Review
In January 2025, a study was published in an online journal of 47,155 nine-year-old children, which reported that vaccination was associated with significantly increased odds for all measured “neurodevelopmental disorders,” including autism spectrum disorder.1
Apart from autism, the included diagnoses were hyperkinetic syndrome, epilepsy or seizures, learning disability, encephalopathy, and tic disorders.
For autism, there was a dose-response relationship. The more vaccinations a child had received, the greater the risk of autism, compared to children who had not been vaccinated. Children with just one vaccination visit were 1.7 times more likely to have been diagnosed with autism than the unvaccinated (95% confidence interval 1.21 to 2.35) whereas those with 11 or more visits were 4.4 times more likely to have been diagnosed with autism than the unvaccinated (2.85 to 6.84).
The authors discuss various limitations of their study but not the most important one, which is one that makes their study unreliable. The more often people visit a doctor, the greater the risk that they will get a diagnosis that many of us could get if we went to see a doctor. Moreover, the authors mentioned that African Americans comprised the largest group of unvaccinated children, thereby demonstrating that they did not compare like with like. People who don’t get vaccinated at all are unlikely to see a doctor much for other issues.
The diagnostic criteria for autism and ADHD (formerly called hyperkinetic syndrome) are vague, and false positive diagnoses are therefore very common. At a dinner in my house, we discussed this and I tested my wife, daughter, her very laid-back boyfriend and myself with the test for adult ADHD,2 and we all tested positive.
It is also wrong to say that ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder. It is just a name for a collection of symptoms that lie at one end of the normal distribution for such symptoms.3
I agree with the authors that the overall impact of the vaccination schedule on children’s health has been left unexplored. I am aware of only two researchers who have studied this.4 They did several studies and found that nations that require more vaccines for their infants have higher mortality rates in small children. This is alarming and should lead to other studies as a matter of urgency. Since observational studies will always be confounded, we need large randomized trials comparing few vaccinations with many.
Misinformation about vaccines
There is a huge amount of misinformation about vaccines, not only in social media, but also in scientific articles and in information from the authorities including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration.5,6
In the USA, the misinformation is particularly pronounced.5,6Antivaccine circles celebrate one of the worst fraudsters in medical history,5 Andrew Wakefield, as a hero.5 He published a study in The Lancet claiming that the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) caused autism.7 This claim has been debunked in the most reliable observational studies,5,8 and a cohort study from Denmark is particularly persuasive.9
Since the authors of the new study claimed that vaccines can cause autism,1 I decided to investigate who funded them and who they are. This was revealing.
Who funded the study?
The study was funded by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC). As several commentators have pointed out, this name is misleading as it gives people the impression that it is a governmental body. For example, the United States Department of Health and Human Services has an advisory body named the National Vaccine Advisory Committee.
Who are the authors?
The authors, Anthony R. Mawson and Binu Jacob, declared that they have no conflicts of interest. They come from the Chalfont Research Institute, Jackson, Mississippi. I have not been able to find much about this institute, apart from it having assets of $465 in 2021.10 Another website noted that they were “seeking investors to help develop a patented electronic device for treating pressure and diabetic ulcers and other chronic wounds.”11 Such devices for such disorders never work. The idea is to maintain tissue oxygenation.
Conclusions
The paper by Mawson and Jacob should be forgotten.
Disclosures, Funding & Conflicts of Interest
None.
Affiliation:
Peter C Gøtzsche, Professor emeritus, Institute for Scientific Freedom, Copenhagen, DK
Correspondence:
References
Mawson AR, Jacob B. Vaccination and neurodevelopmental disorders: a study of nine-year-old children enrolled in Medicaid. Science, Public Health Policy, and the Law 2025; v6.2019-2025:January.
Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale-V1.1 (ASRS-V1.1) Symptoms Checklist from WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview; 2003.
Gøtzsche PC. Deadly psychiatry and organised denial. Copenhagen: People’s Press; 2015.
Goldman GS, Miller NZ. Reaffirming a positive correlation between number of vaccine doses and infant mortality rates: a response to critics. Cureus 2023;15:e34566.
Gøtzsche PC. Vaccines: truth, lies, and controversy. New York: Skyhorse; 2021.
Gøtzsche PC. The Chinese virus: Killed millions and scientific freedom. Copenhagen: Institute for Scientific Freedom; 2022 (freely available).
Wakefield AJ, Murch SH, Anthony A, et al. Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, nonspecific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. Lancet 1998;351:637-41.
Taylor LE, Swerdfeger AL, Eslick GD. Vaccines are not associated with autism: an evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies. Vaccine 2014;32:3623-9.
Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, et al. A population-based study of measles,
mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism. N Engl J Med 2002;347:1477–82.
Chalfont Research Institute | 990 Report.
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