Re:From Spiked Online - ‘The MMR-autism theory ? There’s nothin

[Guest guest]

I was quite puzzled about the 'testimony' presented by Chadwick by phone during the Cedillo hearing. I am quite surprised that it was even allowed unless he had written up his data and there was peer reviewed evidence to support what he was saying that I missed seeing in the transcripts. Was there anything concrete to substantiate what he was saying? It seems really strange that an accuser of an alleged conspiracy was brought in willy-nilly. If there is no real written evidence to substantiate what he said - isn't it like baying at the moon or whatever the legal equivalent is? Someone on this site ( I think it was Alison ?) said it would be good for the autism community to do their own research and this would be an area that could be investigated along with the other points raised by the witnesses who appeared for the defendant. There are good techniques now to isolate and sequence RNA if families are willing to participate in

such studies provided the legal processes are observed. If there are labs there in the US that would process the samples and give a definitive answer that could be used for the other families waiting for their day in court. Is there a quantum on the number of people living with autism worldwide who have the conviction that vaccines have replaced common childhood illnesses with neurological disorders like autism? Let's not go that far- what about just North America and the UK - any stats available? Perhaps that is another worthwhile bit of information to have. It will be interesting to know just how big the groundswell of parents who hold this view is. I suspect parents who hold this view are not just voices in the wilderness. Nearly every parent of an autistic child I come across these days here are saying the very same thing but often have to pretend otherwise. I wonder what

it is like in other places. Once they are ascertained, such a population can be accessed to carry out other studies that mainstream academia is trying to avoid and if these studies are well constructed, with adequate controls and carried out fastidiously, the written papers should be submitted to any of the "prestigious" journals and I think it is important that those who stick their heads in the sand should openly be made to look at such data and scrutinize it if they will. When Nobel Laureates Prof. Barry Marshall and Dr Robin Warren first put forward their hypothesis on stomach ulcers they were ridiculed by mainstream scientists and it took around 20 years and only after Barry Marshall experimented on himself that the mainstream scientists in intellectual straightjackets came around and accepted this new science. It was inconceivable to them that bacteria could survive in the acidic environment of the stomach

because the "science was not right" and ultimately had to concede that this was yet another bit of science that needs rewriting.

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