Parents continue to support Dr Andrew Wakefield, convinced that vaccines are the  cause of their children’s Autism

Article by Christina England

Tension mounts in the UK, as Dr Andrew Wakefield’s case, has continued behind the closed doors of the the General Medical Council, or as it is sometimes referred to,  the ‘lions den‘ for over three years.  Parents have raged, protesting openly outside the gates of this massive building and around the UK, parents await anxiously for the GMC decision.

On the first day of Dr Wakefield’s trial, parents gathered outside the GMC, holding placards, clapping and cheering and patting him on the back as he mounted the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Chants of “There’s only one Andrew Wakefield” and shouts of “It’s a witch hunt” echoed all around.

Martin Walker – Cry Shame  has continued throughout the trial, to report daily and while some parents in the UK feel that this trial is justified, others can only show sadness as they prepare for the loss of a great advocate.

The British Government pay little attention to the the parents who support this doctor or it seems the goings on in the GMC . It has been shown that even before a decision has been reached, they are so sure that Wakefield is guilty of professional misconduct, that they have been promoting the teaching that his findings were not based on scientific evidence and that the MMR is safe in British secondary schools. In fact any student who agreed that the MMR was safe and his research was bad science was awarded extra marks in their GCSE exams.

lGCSE pupils ‘brainwashed to support the MMR vaccine’ | Mail Online

Of course this maybe because the Government is aware that many of the doctors promoting the safety of the MMR vaccine are linked to major drug companies. Professor Michael Langman who sits on the JCVI , the committee that approves vaccines and their safety for the Government,is one such doctor. He has been proven to receive money for research from Merck and Dohme, both of whom manufactures the MMR vaccine. He and others were reported by Fionnuala Burke, icBirmingham – MMR docs’ links with drugs firms  Sunday Mercury to have links to various MMR vaccine manufacturers.

This is hardly professional and surely a huge conflict of interest, that should have been declared.

As Dr Wakefield’s trial began The Times – Brian Deer – Focus: How a spurious health scare brought an old killer back – 18th June 2006 reported:-

“At the high court in London, lawyers for the General Medical Council (GMC) gave the first public hearing to disciplinary charges against Andrew Wakefield, whose scientific paper published eight years ago caused millions to shun the vaccination for fear that their children might contract autism.

The charges against Wakefield, 50, are some of the most extensive seen. Timothy Dutton QC told Mr Justice Silberman that the GMC, the body that regulates doctors, was considering 10 counts of serious professional misconduct.

They include publishing “inadequately founded” research, obtaining funding “improperly” and subjecting children to “unnecessary and invasive investigations” without proper ethical approval.”

However,it has now been proven that the ‘Wakefield’ case was in fact a put up job by the British Journalist Brian Deer. The website Child Health Safety established that Mr Deer has waged a 10 year hate campaign against the doctor, writing a hate website dedicated to Dr Andrew Wakefield and also a series of extremely damaging articles in a British top selling newspaper ‘The Sunday Times’ and it has since been revealed that he is the complainant behind the GMC complaint which has seen three top doctors Dr Andrew Wakefield, Dr Simon Murch and Professor Walker-Smith, face being struck of the medical register for serious professional misconduct.

Due to this new evidence, the GMC case is falling apart at the seams because it has been revealed that the article MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism  by Brian Deer is little more than a pack of lies, to cast further doubt on Dr Wakefield professionalism. This has left the GMC red faced and with little real hard evidence to go on. Dr Wakefield has since made an extensive complaint to the Press Complaints Commission . Dr Wakefield has complained that the accusations of him ‘fixing data’ that Brian Deer had reported were in fact false and provided them with clear evidence supporting this. Dr Wakefield has also accused Deer of an undisclosed conflict of interest as he has not declared that he was the person who made the original complaint to the GMC.

The PCC that oversees journalism fairness has ordered the Sunday Times to take all articles written by Brian Deer on Dr Wakefield to be taken down from it’s websites .Sunday Times Ordered ‘Remove Wakefield MMR “Data Fixing” Story’

Oblivious to the dodgy dealings behind the scenes of this case, many parents continue to support and advocate for Dr Wakefield.

One mother supporting Dr Wakefield said on the website  We Support Dr. Andrew Wakefield

“Dear Andy,

I have watched in gratitude and appreciation for the work you have done and the sacrifices you continue to make for our children. You didn’t ask for this, and you could have hid from the furore, but you didn’t and you continue to stand and say what you know and what is right. I’m sure this has taken an insane toll on you personally and professionally.

My son had his first MMR at nearly 12 months of age. Up until that point he would laugh and play at the diaper changing table; we had a game we played with the baby powder, and he had this cute little grin and an adorable chortle and would stare at my face to see my reactions. Soon after that shot he began fighting me at diaper changes, often kicking and screaming to get away from me. I didn’t understand what had changed at the time. One month after his MMR, I was changing his diaper on a blanket on the playroom floor… he fought me so hard at a diaper change, he stood up and threw his body into a workout machine, and I had to take him to the ER to repair a detached frenulum which bled all over. Never again did we have the fun time we used to have at diaper changes and the direct look he used to give me was gone… I think he was in pain.

He had had medical problems before the MMR; it now turns out he had a milk allergy and I think he didn’t handle earlier shots well… but after he got that shot he really changed. He had other vaccine reactions after that… it was all a cumulative negative progression into a regression. He continued to develop good language into his second year, and after that was continually getting sick. The 7 vaccines he received at 19 months with 25 mcg of thimerosal on top of already being ill with fever and ear infection and being treated for antibiotics, on the same day he was given THOSE shots, he was given 10 additional days of antibiotics.

As I said, after age two, he was just chronically ill, and at one point losing weight. He was so sick and tired at his 3rd birthday party, he just wanted to lay down on a towel and all he could say is “bed.” Thank God he never got the 2nd MMR; the first is one of my largest regrets. He didn’t get diagnosed with autism until he was 3 1/2. I thought his language regression was due to all the ear infections and perhaps he couldn’t hear well. Plus of course he had all the accompanying GI problems. (Kinda all intertwined I later learned!)

I found a Defeat Autism Now! doctor when he was 4 1/2, and his life and ours turned around. So many things with his poor messed up system got so much better. After years of biomedical, and support from knowledgeable doctors, he dramatically improved. So much for diarrhoea and ear infections “being part of autism” as I was told by one local paediatrician!

Thank you for all you have done.
Jennifer McNulty
California”

This is just one of hundreds of messages of support left on this website. Surely all of these parents and grandparents cannot be wrong.

So was Wakefield right?

Two new government studies in the USA, indicate that 1 in every 100 children has an autistic disorder, this is higher than in previous U.S. Studies, which have estimated 1 in 150. These figures  were the figures reported by Carla K Johnson – Huffington Post 5th October 2009  If these figures are accurate, then this means that an estimated 1% of all American children are now displaying symptoms of Autism. Carla explains the staggering reality of what this will mean to the USA.

“The new estimate would mean about 673,000 American children have autism. Previous estimates put the number at about 560,000.”

These figures are worrying enough, however, in the UK, the prevalence of Autism in children  proven by a study at the Cambridge University, is even higher.  Child Health Safety – Autism Rates Rocket – 1 in 38 British Boys – Cambridge University  shows that the figures of Autism have been steadily rising over the last four decades. In 1978 the consensus estimate for classic Autism was 4 in 10,000 and there has been a steady rise over the years to where we are today.

Interestingly, another study showed that vaccinated boys had 155% more chance of having a neurological disorder, when compared to unvaccinated boys. The  Vaccinated vs Unvaccinated Survey  shows that the prevalence for ADHD and Autism, was exceptionally high in vaccinated children, after they had compared them to the incidence in children who remained unvaccinated.

Professionals worldwide agree

Professionals worldwide are in full agreement with the above study, stating that in their experience there are definitely more cases of Autism in vaccinated children, than in children who are not.

Dr Mayer Eisenstein
Homefirst Medical Services

Homefirst Medical Services treats thousands of never- vaccinated children. Their medical director, Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, has said on many occasions that he is not aware of any cases of autism in unvaccinated children.

Dr Eisenstein has said that Homefirst Medical Services has taken care of about 30,000 to 35,000 unvaccinated children over the years and he does not remember a single case of autism in children who never received vaccines.

Studies over the years have proven that unvaccinated children are healthier.

No Autism in Never- Vaccinated Children   quotes:-

“In Chicago, Homefirst Medical Services treats thousands of never- vaccinated children whose parents received exemptions through Illinois’ relatively permissive immunization policy. Homefirst’s medical director, Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, told us he is not aware of any cases of autism in never-vaccinated children; the national rate is 1 in 175, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “We have a fairly large practice,” Eisenstein told us. “We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we’ve taken care of over the years, and I don’t think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines. “We do have enough of a sample,” Eisenstein said. “The numbers are too large to not see it. We would absolutely know. We’re all family doctors. If I have a child with autism come in, there’s no communication. It’s frightening. You can’t touch them. It’s not something that anyone would miss.”

This is pretty conclusive evidence one would think and may lead us to question why this concept has not been studied more conclusively. Well it has. It is an established fact that in the Amish communities, Autism, does not exist, except in extremely rare cases, where the children have been vaccinated. This is something that both the Amish communities and Homefirst Medical Services have in common, they are both seeing evidence of ‘no Autism’ in large numbers of unvaccinated children.

 Dan Olmsted – No Autism for Unvaccinated Amish  compared the Amish population with Dr Eisenstein’s work and he wrote:-

“But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don’t have autism.”

Sue Claridge is another professional agreeing with this, after her survey in 1992 showed clear differences in the health of vaccinated children compared with those who were unvaccinated.

In Unvaccinated children are healthier  she writes:-

“The survey results showed that there was a significant difference in the incidence of asthma, eczema, and ear infections in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. While overall the incidence of grommets, tonsillitis, tonsillectomies, apnoea and hyperactivity were lower, the trend is similar. 

Note the ten-fold increase in tonsillitis in vaccinated children and the complete lack of tonsillectomiesin unvaccinated children. In the vaccinated 73% the cases of tonsillitis and 92%  of the tonsillectomies were in children who had received the measles vaccine. As only 52% of the total vaccinated children received a measles vaccine, one would expect about 52% of the tonsillitis/ tonsillectomies to occur in children to have had the vaccine, suggesting that the measles vaccine made some children more susceptible to tonsillitis.”

Wakefield’s link to bowel disease is also proving more likely, as the incidence of bowel disease is rising at an alarming rate as more vaccines enter the vaccine schedule.

• ·Gut problems – Autistic enterocolitis

1 in every 4 people are now said to suffer from digestive problems at least twice a week studies have revealed. A recent study has  also revealed that one in 10 of us suffer with the symptoms of heartburn, indigestion, constipation, diarrhoea or abdominal pain .this is huge amount of people.. Another interesting fact on Pharmasave – Irritable Bowel Disease report  is that approx 10 – 20% of the general population suffer from IBS,

These statistics certainly support Dr Wakefield’s research.

.Many professionals feel Thimerosal is to blame

Many professionals worldwide, hold the belief that it is Thimerosal in vaccines that is causing Autism. This is not new, as Russia banned Thimerosal from their vaccines in 1980 due to a study they had carried out in 1977, linking Thimerosal to brain damage. Other countries quickly followed suit.

The great Thimerosal cover up : Mercury , vaccines, autism and your child’s health

“That might explain why thimerosal was eliminated in many countries 20 years ago. In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to ethyl mercury, the form of mercury in thimerosal, suffered brain damage years later. Studies on thimerosal poisoning also describe tubular necrosis and nervous system injury, including obtundation, coma and death. As a result of these findings, Russia banned thimerosal from children’s vaccines in 1980. Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have also banned the preservative.”  

Professionals in the UK unite

Professionals in the UK feel the same. Lisa Blakemore-Brown, Expert in Autism, Author and Psychologist is convinced that the Autism epidemic is caused by the Thimerosal in vaccines. She has spoken out on these issues for many years. She is furious that her letters and warnings have been ignored and believes this to be a cover up by the UK Government. Ms Blakemore-Brown writes :-

Politics and curves of Autism – Lisa Blakemore-Brown

“Over the last few years, given the frightening epidemic of autism and the appalling suffering of so many, I have been bewildered by the choice of research undertaken by those who have been able to get funding from the UK Government. It has become increasingly obvious that the elephant in the room – vaccines linked to autism, cot death and other conditions – is being ignored as are those who have suffered, unless of course they are blamed. Blame theories (such as Munchausen by Proxy) form another elephant that people have turned a blind eye to and if you read this article you will see that MSBP is intertwined with vaccines issues.

Meanwhile extraordinarily obscure theories are given funding, presumably because they will usefully distract attention from the real issues.”

Catastrophic effect on the nation’s health and education

Lisa has always believed that the current Autism crisis in the UK, is politically driven. The system is failing Autistic children, she feels, on every level, particularly in education.

“Without any doubt now in my mind this issue is entirely political and commercial and given the history of the way in which this Government operates generally, any psychologist who is receiving funding or support from this Government must be controlled by it. This situation has become worse and worse as the epidemic has grown and the more children with the problem, the more suffering and evidence of the catastrophic effect on the nation’s health and education, crime statistics etc., the more this is covered up by various methods, some highly cynical including conjuring up bizarre parent blame theories. We are facing a disaster.” 

For her belief, Lisa Blakemore-Brown, like nearly every other professional in the UK, who dares to speak out about the adverse reactions to vaccines and their links to illness and disability, was hurled in front of the psychologist’s equivalent to the GMC, the British Psychologist Society. However, in a blaze of triumphant glory, this brave and dedicated professional has managed to win her case.

Lisa is not alone in her strength of feeling, Charles Pragnell is an independent social care management consultant, a Child/Family Advocate, and an Expert Defence Witness – Child Protection, totally agrees that vaccines are causing children to become ill. Now working in Australia, he, like Lisa, has spoken out for many years on his belief, that many parents, are being falsely accused of Munchausen by Proxy after their children have become Autistic often after vaccine damage.

“There is a pandemic of autism among children in the western world and it is spreading worldwide. Thousands upon thousands of children are being diagnosed as autistic every day in the U.S.A., the U.K., and increasingly in Australia. A few decades ago the incidence of autism affected only one child in a thousand but now it is more than one child in a hundred.

Autism has massive long term medical, social, educational, and financial effects on families and every day is a exhausting struggle for the families of autistic children as they try to cope with emotional and behavioral disorders of these autistic children. Many are devastated and collapse completely while others struggle on with increasing ill-health among parents and the damaging effects on any other children in the family as their needs have to come secondary to the needs and demands of the autistic child. And there is little or no help from statutory authorities for the autistic child or the family. They are largely left to cope alone or with minimal input from governmental departments and health services. Many parents tell of applying for help from statutory agencies but which require an assessment of the child’s needs and the families support requirements, only to be met by words such as, “Well I can do an assessment but we have no resources to help you!” from the social work, educational. and health professionals conducting the assessment.

But the first most important question to be asked is, “Why has this pandemic occurred over the last four decades?” and the answer is simple yet infinitely complex. It has been caused by vaccinations of various kinds, but principally the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccine. [MMR].”  Silence of the Media Lambs – Charles Pragnell

Another British Doctor brought before her governing body for speaking out about vaccines

      Dr Jayne Donegan

Another British doctor who faced being destroyed for speaking out is Dr Jayne Donegan,

The Child Health Safety website Junk Science? Junk Justice? Or Corruption In Medicine  explains her case in detail and reveals yet more dirty dealings and professionals linked to drug companies.

Jayne herself says

“What ‘take home message’ that can be gained from my experience?

Perhaps it is that if a parent says, “I’m worried about the safety of vaccination,” they are told, “You don’t understand, you’re not a doctor.”However if a doctor says, “I’m worried about the safety of vaccination,” they are told, “We’re charging you with serious professional misconduct.”

This was certainly the case for Lisa Blakemore-Brown, Dr Jayne Donegan and Dr Andrew Wakefield.

Dr Wakefield’s case that has attracted world wide publicity due to the seriousness of its nature. If  he  wins his case then it is possible that parents will have even less faith in the MMR vaccination than they already do. This could potentially see the numbers in the uptake of the MMR plummet even further. It is now time for drug companies and Governments to act. They need a back up plan, as remember it is they who have blamed Dr Andrew Wakefield for the plummeting numbers of parents having their children vaccinated. If all their claims were based on the reports of a dodgy journalist and Dr Wakefield is found not guilty, they will have to face serious criticism and the public will want answers.

It has been reported that a GMC decision will be reached by January 2010.

 About the Author:

I am a UK journalist studying for an HND in journalism. I am also a member of ICAP International Coalition of Advocates for the People
i.c.a.p.org

I have an interest in Human Right issues, especially the rights of the disabled and the elderly.

Currently I am exploring vaccines and the adverse reactions that they can and do cause, particularly Autism, ADHD and other neurological and physical disorders. I believe that all parents have the right to the information often hidden by the pharmaceutical industries about what vaccines contain and their often devastating side effects. It’s only when a parent has the full facts that they can make a fully informed choice as to whether to have their child vaccinated or not. Parents also need to know that there are other choices open to them like single vaccines, mercury free vaccines, homeopathic vaccines and diets to boost the immune system to promote good healthy living.

Our children must not become human pin cushions or profit making machines , they are precious and they are ours..It seems odd that in this current recession the drug companies grow richer as our children become sicker.