As someone who follows the science of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, the list of factors involved in the changes to energy production and neurologic dysfunction echoed a lot of the findings in the ME patient population. I have long thought there are some biological similarities between these patient groups.
The more we know, the better for both groups of patients.
I believe it is also essential to study the epigenetic changes in the regions of the genome that regulate the inflammation and immune response from vaccinations. This would also fit your model, because inflammation and immune response deteriorate energy production and place demand on energy production. This can help explain the continued rise in autism as both a baseline predisposition (my parents inherited a particular epigenetic alteration and passed it onto me) and as an acute environmental stressor that taxes the energy-production process. Furthermore, the process of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance is going to compound with future generations, stacking the deck in favor of metabolic dysfunction from lesser and lesser environmental insult.
Thank you Dr Chris for all your work on this. It is refreshing to be reminded that we still have good people in healthcare that are not primarily motivated by money, but rather the desire to help others.
typo: "Sometimes five or more vaccines will be given at once. Few babies in history have otherwise ever gotten sick with five **more more** illnesses at the same time."
Thanks Chris. My daughter was born very preterm at 25 weeks last September. So far we have resisted all pressure to vaccinate her but barely. We took her to get the 6 in 1 vaccine 2 weeks ago but changed our mind in the room. We are currently planning to take her in another 2 weeks but we really are still unsure.
I am not ready to make such a decision and will likely defer until I’m in the same situation. I lean in the direction of not, because 1) most claims of the vaccine advocates are false or bizarrely exaggerated (decline in historical mortality; proven no link to autism) and 2) the efficacy research models are the most convoluted smokescreens masquerading as science I’ve ever come across. But this does not mean any given vaccine is not safe or effective. I’ll put it this way: if I were faced with the decision now, I would have to read my way down untread rabbitholes to even bring myself to consider my kid getting one of them. But I am known to go down rabbitholes.
Yes it’s such a difficult decision and we are pretty much exactly where we were 6 months ago despite a lot of reading. If not for her extreme prematurity I would probably leave it out. Then again that is a part of the reason I think it might be more harmful.
Preterm birth is a large risk-factor for autism. Both of Mawson's vaxxed-unvaxxed studies suggest that preterm birth itself may not be the issue, but rather the interaction between preterm birth and vaccination. Both studies are unreliable, but unreliable is not hte same thing as wrong. There is no good evidence to hte contrary as far as I know. One might speculate that the earliest vaccines would be hte worst offenders in that scenario. Personally, I greatly share your concern. Not vaccinating is definitely a defensible course of action that you should not feel regret about if you go that way, no matter what happens. And why shouldn't herd immunity at the very least afford some exceptions for people like you and your extremely preterm child? At the very least, delay, space out, and selectively skip.
Thanks for the comment. The doctors wanted her to get the full set of vaccinations at 8 weeks old even though she weighed less than 2 pounds then.(having been born at 1.5 pounds) We wouldn’t let them on the basis that they would give the full dosage that they would give to a 12 week old full term baby. When I asked why that would be the case for a vaccine but not any other medication they couldn’t give me an answer.
Now she is 7 months old, although gestationally only really 3 1/2 months and we are considering giving her 2 doses instead of 3 of the 6 in 1 vaccine. Only because we fear the whooping cough so much. We won’t be giving her any of the others.
I suppose my fear is that because she was born via emergency c section and also so young she will not have received the final rush of antibodies via the placenta and vaginal birth that she should have had things gone to plan.
I think your head is on straight and you are doing a great job. Whatever degree of "undervaccination" you land in will certainly be more sensible than the one-size-fits-all they have pressured you do to. Breast milk gives more than just short-lived antibodies, as it contains whole immune cells.
Jonathan, you have gotten your baby past the roughest time. Good work. Also you asked a great question about the rationale of jab dosing. I don't think that physicians can explain the dosing of any jabs, nor why to give jabs so early in life when the immune system is immature.
The vaginal birth is the plus for gut flora. Breast milk is good for supplying antibodies (molecules which don't remain forever). Then babies augment immunity by exposure, most particularly by putting stuff in their mouth all day, and sending antigens to the gut.
It is possible to divide up the jabs in order to avoid injecting your baby with multitudes of antigens and excipients all at once.
D-TaP is the kids' diptheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) 3 in 1 combo that can be given if you fear the pertussis the most. Other jabs can be given later and separately if you choose.
Many practitioners are willing to divide the jabs as much as possible, let you choose among them, and have some or all of them administered, but at different times. The 5 in 1 and 6 in 1 products, and administration schedules are for convenience, and are not established to be of equal or less risk than a divided or reduced schedule.
I would not criticize a person for refusing all of the jabs at the present time, since it is known that producers have been dishonest regarding the production, evaluation, and representation of so many of these products.
Thanks for the advice. I agree, they’ve been caught lying so many times now how can anything they say be taken as true. Unfortunately the same can be said for a lot of anti vax stuff which leaves us in this situation not know what to do to do right.
As a parent, I feel deeply for you facing this difficult decision. If you have not already, it may be helpful to spend an equal amount of time reading about the risks of the diseases themselves, divorced of any vaccination context, should your child tragically contract one or more of them, so that your opinion is fully informed to the extent current data allows.
My son was born at 27 weeks, after my water had broke at 23 weeks and I was in the antinatal unit for 1 month. Because of low amniotic fluids, his lungs were that of a 23 weeker. They gave him the hep B vaccine without my consent but I have refused every vaccine since. I focus on very good nutrition, avoiding toxins as much as possible and we stayed pretty isolated for the first year and a half. My son is 3.5 now. He’s doing quite well but his diet is a full time effort as he has histamine intolerance and moderately severe eczema. I agonized over giving him vaccines but now feel solidly a “no” as I’m pretty sure he’s got some of these inborn errors of metabolism going on. I won’t chance it. Just figured I would let you know, you are not the only one!
Children’s Health Defense just interviews a mother whose infant daughter died immediately following the 6 vaccine shot. You should watch it.
My twins were born 6 weeks premature & the hospital wanted to vaccinate them for hep-b. When I asked “why do they need a vaccine for a disease spread through butt sex and needles directly after birth?” They could not answer, and seemed embarrassed they don’t even know. The truth is the vaccine came out before accurate testing of mothers. My wife not drug addicted prostitute helps.
You’ll find most of these vaccines like whooping cough & tetanus were developed before advent of modern antibiotics & are fully treatable as they are rare. Same with measles. Just don’t slack on noticing symptoms & know treatments. Doctors don’t know.
She’s premature, which means injecting 6(!) different kind of pathogens mixed with a bunch of chemicals and god-knows-what impurities will most likely not improve her health. Assuming the opposite just because, seems like madness.
"The prevalence of IMDs among ASD individuals has been estimated in different studies, ranging from 0.7% to 2.7% [22,23,24]. However, the true prevalence of IMDs among ASD patients has been speculated to be higher [25], corroborating the finding of more than 30% of ASD individuals having some form of metabolic derangement by Spilioti et al. [24]. Furthermore, more than 50% of the IMDs present with neurodevelopmental symptoms, and ASD primarily being a neurodevelopmental disorder, the rational investigation of ASD individuals for probable IMDs is appropriate, especially in communities with a high level of consanguinity [26,27,28].”
Excellent summary, Chris. Completely agree that it is genetics + environment... and that vaccines are certainly the most glaring source of environmental insult during those early development stages.
I’m curious what your conclusions are practically speaking. For example, I don’t know if you have or plan to have kids but if you did:
1. Would you not vaccinate them at all?
2. Would you only vaccinate them with some but not other vaccines?
3. Would you vaccinate them but only outside the onset windows?
4. Would you vaccinate only after identifying they have no genetic predisposition or metabolic issues? (Or only after addressing them with interventions first)
5. A combination of the above?
In other words, given whatever your current conclusions are baring new information, what would your practical recommendations be In theory?
Chris: I respect you, but everything here is off base except for the weak discussion of vaccines. You must catch up because this is the fight of our lifetimes, the stakes are our future, and we need your help. Please scan these two posts:
345. IT IS HARD TO GROK* HOW EVIL VACCINES ARE, PART 1
Not just the Amish but other people with smart parents who have known forever how dangerous shots of every kind are! Also there are people who still live in traditional cultures like the Hunzas (in up mountain Pakistan) and other cultures that Weston A Price went to visit in the early 1920s-40s! You might read Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and/or call the Price.org office and Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond.
Great info that needs to be more mainstream! Interesting that some countries are actually looking at errors in metabolism. Doctors desperately need to learn this!
IMHO, Allopathic doctors need more nutrition than they get in medical and dental school. Two-four full years on top of medical education would be the minimum!
Vaccines are a red herring. The only reason people believe there is a correlation is the timing of the vaccines; ie, they occur frequently during the time people begin to notice symptoms of autism.
I have two children, a son age 23 and a daughter age 8. My son is autistic. He was not vaccinated until he was 16 (when he chose to be vaccinated); he never even had antibiotics, painkillers (no Tylenol) or that Vitamin K shot. Nada.
My daughter had her vaccinations up to age 2 1/2, when we decided to do a delayed schedule for the rest to allow her to feel safe at the doctor (she hated being touched/talked to by them, and the shots were traumatizing in their own right). She is also autistic.
I was diagnosed in my early 40s. My father and mother both have symptoms; I suspect they are both on the spectrum, as well.
My kids have different fathers; my son's father is not autistic, but my daughter's father is.
Now, what I will say is that my son also has Optic Nerve Hypoplasia and Grey Matter Heterotopia, while my daughter only had a tongue/lip tie. They both have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos, as do I, which you should add to your research because it greatly increases the incidence of autism when the mother has EDS (even if she is not diagnosed with autism). During my pregnancy with my son, I was raw vegan almost the entire time (except for the 7th month, when my body demanded 2 pounds of salmon steak a day, but it was too late by that point). I believe nutrient deficiencies caused his ONH/GMH, combined with exposure to toxins (I lived in NYC and took long soaks in a tub with layers of chipped paint), as hEDS causes poor skin and gut barrier integrity. I found out a few years ago I have one MTHFR variant and don't convert beta carotene to Vitamin A very well, so I need preformed Vitamin A. I also don't absorb nonheme iron very well and even eating meat, I require heme iron supplements (Proferrin) to stay in a good place.
All this is to say, yes...it's genetic, both the autism and the sensitivity to environmental toxins and improper nutrition. If there's any possible link to vaccines, I believe it could be the traumatic nature of receiving the shots; traumatic incidents can precipitate worsening of negative symptoms of autism. We are sensitive folks, and being held down by authority figures & people we trust and painfully stabbed is traumatizing for us.
I appreciated your thoughtful exploration of potential mechanisms contributing to autism risk. In other contexts, I have found your ideas on inborn errors of metabolism and synergistic heterozygosity especially compelling.
In order to justifiably support your thesis, I believe it is necessary to directly address the strongest arguments against any relationship between vaccines and autism. I would be very interested to read how you are thinking about these points.
1. Ecological Studies Across Countries
Countries with very different vaccine schedules have similar autism rates.
Japan: Stopped using MMR in 1993. Autism rates continued to rise.
If MMR or vaccine burden were a major cause, we'd expect a major drop in autism after withdrawing or changing vaccine programs.
Canada: Different provinces vary in vaccination schedules — some more aggressive, some milder — yet autism rates have risen relatively uniformly.
This suggests that vaccine quantity or schedule timing is not a factor in autism incidence.
2. Highly Scaled Studies
Large, well-powered studies provide additional context.
Denmark Study (Madsen et al., 2002, NEJM): 537,303 children; no increased risk of autism after MMR vaccination.
Follow-up (Hviid et al., 2019, Annals of Internal Medicine): 657,461 children with updated diagnostic criteria; again, no association found.
These studies had huge sample sizes and statistical power to detect even small effects from vaccination, including the proposed "last straw" argument.
3. Meta-Analyses
Broad aggregations of data offer another perspective.
Taylor et al., 2014 (Vaccine journal): Meta-analysis of over 1.25 million children; no relationship found between vaccination (including MMR and thimerosal) and autism.
Demicheli et al., 2012 (Cochrane Review): Systematic review; similarly found no evidence supporting an increased autism risk.
Meta-analyses help address potential limitations of individual studies, such as sample size or publication bias.
4. Case-Control Studies
Some research has specifically examined whether cumulative immune stimulation from vaccines is associated with autism risk.
CDC-sponsored Study (DeStefano et al., 2013, Journal of Pediatrics):
Compared 256 autistic children with 752 matched controls, assessing total antigen exposure from vaccines by age two.
Found no significant differences in antigen exposure between autistic and non-autistic children.
While this study specifically assessed cumulative antigen exposure rather than other potential metabolic stressors, the absence of any association between greater immune stimulation and autism incidence adds to the broader evidence that vaccines are unlikely to be a major contributor to the rise in autism prevalence.
5. Temporal Association ≠ Causation
Apparent temporal proximity between vaccination and autism symptom onset may reflect underlying developmental timing rather than causality.
The 12–24 month window is a critical period for observable behavioral changes, regardless of vaccination, and coincides with the typical timing of multiple developmental milestones.
Prospective studies that follow children from birth — thereby avoiding recall bias — have found that early signs of autism often precede vaccination events.
This highlights the challenge of interpreting timing patterns.
6. Observations on Unvaccinated Populations
It may be helpful to consider whether peer-reviewed studies exist that systematically compare autism rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated children while rigorously controlling for confounders.
Potential challenges to be considered:
• Confounding by parental behavior: Families who decline vaccines may also differ in healthcare engagement, affecting diagnosis rates.
• Selection bias: Unvaccinated populations may not represent the general population.
• Surveillance bias: Reduced healthcare interaction could lead to underdiagnosis.
The Denmark study for example offers absolutely nothing insightful here. MMR studies are totally useless as they are comparing MMR versus the three monovalent vaccines.
If you can isolate out the best findings comparing 1) total vaccine burden between 1st trimester and end of 3rd year of life, and 2) timing of the burden, especially its concentration in pregnancy and first 14 months of life, especially those looking at 3) people who have not been vaccinated for anything, wherever possible, then I will take a look.
But right now you are repeating the standard "canon" of evidence that "vaccines don't cause autism," most of which is driven by select pet hypotheses about specific types of vaccines or specific vaccine ingredients and is therefore irrelevant from the core model described here.
To be clear, Dr. Masterjohn, I was not attempting to simply repeat the standard arguments. I was asking how you're thinking about them relative to your claims.
Based on your article, it seems your model is intended to explain at least part of the net increase in autism prevalence over the last several decades. If so, then population-level evidence seems highly relevant. While I understand that earlier studies focused narrowly on specific vaccines or vaccine ingredients, later large cohort studies and meta-analyses have assessed overall vaccination status and autism outcomes across large, diverse populations.
Given the size and power of these datasets, the absence of any detectable risk increase still seems important to engage with when evaluating vaccines as a proposed environmental driver of rising autism rates.
If vaccine-related stressors were a significant contributor to triggering autism in genetically vulnerable individuals at a meaningful rate, wouldn't we expect these studies to detect some population-level signal? Wouldn't we also expect to see differences in autism trends between regions with different vaccine burdens?
I would still be very interested to hear how you are thinking about this.
I am asking you to rewrite your original comment but pare it down to only include the data directly relevant to the model. If you could specifically cite the relevant studies with a brief comment on how they fulfill the criteria that would be a good starting place.
I want to understand why you do not view the convergence of multiple large, independent studies/observations as relevant to your model. If the answer is that this narrow hypothesis remains untested, this seems like conceding it cannot explain the rise in autism prevalence.
When many independent lines of evidence converge on the same basic conclusion, that convergence is generally considered meaningful, even if the studies were not designed perfectly around a new hypothesis.
If vaccine-related stressors were a significant contributor to triggering autism, wouldn't we expect some population-level signal? Wouldn't we expect differences between regions?
When I was half way through your comment, about 90% of it was irrelevant by your own description.
I do not have time to endlessly read and catalogue the details of many irrelevant studies.
I cited the 2014 meta-analysis that included most such information up to that date and pointed out that none of the studies looked at the total vaccine burden or the timing of the vaccine burden. I explained why the large Danish study is irrelevant -- it was looking at MMR versus monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella.
So what I am asking you to do if you think I am missing critical information is to dismiss all of this irrelevant information, such as the Danish study, and sift out for me the most critical information that directly addresses my model.
That is, throw out everything comparing specific subtypes of vaccines or vaccine ingredients and find only those studies that look at total vaccine burden or timing of vaccine burden relative to developmental timing of autism pathogenesis, and preferably include studies that look at people who have never vaccinated for anything.
I believe the biological mechanism you propose is plausible in rare, narrow cases.
However, there is a logical difficulty: if the model is meant to explain population-level changes, then convergence of large, independent studies showing no link between vaccination and autism becomes highly relevant — and this is why.
The aggregated body of evidence asks, 'Is there a correlation?' and the answer was 'No'. 'They're studying the wrong thing' misses the point, because when independent studies converge on a null result, even across imperfect designs, it strongly constrains the plausibility of major effects. If a correlation were found, then we could look for a causation mechanism like yours. No link means there's nothing to explain.
The "universal exposure" masking effect you mention (putting something in the water) doesn't fully apply to vaccines; statistical models can detect small differences even when exposure is common. If vaccines had even a moderate effect size, it should show up anyway.
Large epidemiological studies (DeStefano 2013, Taylor 2014, Hviid 2019) comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children, sometimes even examining timing and antigen exposure (DeStefano 2013) consistently find no autism difference.
By the way, the Madsen "large Danish" study compared children who received the MMR vaccine to children who did not receive the MMR vaccine, not MMR vs monovalent vaccines.
If the model applies only to rare cases without population-level effect, its explanatory scope is highly limited, a limitation not clearly reflected in the article’s tone and structure.
Don't really want ot get on my soap box at the moment, but the observational studies are globally unreliable. Some say autism and some say not autism, and people interpret the data like a Rorschach test. Plus the data is flatly incomplete with major gaps habing never been studied. There is extensive data on people who are at elevated risk of autism having lower vaccination rates. This screws pretty much all the studies they absurdly use to say "vaccines do not cause autism". Who talks like that? Responsible scientists say thing like "favors the conclusion", etc. Even this current article reported on a study that actually suggest a slightly lower MMR receipt rate of those with inborn metabolic errors. If those errors predict autism, that is yet another tiny selection bias that adds to the rest.
Appreciate your engagement. Can you share examples of studies that do show a link between autism and vaccines? I would like to learn more about that body of work to continue informing my beliefs.
Regarding why the community definitely states "vaccines do not cause autism", I think it's because it has become politicized. I think they are speaking to people who are in general less scientifically literate than anyone here who is following Chris Masterjohn. Although you are correct within scientific communities, "favors the conclusion" opens the door to grifters trying to make a buck off people's fears. There is big a difference between scientific discussion between experts and public health messaging.
It's dishonest and/or incompetent to say "vaccines do not cause autism, period". The CDC is not communicating to hte public so much as they are to doctors who are the ones communicating to the public.
Make sure to click on Peer Reviews tab to see the authors' defense of their study. I will also be submitting a response to this journal momentarily.
There is also one hep B at birth study floating around that says autism.
None of these studies are reliable. But people quickly jump from unreliable to "wrong" or "trash science", etc. A lot could be said in defense of these studies. Until there is better data, these remain highly concerning.
As a public school teacher on the frontlines in Oregon, I’m experiencing this epidemic in real time. This year we have 3-6 kids with high functioning ASD in every class (28 kids to a class).We only can afford aides in grades 1-3. These kids are verbal, however most are significantly compromised neurologically, academically, socially, emotionally and quite sickly with weak immune function, rampant allergies and G.I. disorders. Poor executive function and emotional self regulation in every instance. Teachers are scrambling to meet all the needs in the class. This is madness. There must be
some powerful environmental influences interacting with the genes in utero and infancy to be raising the incidence so dramatically. Not sustainable for schools. Please continue your work, Chris! We must isolate these triggers.
so what happened in 1995 to shift genetics and the environment to cause autism rates to increase? where is the Amish data? Why hasn't the Amish population vanished from the earth because of vaccine treated diseases? In the end we still don't have Vaxx/unvaxx Double blinded RCT's. until that happens on a grand scale we wont get the answer. True placebos need to be used not other vaccines posing as palcebos. Saying (as some have postulated at CHOP) we dont know what causes it but it's not vaccines couldn't be more unscientific without the actual data to prove it.
As someone who follows the science of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, the list of factors involved in the changes to energy production and neurologic dysfunction echoed a lot of the findings in the ME patient population. I have long thought there are some biological similarities between these patient groups.
The more we know, the better for both groups of patients.
I believe it is also essential to study the epigenetic changes in the regions of the genome that regulate the inflammation and immune response from vaccinations. This would also fit your model, because inflammation and immune response deteriorate energy production and place demand on energy production. This can help explain the continued rise in autism as both a baseline predisposition (my parents inherited a particular epigenetic alteration and passed it onto me) and as an acute environmental stressor that taxes the energy-production process. Furthermore, the process of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance is going to compound with future generations, stacking the deck in favor of metabolic dysfunction from lesser and lesser environmental insult.
Thank you Dr Chris for all your work on this. It is refreshing to be reminded that we still have good people in healthcare that are not primarily motivated by money, but rather the desire to help others.
typo: "Sometimes five or more vaccines will be given at once. Few babies in history have otherwise ever gotten sick with five **more more** illnesses at the same time."
Thanks Chris. My daughter was born very preterm at 25 weeks last September. So far we have resisted all pressure to vaccinate her but barely. We took her to get the 6 in 1 vaccine 2 weeks ago but changed our mind in the room. We are currently planning to take her in another 2 weeks but we really are still unsure.
I am not ready to make such a decision and will likely defer until I’m in the same situation. I lean in the direction of not, because 1) most claims of the vaccine advocates are false or bizarrely exaggerated (decline in historical mortality; proven no link to autism) and 2) the efficacy research models are the most convoluted smokescreens masquerading as science I’ve ever come across. But this does not mean any given vaccine is not safe or effective. I’ll put it this way: if I were faced with the decision now, I would have to read my way down untread rabbitholes to even bring myself to consider my kid getting one of them. But I am known to go down rabbitholes.
Yes it’s such a difficult decision and we are pretty much exactly where we were 6 months ago despite a lot of reading. If not for her extreme prematurity I would probably leave it out. Then again that is a part of the reason I think it might be more harmful.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Preterm birth is a large risk-factor for autism. Both of Mawson's vaxxed-unvaxxed studies suggest that preterm birth itself may not be the issue, but rather the interaction between preterm birth and vaccination. Both studies are unreliable, but unreliable is not hte same thing as wrong. There is no good evidence to hte contrary as far as I know. One might speculate that the earliest vaccines would be hte worst offenders in that scenario. Personally, I greatly share your concern. Not vaccinating is definitely a defensible course of action that you should not feel regret about if you go that way, no matter what happens. And why shouldn't herd immunity at the very least afford some exceptions for people like you and your extremely preterm child? At the very least, delay, space out, and selectively skip.
Thanks for the comment. The doctors wanted her to get the full set of vaccinations at 8 weeks old even though she weighed less than 2 pounds then.(having been born at 1.5 pounds) We wouldn’t let them on the basis that they would give the full dosage that they would give to a 12 week old full term baby. When I asked why that would be the case for a vaccine but not any other medication they couldn’t give me an answer.
Now she is 7 months old, although gestationally only really 3 1/2 months and we are considering giving her 2 doses instead of 3 of the 6 in 1 vaccine. Only because we fear the whooping cough so much. We won’t be giving her any of the others.
I suppose my fear is that because she was born via emergency c section and also so young she will not have received the final rush of antibodies via the placenta and vaginal birth that she should have had things gone to plan.
I think your head is on straight and you are doing a great job. Whatever degree of "undervaccination" you land in will certainly be more sensible than the one-size-fits-all they have pressured you do to. Breast milk gives more than just short-lived antibodies, as it contains whole immune cells.
Jonathan, you have gotten your baby past the roughest time. Good work. Also you asked a great question about the rationale of jab dosing. I don't think that physicians can explain the dosing of any jabs, nor why to give jabs so early in life when the immune system is immature.
The vaginal birth is the plus for gut flora. Breast milk is good for supplying antibodies (molecules which don't remain forever). Then babies augment immunity by exposure, most particularly by putting stuff in their mouth all day, and sending antigens to the gut.
It is possible to divide up the jabs in order to avoid injecting your baby with multitudes of antigens and excipients all at once.
D-TaP is the kids' diptheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) 3 in 1 combo that can be given if you fear the pertussis the most. Other jabs can be given later and separately if you choose.
Many practitioners are willing to divide the jabs as much as possible, let you choose among them, and have some or all of them administered, but at different times. The 5 in 1 and 6 in 1 products, and administration schedules are for convenience, and are not established to be of equal or less risk than a divided or reduced schedule.
I would not criticize a person for refusing all of the jabs at the present time, since it is known that producers have been dishonest regarding the production, evaluation, and representation of so many of these products.
It's a sad state of affairs.
Thanks for the advice. I agree, they’ve been caught lying so many times now how can anything they say be taken as true. Unfortunately the same can be said for a lot of anti vax stuff which leaves us in this situation not know what to do to do right.
Keeping kids out of daycare & large group settings is best way to avoid infection as well.
Yea we’ve pretty much been living like it’s 2020 again for the last 7 months
Having read this I am inclined not to take her.
As a parent, I feel deeply for you facing this difficult decision. If you have not already, it may be helpful to spend an equal amount of time reading about the risks of the diseases themselves, divorced of any vaccination context, should your child tragically contract one or more of them, so that your opinion is fully informed to the extent current data allows.
My son was born at 27 weeks, after my water had broke at 23 weeks and I was in the antinatal unit for 1 month. Because of low amniotic fluids, his lungs were that of a 23 weeker. They gave him the hep B vaccine without my consent but I have refused every vaccine since. I focus on very good nutrition, avoiding toxins as much as possible and we stayed pretty isolated for the first year and a half. My son is 3.5 now. He’s doing quite well but his diet is a full time effort as he has histamine intolerance and moderately severe eczema. I agonized over giving him vaccines but now feel solidly a “no” as I’m pretty sure he’s got some of these inborn errors of metabolism going on. I won’t chance it. Just figured I would let you know, you are not the only one!
Good for you!
Children’s Health Defense just interviews a mother whose infant daughter died immediately following the 6 vaccine shot. You should watch it.
My twins were born 6 weeks premature & the hospital wanted to vaccinate them for hep-b. When I asked “why do they need a vaccine for a disease spread through butt sex and needles directly after birth?” They could not answer, and seemed embarrassed they don’t even know. The truth is the vaccine came out before accurate testing of mothers. My wife not drug addicted prostitute helps.
You’ll find most of these vaccines like whooping cough & tetanus were developed before advent of modern antibiotics & are fully treatable as they are rare. Same with measles. Just don’t slack on noticing symptoms & know treatments. Doctors don’t know.
She’s premature, which means injecting 6(!) different kind of pathogens mixed with a bunch of chemicals and god-knows-what impurities will most likely not improve her health. Assuming the opposite just because, seems like madness.
I’m hardly assuming the opposite ‘just because’.
"The prevalence of IMDs among ASD individuals has been estimated in different studies, ranging from 0.7% to 2.7% [22,23,24]. However, the true prevalence of IMDs among ASD patients has been speculated to be higher [25], corroborating the finding of more than 30% of ASD individuals having some form of metabolic derangement by Spilioti et al. [24]. Furthermore, more than 50% of the IMDs present with neurodevelopmental symptoms, and ASD primarily being a neurodevelopmental disorder, the rational investigation of ASD individuals for probable IMDs is appropriate, especially in communities with a high level of consanguinity [26,27,28].”
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/14/4/803
Excellent summary, Chris. Completely agree that it is genetics + environment... and that vaccines are certainly the most glaring source of environmental insult during those early development stages.
I’m curious what your conclusions are practically speaking. For example, I don’t know if you have or plan to have kids but if you did:
1. Would you not vaccinate them at all?
2. Would you only vaccinate them with some but not other vaccines?
3. Would you vaccinate them but only outside the onset windows?
4. Would you vaccinate only after identifying they have no genetic predisposition or metabolic issues? (Or only after addressing them with interventions first)
5. A combination of the above?
In other words, given whatever your current conclusions are baring new information, what would your practical recommendations be In theory?
I for one will not vax my kids unless absolutely necessary. Know the diseases, symptoms, & treatments and you’ll know what to do.
Chris: I respect you, but everything here is off base except for the weak discussion of vaccines. You must catch up because this is the fight of our lifetimes, the stakes are our future, and we need your help. Please scan these two posts:
345. IT IS HARD TO GROK* HOW EVIL VACCINES ARE, PART 1
https://robertyoho.substack.com/p/345-it-is-hard-to-grok-how-evil-vaccines?utm_source=publication-search
PART 2
https://robertyoho.substack.com/p/how-to-grok-pharma-evil-part-2-vaers
Best and thanks for what you do...
AMEN, Brother Yoho!
Thanks Chris. Can we learn anything from Unvax populations like the Amish?
There are three papers on unvaccinated people cited.
Not just the Amish but other people with smart parents who have known forever how dangerous shots of every kind are! Also there are people who still live in traditional cultures like the Hunzas (in up mountain Pakistan) and other cultures that Weston A Price went to visit in the early 1920s-40s! You might read Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and/or call the Price.org office and Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond.
I have a feeling he’s familiar with the work of Weston Price.
I know Chris is but I don't know anybody else on the podcast!
Ah. Got it. Smart.
Great info that needs to be more mainstream! Interesting that some countries are actually looking at errors in metabolism. Doctors desperately need to learn this!
IMHO, Allopathic doctors need more nutrition than they get in medical and dental school. Two-four full years on top of medical education would be the minimum!
Vaccines are a red herring. The only reason people believe there is a correlation is the timing of the vaccines; ie, they occur frequently during the time people begin to notice symptoms of autism.
I have two children, a son age 23 and a daughter age 8. My son is autistic. He was not vaccinated until he was 16 (when he chose to be vaccinated); he never even had antibiotics, painkillers (no Tylenol) or that Vitamin K shot. Nada.
My daughter had her vaccinations up to age 2 1/2, when we decided to do a delayed schedule for the rest to allow her to feel safe at the doctor (she hated being touched/talked to by them, and the shots were traumatizing in their own right). She is also autistic.
I was diagnosed in my early 40s. My father and mother both have symptoms; I suspect they are both on the spectrum, as well.
My kids have different fathers; my son's father is not autistic, but my daughter's father is.
Now, what I will say is that my son also has Optic Nerve Hypoplasia and Grey Matter Heterotopia, while my daughter only had a tongue/lip tie. They both have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos, as do I, which you should add to your research because it greatly increases the incidence of autism when the mother has EDS (even if she is not diagnosed with autism). During my pregnancy with my son, I was raw vegan almost the entire time (except for the 7th month, when my body demanded 2 pounds of salmon steak a day, but it was too late by that point). I believe nutrient deficiencies caused his ONH/GMH, combined with exposure to toxins (I lived in NYC and took long soaks in a tub with layers of chipped paint), as hEDS causes poor skin and gut barrier integrity. I found out a few years ago I have one MTHFR variant and don't convert beta carotene to Vitamin A very well, so I need preformed Vitamin A. I also don't absorb nonheme iron very well and even eating meat, I require heme iron supplements (Proferrin) to stay in a good place.
All this is to say, yes...it's genetic, both the autism and the sensitivity to environmental toxins and improper nutrition. If there's any possible link to vaccines, I believe it could be the traumatic nature of receiving the shots; traumatic incidents can precipitate worsening of negative symptoms of autism. We are sensitive folks, and being held down by authority figures & people we trust and painfully stabbed is traumatizing for us.
Dr. Masterjohn,
I appreciated your thoughtful exploration of potential mechanisms contributing to autism risk. In other contexts, I have found your ideas on inborn errors of metabolism and synergistic heterozygosity especially compelling.
In order to justifiably support your thesis, I believe it is necessary to directly address the strongest arguments against any relationship between vaccines and autism. I would be very interested to read how you are thinking about these points.
1. Ecological Studies Across Countries
Countries with very different vaccine schedules have similar autism rates.
Japan: Stopped using MMR in 1993. Autism rates continued to rise.
If MMR or vaccine burden were a major cause, we'd expect a major drop in autism after withdrawing or changing vaccine programs.
Canada: Different provinces vary in vaccination schedules — some more aggressive, some milder — yet autism rates have risen relatively uniformly.
This suggests that vaccine quantity or schedule timing is not a factor in autism incidence.
2. Highly Scaled Studies
Large, well-powered studies provide additional context.
Denmark Study (Madsen et al., 2002, NEJM): 537,303 children; no increased risk of autism after MMR vaccination.
Follow-up (Hviid et al., 2019, Annals of Internal Medicine): 657,461 children with updated diagnostic criteria; again, no association found.
These studies had huge sample sizes and statistical power to detect even small effects from vaccination, including the proposed "last straw" argument.
3. Meta-Analyses
Broad aggregations of data offer another perspective.
Taylor et al., 2014 (Vaccine journal): Meta-analysis of over 1.25 million children; no relationship found between vaccination (including MMR and thimerosal) and autism.
Demicheli et al., 2012 (Cochrane Review): Systematic review; similarly found no evidence supporting an increased autism risk.
Meta-analyses help address potential limitations of individual studies, such as sample size or publication bias.
4. Case-Control Studies
Some research has specifically examined whether cumulative immune stimulation from vaccines is associated with autism risk.
CDC-sponsored Study (DeStefano et al., 2013, Journal of Pediatrics):
Compared 256 autistic children with 752 matched controls, assessing total antigen exposure from vaccines by age two.
Found no significant differences in antigen exposure between autistic and non-autistic children.
While this study specifically assessed cumulative antigen exposure rather than other potential metabolic stressors, the absence of any association between greater immune stimulation and autism incidence adds to the broader evidence that vaccines are unlikely to be a major contributor to the rise in autism prevalence.
5. Temporal Association ≠ Causation
Apparent temporal proximity between vaccination and autism symptom onset may reflect underlying developmental timing rather than causality.
The 12–24 month window is a critical period for observable behavioral changes, regardless of vaccination, and coincides with the typical timing of multiple developmental milestones.
Prospective studies that follow children from birth — thereby avoiding recall bias — have found that early signs of autism often precede vaccination events.
This highlights the challenge of interpreting timing patterns.
6. Observations on Unvaccinated Populations
It may be helpful to consider whether peer-reviewed studies exist that systematically compare autism rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated children while rigorously controlling for confounders.
Potential challenges to be considered:
• Confounding by parental behavior: Families who decline vaccines may also differ in healthcare engagement, affecting diagnosis rates.
• Selection bias: Unvaccinated populations may not represent the general population.
• Surveillance bias: Reduced healthcare interaction could lead to underdiagnosis.
You're citing too many irrelevant studies.
The Denmark study for example offers absolutely nothing insightful here. MMR studies are totally useless as they are comparing MMR versus the three monovalent vaccines.
If you can isolate out the best findings comparing 1) total vaccine burden between 1st trimester and end of 3rd year of life, and 2) timing of the burden, especially its concentration in pregnancy and first 14 months of life, especially those looking at 3) people who have not been vaccinated for anything, wherever possible, then I will take a look.
But right now you are repeating the standard "canon" of evidence that "vaccines don't cause autism," most of which is driven by select pet hypotheses about specific types of vaccines or specific vaccine ingredients and is therefore irrelevant from the core model described here.
To be clear, Dr. Masterjohn, I was not attempting to simply repeat the standard arguments. I was asking how you're thinking about them relative to your claims.
Based on your article, it seems your model is intended to explain at least part of the net increase in autism prevalence over the last several decades. If so, then population-level evidence seems highly relevant. While I understand that earlier studies focused narrowly on specific vaccines or vaccine ingredients, later large cohort studies and meta-analyses have assessed overall vaccination status and autism outcomes across large, diverse populations.
Given the size and power of these datasets, the absence of any detectable risk increase still seems important to engage with when evaluating vaccines as a proposed environmental driver of rising autism rates.
If vaccine-related stressors were a significant contributor to triggering autism in genetically vulnerable individuals at a meaningful rate, wouldn't we expect these studies to detect some population-level signal? Wouldn't we also expect to see differences in autism trends between regions with different vaccine burdens?
I would still be very interested to hear how you are thinking about this.
I am asking you to rewrite your original comment but pare it down to only include the data directly relevant to the model. If you could specifically cite the relevant studies with a brief comment on how they fulfill the criteria that would be a good starting place.
I want to understand why you do not view the convergence of multiple large, independent studies/observations as relevant to your model. If the answer is that this narrow hypothesis remains untested, this seems like conceding it cannot explain the rise in autism prevalence.
When many independent lines of evidence converge on the same basic conclusion, that convergence is generally considered meaningful, even if the studies were not designed perfectly around a new hypothesis.
If vaccine-related stressors were a significant contributor to triggering autism, wouldn't we expect some population-level signal? Wouldn't we expect differences between regions?
Brandon,
When I was half way through your comment, about 90% of it was irrelevant by your own description.
I do not have time to endlessly read and catalogue the details of many irrelevant studies.
I cited the 2014 meta-analysis that included most such information up to that date and pointed out that none of the studies looked at the total vaccine burden or the timing of the vaccine burden. I explained why the large Danish study is irrelevant -- it was looking at MMR versus monovalent vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella.
So what I am asking you to do if you think I am missing critical information is to dismiss all of this irrelevant information, such as the Danish study, and sift out for me the most critical information that directly addresses my model.
That is, throw out everything comparing specific subtypes of vaccines or vaccine ingredients and find only those studies that look at total vaccine burden or timing of vaccine burden relative to developmental timing of autism pathogenesis, and preferably include studies that look at people who have never vaccinated for anything.
I believe the biological mechanism you propose is plausible in rare, narrow cases.
However, there is a logical difficulty: if the model is meant to explain population-level changes, then convergence of large, independent studies showing no link between vaccination and autism becomes highly relevant — and this is why.
The aggregated body of evidence asks, 'Is there a correlation?' and the answer was 'No'. 'They're studying the wrong thing' misses the point, because when independent studies converge on a null result, even across imperfect designs, it strongly constrains the plausibility of major effects. If a correlation were found, then we could look for a causation mechanism like yours. No link means there's nothing to explain.
The "universal exposure" masking effect you mention (putting something in the water) doesn't fully apply to vaccines; statistical models can detect small differences even when exposure is common. If vaccines had even a moderate effect size, it should show up anyway.
Large epidemiological studies (DeStefano 2013, Taylor 2014, Hviid 2019) comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children, sometimes even examining timing and antigen exposure (DeStefano 2013) consistently find no autism difference.
By the way, the Madsen "large Danish" study compared children who received the MMR vaccine to children who did not receive the MMR vaccine, not MMR vs monovalent vaccines.
If the model applies only to rare cases without population-level effect, its explanatory scope is highly limited, a limitation not clearly reflected in the article’s tone and structure.
Don't really want ot get on my soap box at the moment, but the observational studies are globally unreliable. Some say autism and some say not autism, and people interpret the data like a Rorschach test. Plus the data is flatly incomplete with major gaps habing never been studied. There is extensive data on people who are at elevated risk of autism having lower vaccination rates. This screws pretty much all the studies they absurdly use to say "vaccines do not cause autism". Who talks like that? Responsible scientists say thing like "favors the conclusion", etc. Even this current article reported on a study that actually suggest a slightly lower MMR receipt rate of those with inborn metabolic errors. If those errors predict autism, that is yet another tiny selection bias that adds to the rest.
Hi David,
Appreciate your engagement. Can you share examples of studies that do show a link between autism and vaccines? I would like to learn more about that body of work to continue informing my beliefs.
Regarding why the community definitely states "vaccines do not cause autism", I think it's because it has become politicized. I think they are speaking to people who are in general less scientifically literate than anyone here who is following Chris Masterjohn. Although you are correct within scientific communities, "favors the conclusion" opens the door to grifters trying to make a buck off people's fears. There is big a difference between scientific discussion between experts and public health messaging.
It's dishonest and/or incompetent to say "vaccines do not cause autism, period". The CDC is not communicating to hte public so much as they are to doctors who are the ones communicating to the public.
Thomas 2022
https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/new-study-from-ipak-results-shows
Mawson 2017
https://www.oatext.com/Pilot-comparative-study-on-the-health-of-vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-6-to-12-year-old-U-S-children.php
Mawson 2025
https://publichealthpolicyjournal.com/vaccination-and-neurodevelopmental-disorders-a-study-of-nine-year-old-children-enrolled-in-medicaid/
Here is a debate about the above study:
https://publichealth.realclearjournals.org/external-article-reviews/2025/03/open-peer-review-of-vaccination-and-neurodevelopmental-disorders-a-study-of-nine-year-old-children-enrolled-in-medicaid/
Make sure to click on Peer Reviews tab to see the authors' defense of their study. I will also be submitting a response to this journal momentarily.
There is also one hep B at birth study floating around that says autism.
None of these studies are reliable. But people quickly jump from unreliable to "wrong" or "trash science", etc. A lot could be said in defense of these studies. Until there is better data, these remain highly concerning.
Thank you for this excellent article. Thank you for making it free.
As a public school teacher on the frontlines in Oregon, I’m experiencing this epidemic in real time. This year we have 3-6 kids with high functioning ASD in every class (28 kids to a class).We only can afford aides in grades 1-3. These kids are verbal, however most are significantly compromised neurologically, academically, socially, emotionally and quite sickly with weak immune function, rampant allergies and G.I. disorders. Poor executive function and emotional self regulation in every instance. Teachers are scrambling to meet all the needs in the class. This is madness. There must be
some powerful environmental influences interacting with the genes in utero and infancy to be raising the incidence so dramatically. Not sustainable for schools. Please continue your work, Chris! We must isolate these triggers.
Wow. I think we had three special needs kids in my school when I was that age.
so what happened in 1995 to shift genetics and the environment to cause autism rates to increase? where is the Amish data? Why hasn't the Amish population vanished from the earth because of vaccine treated diseases? In the end we still don't have Vaxx/unvaxx Double blinded RCT's. until that happens on a grand scale we wont get the answer. True placebos need to be used not other vaccines posing as palcebos. Saying (as some have postulated at CHOP) we dont know what causes it but it's not vaccines couldn't be more unscientific without the actual data to prove it.