Vaccines and autism

[Guest guest]

Dear Moira,

This is an excerpt from Dr. Koren's newsletter:

" The March 7th, 2001 Journal of the AMA published a paper " proving " there

was no link between MMR vaccines and autism. More junk science.

What's the story on this? As usual the MD authors did not interview even one

child.

Nor did they even compare autistic kids with the vaccines they got. They did

an antiseptic statistical analysis and came to the conclusion:

" These data do not suggest an association between MMR immunization among

young children and an increase in autism occurrence. "

In the paper the authors acknowledge the insufficient quality of the data

for purposes of drawing conclusions based on the reported rates of autism.

They give six different reasons for this. Then, contradicting themselves,

they go ahead and draw a conclusion anyway.

Some excepts: " Difficulties in interpreting the increasing numbers of

autism cases are highlighted in the California Department of Developmental

Services 1999 report, which repeatedly stressed that its data cannot be

interpreted as measuring trends in the actual incidence of autism.... It is

unknown how many children with autism have not enrolled in the system and as

the system expanded and matured over time, the proportions of children

enrolling in the system who were born outside of California may have changed

over time....The data presented herein have some limitations. It would have

been useful to examine individual immunization and autism records on the

same children, however, these could not be linked. Further, the childhood

immunization coverage data used in the study do not provide precise

quantification of the percentages of children who received the combined MMR

vaccine product vs separate injections of the measles, mumps, and/or rubella

components. "

But they drew conclusions anyway. The media uncritically reported the

article's conclusions but some were more balanced:

>From the LA Times:. . .Dr. Bernard Rimland of the Autism Research Institute

in San Diego argues that it is not the vaccine--known as MMR--alone that

triggers autism, but the entire burden placed on the immune system by the 22

separate vaccines that are now given to children between birth and age 2.

" By focusing on MMR, these guys are missing the boat, " he said. " It's much

too early to dismiss the [vaccine] hypothesis. "

http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20010307/t000020117.html

>From the St. sburg Times: Rick Rollens, co-founder of Medical

Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, a research center at the

University of California at , who blames the autism of his son,

, on immunizations he got as an infant. " But I think the vaccine

manufacturers and the public heath community have failed in providing us

with proof that these vaccines don't cause problems. "

http://www.sptimes.com/News/030701/TampaBay/Study_answers_autism_.shtml

>From the San Francisco Chronicle: " Quite frankly, something that appears in

a journal that is controlled by the American Medical Association, which is

one of the world's No. 1 promoters of vaccine policy, needs to be taken with

a grain of salt, " said Rick Rollens of Sacramento. He is the father of a

10-year-old autistic son and has been vocal in asking for research into the

possible link between vaccines and autism.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/03/07

/MN152164.DTL

VACCINATION QUOTES

" I found that the whole vaccine business was indeed a gigantic hoax. Most

doctors are convinced that they are useful, but if you look at the proper

statistics and study the instances of these diseases you will realize that

this is not so . . You cannot immunize sick children, malnourished children,

and expect to get away with it. You'll kill far more children than would

have died from natural infection. " -Dr Kalokerinos, MD

" ....There is growing suspicion that immunization against relatively

harmless childhood diseases may be responsible for the dramatic increase in

autoimmune diseases since mass inoculations were introduced. These are

fearful diseases such as cancer, leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple

sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, lupus erythematosus, and the Guillain-Barre

syndrome. " --Dr. Mendelsohn, M.D.

Best of Health!

Dr. Saul Pressman, DCh, LOH