--- title: Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism, Even Among Kids at Higher Risk description: Siblings of autistic children are at higher risk of developing the developmental disorder, but do vaccines affect that risk? canonical: https://time.com/3827309/vaccines-autism-siblings/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-21T15:00:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:22.079Z article:section: Health og:title: Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism, Even Among Kids at Higher Risk og:description: Siblings of autistic children are at higher risk of developing the developmental disorder, but do vaccines affect that risk? og:url: https://time.com/3827309/vaccines-autism-siblings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism, Even Among Kids at Higher Risk twitter:description: Siblings of autistic children are at higher risk of developing the developmental disorder, but do vaccines affect that risk? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism, Even in Kids at Higher Risk > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=5a7b0f72-8abb-4412-a6b9-70e71d409e0e&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk [Watch (HLS stream): Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ai82XWJ8.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2014-09-24. TIME's Science Cop Jeffrey Kulger takes on the misinformation coming from opponents of childhood vaccinations_  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Apr 21, 2015 3:00 PM UTC  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Apr 21, 2015 3:00 PM UTC In the latest study on the vaccines, researchers find even more evidence that childhood immunizations aren’t linked to autism. In a [study published in the _Journal of the American Medical Association_](http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.2015.3077), a group led by Dr. Anjali Jain of the Lewin Group, a health care consulting organization, found that brothers and sisters of children with autism were not at any higher risk of developing the disorder if they were vaccinated compared with brothers and sisters of those without autism. Numerous studies have found an increased risk of autism among those with older siblings with the condition, and some parents who believe that their older child’s autism is connected to vaccinations, specifically the MMR vaccine, have been reluctant to immunize their younger children. Indeed, Jain found that vaccination rates among siblings of autistic children were lower, at about 86% at 5 years, compared with 92% among those without autistic brothers or sisters. But among the 95,000 children with older siblings included in the study, children who received the MMR and had autistic older siblings were no more likely to develop autism than children who were vaccinated and didn’t have any autistic older siblings. In fact, the relative risk of autism among those with older autistic brothers or sisters was lower if they were vaccinated compared with those who were not vaccinated. “Our study confirmed that in kids with older siblings who we know are at increased risk of developing autism themselves, those kids are being vaccinated less,” says Jain. “But in the kids who did develop autism who were vaccinated, there was no increased risk from the vaccine compared to kids who did not get the vaccine.” The results, she says, should put to rest any concerns that parents of autistic children might have that vaccinating their younger kids will somehow increase their risk of developing autism. The large size of the study, and the fact that vaccination and autism information wasn’t collected for purposes of a vaccines-and-autism study but as part of a larger health insurance database, also reinforce the strength of the findings. (The Lewin Group is an editorially independent part of Optum company, which collected the data.) “We may not understand what is causing autism in these kids or families,” says Jain. “There could be a host of both genetic and environmental factors. But we are able to look at the vaccines themselves and show there is no association with autism.” _Read next:_ [_HPV Vaccine May Work for People Who Already Had the Virus_](http://time.com/3828839/hpv-vaccine-works/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript So, our recent report claimed that a 2004 study withheld a link between vaccines and autism in African American boys. No surprise, the anti- vaccine crowd considered this a big win. But again and always, they're wrong. Here's why. [ MUSIC ] First, the subjects excluded from the study had no birth certificates available. Meaning data on their mother's age, race and more could not be confirmed. And that information was vital for the work the investigators were doing, More important, the people criticizing the research make the familiar mistake of confusing associated with causation. While it's true that the study did find a slightly higher rate of autism among some kids vaccinated between 24 and 36 months of age, it's almost certain that those children were already autistic and were vaccinated later as part of a basic health requirement for attending special education program [ MUSIC ] programs. If you join the Army and get a mandatory crewcut before basic training, you don't then conclude that military service causes baldness. Finally, the narrator of a disgraceful web video spreading the rumors about the study is Andrew Wakefield. The British researcher whose fraudulent 1998 paper falsely linking vaccines to autism got the entire got the entire anti- vaccine mess started. Wakefield has had his license to practice medicine revoked in the UK. And is hardly in a position to be offering opinions on anything at all. So for the billionth time, vaccines are safe, effective and vitally important. Rumor mongering, on the other hand, can kill. 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