Scotland’s Health Boss Tries To Gag MMR Revelations

[By Sarah-Kate Templeton Health Editor, Sunday Herald, Dec 17 2000.

Thanks to Cathy J. Rookard.]

http://www.sundayherald.co.uk/news/newsi.hts?section=News&story_id=13258

Following our report last week about Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR), the head of immunisation in Scotland is trying to threaten a scientific journal not to publish a damaging report about the controversial vaccine.

Dr Ian Jones, director of the government agency, the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health, has written to the editor of the Journal of Adverse Drug Reactions demanding to know whether he still intends to publish a paper claiming the vaccine should never have been licensed.

Our report revealed that senior clinicians, including a former medicines regulator at the department of health, argue in a paper due to be published in the journal next month, that MMR should not have been licensed in 1988 because of insufficient safety evidence.

Writing in the paper, which was passed to the Sunday Herald, Dr Peter Fletcher, who was a senior medical officer for the department of health in the early 1980s said: “Being extremely generous, evidence on safety was thin, being realistic there were too few patients followed up for sufficient time.”

In response to the allegations Jones wrote to the editor, Dr John Griffin, claiming it is normal practice for a scientific journal not to publish a paper if it appears in the media before the planned issue date.

He said: “This has created considerable difficulties for me. Most journals have a policy of not publishing articles which have appeared in the media in advance.

“I would like to know what your policy is and what action you intend to take.”

Griffin feels the letter has put him under pressure not to publish a potentially damaging paper and is infuriated by the intervention of the government agency.

Griffin, who is also a former head of the medicines division of the department of health, said: “I think this is an attempt to put pressure on me not to publish the article and I resent that. We are going to to publish the article. We are not going to be deterred by threats. I think putting pressure on us not to publish is despicable.”

Mary Scanlon MSP, reporter to the Health Committee on the issue of the MMR vaccine, last night questioned Jones’s action and insisted that it is essential the paper is published.

She said: “It is a matter of serious concern to the Scottish parliament that the head of the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health would apparently be trying to withhold information.

“This is not in line with the openness, transparency and accountability that we expect.”

Jones denied pressuring Griffin not to publish but said: “I think this is highly irresponsible of the journal. I asked the editor what the policy of his journal is and what he intends to do about it.”

Since scientists first doubted the safety of the MMR vaccine in1998, the government has been accused of refusing to acknowledge evidence of the risks.

Last month the consultant who originally suggested the link between the vaccine and autism warned that government failure to face up to the danger will lead to a catastrophe on the scale of the BSE crisis.

Studies have also shown that autism is hugely under- diagnosed in the UK. A recent report showed that nine out of 10 young people with autism have no idea what is wrong with them.

Parents are now asking the government to face up to the extent of the problem by establishing a central register of children with autistic spectrum disorders.

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.