Joshua Daniel                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       3/4/20

Writing for the Sciences 

Professor Sonja Killebrew

Scientific Article Rhetorical Essay

The title of this article is Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses. This essay was about the fallacy that vaccines cause autism in children.  The authors of this article are Jeffrey S. Gerber and Paul A. Offit. Jeffrey  S. Gerber, MD, PhD, is an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Medical Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, and Senior Scholar within the Penn Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Paul A. Offit, MD, is Director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Both of these authors are extremely educated and are experts in the field of infectious diseases and vaccinology. They are both caucasian men in their 60s from the United States of America.

The purpose of this scientific article is to quell the fallacy that vaccines cause autism in children. “Although child vaccination rates remain high, some parental concern persists that vaccines might cause autism. Three specific hypotheses have been proposed: (1) the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism by damaging the intestinal lining, which allows the entrance of encephalopathic proteins; (2) thimerosal, an ethylmercury-containing preservative in some vaccines, is toxic to the central nervous system; and (3) the simultaneous administration of multiple vaccines overwhelms or weakens the immune system. We will discuss the genesis of each of these theories and review the relevant epidemiological evidence.” (Gerber and Offit, 2009) The authors’ stance throughout the article is in favor of vaccines. Because they are experts in this particular field, they have a lot of credibility on the subject.

The intended audience is for the general public. However, the writing may be hard to understand for those without a high school education. The demographics of this article are more likely to be parents who have or are about to have children. It could also be people like me who choose this article to conduct a research study.

The type of text in this article is similar  to that of a medical report. Complex terms are used to describe the various vaccines and the physical results of using them. Moreover, the authors are doctors who are specialized in the subject matter.

The setting of the article cannot be determined. This medical report gathers information from studies done in the United Kingdom, California, and Canada. This report was written as a response to increasing sentiment to the notion that vaccines, namely the MMR, contain chemicals that can be linked to the development of autism in children. “A worldwide increase in the rate of autism diagnoses—likely driven by broadened diagnostic criteria and increased awareness—has fueled concerns that an environmental exposure like vaccines might cause autism. Theories for this putative association have centered on the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, thimerosal, and the large number of vaccines currently administered. However, both epidemiological and biological studies fail to support these claims.” (Gerber and Offit, 2009) The article uses scientific data from various research studies and disproves that idea. I believe the main world events that prompted this article was the ever growing anti-vaxxer movement in the United States.

            In conclusion, this research article uses data from various research studies to disprove the notion that vaccines cause autism in children. The authors are experts in the field and are very credible on the subject. In retrospect, this research article helps people see that vaccines do NOT cause autism.

Link of Article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908388/