MMR raises autism risk in young black boys

The group was excluded from a CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) study from 2004 that has been cited as one of the key pieces of research to demonstrate that the vaccine isn’t triggering autism.

One of the CDC researchers, Dr William Thompson, had revealed the omission to Dr Brian Hooker, a professor of biology at Simpson University, which became the catalyst for the movie Vaxxed, directed by Andrew Wakefield, who was one of the first to suggest a link.

In his analysis of all the data sets – including those left out by the CDC researchers – Dr Hooker discovered that black American boys, who had their first MMR vaccination when they were three years old, were nearly four times more likely to develop autism.

Autism rates are around 28 per cent higher among black boys and Hooker believes the original CDC study was a “huge lost opportunity” to discover the impact of the MMR vaccine on the group.

(Source: Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 2018; 23: 105-9)

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