Would you give the MMR vaccine to your children?
(Daily Mail Oct 17, 2000)
NO says Dr Jayne Donegan
LONDON doctor Jayne Donegan, 42, has gone from being an enthusiastic supporter of the vaccination programme to a GP who will no longer vaccinate at all. Dr Donegan has two children, Antonia, seven, and Pandora, nine. She says:
"Last year a newsletter produced by the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the Medicines Control Agency was sent to all GPs and hospitals. It said that an independent committee had reviewed all the available evidence on whether the MMR jab is linked to autism and Crohn’s disease.
‘They concluded that it was impossible to prove or refute the suggested associations between MMR vaccine and autism or inflammatory bowel disease — and went on to say that the information available did not support or give cause for concern about the safety of the MMR vaccine.
‘This does not make any sense. If they were unable to refute the claims, they cannot then go on and say there is no cause for concern.
‘The Department of Health insists the MMR vaccine doesn’t cause autism, but every GP knows that when you give a vaccine, a child can get a high fever, suffer inconsolable crying or uncontrolled screaming, which are signs of encephalitis (an inflammation of the brain).
‘If a child had encephalitis from any other cause — such as measles— and had a change in personality, the doctors would say that the encephalitis was to blame.
‘Although they see so many people suffering from a mild form of vaccine encephalitis, they say it definitely doesn’t cause personality changes, and definitely not autism.
‘Are they saying that vaccine encephalitis is different from any other sort? And if so, how?
‘People might worry about the reappearance of measles, which is the most serious of the three diseases, if we don’t vaccinate.
‘According to government figures, deaths from measles had decreased by 95pc before the first vaccine was introduced in 1968. The decline was steady, indicating that the disease was dying out naturally. Diseases do die out on their own.
‘Deaths from measles had gone from 1,145 in 1941 to 100 in 1967. The figures have continued to decrease, but not at any greater speed. So what caused the decrease in the first place?
‘Better public health has had the greatest effect. The Victorians did a tremendous amount to improve our living conditions.
‘The Victorians took sewage out of the streets and rivers, built railways which brought fresh fruit and vegetables to the towns, and knocked down slums.
‘The slums were replaced, bylaw, with cleaner, better-ventilated houses. infectious diseases could no longer thrive in the improved conditions, and better diet meant stronger immune systems.
‘I believe vaccines weaken the Immune system. In 1994, the British Medical Journal wrote that it was well known among immunologists that auto-immune disease such as asthma, eczema and diabetes are the price we pay for eradicating infectious diseases.
‘The author said that our immune system had matured and developed purely because of catching the diseases we are trying to eradicate.
‘In my opinion, normal childhood diseases are basically good for us. They teach our immune system what is "us" and what is foreign.
‘All our childhood diseases were killers when they first came along. They wiped out thousands because we had no natural immunity against them. Diseases infect us and, in turn, strengthen our immune system.
‘I vaccinated both my children with the MMR jab, but this was before I started my research into the problems associated with it.
‘Knowing what I know now, I would not vaccinate my children and run the risk of them getting diabetes, asthma, eczema, becoming more susceptible to meningitis and ending up chronically disabled.’
[Vaccination] [MMR/MR] [Measles] [Dr Jayne Donegan, MB]