Former science chief: 'MMR fears coming true'
By SUE CORRIGAN, Mail on Sunday
4 Feb 2006
A former Government medical officer responsible for deciding whether medicines
are safe has accused the Government of "utterly inexplicable complacency" over
the MMR triple vaccine for children.
Dr Peter Fletcher, who was Chief Scientific Officer at the Department of
Health, said if it is proven that the jab causes autism, "the refusal by
governments to evaluate the risks properly will
make this one of the greatest scandals in medical
history".
He added that after agreeing to be an expert witness on drug-safety trials
for parents' lawyers, he had received and
studied thousands of documents relating to the case which he believed the public
had a right to see.
He said he has seen a "steady accumulation of evidence" from scientists
worldwide that the measles, mumps and rubella jab is causing brain damage
in certain children.
But he added: "There are very powerful people in positions of great
authority in Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and
careers on the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to
protect themselves."
His warning follows reports that the Government is this week planning to
announce the addition of a jab against
pneumococcal meningitis for babies, probably from next April. It is also
considering flu jabs for under-twos -not to protect the children, but adults
they may infect.
In the late Seventies, Dr Fletcher served as Chief Scientific Officer at the
DoH and Medical Assessor to the Committee on Safety of Medicines, meaning he was
responsible for deciding if new vaccines were safe.
He first expressed concerns about MMR in 2001, saying safety trials before the
vaccine's introduction in Britain were inadequate.
Now he says the theoretical fears he raised appear to be becoming reality.
He said the rising tide of autism cases and growing scientific understanding of
autism-related bowel disease have convinced him the MMR vaccine may be to blame.
"Clinical and scientific data is steadily accumulating that the live measles
virus in MMR can cause brain, gut and immune system damage in a subset of
vulnerable children," he said. "There's no one conclusive piece of scientific
evidence, no 'smoking gun', because there very rarely is when adverse drug
reactions are first suspected. When vaccine damage in very young children is
involved, it is harder to prove the links.
"But it is the steady accumulation of evidence, from a number of respected
universities, teaching hospitals and laboratories around the world, that matters
here. There's far too much to ignore. Yet government health authorities are, it
seems, more than happy to do so."
'Why isn't the Government taking this massive public health problem more
seriously?'
Dr Fletcher said he found "this official complacency utterly inexplicable" in
the light of an explosive worldwide increase in regressive autism and
inflammatory bowel disease in children, which was first linked to the live
measles virus in the MMR jab by clinical researcher Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998.
"When scientists first raised fears of a possible link between mad cow disease
and an apparently new, variant form of CJD they had detected in just 20 or 30
patients, everybody panicked and millions of cows were slaughtered," said Dr
Fletcher.
"Yet there has been a tenfold increase in autism and related forms of brain
damage over the past 15 years, roughly coinciding with MMR's introduction, and
an extremely worrying increase in childhood inflammatory bowel diseases and
immune disorders such as diabetes, and no one in authority will even admit it's
happening, let alone try to investigate the causes."
He said there was "no way" the tenfold leap in autistic children could be the
result of better recognition and definitional changes, as claimed by health
authorities.
"It is highly likely that at least part of this increase is a vaccinerelated
problem." he said. "But whatever it is, why isn't the Government taking this
massive public health problem more seriously?"
His outspokenness will infuriate health authorities, who have spent millions of
pounds shoring up confidence in MMR since Dr Wakefield's 1998 statement.
But Dr Fletcher said the Government is undermining public confidence in vaccine
safety by refusing to do in-depth clinical research to rule out fears of MMR
damage to children.
He added that the risks of brain and gut damage from MMR injections seem to be
much higher in children where a brother or sister has diabetes, an immune
disorder.
"That is a very strong clinical signal that some children are immunologically at
risk from MMR," he said. "Why is the Government not investigating it further -
diverting some of the millions of pounds spent on advertising and PR campaigns
to promote MMR uptake into detailed clinical research instead?"
Now retired after a distinguished 40-year career in science and medicine in
Britain, Europe and the US, Dr Fletcher said that without such research, health
authorities could not possibly rule out fears about MMR.
He said: "It is entirely possible that the immune systems of a small minority
simply cannot cope with the challenge of the three live viruses in the MMR jab,
and the ever-increasing vaccine load in general."
He said he had decided to speak out because of his deep concern at the lack of
treatment for autistic children with bowel disease, as revealed in The Mail on
Sunday two weeks ago.
He called the sudden termination of legal aid to parents of allegedly
vaccine-damaged children in late 2003 "a monstrous injustice". After agreeing to
be a witness for the parents, he received thousands of documents relating to the
case.
"Now, it seems, unless the parents force the Government to restore legal aid,
much of this revealing evidence may never come out," he said.
The Department of Health said: "MMR remains the best protection against measles,
mumps and rubella. It is recognised by the World Health Organisation as having
an outstanding safety record and there is a wealth of evidence showing children
who receive the MMR vaccine are no more at risk of autism than those who don't."
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