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Former Head of NIH Says Link
Between Autism & Vaccines Should Be Investigated
Melanie Phillips
American
Free Press
Friday, June 6, 2008
Good to see that the Telegraph of London has picked up on developments
I wrote about here in the U.S., where a head of official steam
is building behind the perception that there is a troubling relationship
between certain childhood vaccines, including MMR (mumps/measles/
rubella), and autistic symptoms and other damage in a subset of
particularly vulnerable children. As I have written, this has
been prompted by recent U.S. cases in which multiple vaccinations
have aggravated an underlying mitochondrial weakness to produce
catastrophic effects, leading Dr. Bernardine Healy, the former
head of the National Institutes of Health, to tell CBS News:
“I think that the public health officials have been too
quick to dismiss the [autism link to vaccination] hypothesis as
irrational.”
In addition, the Telegraph reported this: “The vaccine
hypothesis was bolstered recently by a five-year study in monkeys
who were given the same vaccinations that American children are
routinely given. Last week, Dr. Laura Hewitson, a specialist in
obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University
of Pittsburgh, told the International Meeting for Autism Research
in London that in the double-blind placebo-controlled study, 13
vaccinated animals showed increased aggression, impaired cognitive
skills and developmental delay. The three unvaccinated animals
in the study developed normally.”
(Article continues below)
“There was a significant difference between the two groups,”
said Hewitson. “The vaccinated group had trouble developing
reflexes. . . . They also became more insular and more aggressive.
There was an increase in aggressive behavior after they had their
MMR vaccines, and they stopped exploring their surroundings as
much.”
Abnormal brain activity was found in the monkeys, and higher
sensitivity to a naturally occurring brain chemical linked to
sleeplessness, hallucinations, lack of social skills and a high
pain threshold—all symptoms found in children on the autistic
spectrum. The monkeys also exhibited abnormalities of the amygdala,
the part of the brain which regulates emotions.
“We can’t conclude that vaccines cause autism from
this study,” said Hewitson. “What we can conclude
is that the vaccinated monkeys showed significant negative behavioral
differences before and after the MMR.”
This research, carried out at five U.S. research centers, including
The University of California, Washington National Primate Research
Center, Seattle, The University of Kentucky and the Thoughtful
House Center for Children, Texas (founded by the man at the eye
of this storm, Andrew Wakefield) has not yet been published in
a peer-reviewed journal. Some suspicious minds may think (however
unfairly) that Wakefield’s involvement taints it. And it
must be stressed that the other American developments involve
certain differences from the British childhood vaccination regime,
including multiple jabs in the course of one day and the use of
mercury-based preservatives.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that the suspicion gathering
momentum in the U.S., that a vaccine schedule including MMR may
trigger a catastrophic reaction in both brain and gut among a
small proportion of children who are vulnerable, is almost exactly
the claim made by Wakefield, now fighting for his professional
life before the General Medical Register for making it—in
the teeth of a medical establishment in Britain that states categorically
there is no truth in it whatsoever.
Melanie Phillips is an acclaimed and controversial columnist
for London’s Daily Mail. Educated at Oxford, she won the
Orwell Prize for journalism 1996. She is the author of All Must
Have Prizes and other books. Her website, which collects many
of her essays, is www.melaniephillips.com. Please take a look.
This article was edited for length.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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