Rapid Responses to:
|
|
Rapid Responses: Rapid Responses published:
-
![[Read Rapid Response]](/icons/misc/sectionDOWN.gif)
MMR / Autism - Jury still out
- John McKellar (8 February 2002)
-
What it DOES prove
- Philip Stowell (10 February 2002)
-
MMR - Mercury Rising
- Tess J Devaney (12 February 2002)
-
Shocked!
- Rema Mathew (28 February 2003)
-
Tapestry thinking needed - again
- Lisa C Blakemore-Brown (1 March 2003)
|
|
|||
|
John McKellar, Consultant statistician Macclesfield, Cheshire
Send response to journal:
|
The link between autism and MMR is yet to be proven, but how else are these children likely to have become infected? It is easy to knock down each part of the evidence, to claim that it is not one particular cause - but can the supporters of the MMR establish that it is NOT the cause. On balance of evidence, it looks very likely to be a main cause. In court, it is "innocent until proven guilty", but in medicine is is guilty until proven "safe"; and what evidence have we that MMR is not linked to autism? As one parent of an affected child commented, if a can of beans on the supermarket shelf had this much evidence against it, all the cans would have been withdrawn. Here, all people are requesting is permission to use the single vaccines. John McKellar
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Philip Stowell, GP - Brisbane Qld Australia vs Qld 4051
Send response to journal:
|
The response I have read proves one thing. The status quo is being defended "at all odds" while kids continue to be adversely affected by something which no-one is prepared to look into seriously. Most of the responses to Wakefield's work and his potentially alarming findings has been a rather shameful reactive and data-fudging repetitive reassertion of "It is all OK " when it clearly is not. While it is equally clear that the majority do not get adversely affected, until we know what it is about the subgroup who do report time-associated reactions, it surely behoves the companies who make these vaccines or the governments who advocate them in such a fear-engendering way, to respond with research designed to find out why. Otherwise the charge that all is directed to protecting drug company profit will hang around. My reading suggests that those with a family history of G-protein related diseases are more likely to react. Many of the patients I have, who complain of fundamental changes in their childrens character or of the onset of a condition classifiable as part of the autistic spectrum also report night blindess in one of the parents. This issue has already been addressed by Dr Mary Megson, but the association and its implications remains unaddressed by the research community unless I am mistaken. The statisticians and vaccine advocates always seem to forget that STATISTICS RELATING TO VACCINE SAFETY MEAN ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING when your child is affected FOR LIFE. Until such independant rigourous and exhaustive research has been conducted into this issue along with other vaccine associated concerns I remain supportive of parents rights to decide whether or not to vaccinate their children. yours
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Tess J Devaney, Editorial assistant (concerned parent) Adis International Ltd, Chowley Oak Business Park, Tattenhall, chester, CH3 9GA
Send response to journal:
|
I am not a doctor, pediatrician or any expert in the field of child health. However, from specific searches on the internet into possible causes of autism and a link with vaccinations, it did not take me long to see a common link -mercury poisoning. From reading the plethora of articles and opinions on the internet, it would seem that the Government and many of its advisors have lost the plot. My point is to stop the frenzied debates about the safety of triple or single dose vaccinations; the debate should concentrate on the possibility that the high levels of mercury found in the preservatives (Thiomersol) of pediatric vaccinations is a more likely cause of autism. Why doesn't anyone on the television, radio or newspaper bring this possible cause to our attention? Why don't parents know about this preservative and be offered mercury-free vaccinations? |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Rema Mathew, Paediatrician Chennai, 600031
Send response to journal:
|
The last sentence of the adverse reaction article reads: Dr Wakefield worked at the Royal Free Hospital, where the samples came from, until last November, when he was told that his research was "no longer in line with the department of medicine's research strategy." That says it all. I would have my child suffer a bout of measles or mumps, as I did in childhood without any consequences, rather than risk possible autism, no matter how remote the risk. Competing interests: None declared |
|||
|
|
|||
|
Lisa C Blakemore-Brown, Psychologist specialising in Tapestry Disorders UK
Send response to journal:
|
The Government can start the Third World War on the basis of a 'potential' disaster to the world as its thought that Hussein will send out rockets to destroy us all if we don't destroy them first - but it won't even start an investigation into disasters which have already befallen many thousands of children through tapestry reactions to vaccine - and who will form our future society. I also think that these reactions do not have to be autism. They are whatever happens to a child's brain and body and behaviour once affected adversely. By narrowing reactions to autism, it becomes very easy to manipulate figures, influence diagnosticians to call it something else, remove diagnoses of autism etc.to influence Court cases etc. Something very sinister is going on here. Herculean efforts are made to deny these links and to also deny that a possibly affected child has any autistic features - and once that's `proven` one can sense a huge sigh of relief - and the child's problems are - at a stroke - airbrushed out. Thank goodness for the tapestry model on diagnoses - which looks at threads of difficulty which interwave - in some cases the emergent image IS autism, in others the new variant autism with the regression, motor problems and the bowel problems, in others Asperger Syndrome, in others ADHD etc. The central issue in relation to vaccine reactions must NOT be `Does MMR cause Autism' it must be: is there a temporal relationship between the administration of the vaccine, reaction and the onset of illness and /or developmental regression? Once we sort that out, we can then look at the children in whom that happens, and establish whether they recated to the earlier vaccine with thimerosol in it and ended up with an auto immune problem and allergies, or whether they had one anyway and it runs int the family, whether they are more likely to be premature etc. Its not rocket science. This is a catastrophe and it is seen every day by parents whose children are victims. It is also seen every day by Governments - will they be able to live with themselves when the truth comes out? Competing interests: None declared |
|||