Question Time debates the MMR vaccine

Question Time debate on the MMR vaccine and its non-links with Autism. But as Fiona Phillips reminds us, overwhelming scientific evidence can be ignored in the face of an anecdote.

"Last night on Question Time, Fiona Phillips repeated an anecdote a friend had told her about their child receiving the MMR vaccine and (I paraphrase) becoming a different child (seemingly an almost overnight transformation). She asserted that these parents cannot be denied, which I took this to mean that we could not (and should not) deny the claims of parents that their anecdote of MMR causing autism was true. I dont think anyone is denying that these children received the MMR vaccine. I dont think anyone is denying that these children have been diagnosed as having autism. I do think, however, that people have rightly denied that the MMR vaccine was the cause of the diagnosis of autism. Fortunately, the other panellists were rather more sensible than Ms Phillips and the responses of Paddy Ashdown, Liam Fox and Jan Royall almost made up for her idiotic comments. Ms Phillips clearly does not understand coincidence, correlation, and causation. Perhaps celebs who opine on things they obviously have no understanding of should be encouraged to enter into education and better inform themselves. Some have suggested that perhaps they should be forced to do so.

I have an alternative*. I see her anecdote and I raise it. There are plenty of parents whose children received the MMR vaccine and did not subsequently receive a diagnosis of autism [anecdata]. There is also a telling anecdote that Paul Offit wrote about in his book Vaccines: What You Should Know (co-authored with Louis M. Bell). A child was about to be vaccinated when they had a fit before the vaccine could be administered imagine if the fit had occurred a few minutes later. It would have seemed to be clearly linked to the vaccination. Now thats something to remember next time you read about an adverse event occurring following administration of a vaccine.

*I dont claim its better than education would be but I predict that Ms Phillips would be more likely to listen to an anecdote than to listen to calls for her to educate herself."
http://jdc325.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/adults-with-autism-mmr/

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• MMR
• autism
• Fiona Phillips
• GMTV
• Paddy Ashdown
• Liam Fox
• scare
• pseudoscience
• bad science

[craftystu]

Fiona is an idiot

[MyPablohoney]

Fiona Phillips is a FUCKING IDIOT!

[kshackleton]

@Twistedfirstarter81

I am very sorry for your child's developing of autism. The fact of the matter is that the typical age for the onset of the symptoms of autism and the application of the MMR vaccine are the same.

There is no evidence for any connection between the two.

[93tomb]

@Twistedfirstarter81 There is literally no evidence that MMR causes autism. And hundreds upon hundreds of published studies. Your daughter would have developed autism anyway.

[hennimore1]

I was a perfectly normal child until I had the MMR vaccine, and immediately afterwards getting it I remained a perfectly normal child who didn't get Measles Mumps or Rubella.

[kms50549]

autism can take a while to surface and to be diognosed i think that it is people fear of the vaccine that causes them to look for signs of autisum after the injection this means that they notice sign after the injection and asume it was the vacine.

[LichQueenKathie]

@Twistedfirstarter81 You must not be aware that autism is a genetic disease...unless you inject the foetus with chemicals, there is NO risk of autism. But all those words have just slid off you, huh?

[spackhollogay]

@Twistedfirstarter81 Me and my sister had the MMR vaccine and are totally fine, as is everyone else I know.

[Twistedfirstarter81]

my daughter had the mmr vaccine she was a normal toddler since she had the mmr vaccine she developed autism months later and has gone backward in her development there is no history of autism in my family tree whatsoever she wasa normal every day up until that stage b4 then

[ArcanaKnight]

@sol2soul77 They'd make more money putting the money into R&D for more cosmetic treatments like viagra, or just not making vaccines and treating the symptoms of diseases we would otherwise be protected against instead.

[sol2soul77]

@666or999 SHOPS DONT NEED CUSTOMERS, BIRDS DONT NEED WINGS TO FLY, PEOPLE DONT CHEAT TO GAIN AN ADVANTAGE THIS WORLD IS COMPLETELY FINE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT HERE....

[666or999]

@sol2soul77 They don't need a sick society to make a profit people get sick on thier own.