The need to find reasons for things is very strong. Your post demonstrates that. You have decided that vaccination is the key to a number of issues, and it is a very powerful narrative that gives you an easy explanation. Combine it with the power of the big pharmaceutical companies and you have a wonderful theory of why certain things are happening, and why your reason for these problems might be covered up. I can understand how you reach this position, paranoia is the spirit of the age, especially if you are ignorant of the science and have a lay understanding of the immune system.

However, it does not make you right, and nor does it mean that vaccines should be portrayed as dangerous – especially given the risks of diseases such as measles.

I’m not going to play the game with you on this subject (I did my time arguing with anti-vaccinators on this basis in the late 1990s) but I will give you one fact about children immune systems and vaccines.

Evidence suggests that multiple vaccines do not overwhelm young infants’ immune systems. In fact, infants have the ability to deal with up to 10,000 antigens at a time and modern vaccination schedules actually expose children to fewer antigens now than they did in the 1960s.

I have not hesitated to use MMR in my family and strongly advise friends and relatives to do likewise.

In turn, I admire your ability for inverted reading – you must be a politician – I believe you have entirely missed the point of principle. Never mind. However, since you are so knowledgable in this field, I would very much appreciate your help. Can you direct me to the comprehensive studies that quantify the cumalative effect of administering vaccinations for:
diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio and Hib.Meningitis C, measles, mumps and rubella, booster dose of MMR against measles, mumps and rubella ALL BEFORE THE AGE OF 5. And let’s face it there are others that you could add to the list.

We would not in the normal course of events expect a child to catch every single one of these infections, therefore it is a legitimate question to ask what is the effect on the immune system of a child who is immunised for all of these infections? Are there any studies that comprehensively ask this question – can the immune systems of all children take this kind of stimulation without adverse reaction?

There is a preceptable rise in immune-response related disorders: Allergies, eczema, asthma, and conditions such as juvenile diabetes,

“The group with the biggest increase is the under fives and in the UK alone Type 1 diabetes in this age group has doubled in the space of 10 years.” BBC Health

AND

“Peanut allergies in children increased two-fold over a five year period from 1997 to 2002″, according to a study in the December 2003 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI).

AND

“Over the last 20 years, the number of people with asthma in the Western world has doubled. About 3.4 million people in the UK have asthma.” Science Museum UK

AND

“From a level of only 3 per cent in the 1950s, the disease affects more than one in five children today, and numbers continue to rise.”

AN objective scientific analysis could not ignore the apparent correlation with the introduction of a national vaccination programme in the 1950’s.

I can not prove the connection between over-stimulation of the immune system and the rise of immune response disorders because I am not in a position to carry out the necessary studies. I would love to know if these studies exist. However the landscape of research is dominated by pharmaceautical money driven by economic imperatives. There is no economic imperative in such a study – quite the reverse. If Glaxo commissioned such a study and discovered there was a direct link – what would they do? Risk their share price?
Obviously it is a study that has to be conducted by national governements – has it been done? If not, then it represents a gross ommission on the part of those that are appointed to guard the health of the nation.

There is no need to lecture me on the risks and benefits of medicines. I teach the subject and have been published in peer-reviewed journals on the subject. Even a cursory browse of the articles on this website shows I am aware that medicines cause adverse effects, and even indistry failings in their management.

Dr Wakefield’s position on single vaccines is an evidence free position and there is absolutely no association between autism and MMR vaccine. Wakefield’s position is completely unlike Jean Pierre-Garnier’s.

As for intelligent argument, for someone who has already suggested that the GMC are worse than Al Qaeda and that Wakefield is comparable to Gallileo, I have to admire your cheek.