18th Century Gilray vaccination cartoon

The saga that is the debate around ‘can MMR vaccination cause autism‘ rages on…..

New information was revealed late in 2014 in a Huffington Post Blog:

Merck Has Some Explaining To Do Over Its MMR Vaccine Claims

If whistleblowers from Merck – the manufacturer of the MMR vaccine – and also from CDC (Centres for Disease Control) are to be believed, there has been rampant fraud and coverup of this, hiding the truth about the autism connection.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lawrence-solomon/merck-whistleblowers_b_5881914.html

I posted thoughts on this a few years back – see these links:

….. from 2007 –

https://leonchaitow.com/2008/03/07/autism-vaccination-historic-ruling-in-usa-supports-direct-connection/

….. and from 2008 –

https://leonchaitow.com/2008/02/05/the-mmrautism-debate-continues/

This issue has emerged again this week  in the slow-burn towards the next US presidential election….and it has become a political fire-storm following an outbreak of measles in California:

See:  Inside the Vaccine War: Measles Outbreak Rekindles Debate on Autism, Parental Choice & Public Health

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/5/inside_the_vaccine_war_measles_outbreak

….with Democrats like Hilary Clinton on one side “The sky is blue and vaccines work“

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-31069896 – 

….against Republican presidential hopefuls, such as opthalmologist  Rand Paul ‘s emotive:“many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children [have] wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines” (on the right above)

….and the more nuanced Chris Christie: “parents need to have some measure of choice in things.” (on the left above)

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/02/03/chris-christie-rand-paul-stir-republican-anti-vaccination-debate.html

Now I don’t know the truth  – although I have my suspicions in the MMR saga – but it does seem possible that some immature and vulnerable immune systems – in the first year of life – may not be able to predictably (and safely) manage the adaptive challenges posed by the demands of a cocktail of vaccines