Why do people think the MMR vaccine causes autism?
In 1998 Dr. Andrew Wakefield a doctor in experimental gastroenterology at Londons Royal Free Hospital published a study in which he hypothesized that the MMR vaccine may cause autism. According to Wakefield after inoculation with the MMR vaccine the measles virus infects the bowels of certain children and this leads to a leaky gut that allows the passage of opiate-like peptides into the blood. Once they reach the brain CNS development is stalled due to the peptides depressive effect. This study caused a panic in many parents and caused many of them to forgo vaccinating their children leading to an increased risk for epidemic in the entire population. In addition there is a temporal correlation between the age of onset of autism and the time that children usually receive the first dose of the MMR vaccine. Both the onset of autism and the first dose of the MMR vaccine occur between 18 to 24 months. However the temporal correlation does not mean that there is a causal relationship between
