MMR remains under scrutiny

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...069872,00.html

April 11, 2004

MMR remains under scrutiny



LAST weekâ?Ts front page story about Matthew Costen and Joe Quick made
devastating reading and my sympathies go to them, their families and
friends. I feel I must respond to the statement that my â?odiscredited
research started the scareâ??. In the mid-1990s, my colleagues and I at the
Royal Free were contacted by parents from all over the UK, with remarkably
consistent stories.

They told of normally developing children who subsequent to their MMR
vaccination had lost their communication skills and developed chronic
intestinal symptoms. These children were subsequently diagnosed as autistic
but their intestinal symptoms had been largely ignored. When their bowels
were examined we saw, and described in the Lancet, a new form of bowel
inflammation (autistic enterocolitis).

After their referral to the Royal Free, a number of the parents of these
children decided to seek compensation from the manufacturers of the MMR
vaccine.

Your investigation suggested that I had a conflict of interest due to the
fact that a separate study, involving some of the same children from the
first case report, was part-funded by the Legal Aid Board â?" funding that
went into the research, not to me. Subsequently, the Lancet editor and 10
of my former colleagues, who had collaborated on the original research,
wrote in the Lancet that the reference to the timing of the MMR vaccination
and the onset of the childrenâ?Ts symptoms should not have been included in
the case report. These are matters of opinion.

They do not dispute that these children have a form of inflammatory bowel
disease. It is therefore simply not the case that the original Lancet
report has been discredited or is â?ofatally flawed.â?? This report has
been supported by subsequent clinical and laboratory studies.

In the six years since that Lancet report, I and colleagues worldwide have
looked at hundreds of similarly affected children and have published many
papers that explore the possible link between MMR, autism and this bowel
disease. A charity, Visceral, was formed in July 2000 to investigate
autistic enterocolitis, Crohnâ?Ts disease and ulcerative colitis. I work
for this charity and spend my life administering our limited funds to
co-ordinate research worldwide.

My first duty is to my patients and I have urged and will continue to urge
parents to immunise their children against the respective diseases. If, as
appears to be the case, the public simply do not trust the safety of MMR
then the time has come for the authorities to reinstate parentsâ?T rights
to choose the single vaccines which have been used for many years.



Dr Andrew Wakefield
Twickenham, Middlesex

"john" wrote in message
om...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...069872,00.html

April 11, 2004

MMR remains under scrutiny

And under that scrutiny, no real evidence that vaccines, including the MMR,
causes autism has come out. And plenty of evidence that it doesn't.

Jeff

"john" wrote in message
om...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...069872,00.html

April 11, 2004

MMR remains under scrutiny



LAST weekâ?Ts front page story about Matthew Costen and Joe Quick made
devastating reading and my sympathies go to them, their families and
friends. I feel I must respond to the statement that my â?odiscredited
research started the scareâ??. In the mid-1990s, my colleagues and I at
the
Royal Free were contacted by parents from all over the UK, with remarkably
consistent stories.
....snip ...

Dr Andrew Wakefield
Twickenham, Middlesex

Oh, cry me a river... not only is this not an article, it is a LETTER from a
man who has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

MMR has never been proven to cause autism... but the measles have been
proven to kill and maim. And that discreditted study with only 12
particularly selected kids only looked at MEASLES... and now mumps is making
a good strong comeback.

MMR (with the Jeryl Lynn mumps component) has been used in the USA since the
1970's... it is now what is being used in the UK. Oh... and Japan has
decided it needs to do something about measles, something that kills 20 to
30 of their citizens a year:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20040424b4.htm

(...)

Oh, cry me a river... not only is this not an article, it is a LETTER from
a
man who has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

You got it backwards. One's only caught with a hand in the cookie jar if the
person is getting money from drug companies. If the person is saying
vaccines are bad, then it's ok. It is a "creative funding source" or
somethnig like that.

Jeff

"Jeff" wrote in message
...

(...)

Oh, cry me a river... not only is this not an article, it is a LETTER
from
a
man who has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

You got it backwards. One's only caught with a hand in the cookie jar if
the
person is getting money from drug companies. If the person is saying
vaccines are bad, then it's ok. It is a "creative funding source" or
somethnig like that.

Jeff


Ah... I see. This is the same convoluted logic which declares that the
miniscule amount of thimerosal in vaccines is dangerous (even in the MMR,
where the amount equals exactly 0.000 %) -- and the parents need to have to
feed their kids "oral chelators" (which are NOT benign).

"Richard" wrote in message
...
"john" wrote:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...069872,00.html

April 11, 2004

MMR remains under scrutiny

Jeff added:
: And under that scrutiny, no real evidence that vaccines, including the
MMR,
: causes autism has come out. And plenty of evidence that it doesn't.

Okay. So what is the problem offering monovalent rubeola, rubella, and
mumps
vaccines?


Getting parents to bring their kids into the clinic SIX times instead of two
times... often times they seem to "kinda forget" about just the second time
for the MMR, and so often the kids are only "kinda" protected.


Richard

"Richard" wrote in message
...
"john" wrote:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...069872,00.html

April 11, 2004

MMR remains under scrutiny

Jeff added:
: And under that scrutiny, no real evidence that vaccines, including the
MMR,
: causes autism has come out. And plenty of evidence that it doesn't.

Okay. So what is the problem offering monovalent rubeola, rubella, and
mumps
vaccines?

Cost, 3 times the risk of infection and bacterial contamination, more
painful pokes for the kids. No evidence that it is any better than MMR.

Jeff

Richard

"Richard" wrote in message
...
"john" wrote:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...069872,00.html

April 11, 2004

MMR remains under scrutiny

Jeff added:
: And under that scrutiny, no real evidence that vaccines, including the
MMR,
: causes autism has come out. And plenty of evidence that it doesn't.

Okay. So what is the problem offering monovalent rubeola, rubella, and
mumps
vaccines?

Six possible site complications rather than 2?

Six painful needles rather than 2?

Failure to follow-up for the second, etc.

All good reasons, while there is no good reason for six. If you disagree,
and feel there is a valid medical reason for six, post it.

"Richard" wrote in message
...
"john" wrote:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...069872,00.html

April 11, 2004

MMR remains under scrutiny

Jeff added:
: And under that scrutiny, no real evidence that vaccines, including the
MMR,
: causes autism has come out. And plenty of evidence that it doesn't.

Okay. So what is the problem offering monovalent rubeola, rubella, and
mumps
vaccines?


Also, there have been questions about some of the single strain vaccines
that have been used (and were unlicensed), especially for mumps (there are
several strains, some better than others --- and some have problems... the
one used in the MMR which is based on the Jeryl Lynn strain that has been in
use in the USA since the 1970's has been shown to be most effective with the
fewest problems):
http://www.immunisation.org.uk/PR%20Mumps%20160103.htm