MMR Vaccine & Autism: Is Whistleblower Dr Wakefield Right?

[Jagannath Chatterjee]

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http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20060612-023341-6204r.htm
The Washington Post
June 13, 2006, 16:22 GMT

The Age of Autism: But is Wakefield right?
By Dan Olmsted, Senior Editor, UPI.

(Courtesy www.nvic.org )

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'There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in
Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the
safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves,'
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WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the
British gastroenterologist who first raised the prospect of a link between the
measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism, is being pursued by British
medical authorities.

According to the BBC: 'The Independent newspaper reports that the
General Medical Council will accuse Mr. Andrew Wakefield of carrying out
`inadequately founded` research. Vaccination rates fell sharply after
Dr Wakefield questioned the safety of MMR, raising fears of a measles
epidemic.His initial Lancet paper has since been disowned by the journal.'

Let`s put aside the issues surrounding the Lancet paper and concerns
about a measles epidemic and go straight to the heart of the matter: Does the
MMR cause autism? In other words, is Wakefield right?

After looking into the topic for more than a year, I`m very concerned
that he may be -- that, especially in children whose immune systems have
been rendered susceptible by any number of possible exposures, the combined
live-virus vaccine has its fingerprints all over numerous cases of
regressive autism.

Until researching the seven-part Age of Autism series in Olympia,
Wash., that concluded last month, I would not have said that. But when you
encounter case after case of perfectly normal children regressing after
live-virus vaccinations -- in this case, the MMR in close proximity to
the chickenpox shot -- you have to keep your options open.

The families in Olympia noticed a common thread: They had unusual
histories of chickenpox and other herpesviruses in their families; their child
got the chickenpox and MMR shots in close temporal proximity, often at the same
12-month office visit when both are first recommended; and the child
subsequently was diagnosed with regressive autism.

Despite the sweeping assurances that there`s no link between the MMR
and autism, no one seems to have looked at whether such a family history of
susceptibility to viruses used in vaccines might raise a risk factor.
Call me hypervigilant, but I would have expected that to be rigorously
reviewed a long time ago.

Two of the Olympia children, in fact, were in small trials at age 12
months of chickenpox and MMR vaccines. One of the vaccines, called ProQuad,
combines the MMR and chickenpox, kicking in 10 times the standard
amount of chickenpox vaccine to overcome the 'immune interference' that can occur
when live viruses interact.

Such interference is at the heart of Wakefield`s concern about the
combined MMR vaccine -- that the viruses suppress the immune system in such a
way that weakened-but-live measles viruses can set up house and trigger a
delayed neurological infection: autism.

And measles is not benign -- that`s why there`s such a push to
vaccinate against it. In a small percentage of cases, the wild, or naturally
occurring, infection can lead to delayed brain damage and death.

It`s a neurotoxic virus, in short. Wakefield`s question and concern is
whether in some cases the live-virus vaccine is neurotoxic, too.

Not such a wild idea, really, and listening to him talk makes you hope
to God the vaccine manufacturers and regulators are a lot smarter than he
makes them sound:

'What alarms me about the cavalier approach of the industry and
everybody else, the regulators, to these viruses is they presume the wild
infection to be nasty and the vaccines to be innocuous -- that they can manipulate
something that is biologically highly intelligent and exploit it to
their advantage.

'And they can`t. The viruses don`t behave like that and they never
will. They merely come back to haunt you as something different.'

Multiple epidemiological studies have allegedly ruled out this chilling
scenario as a factor in autism -- the Institute of Medicine calls it
'theoretical only.' But epidemiology is only as good as its data and
its practitioners, and well-known for its potential pitfalls and flaws.
What concerns me is, if the epidemiology is wrong, preventable cases of
autism are going to keep happening till the cows come home.

Recall, also, that Wakefield never suggested banning the measles, mumps
or rubella immunizations. He suggested separating them and giving them a
year apart.

Especially concerning are the stories that parent after parent tells
about physical illness after the shots, followed by autistic regression. It`s
kind of freaky, really, the way they keep popping up.

After finishing the Pox series, I attended the Autism One convention in
Chicago and happened to be interviewed by a Web-based documentary
filmmaker. During a break, I asked how he got involved. He told me his daughter
got the MMR, came down immediately with a 103-degree fever and regressed
forthwith into autism.

'It`s like someone took out her good brain and replaced it with a bad
brain,' he said. It was that immediate.

I had another conversation with the mother of fraternal twins who told
me this story: Both sons were scheduled to get two shots -- the MMR and
another vaccination -- on the same day at the same office visit.

But -- oops -- the healthcare worker gave the first child two MMR
shots, not the MMR and the second vaccine. That child soon developed autism; the
second one didn`t.

And I spoke recently with a Texas man whose son got the MMR in 1993;
the injection site swelled up to the size of his father`s fist; he had
seizures at the dinner table that night, and within days was spinning, flapping,
chewing wood and not talking ever again.

You get the picture. 'Anecdotal evidence.' But you have to wonder how
many of these stories -- one is tempted to say, bodies -- must pile up
before the medical authorities go back and take a fresh look at the issue.

This blithe disregard for case histories -- for what parents, the
supposed bedrock of our 'family-friendly' society, say -- is one of the most
appalling features of the current climate surrounding autism research.
In fact, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., has talked publicly of forcing
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which sets the childhood
immunization schedule and stoutly rejects a link with autism, to
actually go out and interview some of these parents.

One person who is making things awkward for the authorities is Dr.
Peter Fletcher, another British ne`er-do-well -- or, to use his official
title, the former chief scientific officer at Britain`s Department of Health.

As I noted in a column earlier this year, the Daily Mail reported: 'A
former British government medical officer responsible for deciding whether
medicines are safe has accused the government of `utterly inexplicable
complacency` over the MMR triple vaccine for children.'

The official, Dr. Peter Fletcher, became an expert witness for parents`
lawyers, which of course creates a competing interest that needs to be
factored in. But Fletcher said his new role gave him access to
documents that deeply concerned him.

'There are very powerful people in positions of great authority in
Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the
safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves,'
he said.

Gosh, this is starting to get interesting, and not just for Andrew
Wakefield.

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E-mail: dolm...@upi.com

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"Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." -  Aurobindo.

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