This post is a follow-up to my recent post about measles and MMR vaccine. The purpose of this post is to compare the risk of adverse effects from the MMR vaccine to other risks that we take with our children every day.
Annual Deaths of children under 18
In the US 37,000 children under the age of 18 die every year. In 2022, the last year for which we have complete data, 604 children were killed in automobile accidents. This figure includes those killed as passengers, walking to school or in their neighborhoods, or riding their bicycles. Here is a table from the New England Journal of Medicine showing the most common causes of death of children since 1999.
As you can see from the graph, motor vehicle deaths of children have gone down significantly since 1999, but are still the second leading cause of death in children. Firearm injuries have now surpassed motor vehicle deaths as the leading cause of death in children.
All of these risks are small, the highest being 4.5 deaths per 100,000 Children. These are risks we take with our children every day. There is a risk when they ride in your car. There is a risk when they walk in their neighborhoods. There is a risk when they ride their bicycles. There is a risk that they will be killed by a mass murderer when they go to school. The risks of adverse reactions to vaccines are actually lower than the risks that we take with our children every day. Adverse reactions to vaccines almost never kill children
Deaths of children due to MMR vaccine
There have been only two documented deaths due to MMR vaccine in the 62 years it has been available. Both of these deaths were in children with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome (SCIDS). You may remember a movie about a child with this syndrome. It was called “The Boy in the Bubble.” These children should never have received a live virus vaccine, such as MMR.
MMR Vaccine and Autism
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the current head of HHS, has contended that MMR vaccine causes autism. There was a paper published by Andrew Wakefield in the medical journal, the Lancet, that studied 12 children and concluded that MMR vaccine was linked to autism. It was later discovered that he had falsified his results and the paper was retracted by the Lancet. This discredited paper, plus another one by the same author are still cited by people, including our current head of HHS, as evidence that MMR vaccine causes autism.
Study by Brent and Taylor
Brent and Taylor and colleagues examined the records of 498 children with autism. Cases were identified before and after MMR vaccine became available in the UK. They compared the incidence of autism in vaccinated and unvaccinated children and found no difference.
Study by Madsden and Colleagues
Madsden and colleagues did one one of the best and most rigorous studies. The study included 537,303 children representing 2,129,864 person-years of study. Approximately 82% of children had received the MMR vaccine. The risk of autism in the group of vaccinated children was the same as that in unvaccinated children. Furthermore, there was no association between the age at the time of vaccination, the time since vaccination, or the date of vaccination and the development of autism.
Other studies
Many other well designed studies have shown no association between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Bottom Line
We daily accept small risks of injury and death of our children. There are no activities involving children that are without some risk. The risks of MMR vaccine side effects (or any other vaccine) are no larger than the risks we take with our children every day. See my last post for a list of possible side effects of MMR vaccine. Severe side effects of MMR vaccine are very rare. When given appropriately to children with normal immune systems, death is not one of the risks. The one study by Andrew Wakefield that showed a connection with MMR vaccine and autism was shown to be fraudulent and was retracted. Multiple well designed studies have definitively shown that MMR vaccine does not cause autism.