UK Aut. Expert Blows Whistle on MMR/Autism Link Denials / Finances - Spec. Needs

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UK Aut. Expert Blows Whistle on MMR/Autism Link Denials / Finances Spec.

Needs

Tuesday, October 19, 1999

[From 'What Doctors Don't Tell You'. Thanks to

O'Driscoll and Pennsylvania Parents for Vaccine Awareness

http://www.erie.net/~noshotz/ ]

Finally, in the vaccine debate, the British government has been

blatantly caught with its trousers down.

After many months of attempting to discredit the work of

Wakefield and co of the Royal Free Hospital in London, the people who have

steadfastly maintained that there may be a link between the triple

measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) jab and autism, the government has suffered a

defector among its ranks.

Dr Ken Aitkin, an authority on autism, commissioned by the government

to allay fears about the link between the condition and the vaccine, has

blown the whistle on the government's damage-limitation exercise.

Dr Aitken formed part of a 37-strong Medical Research Council panel to

study evidence between the triple jab and autism. Last Spring, the findings

of the panel were cited by then chief medical officer Calman as a

reason to definitely rule out any link.

Recently, however, Dr Aitkin admitted that the Department of Health did

not accurately put forward the conclusion reached by the MRC. 'We did not

conclude that autism was not linked to MMR,' he said recently. 'The view was

that there was a problem which needed to be looked at very carefully and

that there was not enough evidence to rule out a link'.

Even worse, as far as the government is concerned, Dr Aitkin is now

sleeping with the enemy. He agreed to act as an expert witness on behalf of

the 100 parents of autistic children seeking compensation from three

manufacturers of the MMR vaccine for allegedly damaging their children. The

case came to trial a month ago.

Dr Aitkin's apparent defection is all the more interesting considering

that he was part of a panel that was handpicked by the government. General

members of the public concerned about vaccine safety were not allowed to

nominate their own members.

Despite assembling a large panel of independent experts, the government

and the Public Health Laboratory put their own spin on the results of an

independent committee to back up their desired conclusion.

And now the government's latest move is to ban single vaccines, with

the spurious argument that the vaccines on their own are dangerous.

From What Doctors Don't Tell You - £44.95 pa for UK subscribers - 77

Grosvenor Avenue, London N5 2NN.

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editor: Lenny Schafer east coast editor: , Ph.D.

schafer@... CIJOHN@...

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