Given recent events involving vaccines and people who dispute their safety, it seems like a good time to remind readers of the plethora of evidence on the topic. Baylor College of Medicine professor Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and co-editor-in-chief of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, thinks so, too, and in a recent Speaking of Science piece, he spelled out the key papers showing that vaccines do not cause autism.
Before providing nine links, he described his credentials as a vaccine expert and then explained:
But I’m also a father of four children, including my adult daughter Rachel who has autism and other mental disabilities. These two parts of my life place me at an interesting nexus in a national discussion of autism and vaccines. My position is firm: there is no link and I also believe there is no plausibility to such a link...
It's a good piece to have handy, especially as (in Hotez's words) "the antivaxxer movement is growing in strength and momentum."
Previously: Vaccines in California: Stanford health policy researcher weighs in, A discussion of vaccines, “the single most life-saving innovation ever in the history of medicine”, A national health challenge: How the anti-vaccine movement threatens us all and It's over: No MMR vaccine-autism connection
Image by metsi
