Researchers have ditched the autism-vaccine theory. Here’s what they think actually causes it.

Genes and the microbiome are some of the most promising leads.

by Julia Belluz@juliaoftoronto julia.belluz@voxmedia.com May 11, 2017

Of all the issues doctors have explored in children’s health, none has been more exhaustively researched than the question of whether vaccines are linked to autism. After hundreds and hundreds of studies in thousands of children, “We can say with almost as much certainty than anybody could ever say that vaccines don’t cause autism,” Mayo Clinic autism researcher Dr. Sunil Mehta told me.

And yet the fear that they do remains stubbornly persistent, as a current measles outbreak in Minnesota shows. The virus is spreading among unvaccinated children — in this case, Somali-Americans in Minneapolis, after anti-vaccine advocates targeted their parents with a misinformation campaign. Now 51 people, most of them children, are very, very ill......But “of all the causes of autism, the thing we know with the greatest certainty is that it’s a very genetic disorder,” said UCSF geneticist and autism researcher Stephan Sanders. “If you look at a child with autism, then look at their siblings, you’ll find the rate of autism is 10 times higher in those siblings than in the general population. This has been looked at in populations of millions.”

Researchers first recognized the genetic underpinnings of the disorder in the 1970s, with studies on twins involving at least one sibling with autism. They found that monozygotic twins (with nearly identical genetics) were more likely to have autism in common than dizygotic (or non-identical) twins who shared less in common genetically....... Not everyone with those genetic mutations has autism — and that’s because researchers believe it’s not mutations alone that cause the disorder.......Researchers agree the MMR vaccine doesn’t cause autism — but the evidence is weak for other triggers after birth......To Read More....

My Take - For years I've attempted to overcome the idea pesticides are a cause of autism and interestingly - now - that's not even being discussed.  One thing I always felt was an important clue that autism was a genetic issue was the fact autism is sexist!  Boys are more likely to suffer from autism than girls. 

That's genetics it seems to me, and that was where I thought researchers should have targeted their efforts.  Unfortunately loons like Wakefield and his loony Hollywood supporters like Robert DeNiro, Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Oprah Winfrey infected the conversation and slowed the direction of good research. 

When are we going to get real with celebrities and stop listening to the clabber they spew out? I'm a big fan of "question everything", but you don't stop questioning and start answering until all the evidence is in.  The evidence wasn't in because it was fraudulent, and as usual, Hollywood bought into it lock, stock and barrel. 

I wonder if because they're so used to reading, memorizing and mouthing fiction for a living they're incapable of telling the difference any longer.