In view of the latest attacks by Brian Deer on the reputations of Professor John Walker-Smith and Dr Andrew Wakefield published in the British Medical Journal, CryShame is stating its continuing support for these doctors who took seriously the severe health problems our children suffer.
The latest attacks have drawn together senior members of the medical profession in the UK and US in denouncing evidence of the Lancet twelve children's condition recorded in the 1998 Lancet paper.
This is a major insult to the 12 Lancet children whose parents continue to attest to the accuracy of the Lancet 's findings of regressive autism following MMR. But it is also an insult to the many children around the world whose lives have been destroyed following the MMR vaccine. These children have bowel damage and associated problems, epilepsy and other disorders as well as suffering irreversible brain damage. The temporal sequence of autism following MMR is a pattern that demands serious research to establish causation.
No research into why our children regressed into autism following MMR has been undertaken in the UK since the early 2000s. Rather expensive medical research has been undertaken with the express aim of disproving Wakefield et al's work with no positive outcomes for children with regressive autism. With the mounting epidemic of autism now reaching one in 64 children or one in 100 on a conservative estimate ‒ medical scientists' embargo on further research into regressive autism is shameful.
The doctors who were part of the former paediatric gastroenterology unit at the Royal Free Hospital treated our children with the utmost care in trying to research and alleviate their suffering. Professor Walker-Smith and Dr Andrew Wakefield bear the brunt of the continuing animosity because of this. We therefore want to publish the statement below from Dr Wakefield as he would like parents and friends to know how much he values their continued support.
Until our children receive the justice they deserve, and a proper programme of medical research and treatment is implemented, we remain committed to fighting on the children and doctors' behalf.
CRYSHAME
Andrew Wakefield's thank you to parents
To all parents:
I am immensely grateful to you for your wonderful support. Your voices are being heard around the world and that is precisely why our opponents have become so vicious. The only hope of victory for those who oppose the recognition of what has happened to your children for what it is and a Safety-First vaccine policy, is to divide us. Together we have come too far, for too long, for good reason, to be divided. Each attack makes us stronger and more determined. Science and safety must be the new language of vaccine policy. Solidarity will ensure this happens.
Andy