Is Autism Linked to Vaccine - A Controversial Subject About MMR Vaccinations - Parent's Advised To Do Research Before Deciding

It is best to do all the research you can about your child's vaccinations and make an informed decision. Below are some articles that discussing this controversy.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that, according to figures released just last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is much more common in children in the U.S. than ever. 1 in 88 children in the U.S. — 1 in 54 boys — are on the autism spectrum. April is Autism Awareness / Acceptance Month and the United Nations has dubbed April 2 World Autism Awareness Day.

Now, Donald Trump just reminded us why we need this month by saying on Fox News that the cause of autism is “monster” vaccinations.

Here’s Trump’s own unfortunate words via Raw Story:

“I’ve gotten to be pretty familiar with the subject. You know, I have a theory — and it’s a theory that some people believe in — and that’s the vaccinations. We never had anything like this. This is now an epidemic. It’s way, way up over the past 10 years. It’s way up over the past two years. And, you know, when you take a little baby that weighs like 12 pounds into a doctor’s office and they pump them with many, many simultaneous vaccinations — I’m all for vaccinations, but I think when you add all of these vaccinations together and then two months later the baby is so different then lots of different things have happened. I really — I’ve known cases.”

….

“It happened to somebody that worked for me recently…I mean, they had this beautiful child, not a problem in the world, and all of the sudden they go in and they get this monster shot. You ever see the size of it? It’s like they’re pumping in — you know, it’s terrible, the amount. And they pump this in to this little body and then all of the sudden the child is different a month later.”

Trump has clearly gotten wind of the new CDC study. Scientists and medical professionals keep patiently pointing out a few key reasons for the significant increases: (1) a concerted effort to diagnose autism in younger children; (2) an equally intense effort to train pediatricians, early childhood educators and parents to look out for the signs of autism in young children; (3) the vastly broadened and still-changing definition of autism, so that, today, more than a few who are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder might (in previous years) have received no diagnosis, been labelled “mentally retarded” or as having “childhood schizophrenia,” been considered “quirky/weird/eccentric” or been labeled with other conditions.

Since 1998, the notion that vaccines or something in vaccines such as the mercury-based preservative thimerosal could be causing autism has been in circulation. A British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, published an article in the medical journal The Lancet in which he said he had found a link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and the onset of autism in young children. The Lancet retracted that study in 2010 and nearly 20 recent studies have further refuted a vaccine-autism link.

But once Wakefield had held a 1998 press conference announcing his findings, the proverbial cat was out of the bag and it has proved exceedingly hard to restore public confidence in vaccines.

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170 Cases of Autism Linked to Vaccine in UK


The consultant who first raised concerns about MMR vaccinations has
disclosed to The Telegraph that he has identified nearly 170 cases of a new
syndrome of autism and bowel disease in children who have had the
triple-dose injection.

Andrew Wakefield, a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Free
Hospital in London, said that in the "majority" of cases parents had
documentary evidence that their child's physical and mental decline had
followed the vaccination.

Professor Wakefield said: "Last week in our clinic we saw nine or 10
new children with exactly the same story, referred by jobbing paediatricians
from around the country who said, 'This child developed normally, had a
reaction to MMR and is now autistic'".

In his first public comments since the row erupted in 1998, when he
reported on 12 cases, Professor Wakefield said that he remained seriously
concerned by the safety of the vaccine, despite reassurances from the
Department of Health.

He said: "The department says that the safety of MMR has been proven.
The argument is untenable. It cannot be substantiated by the science. That
is not only my opinion but increasingly the view of healthcare professionals
and the public.

He said: "Tests have revealed time and time again that we are dealing
with a new phenomenon. The Department of Health's contention that MMR has
been proven to be safe by study after study after study just doesn't hold
up. Frankly, it is not an honest appraisal of the science and it relegates
the scientific issues to the bottom of the barrel in favour of winning a
propaganda war."

The doctor, who was fiercely attacked by health officials for voicing his
doubts three years ago, said in an exclusive interview that he felt driven
to break his silence because of the accumulating evidence. His remarks will
infuriate the Government and sharpen the dilemma of parents over whether to
have children innoculated with MMR.

It emerged last month that a rising number of doctors and nurses were
worried about giving second doses of the vaccine, and pressure is growing
for its separation into its three component vaccinations, spread over three
years. In his 1998 article in The Lancet, Professor Wakefield reported
finding a devastating combination of bowel disease and autism in 12
children.

His revelation that that figure has reached almost 170 cases will
shock parents and doctors and add pressure on the Government to justify its
vaccination policy. This month Dr David Salisbury, the head of the
Government's immunisation programme, insisted that MMR was safe.

The vaccine, which contains live measles, mumps and rubella virus, has
been given to millions of children in the UK since its introduction in 1988
but the take-up rate has fallen sharply since Dr Wakefield made his original
claims.

Ten days ago health chiefs warned parents that Britain could face a
measles outbreak unless more had their children vaccinated with MMR.
Professor Wakefield said, however, that if an outbreak were to erupt it
would be the fault of the health department, which had "failed to address
the safety issues".

The doctor and his colleagues are testing the hypothesis that the
measles virus from the vaccine can lodge in the gut of susceptible children,
damaging the bowel and causing autism, and that the addition of the mumps
virus makes that more likely.

Shame On Officials Who Say MMR Is Safe

[Telegraph editorial by Lorraine Fraser.]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004193535831504&rtmo=qxMxqx99&atmo=rrrrrrrq
&pg=/et/01/1/21/nmmr121.html <- - address ends here.

When Andrew Wakefield first told the Department of Health three years
ago of his fears about the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine
and described to ministers the terribly damaged children that he had
examined, he assumed that he would be taken seriously.

Since then, however, he has been pilloried for voicing his concerns
and the department's only response to his findings has been to undermine or
ignore them. In fact, despite being aware of worrying new evidence, it has
continued unwaveringly to reassure the public of the safety of the combined
vaccine which a growing number of doctors fear may have triggered serious
side affects in thousands of previously healthy children.

After a period of public silence, Dr Wakefield, an expert on

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