Biological Plausibility of Vaccine-Induced Autism

Veterinarians found out years ago that in many cases they were over-immunizing our pets, a syndrome they call ”vaccinosis.” It overwhelmed the immune system of the animals, causing myriad physical and neurological disorders. SafeMinds asserts there is much evidence demonstrating the biological plausibility of vaccines can induce autism and other chronic syndromes. The exact mechanisms of vaccine-induced autism are not understood. There is much evidence of immune-system dysregulation and toxic interruption of key developmental chemical processes in autism, and it is plausible that vaccines (and the toxins they contain) could be involved.

Several major components of vaccines have been shown in research to be individually capable of causing damage to brain and other organs. Synergistic toxicity has not yet been studied.

Vaccines can include these major components:

  • Antigens – the disease-causing bacteria or virus for which the vaccine is designed to provide immunity. Antigens can be dead or can be attenuated (live but weakened such that the virus shouldn’t typically cause the disease that the vaccine is intended to provide immunity for). It is well-established that several antigens (e.g. measles virus, Hepatitis B virus, etc) can cause damage to the brain and other organs. There is evidence that the combination of different live viruses in vaccines can have a synergistic toxic effect.  Read Dan Olmsted's Age of Autism article:  Autism Explosion Followed Big Change in MMR. 

  • Aluminum Adjuvant – aluminum salts such as aluminum hydroxide are used to elicit a strong immune response at the injection site so that the body will then build the antibodies to the antigen (bacteria or virus). Aluminum hydroxide is a known neurotoxin that has been linked to brain neuron death in animals.  See 2007 Gulf War Illness study on mice.

  • Endotoxins – Toxins created by bacteria for protection. Some bacteria, such as pertussis (whooping cough), create these toxins during the vaccine manufacturing process. The DTaP vaccine was developed to replace the DPT vaccine in the mid-1990s because the manufacturing process for DTaP filters out more of these endotoxins. In a 10-year Canada study that was published in 2008, the timing of administration of the DPT/DTaP vaccine was shown to be linked to asthma. The data in the study implies that a delay in administration of this vaccine from 2/4/6 months to 6/8/10 months could have avoided 56% of asthma cases corresponding to 8 out of every 100 children in the study. Read Age of Autism article.

  • Preservative: the ethylmercury-based preservative called thimerosal is used as a preservative during the manufacturing process of some vaccines, and then most of the thimerosal is filtered out before final packaging of the vaccines. Additionally, up to 25 mcg of thimerosal per vaccine dose is still included as a preservative in most flu vaccines and also vaccines given to children above the age of 5. Ethylmercury (thimerosal) has been linked to brain damage in animal studies.

The Generation Rescue website provides a good overview of the many concerns that SafeMinds shares regarding autism and vaccines.

References on plausibility of mercury-in-vaccines link to autism:

References on plausibility of aluminum-in-vaccines link to autism:

References on plausibility of link between antigens or endotoxins in vaccines and autism: