U.S. News pretends that the controversy over vaccines and autism is all because of an article in a British medical journal 13 years ago. In truth, the reason why people have such concerns about vaccine safety is the result of all those parents who report that their children were healthy, normally developing kids until they received certain routine vaccinations. Then they changed. They developed symptoms like severe diarrhea, seizures, and sleep disorders. They lost learned skills and were diagnosed with autism. No official can tell us why this is happening to so many children.
Gardner is wrong when she says that Wakefield published a study in 1998. He wrote a paper about a novel bowel disease he observed in autistic children. Parents reported to him that their children had regressed after receiving the MMR. He simply called for research. If Gardner actually had read Wakefield's book, Callous Disregard,
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Anne McElroy Dachel of WI 10:22AM January 20, 2011