# Narration and storyboard draft: Vaccine–Autism Claims and Vaccine Avoidance

Authored draft, approximately 60–90 seconds; no rendered video claimed.

Avoiding routine childhood vaccines has no demonstrated benefit for preventing autism. This review examined 62 primary reports, including claims supporting a link, stronger clinical comparisons, vaccine-refusal outcomes and recognized adverse events. The exposures matter: historical thimerosal contains ethylmercury; MMR has never contained it. Cell and animal studies can show mercury toxicity, but they do not establish vaccine-dose human autism. Matched formulations, large MMR cohorts, familial-risk studies and withdrawal comparisons do not reproduce the claimed autism effect. A2026 study adds age-landmark and negative-control evidence, but a negative control cannot remove every possible bias. Meanwhile, randomized pathogen-specific trials and real outbreaks show why losing vaccine protection can increase infection risk. This does not mean every vaccine has zero risk: rare anaphylaxis, immune thrombocytopenia and specific age/formulation seizure risks remain part of the evidence. Under HSEF v5.3, the autism-prevention benefit claim is unsupported at Α, while the separate infection-risk consequence reaches Η. Clinical contraindications and individual care decisions remain distinct from a blanket avoidance claim.

1. Show the exact claim, grade and confidence.
2. Show selected publication milestones; label experimental systems and clinical endpoints.
3. Contrast the strongest result with its source-specific limitation.
4. End with the boundary experiment and primary-source links.

Use authored schematics; do not depict Consensus meters as causal confidence or reproduce publisher graphics without appropriate permission.