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EDITORIALS: Angus Nicoll, David Elliman, and Euan Ross MMR vaccination and autism 1998 BMJ 1998; 316: 715-716 [Full text]

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We Never Know!

Alex Fielding   (27 May 1998)

We Never Know! 27 May 1998
Alex Fielding Technical Documentation Company Send response to journal: Re: We Never Know!	Your article was well put but maybe you should talk to the parents of these children and find out how they felt when they watched their children turn from being 'normal' to incredibly withdrawn and unresponsive. Now I know that infantile autism can manifest at 18 months but to see a child change so dramatically, just a few weeks after recieving the MMR vaccine it does make one think. I'm not saying that the vaccine should be removed, I just feel that maybe in a few rare cases there is some sort of chemical/biological reaction occuring which is affecting their 'normal' development and causing autism. If this is the case then they should try and find a way to stop this happening, and help those that have already suffered. I agree with your arguments against but there are certains areas of the human body which will still do not understand and therefore we can never omit a theory until it is undeniably disproven, and in such a case where it can't be proven then we should do something to change this so that no mystery cases are occuring.