The Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine controversy has been characterized by two one-sided discourses. In the medical world, the weight of opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of MMR. In the public world, the anti-MMR campaign has a much greater influence, centered on the fears of parents that the triple vaccine may cause autism in their children. Both professionals and parents struggle to cope with the anxieties this creates, but find it is difficult to find a balanced account of the issues.
In MMR and Autism , Michael Fitzpatrick, a general practitioner who is also the parent of an autistic child, explains why he believes the anti-MMR campaign is misguided in a way that will reassure parents considering vaccination and also relieve the anxieties of parents with autistic children. At the same time the book provides health care professionals and health studies students with an accessible overview of a contemporary health issue with significant policy implications.
Excellent analysis of scaremongering about a safe vaccine
This superb book gives an extremely useful account of the current state of knowledge of autism and its causes. It also shows that parents should allow their children to be immunised with MMR. The author is a London GP, who has an autistic son James.
Dr Fitzpatrick reminds us of the dangers of measles, mumps and rubella. In the ten years before the first measles immunisation was introduced in Britain, 850 children died from measles. Since MMR immunisation was introduced in 1988, there have been only four deaths from measles, and 19 from complications. Japan, with a low uptake of MMR immunisation, has 50/100 measles deaths a year.
So the government is right to encourage mass MMR immunisation and to oppose the individual choice of separate vaccines, even though its promotion of `individual choice' and `personalised care' undermines all good NHS policies. The government's `faith-based' politics - evident in Blair's refusal to say whether his son Leo had been immunised - align it against both the medical profession and scientific evidence.
The original article that sparked the MMR immunisation scare, by Dr Andrew Wakefield, only raised the possibility of a relationship between MMR immunisation and autism: it put forward no evidence of a causal link, and specified no mechanism of transmission. In the subsequent five years, he has failed to substantiate his claim.
Since then, many independent researchers have proven that there is no causal link between MMR and autism, but Dr Wakefield refuses to accept the overwhelming evidence. He even told a US senate committee that the Royal Statistical Society had damned an important study that refuted his hypothesis, although this was not true. He has now moved to a private clinic in Florida run by an evangelical Christian.
We still know too little about the neurobiological framework of autism. The one thing we do know is that whatever else causes autism, it is not MMR immunisation. The facts show that MMR vaccine is safe, and that immunisation does not compromise natural immunity.
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