Fact Check: Study Did NOT Find MMR Vaccination Causes Increased Likelihood Of Asthma, Eczema

Did a study find that vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) causes an increased likelihood of asthma and eczema? No, that’s not true: The study authors did not come up with that conclusion. They said, “Our data suggest that currently recommended routine vaccinations are not a risk factor for asthma or eczema.”

The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on Instagram by dr.stevenbaker on February 19, 2024. The post’s caption said:

Is the MMR jab safe?!

Do you know how many studies have been done on the MMR Vax to determine whether it’s safe or not for your kids? —-> 0️⃣ NONE.

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Disclaimer:
Dr Baker is a chiropractor who does his own research to find out the truth behind waxxines and shares with you so you can protect your kids…..Unlike your pediatrician who is just making a quick buck by convincing you to poison your kids….

This is how the post appeared on Instagram at the time of writing:

(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Tue Feb 20 16:48:17 2024 UTC)

The video

The man in the video is Steven Baker. He’s a doctor of chiropractic, not a medical doctor. During the two-minute 45-second video, he cites a 2004 research paper (archived here) titled “Vaccination and Allergic Disease: A Birth Cohort Study.” Baker makes several claims during the clip, but in this fact check, we will only address those involving asthma and eczema.

About 18 seconds into the video, Baker said this about the two allergic diseases:

They looked at health records of 29,238 kids. And what they found was that children who had received the MMR vaccine were 3.5 times more likely to have asthma and 4.6 times more likely to have eczema than kids who were not vaccinated at all.

The study involved children ages 0 to 11 in the West Midlands of central England. While the raw numbers are correct, the authors of the paper came to a different conclusion once they had considered all factors. The study said:

Results. We found an association between vaccination and the development of allergic disease; however, this association was present only among children with the fewest physician visits and can be explained by this factor.

Conclusions. Our data suggest that currently recommended routine vaccinations are not a risk factor for asthma or eczema.

In the “Discussion” section of the study, the authors added:

[W]hen we examined the impact of vaccination, consulting frequency was a major consideration. Children who are not taken to the doctor are less likely to be vaccinated and also have less of an opportunity to have a diagnosis of allergic disease recorded. Our data are in keeping with the ascertainment bias, showing the impact of vaccination occurs only in children who rarely consult a physician.

There is inconsistent evidence for a relation between vaccination and the development of allergic disease. Because most children are vaccinated, and therefore do not develop allergic disease, it is difficult to obtain numbers adequate to examine the vaccination-allergic disease relationship, and unvaccinated children are a highly selected and probably atypical group.

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Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about vaccines can be found here.