03-03-2004, 02:44 PM
Dudette I think the press here has blown up the Wakefield report to such a degree that most parents are just extremely confused. I also find it very ironic that people in SA were always prepared to pay for the MMR (prior to it becoming standard) as it was seen as a better option than the clinic's vaccine, very few have ever heard of a possible link to autism either. The sample size Dr Wakefield used is very small if you compare it to how many millions of children have been vaccinated and to my knowledge no other scientist has been able to replicate his results. I really think that it is highly unlikely that there is a link between autism and the mmr but it is just one of those unfortunate timing things that the symptoms of autism are most likely to appear at the same time a child has its first MMR vaccine. What I do find more interesting is the growing number of GP's that would prefer to test for immunity before administering the booster shot. There is some concern that the booster can cause a problem.