<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

At 04:38 PM 8/8/00 -0400, Nancy Garniez wrote:

As quoted by Nancy:

>One has a son with CD and with "vaccine-induced autism".  She said:  "I
>think many of our current problems with auto-immune disorders stem from
>current immunization practice."

I know there has been some talk about this association between the MMR
(measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism on the list recently, and I
certainly don't want to argue as to whether this possible or not. I'm
certain those parents with an autistic child who see such an association
have probably investigated it far more than I have, but I did think I'd
mention what I understand to be the best study so far conducted. The July
31 issue of Newsweek (certainly not an unimpeachable source) just reported
that a study was published in 1999 about a team of researchers led by Dr.
Brent Taylor of the Royal Free Hospital in the UK, where this idea of a
connection first started. They reviewed autism rates in eight British
health districts over a 13 year  period to see if the incidence of autism
had spiked following the advent of the MMR vaccine in '88. They could find
no such spike or increase in the number of autistic children following the
introduction of this vaccine. Once the vaccine was made available, the kids
who got the vaccine showed no more autism than those who did not get it.

Their conclusion was that if such a connection exists it is "so rare that
it could not be identified in this large regional sample."

Certainly no one claims that all the evidence is in yet. I'm just reporting
the study: please don't feel it's necessary to write me and convince me as
to how wrong I am. I'm just the messenger and don't know much more than
I've reported here. And I hold no hard opinions on either side. I'm willing
to wait and see if contradictory studies emerge in the future. -vance, the
messenger