Dr. Harvey Karp, pediatrician and child development specialist at the UCLA School of Medicine, was interviewed in June 2009 regarding whether there is a plausible connection between autism and vaccinations. The recording and an edited transcript of his interview, along with other information regarding vaccinations, can be found here.
Vaccinations have been modified in light of increasing autism diagnoses. Mercury in vaccines was thought to trigger autism, but Dr. Karp states that, while 95 % of mercury was removed from vaccines in 2002, autism rates have continued to rise. Similarly, a popular idea was that the measles, mumps, and German measles (MMR) shot caused autism, but recent Dutch and Japanese studies have found no differences in autism risk for those children who did and did not receive the immunization.
There is no clinical evidence linking autism and vaccinations. Dr. Karp states that, in light of these “dozens of studies examining over a million children [that have] failed to find any credible association between shots and autism,” he knows of “no plausible pathophysiologic pathway to link vaccines to autism.”
Regarding the rise in incidence of autism, Karp argues for promotion of childhood disease registries that will help to determine the true incidence of autism. Changes in how delays are labeled may make it appear that more children are being diagnosed with autism, but a recent California Department of Heath study has provided evidence for an actual rise in incidence.
Karp states as well that “The National Children’s Study will establish over 100 study centers across the United States to test the blood of 100,000 newborns for scores of synthetic chemicals,” which may shed some light on causes of autism.