THE RECENT SURGE IN MEASLES CASES – DID FEAR OF NEGATIVE EFFECT OF MMR VACCINE ON AUTISM CAUSE THIS?

Measles/Mumps/Rubella Vaccine down, Measles outbreak follows

by Lirio Sobrevinas-Covey​​

After the publication of Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 article in Lancet, that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine causes Autism, the prevalence of measles and mumps in the UK (where Lancet is published and the story was big news) went up. This was attributed by the public health community to many parents’ decision not to have their children immunized with the MMR because of Wakefield’s article.

Much research was conducted to replicate Wakefield’s finding. None did. Further, in 2010 Lancet retracted the article after evidence of methodological and ethical flaws (including fraudulent data). Refer to AAAP Today entry on Nov 2, 2014 (www.adultautismphil.wordpress.com)

For a long-time, despite opinion-based advocacy of some US parents, prominently Jenny McCarthy, against the MMR vaccine, no upswing in measles and mumps occurred in the US.

Perhaps it was just a matter of time.

There has now been a surge of measles, as seen in six states in the US and also in Mexico, widely covered in the US media. Confirming early fears by the public health community in the US, it is thought to be a consequence of many children’s not having received the MMR vaccine.

Ironically and sadly, the reduction in administering the MMR vaccine has not decreased the prevalence of Autism in the United States, in the UK, or worldwide. However, it has resulted in what the vaccine was supposed to prevent – the epidemic outbreak of measles in many United States, not only in California, where it was first observed, around Christmas time, 2014.

In this conflict between opinion and scientific fact, it is quite apparent that, finally, science is getting the upper hand.

Measles cases in the US.docx