Contained in ths editorial is demonstration of the fact that the anti-vac liars will stil lbelieve
lies even after being shown that they are lies.
hamhigh.co.ukp4news2.aspOpen ↗
DATE: 13/01/2004 TIME: 14:21:45 GMT Fury as doctor denies MMR autism link Editorial
[email hidden] A ROYAL Free doctor has provoked a storm of protest after defending the
controversial MMR vaccine in the Ham&High. A flood of letters in response to last week's article -
including several from the USA - accused Professor Brent Taylor of bias in casting doubt on a link
between an increase in autism and bowel disease with the Measles Mumps and Rubella vaccine. In an
emotional letter one mother said her children had suffered "mood swings, food allergies and
diarrhoea" following the jab: "What proof do you have? I have two children, both of whom had their
GI tracts affected right after receiving the MMR vaccine." But Prof Taylor, head of paediatrics at
the hospital in Pond Street, denied one major accusation that his own research disputing the link
had been funded by MMR pharmaceuticals giant Merck. He said funding for his two epidemiological
studies had come from first the Medicines Control Agency and then from the Department of Health.
"These criticisms are not new and it is surprising to see them still appearing. They have been
answered on many occasions," he said. Last week, Prof Taylor attacked a Channel Five drama about MMR
and said deaths could result from the exceptionally low uptake of the vaccine following the 1998
report by his Royal Free colleague, Andrew Wakefield, which suggested a link between MMR and autism.
Campaigners who contacted the Ham&High claimed that the professor's studies, which suggested that
the increase in autism cases were the result of greater reporting and better awareness of the
condition, were flawed. One letter writer said: "This doesn't fit the facts. The evidence of a
massive rise in autism is all around us. Two decades ago, rates of autism were one in several
thousand. "And yet I have personally come across a rate of 1 in 69 among three-year-old boys, and
the Scottish press has just reported a rate of 1 in 49 amongst school children in and around
Inverness." Another writer said: "Maybe Brent Taylor should throw his hands up and admit he is wrong
when the numbers keep coming in from the US Department of Education and the State of California
showing an annual increase in rates of autism." But Prof Taylor said there had been no well-founded
criticism of his work. "Other researchers in this and other countries have done and published
similar studies to ours and all have found the same results as we did," he added.