A widely shared online video alleges that autism was absent in Vietnam until California physician Dr Anthony Phan stated that Bill Gates brought inoculation programs to the country, leading to a rise in autism cases exceeding 300 percent.
On October 31, the user mindsetofresistance posted the footage on Instagram with text stating that a doctor explained autism did not exist in Vietnam in 1975 before Bill Gates introduced vaccination efforts, while the same video circulated broadly on X earlier in October.
Vietnamese specialists, community notes, and fact-checkers point out that the allegation is untrue.
What Dr Anthony Phan Claimed
During the recording, Phan asserts that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his organization launched immunization efforts in Vietnam, which brought about subsequent autism diagnoses.
"There's no such thing as autism in 1975, year 2000, year 2001, there's no such thing," he says. "Now Vietnam has over a 300 percent rise in autism."
The recording is older, having appeared across Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X in both English and Vietnamese since at least 2019.
The clip features a watermark from the anti-vaccine film titled "Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe," which was created by Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield had his medical credentials revoked following the falsification of data within a 1998 research paper connecting the MMR shot to autism, a study later withdrawn by The Lancet.
What Others Say
Medical professionals within Vietnam have dismissed the assertion. Quyet Minh Nguyen, a psychiatrist working at the Vietnam National Children's Hospital, told AFP that no connection exists between immunizations and autism in Vietnam or elsewhere.
Formal recognition of autism in Vietnam only happened during the late 1990s, though that absence of recognition does not mean the condition was previously nonexistent. Proper autism diagnosis requires specialized professionals and resources that were largely unavailable across the country during earlier decades.
Furthermore, official nationwide data tracking autism prevalence in Vietnam to support the 300 percent statistic does not exist. A 2021 national study by researchers from the Hanoi University of Public Health estimated that roughly 1 in 132 children had autism, aligning with figures seen in comparable middle-income nations.
The Gates Foundation likewise refuted the statement, noting that the assertions are untrue.
What This Means for You
This carries significant weight in Pakistan, given that Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the sole two nations where wild poliovirus continues to spread, prompting the WHO to maintain travel restrictions on Pakistan due to ongoing transmission. The organization noted that vaccine rejections present a primary barrier to eradicating the illness.
Clips of this nature, distributed without proper context, contribute to such reluctance, meaning individuals should verify whether official health organizations support these assertions.
Guardians observing autism indicators in their children ought to seek guidance from a pediatrician or developmental expert, while local support expands through initiatives such as Sindh opening the nation's inaugural residential autism center located in Karachi this year.
