Scientists fear MMR link to autism

[JPV]

Scientists fear MMR link to autism

By SALLY BECK, Mail on Sunday

New American research shows that there could be a link between the controversial MMR triple vaccine and autism and bowel disease in children.

The study appears to confirm the findings of British doctor Andrew Wakefield, who caused a storm in 1998 by suggesting a possible link.

Now a team from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina are examining 275 children with regressive autism and bowel disease - and of the 82 tested so far, 70 prove positive for the measles virus.

Last night the team's leader, Dr Stephen Walker, said: 'Of the handful of results we have in so far, all are vaccine strain and none are wild measles.

'This research proves that in the gastrointestinal tract of a number of children who have been diagnosed with regressive autism, there is evidence of measles virus.

'What it means is that the study done earlier by Dr Wakefield and published in 1998 is correct. That study didn’t draw any conclusions about specifically what it means to find measles virus in the gut, but the implication is it may be coming from the MMR vaccine. If that’s the case, and this live virus is residing in the gastrointestinal tract of some children, and then they have GI inflammation and other problems, it may be related to the MMR.'

The 1998 study by Dr Wakefield, then a reader in gastroenterology at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, and 12 other doctors claimed to have found a new bowel disease, autism enterocolitis.

At the time, Dr Wakefield said that although they had not proved a link between MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and autism, there was cause for concern and the Government should offer the option single vaccines - instead of only MMRs - until more research had been done.

The paper - and the confused interpretation of its findings - caused uproar and led to many parents withdrawing their co-operation for the triple jab. Ten of the paper's authors also signed retractions on the interpretation but stood by the science.

This is the second independent study to back up Dr Wakefield. In 2001 John O'Leary, Professor of Pathology at St James's Hospital and Trinity College, Dublin, replicated his findings.

Last night Dr Wakefield said: 'This new study confirms what we found in British children and again with Professor O'Leary. The only exposure these children have had to measles is through the MMR vaccine.

'They were developing normally until they regressed. They now suffer autism and bowel disease.

'The Department of Health and some of the media wanted to dismiss our research as insignificant. The excuse was that no one else had the same findings as us. What they didn't say is that no one else had looked.'

A spokesman for the Department of Health said they had not read the American report, but added: 'MMR remains the best form of protection against measles, mumps and rubella.'

..........

 

[JPV]

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

The controversy over Dr. Andrew Wakefield's 1998 MMR study continues—now with not one but two interesting twists.

First, as reported by The Daily Mail on January 25, a new study appears to confirm Wakefield's hotly contested findings, linking the MMR triple vaccine with bowel disease and autism. (A previous study published in 2001 also replicated Wakefield's findings, although conventional media conveniently ignore this fact.)

The Daily Mail reports:

"Now a team from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina are examining 275 children with regressive autism and bowel disease - and of the 82 tested so far, 70 prove positive for the measles virus. Last night the team's leader, Dr Stephen Walker, said: 'Of the handful of results we have in so far, all are vaccine strain and none are wild measles.

'This research proves that in the gastrointestinal tract of a number of children who have been diagnosed with regressive autism, there is evidence of measles virus. What it means is that the study done earlier by Dr Wakefield and published in 1998 is correct.

That study didn't draw any conclusions about specifically what it means to find measles virus in the gut, but the implication is it may be coming from the MMR vaccine. If that's the case, and this live virus is residing in the gastrointestinal tract of some children, and then they have GI inflammation and other problems, it may be related to the MMR.' "​

I interviewed Dr. Wakefield on this issue last year. In that interview he told his side of the story, setting the record straight on the harsh criticism he's endured as a result of his findings. If you missed it, I highly recommend you watch it now.

Dr. Mercola Interviews Dr. Andrew Wakefield on His MMR Study (Part 1 of 10)

Why Medical Authorities Went to Such Extremes to Silence Dr. Andrew Wakefield

Download Interview Transcript​

Video description: Dr. Andrew Wakefield sets the record straight on the harsh criticism he's endured as the author of one of the most controversial vaccine-causing-autism studies ever done, April 2010.

The second twist in this ongoing saga is that it appears one of the primary voices behind the witch hunt for Wakefield, a journalist named Brian Deer, may in fact be the real fraud here. Deer was recently interviewed by Anderson Cooper about the fraud allegations against Wakefield.

However, an interesting article by J.B. Handley in The Age of Autism brings up some very enlightening problems regarding Deer's credentials and funding. Not only has the Legal Manger for the Sunday Times—Deer's supposed employer—denied this fact, stating that "Mr. Deer should not represent himself as a Sunday Times journalist," but Handley also points out a dozen additional inconsistencies and lies that, in the end, raises the question: Is Brian Deer the fraud?

I urge you to read through Handley's article to get a wider perspective.

The remainder of this comment is a guest editorial by Dr. Russell Blaylock, in which he presents his objections to The British Medical Journal's unjustified and vicious attacks against Dr. Wakefield.

..........

 

[Enid]

Great news to hear research is vindicating Dr Wakefield - thanks for posting.

 

[JPV]

Dr Andrew Wakefield answers critics in video interview, says BMJ has been hijacked by false journalism

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) In a video interview with NaturalNews, Dr Andrew Wakefield, the doctor accused by the British Medical Journal of falsifying the data in a study questioning the safety of MMR vaccines, asserts that the BMJ has been "hijacked" by a politically-motivated journalist making utterly false allegations.

Dr Wakefield has been grilled in the mainstream media in a series of interviews which largely consist of uninformed journalists like Anderson Cooper and George Stephanopoulos hurling rapid-fire accusations without giving Dr Wakefield an opportunity to answer any of them. The mainstream media interviews have taken on the resemblance of theatrical productions rather than serious journalism.

In an effort to give Dr Wakefield a fair opportunity to answer his critics, we invited him for an interview on NaturalNews. He graciously accepted, and we filmed a series of three conversations which will be aired here on NaturalNews via our popular video website www.NaturalNews.TV

The first of these three is available right now at:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=608256A446123276E4E72A5351322186

"An investigation will be forced upon them."

In this video interview, Dr Wakefield says that BMJ is factually incorrect in accusing Wakefield of falsifying the study data in his 1998 paper published in The Lancet.

"[The data] were faithfully reproduced in the Lancet paper, and they were made in the most scrupulous, meticulous way. Those are the facts. Brian Deer knew those facts. When he made his allegations to the BMJ, he knew those facts. Did he disclose them to the BMJ? More importantly, did the BMJ, as a peer reviewed scientific journal, did they check the facts? Because the facts were fully available to them in the book Callous Disregard."

Dr Wakefield also explains how this desperate move by the BMJ to attack Dr Wakefield has eroded the credibility of the publication:

"They have been hijacked by a freelance journalist who is not expert in any of these fields. They have handed over their journal to this man and allowed him to publish knowingly false allegations, and they have gone along with it. In my opinion, they [the BMJ] have blown their scientific credibility. In their desperation... their fundamental belief that vaccines must be safe, [they say] please don't tell me this terrible disease has been caused by the physician, don't tell me that. Tell me anything but that, and we will take any information, even information from Brian Deer, that will convince us it's safe, and we will publish that, because that conforms with our belief system. That makes us feel more comfortable. That makes us feel that we, as a profession, are not culpable in this extraordinary disorder."

In this interview, Dr Wakefield also discusses the motivation for the BMJ to grasp at any effort to discredit those who question the safety of vaccines:

"They are so keen to prove me wrong, to prove the parents wrong, and to exonerate the medical profession, their political friends, their pharmaceutical friends, whoever it is, that they have gone ahead in this reckless way and done this. And now, based upon the clear, unambiguous, historical factual records, then I can come out and talk to you like this and say this without any fear of retribution from the BMJ because they've got themselves into this mess. The facts are the facts."

He goes on to say about the BMJ, "An investigation will be forced upon them."

Why the mainstream media won't conduct an honest, intelligent interview with Dr Wakefield

What struck me in this experience of interviewing Dr Wakefield is that this man has deeply-held compassion for the lives of children, and he combines that with rare courage and a commitment to real scientific thinking that dares to ask unpopular questions in the search for the truth.

A true scientist is one who pursues the evidence without regard to the political climate. Facts are stubborn things, as John Adams famously said, and Dr Wakefield has been accused of falsifying them simply because the facts he discovered were not to the liking of those who run today's medical monopoly.

I see in Dr Wakefield the kind of thinker who has historically played a key role in scientific revolutions, when one era of outmoded "scientific thinking" was replaced with a new era of deeper human understanding.

Dr Wakefield was also very polite, thoughtful and kind in our interactions. Experiencing this myself, I find it astonishing that people like Anderson Cooper never had the journalistic honesty to give Dr Wakefield an opportunity to tell his story in a fair interview. Then again, we all probably know why the mainstream media isn't interested in the actual scientific facts here: All the major media outlets are funded in large part by the pharmaceutical interests!

Dr Wakefield speaks on this issue, saying:

"Will the mainstream media now take this real story, the real facts, and actually do their job as journalists and report the facts? Will they report the truth? I doubt it. Why? Because they're owned. Their salaries are paid, albeit indirectly, in large part by pharmaceutical revenues. And the first thing that will happen when they try and do a story which deconstructs these arguments, the BMJ's arguments, and actually reconstructs them in light of the truth, [is that] there will be a call from their advertisers, saying [no]. So what will the mainstream media do? Will it live up to its job, its duty to the people to report the truth, or will it show complete disinterest? Anderson Cooper has been presented with the same nine questions. What was your story based upon? Show us the facts. Did you do your homework? Now are you going to pay similar attention to these documented historical facts? We shall see."

Watch the full interview yourself at:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=608256A446123276E4E72A5351322186

Remember, this is only the first in a series of three interviews with Dr Andrew Wakefield. We intend to publish the other two interviews next week here on NaturalNews. There is much more to this story than is being dumbed down in the conventional press -- this story may ultimately turn out to reveal the BMJ engaging in the most colossal mistake in the history of peer-reviewed "science" publications. The editors of BMJ must be sitting in a room right now, reviewing the facts of the case, with their jaws dropping to the floor as they realize they've been had by Brian Deer. There were duped -- exploited by an individual with a political agenda -- to engage in the printing of outright falsehoods in the name of the British Medical Journal.

As you will see in these three interviews, the BMJ has given us a milestone in the history of the end of the dark chapter of chemical-based medicine: This "scientific" publication has revealed, for the whole world to see, that the Emperor of Vaccines wears no clothes, and that those who defend the Emperor will stoop to any level to defend their fictions, even at the cost of revealing their own lack of scientific credibility.

To debate with the conclusions of a physician is one thing; to outright destroy the career and reputation of a man engaged in what can only be called "unpopular" but important scientific investigation is the action of a dogmatic, unscientific institution which can tolerate no real questions at all.

That's not science. It's dogma. And in its desperation to vilify Wakefield, the BMJ has proven to the whole world, once and for all, that the vaccine industry is so afraid of the weakness of its position that it must resort to publishing false accusations in the name of science in order to try to fend off real scientific skepticism.

In seeking to destroy Dr Wakefield, in other words, the British Medical Journal, we will shortly observe, has only succeeded in destroying its own credibility. This story continues in the weeks and months ahead...

Watch this video interview now at:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=608256A446123276E4E72A5351322186

..........

 

[Sherby]

That's great news. oh Dear poor Brian Dear. Lets see what the media does now. Are they going to be out spoken or will they be silent.

Dr Andrew Wakefield has taken a right grilling this last week. Its been one sided mainstream media interviews by journalists
defending there advertising revenue of their pharmaceutical industry clients.

below are some interesting interviews from the last week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ2m0nJscO0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QHGKPNMtUQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH1obrIZ54k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgBBwOnmy3w&feature=player_embedded
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=D1714C70A77F97266729048A95375DD6
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=781C36C5752AB4894EED16C5229A6E6D
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=B9D23224EC0AE34FD5415B72B27B1BE5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzEDAxbAsKc
http://thetruthergirls.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/brian-deer-accusations-against-wakefield-fraudulent/
http://gdsajj.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/dr-wakefield-demands-british-medical-journal-retract-story/

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Alas, that's an old article and w'eve heard nothing more recent and concrete :/
I believe Wakefield's just been "wiped out" to scare anyone in the field to shut up, or else.
Big Money owns all, who cares about human lives?
Meh!

 

[JPV]

The comments and interview from Mercola were recent.

 

[Ian]

[video=youtube;OsnL9yHApIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsnL9yHApIA[/video]

 

[Undisclosed]

ke Forest Researcher Warns Against Making Connection Between Presence of Measles Virus and Autism
6/1/2006
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – An American scientist whose research replicates a connection published in England in 2002 between the measles virus and bowel disease in autistic children strongly warns against making the “leap” to suggesting that the measles vaccine might actually cause autism.

“That is not what our research is showing,” said Stephen J. Walker, Ph.D., an assistant professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Walker and colleagues have issued an abstract to be presented at this week’s International Meeting for Autism Research, indicating that a high percentage of autistic children that they have tested with chronic bowel disease show evidence of measles virus in their intestines.

Some observers have said that the presence of the measles virus indicates a strong possibility that the measles vaccine, a possible source of the virus, could have caused the children’s autism. That possible connection has caused a major controversy in the United Kingdom, where the connection was first made in 2002. The vaccine is first given as part of a triple vaccine called MMR – for measles, mumps and rubella – at ages 12-18 months. That is shortly before a particular type of autism (regressive) begins to appear in children afflicted with the condition, which has fueled the speculation about a connection.

Walker says the new research does not support the connection, and he notes that the results have not even been published in a peer-reviewed journal. “Even if we showed association (between measles virus and bowel disease) and we published it in a peer-reviewed journal, the conclusion will be simply that there is measles virus in the gut of a large number of children who have regressive autism and bowel disease. End of story.

“We haven’t done anything to demonstrate that the measles virus is causing autism or even causing bowel disease.”

Walker explains that exploring the causes of chronic bowel disease in autistic children is the major impetus for his research. “There are lots of viruses in the gut, and any one of them could be causing inflammation. If it truly is from a vaccine and this virus causes inflammation and a chronic bowel condition in some susceptible children, then that’s something that needs to be known.”

The main task at hand, Walker said, is to determine what is causing the bowel condition in the autistic children, a condition that has a direct influence on cognitive and behavioral issues associated with autism.

A high percentage of autistic children have chronic bowel disease, a discovery in the late 1990s that eventually led to the measles virus connection.

“If anybody has severe GI problems, it causes problems with focus, it causes problems with everything. You can’t do anything until you get that resolved. We’ve all experienced that.

“These kids experience it hour after hour every single day of their lives. Many of them are non-verbal so they can’t tell anybody what the problem is, and the behavior that they exhibit as a result of a severe stomach ache was once attributed to just being autistic and having weird behaviors – for example, leaning over the sharp edge of a coffee table for hours at a time. That seems weird, but what they’re doing is relieving pressure on their lower abdomen.”

Walker said that relieving the bowel discomfort has been shown to improve other conditions associated with autism, such as cognition and the ability to learn. “There’s case after case where kids improved cognitively, behaviorally and biomedically when you treat the bowel disease. There is a great improvement from better nutrition alone. You see improvements in their overall condition.”

Walker said he will continue to look for possible causes, the biological mechanism, and new treatments of the bowel condition. “That’s the goal for me: understanding the biology of what’s causing the disease and then gaining insight into the most effective way to treat it, so that clinicians will not have to go through a trial and error approach.”

 

[markmc20001]

Booyah!

Glad to hear the news about Wakefield. I saw him interviewed, and he seems extremely credible.

Now if they would just test the MMR vaccine kids for XMRV, maybe we would be getting somewhere.

 

[anne_likes_red]

I agree Mark, on both points!

 

[juliegee]

Very interesting. Following his MMR vaccine as a toddler, my son became very ill with what looked like measles. He had a red rash, red eyes, fever, was very irritable, had severe photophobia & GI distress. His symptoms waxed and waned for years. At age 12, after an enormous weight loss, inability to eat w/o vomiting, and lying in bed for months he was finally Dxed at Hopkins as having a small bowel dysmotility secondary to NMH. He began seeing Dr. Peter Rowe, their pediatric chronic fatigue specialist. He is not DXed with autism, but has several LD's- auditory processing disorder among them- which is on the autism spectrum.

I have since met other parents of children with dysautonomia/CFS whose children also became ill (with what looked like measles) following the MMR vaccine. From my experience- there's something here...

 

[Sherby]

Billionaire Gates Implies Dr Wakefield Is A Fraudulent Child Killer

Here's another couple of Vids about Dr Andrew Wakefield

Billionaire Gates Implies Dr Wakefield Is A Fraudulent Child Killer
http://wn.com/Billionaire_Gates_Implies_Dr_Wakefield_Is_A_Fraudulent_Child_Killer

Dr Andrew Wakefield's Rebuttal To Brian Deer's Article In The Bmj British Medical Journal
http://wn.com/Dr_Andrew_Wakefield's...'s_article_in_the_BMJ_British_Medical_Journal

 

[markmc20001]

Just saw Bill Gates interviewed with Charlie Rose. Same thing going on there. He totally dismisses Dr Wakefield as doing "some study" long ago, and that Wakefield had been proven a fraud and having ties to attorneys.

Bill Gates also mentions that the FDA was very responsive to developing AIDS drugs. However, I have seen commentary on the forums that suggested the ADIS groups had to sue the FDA to finally do any research on Aids drugs.

Bill Gates is supporting the vaccines saying that child birth is actually reduced with vaccination. Didn't quite get the WHY child birth is reduced in that comment. He also advocates reduced birth and population as being a good thing because they don't have the food and resources and such to support the populations. He mentions birth control and other stuff that have helped control the population.

Not sure what to make out of Bill Gates commentary. Lets just say I'm watching closely.

Bill Gates also mentioned something about how an ongoing effort since 1985 had been going on for something.. Didn't catch that completely, but the 1985 hit a nerve.

 

[JPV]

Here's another couple of Vids about Dr Andrew Wakefield

Billionaire Gates Implies Dr Wakefield Is A Fraudulent Child Killer
http://wn.com/Billionaire_Gates_Implies_Dr_Wakefield_Is_A_Fraudulent_Child_Killer

Dr Andrew Wakefield's Rebuttal To Brian Deer's Article In The Bmj British Medical Journal
http://wn.com/Dr_Andrew_Wakefield's...'s_article_in_the_BMJ_British_Medical_Journal

The guy can't even get his company to produce a decent software product that works properly... and now he's a health expert?

Puhleeez. Gates is clearly a part of the PROBLEM...

Bill Gates $10 Billion Vaccine Scam

By Thomas C. Mountain

22 February, 2010
Countercurrents.org

The “richest man in the world”, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, recently announced that he was making a $10 billion donation towards finding vaccines to prevent some of the worlds worst diseases.

Malaria is the number one killer in Africa. From what I’m hearing about $1 billion of BIll Gates donation/tax write-off is for research to find a vaccine to prevent malaria.

The African country of Eritrea, where I live, has reduced malaria mortality by 85% in the last 7 years. How? By using basic public health methods. By distributing pesticide treated mosquito nets and organizing the pesticide retreatment every three months of mosquito nets. By habitat eradication. And by community medical clinics for immediate treatment.

Malaria is a parasite based disease noted for its variety and quick development of resistance to medication. Any “vaccine”, if even a billion dollars is able to produce such, would have a limited lifetime and new, patented medications would have to be bought by Africa’s poor every few years.

So “donating” a billion dollars to develop a malaria “vaccine” could turn into 10’s of billions of dollars in drug sales in Africa alone, and Bill Gates, through his drug company investments, will quietly pocket more African blood money.

All the while a very successful malaria mortality reduction program in operating, effective, safe, and affordable, in Eritrea.

Why isn't this being publicized internationally? Could it be that such a program is not going to put billions into the pockets of the drug lords of western finance?

Bill Gates and other assorted financial terrorists through their control of the western media and “aid” organizations are suppressing implementation of a successful malaria mortality program while investing in a malaria drug addiction for Africa’s people.

These financial terrorists are perfectly willing to see millions die in Africa while they search for their next highly profitable “wonder drug” to cure malaria, all the while deliberately ignoring, worse, engineering a white out/cover up of what could prevent millions of deaths, let alone uncounted suffering.

And HIV/AIDS, Africa’s No.2 killer? Bill Gates is said to be providing over a billion dollars for research into developing an AIDS vaccine. AIDS, a virus based disease, has already shown to have varieties and to have developed resistance to the medications developed to treat it. Like the flue vaccine, a new AIDS vaccine would most likely have to be developed every few years to combat the latest strain of the AIDS virus, another gold mine of new, patented medications for sale to Africa’s sick.

Eritrea has reduced HIV/AIDS infection rates by 40%, according to Physicians for Peace, and is the only country in Africa to reduce HIV/AIDS. How? By using public health education promoting condom use everywhere in the country. Over a billion for a “vaccine” that may never work while an effective program that can reduce HIV/AIDS infection by 40%, safely and affordably can be immediately implemented?

Remember, western billionaires didn't get that way by being out to really help anyone. Millions die in Africa as the western drug lords and their financial terrorist stock holders reap their billions in blood money. All the while real hero’s in the Eritrean public health service struggle to save peoples lives.

So don't believe that BIll Gates is up to any good when he donates $10 billion to vaccine research, just the opposite. And don't forget that as far at the USA is concerned in Africa, no good deed goes unpunished, and once again Eritrea is subject to UN Security Council Sanctions.

Thomas C. Mountain lives in Asmara, Eritrea, is an independent journalist and in a previous life was the Publisher of the Ambedkar Journal and a founding member of the Phoolan Devi International Defense Committee