Consultant to the Espa Autism Research Unit (From The Northern Echo)

Has it not occurred to the Professor that since many parents of the autistic patients have read newspapers with articles suggesting a link between autism and MMR, that some of them might have taken that opinion on board as their own, and repeated it to him? Autism often develops at the age children receive their vaccination -- so coincidence is mistaken as causation.

As a scientist, he should try and factor that into his considerations.

Mr Shattock is saying exactly what Dr Wakefield had said in 1998 that a link had not been found , but that it should be looked into , i have to agree with Mr Shattock that this is nothing more than a political decision,and yes the frustation is that no parent complained to the GMC ,i saw my son regress into Autism and with a bowel condition a few days after his MMR vaccine , if the early diagnosis theory is right how old are the children when they are diagnosed ,the MMR vaccine is given between 13 and 18 months of age does this mean that they are being diagnosed at a year old or younger , no because it can take a year to diagnose Autism that was certainly the case for my son , the real bottom line here is that drug companies make colossal amounts of money from vaccines , so in their eyes what happens to our children is really not an issue shame on them

I think Mr Shattock is well able to make scientific decisions and not get confused between coincidence and causation! My adult son received his MMR triple vaccine aged 15. Neuropsychiatric symptoms started appearing within 7-10 days of administration. He was finally diagnosed as having Asperger Syndrome. I think you must agree that is not a usual age to develop an Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Well done Paul Shattock for expressing the possibility of MMR implication in autism causation. After the shameful treatment received by Dr Wakefield and his colleagues, I had thought that no one in UK would have the courage to ever again to express such a notion. Mr Shattock and Andrew Wakefield are right absolutely right. There needs to be intensive, scientific, biomedical research carried out into the underlying causes of autism. The ‘unquestionable proof’ that MMR is safe, is based on epidemiological studies. Not physical examination and testing of the sufferers.

Vaccine damage happens. No vaccine is 100% safe. Take the hep b vaccine for example. Many workers in the medical field have been left very ill because of this vaccine, and there are no less than 158 MPs backing a suggested compensation scheme for them. Why do the authorities insist that MMR is an exception?

Drunkenoaf (sober up)

Most people were aware of Autism before Dr Wakefield got involved, we were 4 years convinced that it was the MMR vaccine that caused our sons Autism. When you have a child meeting all his markers in the red book provided by the Health Visitor, and one day you take this diamond to the Drs diligently for his MMR shot and have it .Take him home and he starts screaming ,he starts a temperature going up to 40,he starts leaking green puss out of his ears, he starts pooing his nappy with a green slime burning his skin, he does not sleep for 48hrs,and during this time you phone the GP he tells you to give Calpol ,2 days later nothing has changed you take him back to the GP`s practice and they write on your sons medical notes “this child is not ill” even then when it starts to calm down you just think it was a reaction to the vaccine not an adverse reaction that is going to ruin his and your life for ever. Before you go to vaccinate ask the doctor for the package insert not just the leaflets that the doctors hand out,I repeat the package inserts and, a have a look at all illnesses and un reversible damage the MMR and other vaccines cause by the drug makers on admissions. This has nothing to do with Dr Wakefield the parents know when a problem arises and find out what caused it ,as we all do …Stalin used to have weakness for show trials and that’s all that has happened here and the message is don’t ever don’t you ever question vaccines ,WHY???

http://www.whale.to/
vaccines/pack.html

drunkenoaf wrote:
Has it not occurred to the Professor that since many parents of the autistic patients have read newspapers with articles suggesting a link between autism and MMR, that some of them might have taken that opinion on board as their own, and repeated it to him? Autism often develops at the age children receive their vaccination -- so coincidence is mistaken as causation. As a scientist, he should try and factor that into his considerations.

On clinical trials the Labs are not given any information about the samples to prevent imbalances occuring in results. They are blind tested the only info the asctual lab will have is a reference number

This is really irresponsible journalism and scaremongering. I find it disgusting when you can write a whole article using the words ‘possibility’ throughout – no facts at all. The medical profession does not base its conclusions on anecdotal evidence – we use randomised controlled trials. I am yet to see a trial of any kind, with the exception of Dr Wakefield’s flawed and unethical research – now retracted, that points to any kind of link between autism and MMR. Your professor himself, as quoted in your article, Mr Nelson, even says, ‘we are not saying that there definitely is a link, we are just saying we should find out’. Don’t you think we should wait until he has ‘found out’ before you go to press with something like this? It is articles like this that have caused a resurgence in life-threatening measles case in this country. I thought that the Northern Echo would have been more conscious of the public health implications of printing an article like this.

And for Angus Files...

I would agree with you that parents should be encouraged to read the package insert that accompanies the MMR vaccines. We give them to all our patients - it is the only way that they can make informed decisions about their vaccinations but you won't find any link between autism and MMR here because there is no link. I even looked on the website you suggested - http://www.whale.to/

vaccines/pack.html - and apart from describing vaccinations as 'poisons' and providing the package inserts there is no evidence here either. This is because the CSM, medical research council and the cochrane collaboration have not found any evidence of a link between MMR, bowel disease and autism. There is no link. I fear that due to falling vaccine uptake we will go back to a time when children die of preventable infections and this would be a tragedy.

I must say that I agree with doctoroncall but then The Echo doesn't believe in randomised controlled or double blind trials. Remember the omega-3 fish oil capsule fiasco? Sorry to say that this really is tabloid journalism.

Thank you the Echo for posting this great Proffessor Shattock on your site and allowing debate ;debate the UK goverment would prefer not to have.Doctor on call With a name like that I wouldnt expect your view point to be anything diffrent. I have never heard of a doctor giving the information to any parent which is on the package inserts.et-al here are references to 10 papers. 4 replicate the findings of a new inflammatory bowel disease and 5 support the original finding published in The Lancet.

(Krigsman et al.), published on Thursday

http://la-press.com/
article.php?article_
id=1816

Papers Supporting the Original Finding

The claim to have found a new inflammatory bowel disease published in the 1998 Lancet paper as ‘consistent gastrointestinal findings’ involving ‘nonspecific colitis’ were supported first by a series of peer reviewed papers including in The Lancet itself:-

Furlano R, Anthony A, Day R, Brown A, Mc Garvey L, Thomson M, et al. “Colonic CD8 and T cell filtration with epithelial damage in children with autism.“ J Pediatr 2001;138:366-72.

Sabra S, Bellanti JA, Colon AR. “Ileal lymphoid hyperplasia, non-specific colitis and pervasive developmental disorder in children”. The Lancet 1998;352:234-5.

Torrente F., Machado N., Perez-Machado M., Furlano R., Thomson M., Davies S., Wakefield AJ, Walker-Smith JA, Murch SH. “Enteropathy with T cell infiltration and epithelial IgG deposition in autism.” Molecular Psychiatry. 2002;7:375-382

Wakefield AJ, Anthony A, Murch SH, Thomson M, Montgomery SM, Davies S, Walker-Smith JA. “Enterocolitis in children with developmental disorder.” American Journal of Gastroenterology 2000;95:2285-2295

Ashwood P, Anthony A, Pellicer AA, Torrente F, Wakefield AJ. “Intestinal lymphocyte populations in children with regressive autism: evidence for extensive mucosal immunopathology.” Journal of Clinical Immunology, 2003;23:504-517.

Papers Replicating The Original Finding

Another series of papers replicated the findings of The Royal Free Hospital London’s 1998 Lancet paper which journalist Brian Deer and The Sunday Times have falsely claimed is discredited:-

Gonzalez, L. et al., “Endoscopic and Histological Characteristics of the Digestive Mucosa in Autistic Children with gastro-Intestinal Symptoms“. Arch Venez Pueric Pediatr, 2005;69:19-25.

Balzola, F., et al., “Panenteric IBD-like disease in a patient with regressive autism shown for the first time by wireless capsule enteroscopy: Another piece in the jig-saw of the gut-brain syndrome?” American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2005. 100(4): p. 979- 981.

S. Walker, K. Hepner, J. Segal, A. Krigsman “Persistent Ileal Measles Virus in a Large Cohort of Regressive Autistic Children with Ileocolitis and Lymphonodular Hyperplasia: Revisitation of an Earlier Study” (last accessed June 2007) (paper submitted for publication)

Balzola F et al . “Autistic enterocolitis: confirmation of a new inflammatory bowel disease in an Italian cohort of patients.” Gastroenterology 2005;128(Suppl. 2);A-303.

A Statement from Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey: Andrew Wakefield, Scientific Censorship, and Fourteen Monkeys
Los Angeles, February 5, 2010

http://www.ageofauti
sm.com/2010/02/a-sta
tement-from-jenny-mc
carthy-jim-carrey-an
drew-wakefield-scien
tific-censorship-and
-fourteen-monke.html





Dr. Andrew Wakefield is being discredited to prevent an historic study from being published that for the first time looks at vaccinated versus unvaccinated primates and compares health outcomes, with potentially devastating consequences for vaccine makers and public health officials.

It is our most sincere belief that Dr. Wakefield and parents of children with autism around the world are being subjected to a remarkable media campaign engineered by vaccine manufacturers reporting on the retraction of a paper published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues.

Anyone else old enough to remember children blinded by measles?

Even IF there was a link between MMR and autism (and there isn't)then the small number of possible cases would be worth it to prevent the many thousands of horrible cases that would definitley occur without the vaccine.

Most kids don't have autism and most kids do have the MMR jab.

The reason for the push for MMR is simply because GPs get bonuses for getting high percentages of take up. they dont get it if they give the safer single shots.

If they medical profession is so concerned about the lack of take up for concerned parents then give them the choice of single innoculations.

I remember doctors telling mums to organise measkles parties so the kids get it over with, they used to say its just part of childhood. Until financial rewards came in.

Tell me? where in nature can kids pick up 3 infections in one go, especially to their under developed immune systems.
SINGLE VACINE SHOTS ARE SAFER BY DEFAULT. but these " experts" who told us Thalidomide was safe, BSE cant jump species and that Salmonela now tell us MMR is safe but wont debate the single shot option.