MMR and autism : what parents need to know

BOOK COVER......Page 1
HALF-TITLE......Page 2
TITLE......Page 3
COPYRIGHT......Page 4
CONTENTS......Page 5
PREFACE......Page 6
Postscript......Page 12
Acknowledgements......Page 14
MMR is a good vaccine......Page 15
Separate vaccines are a bad choice......Page 17
MMR does not cause autism......Page 20
Autism is not about to be cured or defeated, but much can be done to help......Page 21
2 THE MMR DEBACLE......Page 23
The rise of immunisation and the fall of MMR......Page 24
Before the storm......Page 27
3 TROUBLE WITH VACCINATIONS......Page 30
Anti-vaccination campaigns past and present......Page 32
MMR: Deja vu?......Page 34
The separate vaccines campaign......Page 38
Immunisation and the law......Page 41
Marital strife over MMR......Page 43
Government on the defensive......Page 44
4 AGE OF ANXIETY......Page 47
The children of Thatcherism......Page 48
Thalidomide: a real medical scandal......Page 51
The real ‘mad cow’ scandal: nobody lied......Page 53
The immune system as metaphor......Page 56
 Facts are not enough......Page 60
5 AUTISM AND PARENTS......Page 63
A life sentence......Page 64
Guilt and blame......Page 66
A disorder of development......Page 71
‘Regressive’ autism......Page 74
The autism epidemic......Page 76
6 ALTERNATIVE AUTISM......Page 80
Holding therapy......Page 81
Secretin......Page 82
The unorthodox biomedical approach......Page 85
Biochemical autism......Page 87
Auto-immune autism?......Page 89
The limitations of parental expertise......Page 93
Full circle......Page 97
Operation Safeguard......Page 99
Richard Barr: the anti-MMR solicitor......Page 101
The CSM investigation of the solicitors’ cases......Page 105
The scandal of Legal Aid ‘research’......Page 109
8 THE LANCET PAPER......Page 114
An acrimonious debate......Page 115
MMR and the Medical Research Council......Page 117
Testing the MMR-autism hypothesis......Page 120
MMR safety......Page 123
Moving the goalposts......Page 127
Does MMR cause measles?......Page 131
‘New variant’ inflammatory bowel disease?......Page 134
Leaky bowel?......Page 136
Opioid excess?......Page 138
Epidemiology......Page 140
The Medical Research Council......Page 143
The American Academy of Pediatrics......Page 144
Institute of Medicine, Committee on Immunisation Safety......Page 145
10 THE METAMORPHOSIS OF ANDREW WAKEFIELD......Page 147
The listening doctor......Page 148
Scientific thinking is counter-intuitive......Page 150
Scientific knowledge is public knowledge......Page 151
MMR in the media......Page 153
Who duped whom?......Page 155
O’Leary’s apostasy......Page 158
Shattock’s ‘one in ten’......Page 159
The Geiers......Page 161
Put a positive case for MMR......Page 164
Challenging anti-vaccination propaganda......Page 165
Research into autism......Page 166
Challenging junk science......Page 167
What we need to do together......Page 169
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 175
INDEX......Page 191