article in The Spectator re The Debate That Won't Go Away

[Guest guest]

<http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/731746/the-debate-that-wont-go-away.\

thtml#comments>http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/731746/the-debate-that\

-wont-go-away.thtml#comments

Comments are invited (more supportive comments would be helpful)...

The debate that won't go away

Monday, 26th May 2008

Good to see that the

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2008/05/26/hautism126.\

xml>Telegraph

today picks up on developments I wrote about

<http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/569281/another-piece-in-the-jigsaw.t\

html>here

in the US, where a head of official steam is

building behind the perception that there is a

troubling relationship between certain childhood

vaccines, including MMR, and autistic symptoms

and other damage in a small subset of

particularly vulnerable children. As I have

written, this has been prompted by recent US

cases in which multiple vaccinations have

aggravated an underlying mitochondrial weakness

to produce catastrophic effects, leading Dr

Bernardine Healy, the former head of the National

Institute of Health, to tell CBS News:

I think that the public health officials have

been too quick to dismiss the [autism link to

vaccination] hypothesis as irrational.

In addition, the Telegraph reported this:

The vaccine hypothesis was bolstered recently by

a five-year study in monkeys who were given the

same vaccinations that American children are

routinely given. Last week, Dr Hewitson, a

specialist in obstetrics, gynaecology and

reproductive sciences at the University of

Pittsburgh, told the International Meeting for

Autism Research in London that in the

double-blind placebo-controlled study, 13

vaccinated animals showed increased aggression,

impaired cognitive skills and developmental

delay. The three unvaccinated animals in the study developed normally.

‘There was a significant difference between the

two groups,’ said Hewitson. ‘The vaccinated group

had trouble developing reflexes?… They also

became more insular and more aggressive. There

was an increase in aggressive behaviour after

they had their MMR vaccines, and they stopped

exploring their surroundings as much.’ Abnormal

brain activity was found in the monkeys, and

higher sensitivity to a naturally occurring brain

chemical linked to sleeplessness, hallucinations,

lack of social skills and a high pain threshold -

all symptoms found in children on the autistic

spectrum. The monkeys also exhibited

abnormalities of the amygdala, the part of the

brain which regulates emotions. ’We can’t

conclude that vaccines cause autism from this

study,’ said Hewitson, ‘What we can conclude is

that the vaccinated monkeys showed significant

negative behavioural differences before and after the MMR.’

This research, carried out at five US research

centres, including The University of California,

Washington National Primate Research Centre,

Seattle, The University of Kentucky and the

Thoughtful House Centre for Children, Texas

(founded by the man at the eye of this storm,

Wakefield) has not yet been published in a

peer-reviewed journal. Some suspicious minds may

think (however unfairly) that Wakefield’s

involvement taints it. And it must be stressed

that the other American developments involve

certain differences from the British childhood

vaccination regime, including multiple jabs in

the course of one day and the use of

mercury-based preservatives. Nevertheless, it

should be noted that the suspicion gathering

momentum in the US, that a vaccine schedule

including MMR may trigger a catastrophic reaction

in both brain and gut among a small proportion of

children who are in some way vulnerable, is

almost exactly the claim made by Wakefield, now

fighting for his professional life before the GMC

for making it -- in the teeth of a medical

establishment in Britain which states

categorically there is no truth in it whatsoever.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

Vaccines - http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers & Homeopathy Online/email courses