Contributed by David Foster dfoster@ucsd.edu

The controversy over an alleged link between the MMR vaccine and autism will certainly become even more contentious. It is important to note that this is NOT the first time Dr. Wakefield has spoken publicly about this since his Lancet paper in 1998. He has testified before a US Congressional Subcommittee in June of 2000, and gave an excellent talk at the Second International Public Conference on Vaccination, sponsored by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), in September 2000.

The take-home message in all this should be that for parents who still believe that one or more of these diseases (measles, mumps, and rubella), warrant protection through vaccination, the vaccines should be given individually and separated by time. The government agencies will continue to proclaim the safety of the combined MMR vaccine, regardless of the evidence found to the contrary, citing studies which are hopelessly flawed, with some presenting with serious financial conflicts of interest.

The Taylor study, for example, which is repeatedly hailed as proof that the MMR vaccine does not cause autism, actually found evidence SUGGESTING a connection. They found a significant cluster of parental concern about their children six months after vaccination; this finding was summarily dismissed by the authors.

Also, when their data is analyzed correctly, taking into account the British "catch-up" campaign which vaccinated children up to 3-4 years of age when the MMR vaccine was introduced, the step-up in the incidence of autism occurs precisely after the MMR vaccine was first used. A very similar step-up occurs in the United States ten years earlier, precisely when the MMR vaccine was introduced. This seems to be asking too much of coincidence.

There is also a Finnish study which is often cited in defense of the MMR vaccine.(This will be posted next week) What is usually not mentioned is that this study was funded by Merck, the manufacturer of MMR vaccine.

Dr. Wakefield himself points out, in his testimony before a US Congressional committee in June 2000, many problems with this study, not the least of which is that it tested the wrong hypothesis and its conclusions are therefore invalid.

The evidence supporting a relationship between MMR and autism is more than enough to warrant serious concern. Dr. Wakefield has found measles virus in the guts of over 170 autistic children, and Dr. Kawashima from Japan has confirmed that the virus found comes from the MMR vaccine.

Dr. Vijendra Singh has found brain antibodies in autistic children, suggesting that this is an autoimmune disorder which is attacking the brain, and finds a strong relationship between measles antibodies and these brain antibodies.

There is a long line of research which suggests that the combination of measles and mumps infection increases the risk for inflammatory bowel disease. Dr. Scott Montgomery, a colleague of Dr. Wakefield's, has found that children who are given the measles vaccine in temporal proximity to mumps infection have an increased risk of bowel disease.

Is this not enough evidence to question the safety of the combined MMR vaccine? The British authorities claim that they are concerned about a resurgence of epidemics as a result of this "scare", yet they deny their citizens access to monovalent (single) vaccines. As Dr. Wakefield suggests, this is no longer a quest for scientific truth, it has become a "propaganda war".

Unfortunately, the casualties are our children.

Related Articles:

Testimony to Committee on Government Reform, US Congress

(Click on Andrew Wakefield...by far the best single reference I've found)

Increase in Incidence of Autism (Dr. Edward Yazbak)

The autism increase: research needed on the vaccine connection (Bernard Rimland)