Women getting a flu shot while pregnant doesn’t result in their unborn babies contracting autism. That is the conclusion of researchers who published a study last month in JAMA Pediatrics.
According to NPR, smaller studies studied certain health problems pregnant women contracted while pregnant showing a link to serious viral infections and maternal fever. However, the new manuscript reveals no such association, but scientists still think additional research is needed.
This study examined the health records of 196,929 children who were born at Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California between 2000 and 2010. They found that 3,101 children, or 1.6 percent, had been diagnosed with autism through June 2015.
The researchers then looked at the mothers’ health records to see if they had been diagnosed with flu while pregnant and whether they’d gotten a flu shot. Less than 1 percent of women had the flu; about 23 percent got a flu shot while pregnant, a number that rose from 6 percent in 2000 to 58 percent in 2010.
They found no correlation overall between having the flu while pregnant and increased autism risk in children.
Scientists did discover a slight risk of administering flu shots to women during the first trimester of pregnancy, but determined it was relatively minor due to the weight of evidence tested. The CDC does suggest pregnant women get flu shots since it will help protect them and their unborn children.
While researchers did not examine whether the vaccines given included thermosal, they obviously concluded the many studies done prior that found no link to the ingredient and other developmental problems, including autism already addressed that issue.
The efforts by anti-vaccine groups to undermine vaccines aren’t just attempts at undermining science, it is also an attack on mankind’s ability to use science to help preserve and protect our lives.
During January of last year, Emory University historian Elena Conis stated in an Los Angeles Times article the anti-vaccine movement itself is a direct outgrowth of the environmentalist movement. Environmentalists are friendly to anti-vaccination and it makes sense that greens have some influence if not are directly involved in anti-vaccine organizations.
The environmentalist movement’s ultimate aim is to make life on Earth a living hell for humans with the end goal of eradicating human life itself. By opposing vaccines it results in massive human suffering and even death from the diseases vaccinations and herd immunity help prevent.