Deception: The Vaccine-Autism Link Dates to Leo Kanner in 1943, Not Wakefield in 1998

The story of how vaccines came to be questioned as a cause of autism dates back to the first paper describing autism in 1943.

The story that the public has been told that vaccines came to be questioned as a cause of autism, by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 is wrong.

“The story of how vaccines came to be questioned as a cause of autism dates back to the 1990s. In 1995, a group of British researchers published a cohort study in the Lancet showing that individuals who had been vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine (MMR) were more likely to have bowel disease than individuals who had not received MMR. One of these researchers was gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, MD, who went on to further study a possible link between the vaccine and bowel disease by speculating that persistent infection with vaccine virus caused disruption of the intestinal tissue that in turn led to bowel disease and neuropsychiatric disease (specifically, autism).”

The History of Vaccines, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

1943
In his disorder defining paper “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact,” published in Nervous Child in 1943, Leo Kanner of Johns Hopkins University included the first report of vaccine induced autistic regression. In Kanner’s case series describing the first 11 children documented to have the disorder, case number 3, “Richard M.” is reported by his mother to have begun his developmental regression following a smallpox vaccination. From the paper:

“Case 3. Richard M. was referred to the Johns Hopkins Hospital on February 5, 1941, at 3 years, 3 months of age, with the complaint of deafness because he did not talk and did not respond to questions.” “Following smallpox vaccination at 12 months, he had an attack of diarrhea and fever, from which he recovered in somewhat less than a week.” “In September, 1940, the mother, in commenting on Richard’s failure to talk, remarked in her notes: I can’t be sure just when he stopped the imitation of words sounds. It seems that he has gone backward mentally gradually for the last two years.”

The timeline of Richard M, according to Kanner, is as follows:

• November 1937 – Richard is born.
• November 1938 – Richard is vaccinated with the Smallpox vaccine.
• September 1940 – Richard’s mother reports that his developmental regression began approximately two years previous, the autumn of 1938 around age 1.
• February 1941 – Richard is referred to Johns Hopkins for evaluation, and in 1943, becomes the third child to be diagnosed as “autistic” by Leo Kanner. Kanner publishes Richard’s medical history in his disorder defining paper, the first paper published on autism, 55 years before Wakefield and his team.

Yet Wakefield et. al. included parental reports of vaccine induced regression in their 1998 paper, “Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children” in the Lancet in 1998, and are credited (or blamed) with originating the discussion on vaccine induced autism.

Despite the fact that the 55 year old discussion had been developed, published on, and the subject of official HHS inquiries, before anyone ever knew the name Wakefield.

In the 40s and 50s, the Freudians were in command of the narrative on childhood mental health, and maternal rejection of the child was asserted as the source of the rare disorder. This was the case until Bernard Rimland, Ph. D. ended the supremacy of the unfounded and misogynistic theory, launching the era of medical investigation into the origins of autism in the 1960s.

1976
In March of 1976, in Germany, Eggers published, “Autistic Syndrome (Kanner) and Vaccination Against Smallpox” wherein he described that:

“3-4 weeks following an otherwise uncomplicated first vaccination against smallpox a boy, then aged 15 months and last seen at the age of 5 1/2 years, gradually developed a complete Kanner syndrome. The question whether vaccination and early infantile autism might be connected is being discussed. A causal relationship is considered extremely unlikely. But vaccination is recognized as having a starter function for the onset of autism.”

Klin Padiatr. 1976 Mar;188(2):172-80

1991
By the opening of the 1990s the vaccine-autism causation discussion was so widespread that the Institute of Medicine was including it in their reports on vaccine safety funded by the National Institutes of Health, published by the National Academy of Sciences and edited by none other than Harvard’s Harvey Fineberg:

“Parents have come to depend on vaccines to protect their children from a variety of diseases. Some evidence suggests, however, that vaccination against pertussis (whooping cough) and rubella (German measles) is, in a small number of cases, associated with increased risk of serious illness. This book examines the controversy over the evidence and offers a comprehensively documented assessment of the risk of illness following immunization with vaccines against pertussis and rubella. Based on extensive review of the evidence from epidemiologic studies, case histories, studies in animals, and other sources of information, the book examines: The relation of pertussis vaccines to a number of serious adverse events, including encephalopathy and other central nervous system disorders, sudden infant death syndrome, autism, Guillain-Barre syndrome, learning disabilities, and Reye syndrome. The relation of rubella vaccines to arthritis, various neuropathies, and thrombocytopenic purpura. The volume, which includes a description of the committee’s methods for evaluating evidence and directions for future research, will be important reading for public health officials, pediatricians, researchers, and concerned parents.”

Adverse Effects of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines: A Report of the Committee to Review the Adverse Consequences of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines.

Editors
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee to Review the Adverse Consequences of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines; Howson CP, Howe CJ, Fineberg HV, editors.

Source
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1991.
The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health.

The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health.

1998
Andrew Wakefield, according to the current false narrative and revisionist history pushed by mainstream medicine and their media partners, magically erases 55 years of medical literature and discovers the vaccine-autism causation theory for the first time, in much the same way that Christopher Columbus “discovered” the Americas, half a millennium or so after the Vikings had become regular visitors to the shores of New England and Nova Scotia.

Wakefield simply did what Kanner did in 1943. Took patient histories, and included parental reports in a paper.

CURRENT YEAR
The scientific record on vaccine autism causation began with the scientific record on autism, and extends to today. The vaccine industry narrative that Wakefield was the beginning and end of the plausibility of vaccine induced autism theory is deception. There are more than 150 papers connecting vaccines and autism via epidemiology and describing the mechanisms by which vaccines can cause autism via bench science:

“Mainstream research has found that vaccines and their ingredients can cause the underlying medical conditions that committed physicians and researchers are commonly finding in children who have been given an autism diagnosis. These conditions include gastrointestinal damage, immune system impairment, chronic infections, mitochondrial disorders, autoimmune conditions, neurological regression, glial cell activation, interleukin-6 secretion dysregulation, brain inflammation, damage to the blood–brain barrier, seizures, synaptic dysfunction, dendritic cell dysfunction, mercury poisoning, aluminum toxicity, gene activation and alteration, glutathione depletion, impaired methylation, oxidative stress, impaired thioredoxin regulation, mineral deficiencies, impairment of the opioid system, endocrine dysfunction, cellular apoptosis, and other disorders.”

157 Research Papers Supporting Vaccine/Autism Causation
Ginger Taylor, MS

The deception in the vaccine industry is so deep, that it has rewritten history. Few in the medical field have ever seen or heard this information. Do not be fooled.