Government Departments of Health worldwide warmly welcomed yet another study as ”final proof” that there is no link between MMR and autism.

Japan withdrew its measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) jab in April 1993 following reports that the mumps component was causing meningitis. At the time the intention was to find a safe mumps vaccine then reintroduce the triple jab, but this has not happened to date. Now a large survey conducted by Hideo Honda and colleagues at the Yokohama Rehabilitation Center has found no evidence that MMR had triggered any significant increase in autism. It compared the rates of autism in 31,426 children born either during the five years before MMR was withdrawn or during the three years afterwards.

Ed.- (i) Lawyer Clifford G. Miller suggested that the dip in the number of new autism cases just after the MMR triple jab was withdrawn, followed by a large rise in new autism cases when the number of separate vaccinations given increased by over a half was actually good evidence of a link between vaccinations (and the many dubious substances they contain) and autism. This possibility was supported by a previous study [1] which appeared to identify a greater risk of developing autism for children taking single mumps, measles and rubella shots than for those taking the triple MMR jab.

(ii) In their critique of the new study, Andrew Wakefield and Carol Stott pointed out that it did not compare the effect of a triple MMR jab with that of giving separate measles, mumps and rubella jabs at least a year apart (as Andrew had recommended). After MMR was withdrawn, Japanese parents were advised to have their children given all three single vaccinations within a month. Often they were given on the same day. As the measles vaccine can depress the immune system for at least a year and live viruses in a combined vaccine “interfere” with each other, this was therefore no different in biological terms from giving a triple jab. It was therefore not surprising that autism rates overall remained the same but it also meant that the study tells us nothing about a possible triple MMR jab-autism link. See website: www.whale.to for full text.

(iii) Clifford (see (i) above) was also puzzled why leading UK child psychiatrist Professor Sir Michael Rutter (who admits no expertise in immunology) was a co-author of this study. It was otherwise entirely researched by Japanese scientists, conducted in Japan and concerned only Japanese children living in Japan. Sir Michael has prepared defence papers for GlaxoSmithKline, who manufacture MMR vaccine and are one of the defendants in the ongoing MMR class action in the UK.