You’ve probably heard of MMR vaccine long before you needed to know more about it. It’s one of the vaccines that’s been associated with autism. When British gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield, discovered vaccine-type measles virus in the guts of autistic children suffering bowel disorders, the reaction from the medical establishment was swift and brutal. And we don’t mean, as one would think, that MMR became suspect, all doses were immediately recalled, and a thorough investigation was made.
The recipient of the outrage was Dr Wakefield. He’d dared to suggest it would be safer to administer measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, the three vaccine components of MMR, as single vaccines spaced apart from each other. But, obviously, economy and efficiency of vaccine administration was the establishment’s prime consideration, not safety. After being fired from his position at London’s Royal Free Hospital and hounded from his native country, Dr Wakefield fled to the USA where he and others have persisted in his research on MMR and autism. Unfortunately, it’s still mainly only parents who value this work. They’re not fooled by the dismissive statements of health authorities; they’ve seen for themselves the developmental regression of their children, and they know what MMR can do. (For more information on MMR and autism than is provided in this section, please see articles under Autism.)
Prior to the use of vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella, serious complications to these infections rarely occurred in Canadian children. Today, although the majority of children are vaccinated, outbreaks of all three are occurring. Authorities are telling us that, unless we are old enough [and lucky enough] to have lived in the pre-vaccine era and acquired natural immunity, we late teens and young adults urgently need to get MMR booster shots.
L’affaire Wakefield: Shades of Dreyfus & BMJ’s Descent into Tabloid Science by Vera Sharav, Alliance for Human Research Protection – “I have undertaken this review of the case against Dr. Andrew Wakefield because the issues involved are far more consequential than the vilification of one doctor. The issues, as I see them, involve (a) collusion of public health officials to deceive the public by concealing scientific evidence that confirms empirical evidence of serious harm linked to vaccines – in particular polyvalent vaccines; (b) the ‘willful blindness’ by the medical community as it uncritically fell in line with a government dictated vaccination policy driven by corporate business interests.”