Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 28, 2013 23:12:10 GMT -5
Italian Court Rules MMR Vaccine Caused Autism: US Media Blacks Out Story
The debate over vaccines continues as an Italian court ruled in favor of the Bocca family whose nine-year-old son became autistic after receiving the MMR (Measles/Mumps & Rubella) vaccine. Although the case concluded last year (2012), the information is relevant.
Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning there is a wide degree of variation in the way it affects people. Valentino Bocca was given the MMR vaccine when he was 15 months old in 2004. The family said that immediately following the vaccination, their son began showing signs of serious discomfort and developed autism. The Bocca family ended up taking the case to court. The court determined the vaccine caused the autism after new evidence was presented and awarded the Bocca family 174,000 Euro ($235,195) after the Italian Health Ministry conceded the MMR vaccine caused autism in their nine-year-old son Valentino. Following the ruling, Italian lawyers began examining around 100 similar cases which they believe could lead to more families pursuing their cases in court.
Of course, everyone doesn’t agree with the court’s findings. In Britain, doctors and health experts insist the onset of autism following the vaccine was merely a coincidence. The official statement of the Department of Health was: “There is a wealth of evidence showing children who receive the MMR vaccine are no more at risk of autism than those who don’t."
The Bocca case is not the first case wherein children have been allegedly damaged by vaccines. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid out more than $2 billion in compensation to families who have been damaged by vaccines. The Bocca case ruling will likely reopen much debate over vaccine safety and effectiveness. This was largely made popular when the respected medical journal The Lancet published an article in 1998 connecting the triple vaccine and autism. Later on, the author’s methods were discredited but this came with controversy as well. Luckily, the news of it alone was enough for families to re-question the vaccine.
Though the debate is still ongoing, many people are seriously questioning vaccines and this isn’t just the average person. Medical doctors have been studying vaccines as the evidence continues to increase concerning the ineffectiveness and lack of safety associated with vaccines. The number of autism cases has risen significantly since the 1970s, as the number of vaccines a child receives continues to rise dramatically.
Although it is not yet clear what the new evidence was that concluded the Bocca case, it is almost certain it will continue to build the case for re-thinking vaccines.
The blackout in US media is a prime example of how much medical information is censored in North America. This may add to the fact that it seems North America is a lot more unaware of healthy practices regarding medicine, lifestyle and diet. Of course this isn’t to say that everyone in North America is clueless when it comes to matters of medicine, but the numbers indicate North America is one of the unhealthiest developed countries.
An example of manner in which the medical industry tends to avoid new vaccine science comes in the case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield. He has been involved in extensively reviewing the MMR vaccine and its safety and has discovered not only some frightening results, but also a great opposition and censorship.
According to Joseph Mercola, D.O., New York Times Best-Selling author:
“It’s virtually impossible to read an article about the MMR vaccine without coming across a reference to British gastroenterologist Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 research published in The Lancet, which suggested there may be a link between the MMR vaccine, chronic bowel disease and autism. Ever since the article’s publication, it has remained one of the most cited yet controversial studies on the topic of vaccine safety.
“Few public health officials or doctors speaking about vaccination in the media today fail to drive home the point that Wakefield’s research was subsequently ‘discredited’ by the General Medical Council in Britain, while completely ignoring what his research actually revealed and the long list of studies completed since that time by other researchers who back up his initial findings.
“Dr. Wakefield’s 1998 study involved a retrospective case series analysis, which essentially reviews the clinical histories of a group of patients with a constellation of signs and symptoms linking them and creating a pattern. In this case, it was a group of autistic children with gastrointestinal problems, which led to the discovery of a novel bowel disease that he and his colleagues at the Royal Free Hospital in London first described.
“But rather than celebrating the discovery of a tangible, treatable and potentially preventable serious health problem that could help those suffering with similar health issues, Wakefield’s discovery became a hotly debated controversy in which his personal and professional reputation was smeared.
“Why?
“Because the clinical story didn’t end with bowel disease; it also included symptoms of regressive autism after receiving the MMR vaccine ….
“In the years following his 1998 findings, which linked the MMR vaccine to inflammatory bowel disease and symptoms of autism, Dr. Wakefield published 19 additional papers on the vaccine-induced bowel disorder. All were peer-reviewed and none has been retracted. However, these 19 papers are never discussed in the media.
“The only study that continues to see the light of day is the original Lancet article from 1998. Another interesting fact is that since that study, a significant number of replication studies have been done around the world by other researchers that confirm Wakefield’s initial findings. Yet one never hears a ward about these either.”
Sources: Joseph Mercola, D.O., CollectiveEvolution and TheIndependent.