Why does naomi not trust MMR?

[chakka35]

naomi, in a separate thread you said that you don't trust MMR. What follows is not just to show my disagreement with you, but to make a very important point which I'll leave until last. Here goes:

No-one has shown any connection between MMR and autism. One doctor and a small team (who have since deserted him) made that suggestion but produced no evidence. His 'results' were impossible to reproduce, his methods were shown to be deeply flawed and his motives suspect. Not since Piltdown Man was revealed as a hoax has any scientific theory been so comprehensively debunked.

By 2001, 500,000,000 MMR jabs had been given world-wide (heaven knows what the figure is now) with no detectable adverse effects; autism surfaces just as often in children that have not had the jab as in those that have.
In the USA, where they are notoriously neurotic about their health, they have such confidence in it that in some states you may not send your children to school until they have had the jab.

That autism sometimes appears after the jab does not mean that it appears because of it . That is the old post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc fallacy. Since the vaccination takes place early in a child's life it precedes all the other ailments that that child might later suffer from. Do we blame chicken-pox, asthma, leukaemia, migraines etc. on MMR? Of course not. So why autism?

cont'd�

[LoftyLottie]

I saw a pediatrician with my son when he was 2 years old. I had been sent there by my GP because I wouldn't believe the GP's diagnosis about my son. I had done a fair amount of research on my son's symptoms - the GP was fed up with me doubting him so actually he said that he was sending me to the specialist just to put my mind at rest and confirm his (the GP's) diagnosis.

The pediatrician confirmed 'my' diagnosis, that had been based on my knowledge of my child and my research. I never forget him saying when we discussed the issues that the people you should really talk to and listen to are the parents because they know their children better than anybody else.

What I am trying to say is that their is such thing as parental instinct and you can't pass it off lightly. Also most parents with autistic children will have done a great deal of research themselves into the condition and its possible causes, and not just act emotionally - far from it.

I find this difficult to put into words, but hope I won't be accused of 'prejudice' again or my thoughts dismissed.

Chakka you are talking as if it has been proved without doubt that the MMR is safe and hasn't contributed to autism. It hasn't. None of us know.

It is not the parents that are to be blamed for not giving their children protection it is the state that is refusing to offer the alternative - and some parents cannot afford to pay.