Anecdotal evidence
Autism, MMR and 60 Minutes: Another Pediatrician’s Perspective
Thousands
of parents believe that the MMR vaccine has contributed to their children’s
autism. They have pictures and
videos to prove the ‘before ’ and ‘after.’
They speak of the MMR being the only new event in their child’s life in
that period between normal development and autistic regression.
They point out their children’s marked immune system dysfunction,
something with which they were not born.
These
parents certainly did not acquire their conviction from reading about the twelve
cases reported in Dr. Wakefield’s first paper.
Nor would they simply be looking for a scapegoat.
Please remember, and always
remember, their children were normal and their disease is acquired.
Regardless of how often the authorities attest that the MMR
vaccine is safe, an increasing number of parents here and in Europe are refusing
to believe them. Safety trials not
looking beyond 3 weeks post-vaccination convince no one.
Equally alarming to the parents is the fact that the infectious disease
specialists and epidemiologists who make decisions and mandate vaccines have
little knowledge of autism and its immune etiology.
Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Shelley Hendrix Reynolds
Through our
organization, Unlocking Autism, we have talked to thousands and thousands of
parents from across the country and their story is the same.
Child is normal, child gets a vaccine, child disappears within days or
weeks into the abyss of autism. If
you doubt me, I invite you to attend the Hear Their Silence Rally on April 8th
on the mall where our Open Your Eyes project will be displayed.
View the thousands of pictures we have collected and realize that 47% of
those who participated believe that vaccines contributed to the development of
their child's autism.
I
know my children. I know what
happened to my son. As far as I am
concerned, the needle that silently slipped into my baby’s leg that day became
the shot heard round the world.
Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by by Jeana Smith
For us,
there is no denying that in Jacob's case of autism, the answer does not lie in
genetics but in a catalyst. The
thousands of hours of research that we have spent searching and retracing his
regression continue to point to the fact that the road to Jacob's autism began
when his immune system was damaged by the Hepatitis B vaccine he received when
he was ill. The final blow was the adverse
reaction to the host of vaccines he received by 16 months.
We are certain that for Jacob, the catalyst was his vaccines.
Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.
During the past few years the Autism Research Institute has been flooded with an upsurge in pleas for help from parents throughout the world – from wherever the World Health Organization vaccine guidelines are followed. The majority of these parents say their children were normal until getting the MMR – another triple vaccine.
Autism:
Present
Challenges, Future
I
don't have to read a letter to experience the heartbreak. I see it in my
own family. My grandson Christian was born healthy. He was
beautiful and tall. We were already planning his NBA career. He was
outgoing and talkative. He enjoyed company and going places. Then,
his mother took him for his routine immunizations and all of that changed.
He was given what so many
children were given – DTaP, OPV, Haemophilus,
Hepatitis B, and MMR – all at one office visit.
That night Christian had a slight fever and he slept for long periods of
time. When he was awake he would scream a horrible high-pitched scream. He would
scream for hours. He began dragging
his head on the furniture and banging it repeatedly. Over the week-and-a-half
after the vaccinations, Christian would stare into space and act like he was
deaf. He would hit himself and
others, which was something he had never done.
He would shake his head from side to side as fast as he could.
He lost all language.
Unfortunately,
what happened to Christian is not a rare isolated event.
Shelly Reynolds will testify today.
Her organization, Unlocking Autism, will be displaying thousands of
pictures of autistic children at the “Hear the Silence” Autism Rally this
Saturday. Forty-seven percent of
the parents who provided these pictures, felt that their child’s autism was
linked to immunizations.
Liz Burt was one of the hundreds of parents who contacted us.
Autism,
MMR and 60 Minutes: Another Pediatrician’s Perspective
Thousands
of parents believe that the MMR vaccine has contributed to their children’s
autism. They have pictures
and videos to prove the ‘before ’ and ‘after.’
They speak of the MMR being the only new event in their child’s life in
that period between normal development and autistic regression.
They point out their children’s marked immune system dysfunction,
something with which they were not born.
These parents certainly did not acquire their conviction from reading about the twelve cases reported in Dr. Wakefield’s first paper. Nor would they simply be looking for a scapegoat.
Autism 2001: The Silent Epidemic
While the vaccine lobby and authorities have adamantly and viciously condemned Andrew Wakefield and his findings, hundreds of parents are totally convinced he is right. These parents have no doubt that their previously normal children became symptomatic after their first MMR vaccination and then regressed into autism, and many have videos, pictures and doctors' notes to prove it. A further regression after the second MMR, at age 5, seems to have convinced some of those parents even more.
There is a good deal of evidence--none of it yet conclusive--implicating the MMR as causing the autism epidemic. The evidence includes both clinical research studies and thousands of parent reports linking autism to a vaccine--especially the MMR.
Autism
‘linked to mercury vaccine’
The MMR first dose is given between 12 and 15 months, with diphtheria and tetanus and the second dose of MMR at three to five years. Like tens of thousands of other children, Melissa Wickens, 10, underwent a full course of inoculations. When she was just 14 months, after she had received her MMR jab, her life changed.
From being an alert, normal child, her behaviour became erratic. Typically, when she arrives home from school she throws down her fluffy red school bag and pulls everything out of it. In the kitchen she snatches a box of breakfast cereal and crams flakes into her mouth. Later she smears strawberries over herself and her bedroom upstairs.
She has already broken several television sets and throws chairs around the sitting room and pulls down shelves. Melissa, who was given the MMR vaccine in 1992, has severely regressive autism and inflammatory bowel disease. “On the same day as the MMR she started a high-pitched screaming,” said her mother Marion Wickens, from Brighton. “Over the next few weeks she cried inconsolably, started to bite herself and to pull out her hair, resulting in bald patches on her head.
“She used to have a lovely sparkle in her eyes but they went blank. She couldn’t understand ‘Where’s mummy?’ any more. It no longer registered.” She concluded: “Melissa wasn’t born autistic, she regressed.”