has been used for decades to prevent contamination. They
look at thimerosal exposure in the womb, infancy, early life, and longtime exposure, as well as
the effects within children’s flu shots, neurodevelopmental disorders, certain health outcomes,
and the outcomes with and without thimerosal. The last case in the table compared the outcomes
with and without thimerosal in 1992 in Denmark and Sweden, when they stopped giving thimerosal
vaccines. In comparison with the autism rates in both countries before removal, they found
an increase in autism rates in the years between 1987 and 1999. If the claim that the vaccines are
the cause of autism were true, then the rates in the study should have gone down, which they did
48 TIME May 31, 2017

not.
In comparison with A Population-Based Study of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella Vaccination and
Autism, I found that they both have a population study in Denmark in the 1990s. When CDC
mentions this in the chart, it is paired with Sweden and looked at before and after results of when
they stopped using thimerosal in vaccines. They found that autism rates increased, and came
to the conclusion that thimerosal exposure was not the cause of autism. The other study was a
retrospective follow-up study of all children that were born in Denmark from 1991-1998. They
established this from data from the Danish Civil Registration system. It was designed to “evaluate
the suggested link between MMR vaccination and autism.” Both came to the conclusion that
there was “strong evidence against the hypothesis that MMR vaccination causes autism.”
This source is useful as it compiled nine studies on the effect that thimerosal has to determine
the toxicity of it. This shapes my argument as the studies cover a wide range of what they were
looking at and yet each came to a similar conclusion. It shows that even through a wide range of
years and looking with and without the vaccine, they were able to determine that thimerosal is
nontoxic, and is a beneficial preservative within vaccines, and in no way what so ever linked to
causing autism. This changed the way that I think about my paper by the broad spectrum that the
nine cases cover, which is almost every angle that critics try and use.
Wachtler, Mark. “MMR Vaccine Causes Autism - Leaked CDC Research Proves It.” Whiteout Press, 28 Aug.
2014.
In this source title MMR Vaccine causes Autism - leaked CDC Research Proves it by Mark
Wachtler states that in 2014, whistleblowers uncovered evidence of decades of government
coverups on vaccines. He says that this CDC whistleblower has a study proving MMR vaccines
cause autism, but is silenced by the CDC, and have even “changed his research results, lied to the
American people about the vaccine-autism evidence, and have withheld the details from Congress
for over a decade now.” He mentions that back in 2013 the “courts quietly confirm MMR
Vaccine causes Autism” and awarding monetary damages to parents of autistic children who sued
vaccine manufacturers. Also that Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s definitive link between the vaccine
and autism, even though his overall study was “discredited for other reasons” his evidence that
he discovered in his case was irrefutable. The source also mentions Natural News and the arti-
May 31, 2017 TIME 49

cles that it published exposing the link, and this is one source that I referenced earlier, and says
that the Institute of Medicine review has been wrong in the past and has reversed some previous
statements. Finally it talks about how 2004 was “the watershed year in the MMR-autism debate”
because when former Florida US Rep David Weldon went after the CDC and IOM for declaring
that the vaccine is safe even though “there was so much mounting evidence that it is not.”
In comparison with Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism from CDC, we learn that no link is shown
and in the 2011 Institute of Medicine report over eight vaccines that were given to children and
adults, that with rare exception, the vaccines were very safe. The study looked at a number of
antigens from vaccines during the first two years of a child’s life, and they found that the amount
of antigen was the same in children with and without autism. Thimerosal, which was the focus of
the leaked research and the mentioned studies, has been proven by a scientific review conducted
by IOM as well as nine CDC funded studies that all found no link with thimerosal to autism. The
source is extremely biased, and the goal is to prove that vaccines cause autism by refuting all the
main evidence against it, and challenging the decision in the Wakefield case. Nevertheless, I am
using it because it is necessary to address the opponent’s argument.
This source is helpful as it references two sources that I compared to, and it is an argument on
vaccines published in 2014, even after the Wakefield study was retracted, and his career was ruined.
It can be used in conjunction with my article from Rao, so that his anti-Wakefield argument
can shut down part of this sources claim. Mark changed the way that I think about my argument
because I wasn’t that aware that someone would challenge the Wakefield retraction, even after
most of those who worked on the study voted to retract it, the newspaper that published it retracted
it saying that there was no link, and all of the scientific studies that backed this up, as well as
the court cases.
Wakefield, Andrew. “RETRACTED: Ileal-lymphoid-nodular Hyperplasia, Non-specific Colitis, and Pervasive
Developmental Disorder in Children.” The Lancet, Elsevier, 28 Feb. 1998.
In Andrew Wakefields retracted article, he published his research about the findings from research
on 12 children ages 3-10 who were referred to a paediatric gastroenterology unit. He
found associated gastrointestinal disease and developmental regression in this group of children,
and it was linked to environmental triggers, vaccines. Eleven children showed chronic inflammation
of the colon. Behavioural disorders such as autism were found in nine children, disintegra-
50 TIME May 31, 2017

tive psychosis in one child, and possible postviral or vaccinal encephalitis in two children. Two
tables are attached in this article, and the first tells me that there were 11 males and 1 female in
the study.
This source is useful because it provides one of the counter arguments for why mmr vaccines
cause autism. This compares with my source by T.S. Rao, in that Rao contradicts everything said
in Wakefield’s article. One example of this is the contradiction in Wakefield’s case series that
suggested that MMR vaccines led to behavioral regression and pervasive developmental disorder
in children, and Rao proves this false by citing evidence of epidemiological studies that were
conducted and published after the case study that refuted the link between MMR vaccines and
autism. Rao also mentions the small sample size of the experiment, the uncontrolled design and
how speculative the conclusions of the study were, which further support the epidemiological
studies. Rao mentions that Wakefield was found guilty of deliberate fraud, and the Lancet retracted
the study saying that “several elements in the paper were incorrect, contrary to findings of the
earlier investigation.” The information is not reliable, and I know this because the article was retracted,
but it is necessary to understand the counterclaim for my argument. The writing is biased
and subjective, and the goal of the source is to prove that mmr vaccines cause autism through the
research that they conducted.
This source fits into my research by providing one counter argument. This will be used in my
research by advancing details in other sources that disprove or contradict this information. It is
important to see the other side of the argument, and even though that this is retracted, it was the
leading reason in the past as to why some people believed that MMR vaccines caused autism.
This will be used in the same section as the article by T.S. Rao, which is the main article that I
have which contradicts this. This is actually the article that lead me to finding the one by Rao.
Wright, Bob. “No MMR-Autism Link in Large Study of Vaccinated Vs. Unvaccinated Kids.” Autism Speaks,
20 Apr. 2015.
In this source from Autism Speaks, an organization based in the United States with the goal
of educating the public about autism. The source talks about the largest study of about 95000
children, they came to the conclusion that mmr vaccines did not increase risk for autism spectrum
disorder, and this proved true in the children that were considered to be at a high risk for
the disorder. More than 15000 of those children were unvaccinated and between the ages of 2 to
May 31, 2017 TIME 51

5. Almost 2000 kids in the study were considered to have a high risk for autism before the study
was conducted. Concerns over what does cause autism is one explanation for why the vaccination
rates in families that have an older child with the disorder have dropped off. The vaccination
rates found in this study were 84% at age two, and 92% by age five in a family without older
sibling with autism. But the results were different when the child has an older sibling who has
autism, the vaccination rate was 73% at age two and 86% at age five, a 11% and 6% gap. Out of
all the participants in the study, about 1% or 994 participants were diagnosed with autism in the
study’s follow-up period. Those who had an older sibling with autism about 7% or 134 participants
developed autism. These results are consistent with earlier studies conducted on the subject.
This source is useful because it provides data from the largest study conducted to my knowledge
of the subject. The information is reliable as it comes from Autism Speaks, a leading organization
in their field. This information is objective, and the goal of the source is to educate the
readers about the case results and what that means about MMR vaccines, and it proves that the
vaccines do not cause autism, like many in the past and present speculate. The source compares
to my other source, titled “Time Trends in Autism and in MMR Immunization Coverage in California”
which also came to the same conclusion that there was no correlation between childhood
MMR immunization rates and those with autism. It is a good source to compare to because it is
similar in design but on a smaller scale. Participants were children born in 1980-1994 and enrolled
in California kindergartens. Both are population studies that also consulted immunization
records. They found 208 cases of autism within 100,000 live births in 1994, and Autism Speaks
found a similar number of 994 out of 95,727 during the study’s follow-up period. The conclusion
in both source is that there is no association between MMR vaccines and autism.
This source will fit into my research in either my narration or confirmation. This source is helpful
to me because it is scientific evidence from a well know organization that’s main focus is on
autism. It can also fit partially into refutation because of the shear size of the study and how that
makes the conclusion that much harder to deny. I will use the data from their research, as well as
their conclusion to back up my point that autism is not caused by vaccines. This has changed the
way that I think about my topic because of the evidence backing their statement, so it isn’t just a
biased claim with absolutely nothing to support it.
52 TIME May 31, 2017

May 31, 2017
TIME

TIME May 31, 2017

May 31, 2017
TIME

Fig Doucleff, Michaeleen. “How Vaccine Fears Fueled The Resurgence Of Preventable Diseases.” NPR. NPR, 25 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 May 2017.
2 TIME May 31, 2017
Fig 34:“L’eradicació De Malalties Gràcies a Les Vacunes.” Blog EAP Navàs-Balsareny. N.p., 28 Oct. 2016. Web. 31 May 2017.