Javier Cárdenas, radio presenter and broadcaster, said last Wednesday in his Europa FM radio show, "Stand Up and Cardenas," that the vaccines were responsible for more and more cases of autism.
Pediatricians, pharmacists, representative entities of autism in Spain and vaccine experts immediately denied their words and the clamor in social networks was swift. And it is terrible and alarming that a broadcaster with more than a million listeners, continues to spread the hoax that vaccines cause autism
Unfortunate statements that have outraged a lot
From the microphone of his radio program, Javier Cárdenas made the following statements (you can listen to them from 3:04:45):
“Autism has become an epidemic (…) Something is being done wrong, sure, from a vaccination point of view (…). Many hold this theory based on important facts: that they have heavy metals that children cannot absorb (...).
But cases have increased by 78% in the last 10 years and obviously have not increased by chance (...) Do we have to wait a long time to act? (...) The children are born, they are like other totally normal children and when time passes, especially after the first vaccines, that ordeal begins for so many families (...) So something is happening and I do not understand how it is not really investigated (...) "
Javier Cárdenas is not a doctor. Neither scientist. No expert on childhood vaccines. He is a radio broadcaster who every morning addresses an audience of more than one million people.
And when you are a public character and your statements have an impact, as long as they are said through a means of communication, you have to know what is being said.
Cárdenas does not understand how “not really investigated”The relationship between vaccines and autism, from which it follows that it is completely uninformed, since This bulo was denied long ago by the medical and scientific community.
Vaccines do not cause autism
The false theory emerged in 1998, following a study by British doctor Andrew Wakefiedl and published in The Lancet. Over time, it was discovered that the information had been manipulated by what Wakefield was expelled by the British Medical General College and the magazine deleted its publication.
Since that time, there have been many investigations that have been done regarding this issue.
And currently, the international scientific and medical community asserts, unanimously, that there is no evidence that relates to vaccination with autismA subsequent study, conducted in 2015 to 95,000 children with autistic siblings, determined that even in these cases where there is a greater risk due to the genetic factor, a relationship between vaccination and autism can be established.
Metals such as thimerosal containing some vaccines and acting as preservatives, they were in the spotlight of the anti-vaccine movements. WHO indicates the following in this regard:
“WHO, and in particular its Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS), an advisory group of independent experts, have carefully examined for more than 10 years the scientific data on the use of thiomersal as a vaccine preservative.
The GACVS has repeatedly reached the same conclusion, namely that there is no evidence that the amount of thiomersal used in vaccines poses a health risk. Other groups of experts (the Institute of Medicine and the Academy of Pediatrics of the USA, the Committee of Safety of the Medicines of the United Kingdom and the European Agency of Medicines) have reached similar conclusions ”
Even so, as a preventive measure it was decided to withdraw thimerosal from some vaccines, and the scientific studies that were carried out later demonstrated, once again, that There is no relationship between vaccine metals and autism.
The doctor, Federico Martinón Torres, Chief of Clinical Pediatrics at the Hospital de Santiago and one of the greatest experts in vaccines and infections in our country, is blunt in his statement to the newspaper El País:
“I wish vaccines were the cause of autism! Because then we would have identified the origin of a problem of great relevance and we could remedy it. I cannot offer an alternative explanation to the problem of autism, but we are certain that it has no relation to vaccines. ”
The main associations of the autistic spectrum in Spain They also wanted to express their rejection of Cárdenas' words through statements that have been viralized on Twitter and other social networks:
The 3 most representative associations of Autism in Spain give Mr. Cárdenas a kick in the mouth. via @paula_canarias pic.twitter.com/90SBIfWbNF
- Pepo Jiménez (@kurioso) June 8, 2017
Why do autism cases continue to increase?
For doctors and scientists the answer is clear: before, the diagnoses were confused with problems of intellectual disability and it was not until 1980 when autism began to be studied as an independent disorder.
The international community continues to investigate autism and its causes but if one thing has become clear it is that There is no relationship between the appearance of this disorder and childhood vaccination.
The Spanish Association of Pediatrics, the Spanish Association of Vaccination and WHO, among many other national and international organizations, warn of the dangers of not vaccinating children.
And, Mr. Cárdenas: vaccines save livesIStock photos
In Babies and More It is confirmed that vaccines are not related to autism, The truth about the Wakefield case in comics, Fraud that related vaccines and autism, Autism continues to grow despite eliminating mercury-derived compounds in vaccines, WHO again warns of dangerous myths about vaccination
