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Article: Autism: The Debate Rages
- Article from:
- NEA Today
- Article date:
- May 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright National Education Association May 2004. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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During the last decade, the meteoric rise in the number of autism cases has become a lightning rod for controversy. Are we seeing an epidemic or just changes in the way autism is diagnosed? Is there a connection between childhood vaccines and the rise in autism, or are vaccines just getting a bad rap?
Which side you take probably depends on which experts you talk to-and when you talk to them. The controversy took an unexpected turn last month when a group of scientists renounced their own research-a well-publicized 1998 study pointing to a potential link between autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine. Ten of the 13 researchers, led by Simon Murch of Britain's Centre for ...