MMR does not cause autism. There is no controversy about this. Medical experts agree. There is no epidemiological connection between MMR and autism (in Denmark, England, Japan, Japan, Japan, Poland, and the United States), papers alleging a connection have been retracted, no one has ever reproduced the "MMR measles virus infiltrates gut, causes autism" claims of Andrew Wakefield and the largest court hearing, the Autism Omnibus trials in the US, has denied all three test cases and appeals for the various "autism is caused by vaccines" hypotheses. The media hype, largely responsible for the drop in MMR uptake in the UK and subsequent mumps and measles outbreaks has died down, parent confidence is rising, and MMR coverage rates are picking up.
It seems this is not common knowledge across Europe though. This March, a provincial court in Rimini, awarded a family €140000 for their son's autism "caused by the MMR". A quick glance at the plaintiff's side reveals an anti-vaccine "dream team":
Their lawyer, Luca Ventaloro, is a well known Italian anti-vaccine advocate (seen here on YouTube explaining how to legally avoid compulsory vaccination). And while their doctor, Massimo Montinari (misspelled as Montanari in the court decision), has no proper biomedical research papers on autism or MMR or vaccines in general, he authored the book "Autismo: i vaccini fra le cause della malattia" and sells his own autism "cure" protocol. Why the defendants, the Italian Ministry of Health, apparently did not present any of the huge body of evidence against any association between MMR and autism is not clear. Ironically, the Cochrane Team reviewing the MMR is Italian. After the ruling, horses bolted and all, it appears that this decision will be appealed. Already, the Italian Federation of Pediatricians has protested and pointed out the poor factual basis on which the court's decision was made.
Now, the lack of evidence-based information in the Italian decision and the bias in the parents' team should be blatantly obvious to anyone with a keyboard and access to the internet. Nevertheless, the Daily Mail, not entirely innocent in the original media campaign against the MMR, joined the ranks of the usual anti-vaccine activists (no links to those guys) and published a sensationalist article:
MMR: A mother's victory. The vast majority of doctors say there is no link between the triple jab and autism, but could an Italian court case reignite this controversial debate?
What they obviously mean is "let's help them reignite the debate, so our web site gets clicks and our paper sells copies - yeah". That kind of fear mongering is highly irresponsible in the light of the lack of evidence for a connection between MMR and autism (see above - interestingly, Autism Omnibus verdicts never made the Daily Mail) and record measles outbreaks across Europe and the UK. A fellow blogger, equally astonished about this inflammatory piece of poorly researched journalism, now revealed the Daily Mail author's motivation. Sue Reid is just simply anti-vaccine minded, conspiracy theories, pharma shill allegations and all, although she seems to recognise that this is not popular and threatens libel action. If the comments are correct, she is no stranger to controversial reporting based on fabricated evidence either.
In any case, the ruling is unlikely to stand very long - the inflammatory language used in the Daily Mail piece is likely to cost some children their health. The current measles outbreak in Merseyside has well over 300 patients, with a hospitalisation rate of 18%. Well done, Sue Reid and the Daily Fail.
It seems this is not common knowledge across Europe though. This March, a provincial court in Rimini, awarded a family €140000 for their son's autism "caused by the MMR". A quick glance at the plaintiff's side reveals an anti-vaccine "dream team":
Their lawyer, Luca Ventaloro, is a well known Italian anti-vaccine advocate (seen here on YouTube explaining how to legally avoid compulsory vaccination). And while their doctor, Massimo Montinari (misspelled as Montanari in the court decision), has no proper biomedical research papers on autism or MMR or vaccines in general, he authored the book "Autismo: i vaccini fra le cause della malattia" and sells his own autism "cure" protocol. Why the defendants, the Italian Ministry of Health, apparently did not present any of the huge body of evidence against any association between MMR and autism is not clear. Ironically, the Cochrane Team reviewing the MMR is Italian. After the ruling, horses bolted and all, it appears that this decision will be appealed. Already, the Italian Federation of Pediatricians has protested and pointed out the poor factual basis on which the court's decision was made.
Now, the lack of evidence-based information in the Italian decision and the bias in the parents' team should be blatantly obvious to anyone with a keyboard and access to the internet. Nevertheless, the Daily Mail, not entirely innocent in the original media campaign against the MMR, joined the ranks of the usual anti-vaccine activists (no links to those guys) and published a sensationalist article:
MMR: A mother's victory. The vast majority of doctors say there is no link between the triple jab and autism, but could an Italian court case reignite this controversial debate?
What they obviously mean is "let's help them reignite the debate, so our web site gets clicks and our paper sells copies - yeah". That kind of fear mongering is highly irresponsible in the light of the lack of evidence for a connection between MMR and autism (see above - interestingly, Autism Omnibus verdicts never made the Daily Mail) and record measles outbreaks across Europe and the UK. A fellow blogger, equally astonished about this inflammatory piece of poorly researched journalism, now revealed the Daily Mail author's motivation. Sue Reid is just simply anti-vaccine minded, conspiracy theories, pharma shill allegations and all, although she seems to recognise that this is not popular and threatens libel action. If the comments are correct, she is no stranger to controversial reporting based on fabricated evidence either.
In any case, the ruling is unlikely to stand very long - the inflammatory language used in the Daily Mail piece is likely to cost some children their health. The current measles outbreak in Merseyside has well over 300 patients, with a hospitalisation rate of 18%. Well done, Sue Reid and the Daily Fail.
