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Health boss tries to gag MMR revelations
http://www.sundayherald.com/12703
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 in 1998, 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.
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