A new study, Accelerating autism prevalence in California with changepoint in the mid-2010s and divergence by county and socioeconomic indicators, has concluded that “diagnosed ASD prevalence has risen unequally across California counties and race/ethnicity groups since the birth years of the mid-2010s.”
But wait, why do anti-vaccine influencers think that has something to do with vaccines?
What Does a New Study Really Say About an Association Between Vaccines and Autism?
Mostly because they blame everything on vaccines…
In this case, they should have read the study before posting, though.
If they had read the study, they would have noted that autism rates were not correlated with immunization rates in these California counties.
Instead, the study talks about differences in diagnosis and access to services.
And although the study was not about vaccines, it does help to disprove the idea that vaccines are associated with autism.
Autism causes autism, not vaccines
There’s this thing called the Internet. Yeah, you have to understand how to use it (so you don’t get eve more misinformed), but there is a way! AI Overview
Scientific literature describes the tendency to reject facts and reinforce emotional conclusions through several key psychological and neuroscientific concepts, primarily motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, and identity-protective cognition. [https://today.uconn.edu/2022/08/cognitive-biases-and-brain-biology-help-explain-why-facts-dont-change-minds-2/, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/05/alternative-facts, https://blog.cognifit.com/confirmation-bias-why-we-ignore-facts-that-dont-fit/]