Emotional Correlation Between Vaccines and Autism

There is no doubt that vaccine-autism advocates are scientifically incorrect.  Not a single scientific study shows a correlation between vaccines and autism, and numerous studies demonstrate that the risk of injury from vaccination is far lower than the risk of disease from being unvaccinated.  But is it accurate to call vaccine-autism advocates scientifically illiterate, or ignorant?  After all, these individuals probably have done much more “research” on a scientific topic than most other individuals have.  What do the tendencies of vaccine-autism advocates to ignore scientific evidence, yet believe Jenny McCarthy, teach you as a science writer?

While there are numerous advocates that draw connections between childhood vaccinations and autism, these advocates have little scientific evidence on which to stand. There are numerous scientific articles which display evidence that is to the contrary, essentially saying that there is no correlation between vaccination and the onset of autism. Yet still, there are citizens all over the country who still follow Jenny McCarthy's preaching religiously, that vaccines do, in fact, cause autism, even with no scientific backing. 

This phenomenon speaks to the notion that just because scientific evidence exists, does not mean that people will accept it, or even read it. Jenny McCarthy has built herself a following comprised mainly of parents of autistic children who believe that their children are autistic because of vaccinations. In reality, this cannot have been a difficult following to raise, due to the tendency of all people to find a scapegoat for their problems. When parents find out that their child is autistic, they are extremely emotionally vulnerable because they have just found out that their life and their child's life will never be completely "normal" by most social standards. At this point of emotional vulnerability, parents will be looking for a reason. They will be asking, "why me? Why my child? Who did this?" and things of this nature. This is the point at which they may turn on the television and see McCarthy sitting with a panel of researchers who may or may not know what they are talking about, discussing the terrible affects of vaccinating children, i.e. autism. 

With so much scientific evidence to the contrary, parents must cling to this vaccination theory on an emotional level rather than a factual one. If they were trusting of the facts and sought them out, McCarthy's followers would understand that many major medical and scientifically respected organizations agree that there is no link between autism and vaccination. According to a WebMD special report, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, the World Health Organization, and the Institute of Medicine are all in agreement about the nonexistence of this connection. This article speaks a great deal to the idea in this blog post that the connection many people hold onto about vaccination is based in emotions rather than evidence. These emotions are causing scientists to start getting involved and conduct more research, which usually is not fruitful in terms of finding a connection. For further reading about this, please see the article mentioned above.