What do you think about Vaccines?: July 2008

Please click on any quote to make it larger...

I know I haven't posted in ages and I haven'tposted any info regarding the vaccine rally in DC (which was awesome, by the way...) I will do that soon, I promise. In the meantime, please read these quotes and then my ranting below and then the articles I have posted and then go to the website and read more! (only if you want to, of course....)

Here are multiple different quotes - most from actual doctors. There are a lot more where these came from..

I am no longer "trying to dig up evidence to prove" vaccines cause autism. There is already abundant evidence,...... This debate is not scientific but is political. --- [July 9, 2006 Blog/letter] Discovering the causes, treatment of autism ----David Ayoub, MD

"Some will have you believe that autism is some medical mystery that's always been around, one that we just have managed to get a handle on. So, show me the 30-year-olds with autism, the 40-year-olds with autism, and the 50-year-olds with autism. Guess what? They aren't there for the most part. The explosion in the number of children with autism is real, but most of the scientific community has ignored this. Let's face it: they have been encouraged to ignore it, and anyone getting close to the truth finds that they get their NIH research grants pulled. That's right…science is being manipulated, so that a big lie can stay alive, and those culpable can remain unaccountable. Throwing Children into Oncoming Traffic: The Truth about Autism by Kenneth Stoller, MD, FAAP with Anne McElroy Dachel

"The Federal Government recently conceded a real vaccine-autism lawsuit in a real court and will soon pay a real (taxpayer-funded) settlement to a real American family and a very real child with autism......If I were the AAP, or ABC for that matter, I would feel downright silly stating that "no scientific link exists," so soon after the Journal of Child Neurology published a study titled, "Blood Levels of Mercury Are Related to Diagnosis of Autism: A Reanalysis of an Important Data Set." I would also worry about parental reaction to learning that researchers had done due diligence and reanalyzed data from a prior, hugely influential study that (erroneously) found zero connection between mercury levels and autism......
Another study, freshly out of Harvard, likewise shows a potential link between mercury and the autopsied brains of young people with autism. The American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology reports that a marker for oxidative stress was 68.9% higher in autistic brain issue than controls (a statistically significant result), while mercury levels were 68.2% higher. ....
In the article, "Delay in DPT vaccination is associated with a reduced risk of childhood asthma," Anita Kozyrskyj, an asthma researcher at the University of Manitoba, and other scientists combed the medical records of 14,000 children born in Manitoba in 1995 (when many Canadian shots still contained mercury, by the way). They found that children who received the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) vaccine at two months of age were 2.63 times more likely to develop asthma (at a rate of 13.9%) than children who were not given the shot until after four months of age (5.9%)."

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(Quotes are over, this is just me now...)

I was just searching for some gluten free food for my kids when I stumbled upon a great site with a TON of information, articles, studies, etc. regarding the vaccine/autism link. It also talks a lot about allergies and asthma and the connection to vaccines. The thing that surprised me the most (and at the same time didn't surprise me) was that there were so many articles dating back to 1990 (and earlier I think). Anyways, I will post the link below so you can all go and read for yourselves, but here are a few articles that I thought were very interesting.

I had heard that there could be some connection between the MMR (specifically) and autism over 5 years ago. I asked my dr. and was reassured that there was no connection. Again, 3 years ago when I took Wyatt in, I was assured that there was no connection. However, now I know better. I then read these articles that I wish I would have seen and that every person should see. PLEASE READ THEM!

This is happening all over the world, there were articles written about children damaged by vaccines in japan, uk, us, etc. The articles talk about kids that were brain damaged, went deaf, got epilepsy, cerebral palsy, autism, etc. etc. etc.

I will not tell any of you to not vaccinate your child, I only BEG you to please read the information on this website and read the articles and studies. There is enough information in this site alone (not to mention the other millions of sites and millions of parents that will tell you the same thing...) to at least delay the vaccine schedule. Split up the vaccines. Don't give more than one at a time. Wait until your child is older. DON'T GIVE THEM TYLENOL WITH A VACCINE! You are the parent. the CDC (center for disease control) gives a RECOMMENDED schedule. It is NOT required. You do NOT HAVE to give your child so many vaccines. You do not have to give them together. You do not have to feel bad when your dr. tries to tell you that you are wrong and that there is no connection.

When even ONE person dies from some other prescription drug, etc. The drug is recalled, pulled off the market and the law suits are immediately filed. Yet, when hundreds of thousands of parents in America (and other countries) watch their child regress, become autistic, become brain damaged, etc. etc. etc. after their vaccines, nothing happens. Please be informed. Please do what YOU think is best for your child, not what your doctor says, not what your neighbor says, not what the CDC says.

I know I can be a bit much, but one of my worst fears was that I would have a child with autism. I don't know why it scared me so bad. My son is an absolute genius - not just compared to other children with special needs, but an actual genius. Every day I see more things that amaze me. Other children with autism have become amazing musicians, artists, runners, etc. However, it is a long, hard road and most of us do it alone with almost no help from doctors, insurance coverage, etc.

I have other great things to post, so check back and don't give up on me!

You can read the few that I have posted here or go to this website yourself and read whatever you want. http://www.whale.to/vaccines.html

Mary Robinson's six babies were perfect when they were born. So why are the five who had the MMR jab autistic?
Daily Express Feb 2, 2001.

From a Telegraph article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=002549632124328&rtmo=fsMqvqas&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/2/1/tlaut01.html

MARY ROBINSON likens the mayhem in her home to wartorn Beirut; it continues from early morning until late at night. "The children don't play together. They all want to be the centre of attention and they fight."

Any parent with young children might be tempted to describe their home like that, but this is different. Five of Mary's six children, aged between three and 13, aren't just difficult and demanding - they are autistic.

She takes it for granted that, every week, she must change wet beds, put radiators back on the walls, repair the loo, retouch the paintwork, explain the children's black eyes to teachers and apologise to other parents if her children have bitten or kicked theirs. "What else can I do?" she shrugs.

The one thing she cannot do is relax. Thirteen-year-old Claire could be wandering off, oblivious to danger; 11-year-old Tyson might be trying to hatch raw eggs by sitting on them and Jordan, 10, could be in one of his violent moods. Hayden, nine, who cannot speak, will be screaming for her while three-year-old Leah is showing her a toy for the millionth time.

We meet while the children are at school, otherwise conversation would be impossible. Looking at the prominently displayed photographs of their angelic faces, the perfect order into which Mary has the sitting-room by mid-morning and her calm exterior, it is hard to credit the chaos she describes - or that she has a child who tells her: "When you are asleep, I'm going to stab you with a bread knife."

Nights are hellish, with the children bouncing off the walls and swinging from light-fittings. Weekends offer no respite: whereas other children go to the park or play with friends, hers can't. "It's like running a care home here," says her husband, John, "except we don't get any time off."

But they do insist on escaping to the amusement parks and animal sanctuaries near their home in Hayle, Cornwall. Such expeditions call for steely nerves as, wherever she takes the children, Mary hears people tutting about their behaviour and saying: "Why did that woman go on having children if they are all handicapped?"

Had those women time to listen to her story - or she to explain it - they would learn that none of Mary's children started off autistic; they were developing perfectly normally until something caused them to regress. Far from being someone to criticise, Mary Robinson deserves infinite sympathy. She allowed her case to be made public last week and now is at the centre of The Great MMR Scare.

"I want to protect the children from too much attention," she says, "but I could not believe it when I read that the Government is spending £3 million on a campaign to make out that MMR is 'safe'. No one I know will allow their child to have the triple vaccine, and since single vaccines are not available, there will be epidemics of measles, mumps and rubella - and children will die.

"It's all because of money. For the Government, it is cheaper to give the immunisations together, so they aren't offering people a choice. When a manufacturer is shown a single contaminated can of beans, the whole batch is recalled yet, with MMR, the Government is quoting some questionable research and not giving parents the benefit of the doubt."

As for the claims that autism has not increased, they leave her speechless. "I was once a nanny and I used to work in a nursery. I know that there are more autistic children around. When we go to special centres, I meet parents who talk about their children behaving normally and then changing - and some haven't even heard of the concerns over MMR."

Mary hadn't either when she had her children vaccinated. The triple vaccine was introduced in 1988, so her eldest, Donna, who lives with her grandparents, never had it; she is not autistic. The rest were immunised and from that moment, in each case, she charts the onset of their problems.

In fact, only three of her children are included in the legal action being brought by solicitors Alexander Harris against the five drug companies that supply the vaccine. Claire had MMR too long ago to be admissible and Jordan's case is complicated by prematurity, but Tyson, Hayden and Leah have all had their medical records checked and legal aid has been provided to bring their cases.

Other possible causes of autism can be ruled out. Mary was so anxious not to have another problem child after Jordan that she had his genes tested and later her own. No problems were found. Nor was any autism found in their families - only asthma, often involved when MMR appears to have caused problems.

Significantly, Hayden was given a brain scan as a baby - before he had the MMR jab - and found to be normal. "Until he was 18 months, Hayden was a lovely, placid child. At that age, he was saying: 'Oook, doggie'. But within nine weeks of the vaccination, he had lost his speech and wouldn't let me look at him; his whole personality changed."

Although reassured by the genetic tests, Mary was still keen to have another girl when pregnant with Leah as Claire's problems seemed so much less acute than those of the boys (although that could be because of her high intelligence). When the longed-for girl was born, Mary was overjoyed and everything went well until, two years ago, Leah had her MMR.

"By that time, there were rumours. Knowing that I had three sons registered as autistic, no one in the medical profession drew my attention to the idea that there was some concern. They said nothing. I find that unforgivable."

So Mary went ahead and allowed Leah to have the jab and history, heartbreakingly, repeated itself.

"You feel you've lost your child; it's just like a bereavement," she says.

By this stage in our conversation, Leah has reappeared from her special needs nursery. She is a charming child but her words come out strangely and she rushes around frantically.

Mary was as baffled by the early signs of these changes in her hitherto normal daughter as she had been by the onset of autism in her other children. Then she picked up a magazine containing an article about a woman with three autistic sons - and read about the concerns over MMR.

Immediately, she contacted Jabs, an organisation run by affected parents, and was put in touch with the legal action group. "How likely is it that I could have had five naturally autistic children?" she asked. The chance was infinitesimal, she was told.

But Mary is not a campaigner. She doesn't have time for that, any more than she can go to church to please the Mormons who keep coming round to pray for her, or find time to train to be a social worker: "I couldn't find anyone to look after the children, so I gave up."

All her considerable practical skills are devoted to giving her damaged children as enjoyable a life as possible. "I told them all, early on, that they are autistic and that everything they feel is normal for the way they are. It's not fair, I tell them, that you have to try harder than other children, but you'll get there."

She feeds them an additive-free diet and refuses to drug them to make them more controllable. Nor will she take anti-depressants herself; when she tried, she was shocked by the feeling of swimming through treacle.

Rather than spending the children's disability allowances on running the house, she saves the money up for special toys - light pillars that produce mesmerising bubbles, computers on which they can express themselves, projectors that make patterns on the walls. Leah's room is a child's dream, crammed with play equipment, none of which can be kept downstairs, as the boys would destroy it.

And, despite the dents on the ceilings, the touched-up paint and scribble on the walls, the house has a warmth to it. So does the garden, with its aviary, rabbits and guinea pigs, trampoline and slides, all of which take the edge off the hyperactivity that comes with autism.

Although she looks young for 38, the past few years have been gruelling for Mary. Claire and Tyson's father left her when she was seven weeks pregnant with Tyson; Jordan and Hayden's father left her when she refused to put the boys in a residential home. Then she made an unsuccessful marriage: "In a situation like mine, you are so glad of help, so desperate for company"

To escape her husband and find a home large enough for the children, she and John, whom she married two years ago, have moved twice in quick succession. John, I say, must be a saint taking on all these children as well as his own daughter, Leah.

"He isn't," she replies. "He has a bad back, which means he can't work or run after them and he can't stand it for long. But he does watch them for 20 minutes while I eat my dinner in the bedroom."

Since she began eating in peace, Mary has put on a stone and given up smoking. She's pleased. "The stronger I am, the longer I can keep my children at home."

Helping them is her over-riding concern and, every year, it gets more difficult. "Jordan broods on his disabilities; Tyson has terribly low self-esteem; Hayden I now accept will never talk. I just live each day at a time," she says - never planning anything, her head constantly full of a dialogue between the "angel" voice that encourages her to be patient and understanding, and the "devil" which makes her want to scream and give up.

The future looks bleak. Claire, she hopes, will be able to get a job but Tyson, she fears, will be in constant trouble as he has no notion of property. She doubts if Jordan will be able to leave home and Hayden may have to live in an institution. As for Leah, Mary won't know for several years whether, like Tyson, she will develop Asperger's syndrome.

When things get too much, she turns on pop music and fantasises. "I would love to go on a holiday without losing one of them, to be able to communicate with Hayden, and have Leah get no worse.

"Above all, of course, I want to have my children back as they were - but I know that can't happen."

Revealed, most compelling evidence yet of MMR danger

Sunday Express 6 October 2002 Exclusive by Lucy Johnston, Health Editor

A 13-year-old boy brain damaged after the controversial MMR jab still has remains of the vaccine in the injured area of his brain.

The alarming news is being seen as the most compelling evidence yet of a link between the triple measles, mumps and rubella jab and autism.

The boy's case will form a central plank of a forthcoming legal action by 600 autistic and brain-damaged children against vaccine manufacturerers.

Jackie Fletcher of support group Jabs, which highlights the risks of MMR, said: ''This is devastating news. What on earth is the vaccine doing in the brain? It should not be there.''

Mrs Fletcher, whose own son, Robert, 10, developed autism from the vaccine, added: ''This is the strongest evidence yet showing it causes brain damage.''

The 13-year-old, who has not been named, was developing normally until being given the MMR jab at 15 months. Days later a rash broke out, his development stopped and he began to have violent seizures. These became more frequent - sometimes every few minutes. In one month his mother, Verity, 46, from Sussex, counted 135. When he was nine, he was admitted to Southampton General Hospital's intensive care unit where doctors twice tried to break the cycle of convulsions with an anaesthetic. But each time they brought him round the fits started again.

Eventually he was transferred to London's Great Ormand Street Children's Hospital for brain surgery.

Verity arranged for the brain sample to be analysed and the results - seen by the Sunday Express - showed the sample contained traces of the measles virus ''consistent'' with the vaccine rather than the ''wild'' strain. Tissue from the boy's intestine also showed the vaccine.

The boy is now making progress and goes to a special school. But he shows symptoms of autism, memory loss and still has fits.

Verity said: ''The Department of Health has written off children like my son by refusing to acknowledge any link between brain damage and MMR.

''Because of this they are not being given appropriate treatment. They should be under the care of specialists.''

Experts say the boy's case is a minor victory for those fighting to get more recognition of the risks of MMR. Robert Sawyer, chief executive of the charity Visceral, which funds research by MMR opponent Dr Andrew Wakefield, said: ''The world must pay immediate attention to this evidence, especially when the Government is not taking the issue seriously.''

And Paul Shattock, head of the Autism Research Unit at the University of Sunderland, said: ''This is powerful. I don't know how the Government will talk its way out of it.''

An unpublished study strongly supports the new findings. Pathologists from Utah State University, US, and Trinity College, Dublin, have discovered the vaccine strain of the measles virus in the spinal fluid of 40 autistic children.

The link between MMR, autism was first proposed by Dr Wakefield in 1998. He discovered many children with late onset autism also had intestinal damage.

He believes the vaccine leaks through the gut wall into the central nervous system and into the brain, causing damage.

The Department of Health said it could not comment on an individual case pending legal proceedings. But it stressed that tests to identify vaccine strains in gut samples were unreliable.

Sunday Express Comment

Act on MMR evidence

Today this newspaper publishes a shocking report that every parent and grandparent must read. We present the most compelling evidence yet of the link between late onset autism and the measles, mumps and rubella injections. We believe that the Government can no longer insist that the jab is safe. To do so is to wilfully put the lives of our children at risk.

The Government has consistently said that the triple jab is safe. It wants to believe this is so because it seems to be the most effective way of stopping these life-threatening disease in their tracks. During the waiting time between separate jabs children can contract one of the conditions and some might not receive all three injections. But the Government has not conducted a through examination of children whose parents believe they were sticken by the MMR jab. This must be done now.

Without proper research we cannot know how many children's lives have been blighted. Neither will we know how to identify and exclude children who could be affected or exactly how to treat them. Moreover, the way is barred to those who deserve compensation. Children must not be sacrificed for the sake of dubious herd immunity

The Age of Autism: The Amish anomaly

By Dan Olmsted

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Lancaster, PA, Apr. 18 (UPI) -- Part 1 of 2.

Where are the autistic Amish? Here in Lancaster County, heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, there should be well over 100 with some form of the disorder.

I have come here to find them, but so far my mission has failed, and the very few I have identified raise some very interesting questions about some widely held views on autism.

The mainstream scientific consensus says autism is a complex genetic disorder, one that has been around for millennia at roughly the same prevalence. That prevalence is now considered to be 1 in every 166 children born in the United States.

Applying that model to Lancaster County, there ought to be 130 Amish men, women and children here with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Well over 100, in rough terms.

Typically, half would harbor milder variants such as Asperger's Disorder or the catch-all Pervasive Development Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified -- PDD-NOS for short.

So let's drop those from our calculation, even though "mild" is a relative term when it comes to autism.

That means upwards of 50 Amish people of all ages should be living in Lancaster County with full-syndrome autism, the "classic autism" first described in 1943 by child psychiatrist Leo Kanner at Johns Hopkins University. The full-syndrome disorder is hard to miss, characterized by "markedly abnormal or impaired development in social interaction and communication and a markedly restricted repertoire of activities and interests," according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Why bother looking for them among the Amish? Because they could hold clues to the cause of autism.

The first half-dozen articles in this ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism examined the initial studies and early accounts of the disorder, first identified by Kanner among 11 U.S. children born starting in 1931.

Kanner wrote that his 1938 encounter with a child from Mississippi, identified as Donald T., "made me aware of a behavior pattern not known to me or anyone else theretofore." Kanner literally wrote the book on "Child Psychiatry," published in 1934.

If Kanner was correct -- if autism was new and increasingly prevalent -- something must have happened in the 1930s to trigger those first autistic cases. Genetic disorders do not begin suddenly or increase dramatically in prevalence in a short period of time.

That is why it is worth looking for autistic Amish -- to test reasoning against reality. Largely cut off for hundreds of years from American culture and scientific progress, the Amish might have had less exposure to some new factor triggering autism in the rest of population.

Surprising, but no one seems to have looked.

Of course, the Amish world is insular by nature; finding a small subset of Amish is a challenge by definition. Many Amish, particularly Old Order, ride horse-and-buggies, eschew electricity, do not attend public school, will not pose for pictures and do not chat casually with the "English," as they warily call the non-Amish.

Still, some Amish today interact with the outside world in many ways. Some drive, use phones, see doctors and send out Christmas cards with family photos. They all still refer to themselves as "Plain," but the definition of that word varies quite a bit.

So far, from sources inside and outside the Amish community, I have identified three Amish residents of Lancaster County who apparently have full-syndrome autism, all of them children.

A local woman told me there is one classroom with about 30 "special-needs" Amish children. In that classroom, there is one autistic Amish child.

Another autistic Amish child does not go to school.

The third is that woman's pre-school-age daughter.

If there were more, she said, she would know it.

What I learned about those children is the subject of the next column.

PART 2: The Age of Autism: Julia

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Leola, PA, Apr. 19 (UPI) -- Part 2 of 2.

Three-year old Julia is napping when I arrive at the spare, neat, cheerful house on Musser School Road near the town of Leola in Lancaster County.

She is the reason I have driven through the budding countryside on this perfect spring day, but I really do not need to meet her.

In the last column, I wrote about trying to find autistic Amish people here in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, and noted there should be dozens of them -- if autism occurs at the same prevalence as the rest of the United States.

So far, there is evidence of only three, all of them children, the oldest age 9 or 10. Julia is one of them. I found out about her through a pediatrician in Richmond, Va., Dr. Mary Megson. I had been asking around for quite some time about autism and the Amish, and she provided the first direct link.

Megson said she would give my name to this child's mother, who could call if she chose. A few days later the phone rang. It was Stacey-jean Inion, an Amish-Mennonite woman. She, her husband Brent and their four children live simply, but they do drive a vehicle and have a telephone. After a few pleasantries, I told her about my trying to find autistic Amish.

Here is what she said, verbatim:

"Unfortunately our autistic daughter -- who's doing very well, she's been diagnosed with very, very severe autism -- is adopted from China, and so she would have had all her vaccines in China before we got her, and then she had most of her vaccines given to her in the United States before we got her.

"So we're probably not the pure case you're looking for."

Maybe not, but it was stunning that Julia Inion, the first autistic Amish person I could find, turned out to be adopted -- from another country, no less. It also was surprising that Stacey-jean launched unbidden into vaccines, because the Amish have a religious exemption from vaccination and presumably would not have given it much thought.

She said a minority of Amish families do, in fact, vaccinate their children these days, partly at the urging of public health officials.

"Almost every Amish family I know has had somebody from the health department knock on our door and try to convince us to get vaccines for our children," she said. "The younger Amish more and more are getting vaccines. It's a minority of children who vaccinate, but that is changing now."

Did she know of any other autistic Amish? Two more children, she said.

"One of them, we're very certain it was a vaccine reaction, even though the government would not agree with that."

Federal health officials have said there is no association between vaccinations and autism or learning disabilities.

"The other one I'm not sure if this child was vaccinated or not," she added.

During my visit to their home, I asked Stacey-jean to explain why she attributed the first case to vaccines.

"There's one family that we know, their daughter had a vaccine reaction and is now autistic. She was walking and functioning and a happy bright child, and 24 hours after she had her vaccine, her legs went limp and she had a typical high-pitched scream. They called the doctor and the doctor said it was fine -- a lot of high-pitched screaming goes along with it.

"She completely quit speaking," Stacey-jean said. "She completely quit making eye contact with people. She went in her own world."

This happened, Stacey-jean said, at "something like 15 months." The child is now about 8.

For similar reasons, Julia Inion's Chinese background is intriguing. China, India and Indonesia are among countries moving quickly to mass-vaccination programs. In some vaccines, they use a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal that keeps multiple-dose vials from becoming contaminated by repeated needle sticks.

Thimerosal was phased out of U.S. vaccines starting in 1999, after health officials became concerned about the amount of mercury infants and children were receiving. The officials said they simply were erring on the side of caution, and that all evidence favors rejection of any link between Autism Spectrum Disorders and thimerosal, or vaccines themselves.

Julia's vaccinations in China -- all given in one day at about age 15 months -- may well have contained thimerosal; the United States had stopped using it by the time she was born, but other countries with millions to vaccinate had not.

Stacey-jean said photographs of Julia taken in China before she was vaccinated showed a smiling alert child looking squarely at the camera. Her original adoptive family in the United States, overwhelmed trying to cope with an autistic child, gave Julia up for re-adoption. The Inions took her in knowing her diagnosis of severe autism.

I tried hard -- and am still trying -- to find people who know about other autistic Amish. Of the local health and social service agency personnel in Lancaster, some said they dealt with Amish people with disabilities, such as mental retardation, but none recalled seeing an autistic Amish.

Still, I could be trapped in a feedback loop: The Amish I am likeliest to know about -- because they have the most contact with the outside world -- also are likeliest to adopt a special-needs child such as Julia from outside the community, and likeliest to have their children vaccinated.

Another qualifier: The Inions are converts to the Amish-Mennonite religion (Brent is an Asian-American). They simply might not know about any number of autistic Amish sheltered quietly with their families for decades.

It also is possible the isolated Amish gene pool might confer some kind of immunity to autism -- which might be a useful topic for research.

Whatever the case, Stacey-jean thinks the autistic Amish are nowhere to be found.

"It is so much more rare among our people," she said. "My husband just said last week that so far we've never met a family that lives a healthy lifestyle and does not vaccinate their children that has an autistic child. We haven't come across one yet."

"Everywhere I go (outside the Amish community) I find children who are autistic, just because I have an autistic daughter -- in the grocery store, in the park, wherever I go. In the Amish community, I simply don't find that."

UPI researcher Kyle Pearson contributed to this article.

This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism aims to be interactive with readers and welcomes comment, criticism and suggestions. E-mail:

Were all of these children killed by the triple MMR jab?
13/1/02 Sunday Express

Focus By Lucy Johnston
Health Editor

AT LEAST 26 families claim their children died as a result of the controversial measles, mumps and rubella jab, the Sunday Express can reveal.

In some cases the Government has awarded parents up to £100,000 under its 1979 Vaccine Damage Payment Act. In others, post mortem reports concluded the jab was the most likely cause of death. Despite this, the Department of Health insists no child has ever died from MMR.

This assertion is a key aspect of its £3 million publicity drive to persuade parents the vaccine is entirely safe.

It contradicts the view of the US Government, which accepts children die from MMR and awards compensation as a result. Most children do not react to the jab, but medical literature supports the view that MMR can occasionally kill.

The parents are now demanding an official inquiry into the deaths. Julie Roberts, 40, whose daughter Stacey died, said: "The Government should take responsibility. It has never given proper warnings of the risk and still doesn't despite the evidence. Tony Blair can see his children at home. I have to visit my daughter at her grave."

Experts writing in the Journal of Pediatrics concluded that of 48 children who reacted to the measles component of the jab, eight died and the rest had seizures or brain damage. And a recent study on 1.8 million children by the Finnish Health Board linked neurological reactions, allergic attacks, epilepsy and meningitis to the vaccine. Our research follows speculation over whether Tony Blair's 19-month-old son Leo has had the MMR jab. The Prime Minister has said he fully supports the vaccine but will not say if Leo has had it.

Many of the families of children who have died have taken legal action. Richard Barr, of solicitors Alexander Harris, has details of 24 cases. He said: "It is widely acknowledged in medical literature and by the American government that the triple vaccine can, on rare occasions, kill, yet this Government won't accept it."

Jackie Fletcher, of the pressure group Jabs, which is trying to highlight the potential dangers, said: "The Government should be giving people full and accurate information about health risks."

But a Department of Health spokesman insisted: "Parents who received payments after their children died following MMR would not get the money now as science has moved on. MMR protects against death and we stand by the fact that no child has died as a result of MMR."

Wendy Francis's son, Robert, began behaving abnormally two years after he had MMR in January 1990. He lost control of his movements and slept for 18 hours at a time. Within months he fell into a coma and died in December. Robert, then seven, had developed a degeneratative brain condition called SSPE (sub-acute sclerosis pan encephalitis), linked to the measles component.

The disease can have a long incubation period and Mrs Francis, 40, an auxillary nurse and Robert's consultant think the vaccine was the only way Robert could have developed it. The family, from Easington, north Yorkshire, are taking legal action against the vaccine's manufacturer.

Ashley Shipman was born in 1985 and was a healthy three-year-old when he received the MMR vaccine. When he was nine his parents Elaine and Andrew of Eastwood, Nottingham, noticed he was having problems with his balance and co-ordination. He too was diagnosed with SSPE and died in June 1999, aged 14. They received £30,000 compensation.

His father, a lorry driver, said: "We took Ashley into hospital in October 1994 and by Christmas he was in a wheelchair. We were told by the consultant who treated him that his condition was caused by his vaccination."

In 1995 the Government's vaccine damage tribunal paid £30,000 compensation to James Smith, of Gateshead, for brain damage after he was given MMR at the age of four. James died nine years later aged 13. Biopsy material taken from his brain and intestines will form a central plank of the scientific evidence in support of a legal case due to be heard in October next year. Up to 300 cases relate to this brand of vaccine - Pluserix - which was banned by the Department of Health in 1992 after being linked with meningitis. This was two years after an identical vaccine was banned in Canada.

John and Faye Smith say the jab transformed their healthy, intelligent son into a child needing round-the-clock care. It took them six years and four hearings, however, to persuade the vaccine damage tribunal of this.

Faye, 59, said: "It's not about money, but truth. It's diabolical that the Government refuses to acknowlege the risks of MMR."

Judith Dwyer, 45, of Tongwynlaif, near Cardiff, received a payment after her four-year-old daughter Chloe died following a "booster" jab in 1989. She too was given a version later banned because of its dangerous side effects. Chloe developed pins and needles in her legs, then paralysis and problems breathing. She was rushed to hospital but it was too late.

After an eight-year fight Judith, an intensive care technician, persuaded a tribunal the jab was the likely cause of Chloe's death. In September 1996 it accepted this and paid out.

Mother of two Judith said: "Health visitors called me a scare mongerer and laughed. But we fought to raise the profile of vaccine damage."

Stacey Berry, of Atherton, Manchester was 13 when she had a booster jab in November 1994. Days later she started having fits, "stopped smiling, and stared into space."

She was diagnosed with the brain disease SSPE and given two years to live. She died in November 2000, aged 19. A post mortem examination concluded the disease was a "rare complication" of the vaccine".

Christopher Coulter was 15 when he suffered a fit and died in his sleep 10 days after being vaccinated. He had an unblemished health record and no history of epilepsy but no explanation has been offered other than the statement on his death certificate - "asphyxiation due to severe epileptic seizure". His mother Anne of Hillsborough, northern Ireland said: "Nothing would replace Christopher, but I want answers. I want peace of mind for my daughters should they ever have children."

Hannah Buxton was 18 months old when she reacted to her first MMR jab. She started having fits and died 18 months later in February 1992.

Parents Carol and Tony of Towcester, Northants, did not know Hannah had been given the strain of vaccine later withdrawn after it was deemed unsafe. In March that year a tribunal blamed the vaccine for her death.

Nicola Gentle, 29, of Plymouth, Devon, is convinced her 15-month-old baby Emma Jane died because of the triple vaccine she was given in September 1998. Within six hours she was on a life-support machine. Three days later she was brain dead but a coroner said he could not say for certain whether or not MMR had killed her.

Shirley Fitzgerald's son Kieren was given the MMR jab in June 1991 when he was 14 months. He reacted within days. "He stopped smiling, laughing and crying and became frightened of his toys," said Shirley.

Kieren also developed bowel problems - linked to MMR by some scientists. In July 1992, he died, aged two.

Toddler Harriet Moore died following an MMR vaccination in 1998. Six weeks later she suffered fits and died in her parents arms. Sarah and Pat Moore, of Peasedown St John, near Bath, took the case to tribunal.

Jade Scrimger was vaccinated with MMR at 17 months and died from meningitis three days later in October 1998. Her mother Sheena has since discovered the drug used on her daughter was later banned by the Department of Health because it caused meningitis.

She has abandoned the idea of taking legal action against the vaccine manufacturers, however, because lawyers say it is not worth it. In Britain the maximum award for a child's death is £7,500.

Five days after Elaine Adam's 16-month-old son Stevie was given the MMR vaccine 1991 he too developed meningitis and died.

Elaine and her husband Robert, of East Kilbride, were convinced MMR was to blame but their fears were dismissed by doctors. Mrs Adam has refused to allow her second child, Terry, six, to have the jab.

13/1/02 Sunday Express
OPINION

Vaccination vacillation

WE REPORT today on the families who have lost babies, they believe, due to the MMR vaccination. Their claims add further confusion to the debate about this injection, yet Tony Blair has still not offered reassurance on the matter by telling us that his son Leo has had this vaccination. It means thousands of parents are paying doctors to give their child these three inoculations separately. Mr Blair must explain where he stands on this. Only then will parents feel more confident.

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