- Studies quoted by the government as evidence that vaccines
containing mercury ñ linked to autism in children ñ are safe,
are being withheld from the public.
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- "Factsheets" issued by the Committee on Safety
of Medicines to those concerned about research which suggests that vaccines
containing mercury can trigger autism in some children claim that two new
studies prove that the jabs are safe.
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- But these studies have not been scrutinised by independent
experts as part of the peer review process which all scientific studies
must go through to be considered valid.
-
- Autism campaigners have accused the government of arrogance
for telling parents to "just take their word" that the jabs are
safe. The diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough vaccine (DTwP), which
contains thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative, is given to hundreds
of thousands of babies aged between two and four months every year.
-
- Following research suggesting that mercury can cause
autism in children, the Scottish Executive announced that parents would
be allowed to choose mercury-free jabs for their babies. But parents have
complained that they struggle to persuade doctors to administer the alternative
jabs. The mercury-free vaccine, Infanrix, is more expensive.
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- The Executive has ruled out a ban on vaccines containing
mercury. Dr Andrew Fraser, deputy chief medical officer, said the Executive
was committed to finding mercury-free alternatives but that the government
was still waiting for what it considered to be a "licensed, equally
effective alternative" to become available, before banning vaccines
containing thiomersal.
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- In answer to the question "are the levels of thiomersal
in vaccines used in the UK safe?" it says: "Two recent independent
population-based studies involving over 100,000 children have examined
this issue. These two studies specifically set out to assess the safety
of thiomersal in vaccines used according to the UK childhood immunisation
schedule. Both these studies produced very reassuring results. Neither
found any link between thiomersal exposure from the UK childhood immunisation
programme and developmental and behavioural disorders."
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- Bill Welsh, chair of Action Against Autism, and the grandfather
of an autistic child, said: "This is astonishing arrogance. Basically
they are saying 'we cannot show you this evidence but just take our word
for it'. My understanding is the use of unpublished studies is highly irregular
and goes against a core scientific principle."
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- According to the CSM, one of the studies was funded by
the World Health Organisation and the Public Health Laboratory Service
and used data from the General Practice Research Database. The other was
funded by the Department of Health and used data from the Avon Longitudinal
Study of Pregnancy and Childhood.
-
- A spokeswoman added: "The studies haven't been published.
They have yet to be peer reviewed. This is confidential data and we are
not in a position to be able to make it available. It is going to be published
in due course."
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- ©2003 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088. all
rights reserved.
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- http://www.sundayherald.com/36217
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