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MMR Vaccine Scandal Will Not Go Away


It is the medical scandal that refuses to go away. Since its introduction controversy has surrounded the MMR vaccine because in a small number - and we must stress, a small number - of cases children develop serious and permanent side effects after reveiving the vaccine...

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May 2009
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The Scandal That Will Not Go Away
by Ian R Thorpe
2007-07-10

TAGS: (skip to topic within this article) [ Swine Flu ] Do your remember the controversy over the MMR vaccine, how the sceptics who pointed to the number of cases in which children seemed to have developed symptoms of autism or autism related problems shortly after receiving the combined measles, mumps, rubella vaccination? And do you remember how the Government and Big Pharma dissed the doubters, ruining a few careers and producing a lot of very dodgy statistics to convince us that nice Mr. Blair was right when he told parents there was nothing to worry about and the reason he and Cherie were not up for having baby Leo treated with the jab were nothing to do with doubts over its safety.

The MMR scandal resurfaced this week as newly revealed figures showed that since the introduction of MMR the proportion of children affected by autism has risen to one in sixty.

Well the case that MMR vaccine did not contribute to autism was never convincingly made, we were fobbed off with “well you can’t actually PROVE beyond doubt that it is harmful” rather than the more ethical but less cost effective “we can’t prove beyond doubts it isn’t harmful so we will stop using it until we are certain.” Imagine the furore from the anti – smoking lobby if that kind of logic had been used to block the smoking ban. The fact is nobody can prove for certain smoking does cause lung cancer because many people particularly in France and the Mediterranean countries smoke all their lives and live beyond average age. There are very serious grounds to think smoking is harmful though and there are equal grounds for suspecting the MMR vaccine is not as safe as something being used on young children who cannot make their own choices ought to be.

Even those subversive lefties at The Guardian were taken in by the pro MMR spin, their correspondent Ben (Bung-boy) Goldacre using a weekly column to browbeat poor Gillian McKieth for her whacky but harmless theories. Ben must have become very rich on the backhanders he received from Big Pharma for using Bad Science of his own to discredit the Bad Science of the alternative health industry but his strongest venom has been reseved for those who question the efficacy of the MMR vaccine.

Now I cannot say the MMR vaccine causes autism, though its promoters will claim that is exactly what I am suggesting, but there is enough evidence to warrant an independent judicial enquiry. The statistics can be manipulated to support the government and Big Pharma case, but as long as children keep developing symptoms soon after the treatment we must keep asking the difficult questions.

After a storm of responses from the paid lackeys of Big Pharma claiming the hundreds of recorded cases in which autism or other debilitating conditions manifested themselves shorty after this vaccine was administered were all purely coincidental we followed up a few days later with more on the MMR whitewash / cover up. You should be aware The Daily Stirrer and Little Nicky Machiavelli blog in which these posts first appeared claim no expertise on medical matters. We simply look objectively at the avaiable evidence and base our conclusions on the simple premise that once is circumstance, twice is coincidence and anything more than that needs investigating by impartial and objective journalists
Autism & MMR – The Evidence You Were Not Supposed To See
by ianrthorpe
2007-07-17

Plenty of links below - first a little taunting of my critics which you may like to skip.

When I posted an item on this topic titled “The Scandal That Will Not Go Away,” I expected a heated debate but not the angry and hysterical responses I had from many people. Even more puzzling was that many of these responses seemed to my expert eye (I’ve been a published writer for almost forty years) to bear a similar verbal style and use certain phrases. “Ad hominem,” a phrase we do not come across often outside the academic community occurred four of five times. “Association fallacy,” also came up and many people accused me of raking up the controversy about Andrew Wakefield’s discredited research into the possible link. Surely those asccusing me of "association fallacy" were simply seeing that I was writing about MMR and associated that with Wakefield's failed study.

Well all I said about Wakefield was that his case had been used by the medical establishment to divert attention from discussion of the real issues that was going on in other countries. Hardly wholehearted and enthusiastic support is it? Strange though, a misconduct hearing conducted by the medical authorities with the aim of censuring Wakefield and at last killing off any doubts about the safety of MMR was expected to last three months. In fact it lasted well over a year and what started out as a witch hunt aimed at destroying Andrew Wakefield has so exposed medicine's governing body as fradulent, far too cosy with the drugs and vaccine manufacturers and willing to believe anybody whose unsubstantiated testimony supports their agends so far they have not published and finding though the hearing ended months ago.

I was also told repeatedly I am not a scientist and do not understand scientific enquiry. The people who made this assertion then went on to describe dialectic, which of course is very much part of philosophy and theology but not much to do with science. Small wonder then their definition was wrong. Having worked in computers as an analyst and later a consultant for over twenty years I came to appreciate the descriptiveness of the French name for my occupation, a logician. Logic is a pure science of course whereas medical “science” is mostly about hocus pocus. I would be surprised if anybody reading this had not at some time been prescribed a placebo, a course of medicine in one form or another which has no active ingredient but works simply because the patient believes it is doing them good.

So having ploughed through twenty or thirty long winded replies all similar in content and of increasingly hysterical tone I have grounds to suspect some faceless person or persons have orchestrated this in an attempt to shut me up.

Which is quite amusing really.

(Thanks to all those people who posted intelligent and considered replies, it proves we can have an intelligent debate even though the licking dogs of the British Medical Association will try to silence me.)

The first item promised to bring links to the websites of American Organisations that hold very different views to our medical establishment and justify my claim that Wakefield was a scapegoat, there were many other studies conducted, those that support MMR are as inconclusive as those that suggest more research is needed. These links follow. You will find copies, reviews and extracts of documents on both sides of the argument and information about things that parents can do to help improve the quality of life of autistic children. Can anything possibly work? I am not the person to answer that so here is a paragraph from my American friend Natasha who happens to be the mother of an autistic adolescent. (letters in brackets are mine, for clarification)

Ian, as you know Cam(eron) showed signs of autism from a very early age, a few days old in fact so there is no question of vaccine damage in my case. I am from a privileged background and was able to get the best help and advice from the start. At age five the outlook was poor but therapies developed at U(niversity of) C(alifornia) Davis M.I.N.D. Center. They seemed to help a lot.

Many parents in both our group around Sacramento and in the San Francisco group have told of autism symptoms appearing in formerly happy children a few weeks after they had the MMR vaccine. Even though these tend to be mainly disorders at the higher functioning end of the spectrum it is still another human life whose potential will never be fulfilled.
May I ask you to point out that the pro-MMR campaign will argue the apparent onset of autism after the vaccine is given is coincidence because the condition only becomes apparent at around the age the first vaccine is given. This is a wicked lie, in our group we have many parents who like me were aware within a few days of birth there was something very wrong with their baby. Eighteen months is the earliest age at which medical professionals will commit themselves to a diagnosis. So the only coincidence is that the vaccince campaigners are as dishonest about diagnosis as about their products

Late onset not related to MMR is not unknown but in a very significan number of cases it can be linked to MMR and other vaccines.

love Tash

The self styled “scientists” among my critics will dismiss this as anecdotal and irrelevant of course, but who would you rather trust, a gang of narrow minded egotistical who are grubbing around for a pat on the head and a cash bonus from a Big Pharma rep or a concerned mother who spends a lot of her time and her own money on campaigning for autism related charities?

At the links below you will find both sides of the case presented (in Britain we have only ever heard one as the British Medical Association seem to have decided from the outset that the MMR vaccine was above criticism. An admirably unbiased attitude from these “high minded academics”, if you know what I mean.

(United States) National Vaccine Information Centre
Autism and Vaccines: A New Look At An Old Problem
The cases for and against laid out in accessible language.

Next is Special Children a page from about.com that presents both arguments for and against MMR. The bigots who have attacked me in the earlier post may try to suggest the fact that arguments against appear first is somehow significant (for people who claim high minded academic detachment they are an emotional lot and are rarely troubled by logic or fair mindedness.
Autism Research Institute
An extensive site devoted to autism issues. Parents with autistic children will find this a valuable resource as it is rich in information you simply will not get in the U.K.

UCLA Davis Mind Centre, University of California
An academic site and not easy to find your way round. Again both sides of the argument are presented online here.

The Legal Position
As well as promising links to information sites, I promised to bring info on cases going through the US legal process now (latest available updates from June 2007) Now if you fancy some really good bedtime reading, check out the US Federal Courts transcripts of test cases to prove “general causation” against the MMR vaccine in the first hearing of a three trial process to establish grounds for thousands of families to launch civil proceedings against the MMR vaccine manufacturers. You can always go to the final day (day 12) of the first case in three table and read the final submissions and the summing up.

For quicker summaries of proceedings click here to go to a summary site run by the mother of one of the claimants. Check out the picture of her son Chandler and you will understand this issue is not about science at all, its about humanity.

Funny you know but the more I hang in, the more hysterical the attacks become. Keep coming suckers, you’re all helping me.

Despite all this screaming that there is no issue, the case is actually progressing through the U.S. Courts. No doubt at least one of my critics will remind me that Americans are idiots. Well I’ve no problem about making fun of America’s religious right and other oddball aspects of American society but lets not allow the histrionics of Holocaxxxx sorry, Autism/MMR deniers trick us into forgetting America is a civilised country. And thanks to the Wakefield case and other bizarre cover ups American medical professionals, along with those in Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, and even India think British medicine is in The Dark Ages. But even in America the Medical Establishment is in the pockets of the Pharmaceuticals Industry. Read here how a non – committal report from the Institute of Medicine was misrepresented.

Finally though, I have said I will not comment on Wakefield because I am not qualified to do so (again despite my repeating this several times my critics keep referring to my assertion that the Wakefield case has been used to stifle debate as if I have made a detailed defence of his findings. Machiavelli (the clue is in the name) is a political website and all my posts are about the politics of this issue. You want a rebuttal of Wakefield’s critics, here’s one from :

Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.
Autism Research Institute
4182 Adams Avenue
San Diego, CA 92116

Dr. Wakefield and his courageous collaborators have endured a torrent of criticism and abuse from those dedicated to silencing anyone challenging the sacred-cow status of vaccines. The fact is, vaccines are not nearly as safe, nor anywhere near as effective, as vaccination proponents claim.

Dr. Wakefield's opponents argue, quite speciously, that he is confusing association with causation, and that the autism link may be merely "coincidental."

I find it doubly ironic that the vaccine advocates accuse Wakefield of this elementary error in logic. That very argument was used just as wrongly--against vaccinations--by the opponents of Edward Jenner when he introduced vaccination to Europe. (It was used earlier in Asia.) Jenner's observation that milkmaids exposed to pox-infected cows developed a resistance to smallpox was attributed to coincidence. Fortunately for today's vaccine proponents, Jenner's critics did not succeed in dismissing his observations as merely "coincidence."

The second irony is that the critics who accuse Dr. Wakefield of confusing association with causation are guilty of doing that very thing--deliberately, not mistakenly--while trying to influence public policy, by claiming that vaccines cause steep declines in the incidence of disease when there is good evidence that the decline was often due to other factors -- that is, to coincidence.

CLICK LINK To read the full article and see Dr. Rimland clarify the point confusing so many of my critics, i.e. the difference between coincidence and a significant pattern of events visit this page. Same case as used against Edward Jenner eh? He died in 1823. Nobody could accuse these guys of being original.

Again no comment from me. I confine myself to political, social and economic issues. Except of course when medical people stray into my field and show complete ignorance of data analysis methodology.

Remember, all you egomaniacal junior doctors and Laboaraory Technicians trying to pass yourself off as "scientists", autism is about real lives, real suffering, real pain in the real world. Your egos do not belong in the equation

REALTED POSTS:

CDC whistleblower confesses to MMR vaccine research fraud in historic public statement
CDC whistleblower William Thompson has now gone public with a statement posted on the website of the law firm representing him, Morgan Verkamp LLC. (See his statement reprinted below.)The statement opens with a blatant admission of scientific fraud at the CDC:
"My name is William Thompson. I am a Senior Scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where I have worked since 1998. I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in ..."

Dr. Offit the vaccine millionaire, mandatory vaccines and conflicts of interest.
"But why would you not want the vaccine, it's for your own good." This is the plaintive whine of those who are sure they know better than ourselves what is good for us. As usual, the question you should ask is Cui Bono? Who benefits? And to find the answer as usual all you have to do is follow the money.

Health Authorities Now Admit Severe Side Effects Of VaccinesA few years ago anybody who questioned vaccines, whether the notorious MMR jab, swine flu vaccine, the HPV jab or the government's plans to make vaccination compulsory by law was subjected to a witch hunt. Recently U.S. courts and courts in Europe have awareded multi million dollar / pound settlements to those damaged by the MMR vaccine. Now we learn that several governments have admitted vaccines can have very serious side effects.
Selling Swine Flu The Second Time Round

GPs have been reminded to offer all pregnant women flu vaccines this winter, amid growing concern that expectant mothers are being given mixed messages by medical staff.
Court Victory For Anti - MMR Campaigners.It is the medical scandal that refuses to go away. Since its introduction controversy has surrounded the MMR vaccine because in a small number - and we must stress, a small number - of cases children develop serious and permanent side effects after reveiving the vaccine. Now at last, after following a tactic used successfully in the USA and keeping the word autism out of their case, lawyers working for the family of Robert Fletcher have won the first award of compensation for 'brain damage' reslting from the MMR vaccine.
Nurses Spend Too Much Time Bean CountingThe labour government made a huge error in placing targets and statistics ahead of patient care in the NHS. Nurses complained they were spending more time bean counting than they were on patient care. Now Labour are screaming about the coalition's proposed cuts in NHS budgets. But the cuts will reduce numbers of managers and administrators, not nurses and front line staff.
NHS Patient: I Am Not A NumberThe labour government made a huge error in placing targets and statistics ahead of patient care in the NHS. Nurses complained they were spending more times filling in forms and dealing with paperwork than they were on patient care. Now Labour are screaming about the coalition's proposed cuts in NHS budgets. But the cuts will reduce numbers of managers and administrators, not nurses and front line staff.
Every Day In Every Way Tyranny Creeps A Little CloserThe NHS has come up with a scheme to deny care to people whose behaviour has contributed to their ailments. Smokes lung problems will go untreated, alcoholics livers will remain enlarged and fat people's bad backs will get no sympathy or pain killeres. But how far will this health tyranny go. 'No, you can't have a midwife, you got yourself pregnant, deal with it. We've got paperwork to do?
Whatever Happened To Swine Flu
We're all going to die
Armageddon

Homeopathy Overdose Protest
Blood Bank Toxic Debt Vaccine Hysteria
More hyperbolic scaremongering from the vaccines lobby and their Big Pharma sponsors aimed at speading fear and panic to make people accept their products
MMR vaccine to be compulsory
The vaccine nazis, supported by a desperate government's attemps to rule through fear and panic are veering towards authoritarianism.
Swine Flu Swine Flu vaccine - just say no. Links here to sites where you can get THE FACTS
Swine Flu Conspiracy Swine Flu is usually a mild illness like winter flu. In the last outbreak of Swine Flu however, a government / Big Phasrma carve up persuaded thousands of people in the USA to get vaccinated. The vaccine killed more people than the virus.

Daily Stirrer - Need A Crisis? Swine Flu Conspiracy
MMR vaccine scandal
MMR vaccine to be compulsory
Swine Flu - No Worries (humour)
Government By Fear And Panic
The cure for swine flu - clutch at a straw Doctor, Doctor (comic verse)

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