In a small, sleepy corner of Arizona in August 1994, a child who seemed wholly ordinary was born. Her parents named her Michelle. At sixteen months, the toddler was hit with a 106-degree fever. Soon afterwards, she began talking noticeably less. By her third birthday, hundreds of quiet days later, Michelle’s physician suspected she might have a cognitive disorder. Visits to a neurologist and a developmental psychologist confirmed this suspicion: Michelle was diagnosed with severe autism. Thinking back on her medical history, searching for signs and grasping for causes, her parents remembered the fever. Michelle had burned up shortly after the day she received her first measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Today, one in 110 children has an autism spectrum disorder, a ten-fold increase from the 1980s. Scientists usually credit this rise to a growing awareness of autism, with more cases today being recognized and labeled as such. Autism’s causes are still not thoroughly understood, but the idea that vaccines are to blame has recently seeped into society: the MMR vaccine has been widely used in the United States since the 1970s, making its rise coincide with the autism toll.
In his fast-paced non-fiction account, Seth Mnookin confronts the debate over whether or not childhood vaccines, specifically MMR, can cause autism. He develops Michelle’s story as a main example of the misunderstanding that has resulted. Despite a growing body of reliable studies that have found no relation between the two, a quarter of American parents cling onto the idea that vaccinating their children is the wrong choice. With more families electing not to vaccinate, we are seeing the re-emergence of viruses, such as like pertussis, that had very nearly been eradicated. Full Review »