From the June 2000 Idaho Observer:

Comprehensive, independent study proves MMR vaccine link to nation's autism epidemic

Imagine the militancy with which organized medicine would attack a simple, herbal immune-system enhancer if it were learned that a person became hopelessly deranged after using it. Imagine civil and criminal sanctions that would be leveled against the product's manufacturer even if the connection of his product to the person's derangement was not scientifically established. Now imagine how it is that the MMR and other vaccines can be so scientifically linked to the nation's epidemic of autistic children yet organized medicine unscientifically explains away any connection as merely coincidental.

by Don Harkins

Vaccine/autism link researcher Dr. F. Edward Yazbak has concluded that the MMR (measles, mumps rubella) vaccine, when given to pregnant mothers and infant children, must be considered to be a factor in the increasing number of children in this nation who are being diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders.

Autism is a permanent psychological disorder that prevents children from being able to relate emotionally to parents or anybody outside of themselves. Also called childhood schizophrenia, afflicted children are extremely withdrawn and are impenetrably self-absorbed.

According to a study released in March, 1999, incidence of autism in the state of California has increased 273 percent over the last 10 years -- 1,685 new cases reported in 1999 alone. A national study entitled, “Autism 99, A National Emergency” (Yazbak, 1999), that was based upon yearly reports to Congress from the U.S. Department of Education, indicate a national trend in the incidence of autism that is consistent with the California model. Figures for Maryland indicate a 500 percent increase in incidents of autism over the last decade. Brick Township, New Jersey, reports that 1 in 149 children develop autism.

MMR, pregnancy and autism

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and vaccine manufacturers warn that the MMR vaccine should not be given to pregant women. However, many pregnant women are given the vaccine as a requirement for employment or higher education. Some are even re-vaccinated because they were determined to not have developed antibodies to the three diseases after vaccination.

Dr. Yazbak's initial study with regard to pregnancy and MMR involved seven women, six who received live virus MMR and one who received a hep B vaccine after an MMR booster five months prior to conception. “All of the children who resulted from these pregnancies have had developmental problems, six of the seven (85 percent) were diagnosed with autism and the seventh seems to exhibit symptoms often associated with autistic spectrum disorders,” wrote Dr. Yazbak in his peer-reviewable report.

Among Dr. Yazbak's logical conclusions is that, “If live virus vaccination during early pregnancy or several months prior to conception is in any way a factor in the development of autism, then a similar relationship between autism and live virus vaccination in general should be seriously investigated by independent, longitudinal large scale studies.”

Dr. Yazbak's conclusions also questioned the logic behind supporting ongoing research to develop new vaccines designed to deliver disease “immunity” to both the mother and her infant in utero.

The main study, which Dr. Yazbak expects to be completeed very soon, will include data that has been gathered from 240 mothers who were vaccinated with MMR during pregnancy.

Nation experiencing epidemic of developmental disability

According to the California Education Department (CED), in 1998 the west-coast state had a public school population of 5,727,305 students, 632,238 of which were enrolled in special education classes. CED stats also show a four-fold increase in autsim since 1993 -- up from 2,157 cases to 8,084 cases by April, 1999.

As mentioned previously, Brick Township, NJ, has an extremely high rate of autism with 40 cases in a population of 6,000 children. In 1991, the entire state of New Jersey reported 241 cases of autism in a population of 1,915,403 students. By 1997, the student population had only marginally increased to 2,082,706 while reported cases of autism had escalated to 1,634 -- nearly an eight-fold increase in just seven years.

Dr. Yazbak pulled the figures for Illinois to determine if the dramatic increases of autism cases experienced on both the east and west coasts were represented in the nation's heartland as well.

In 1991, Illinois reported a public school population of 111,326, of which there were 317 cases (.28 percent) of autism. The percentage rates of autism have increased steadily until figures released for 1997 show that 1.83 percent of the state's 126,065 students were diagnosed as autistic.

Other states chosen at random, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington, Missouri and Rhode Island all report steady increases in autism cases that are consistent with New Jersey, California and Illinois.

There is no way to deny that the dramatic increase in numbers of autistic children, a trend that shows no signs of abating, represents a national emergency. What sociological perils await a nation where two percent of its people are destined to be terminally insitutionalized for being unable to see outside of themselves?

Vaccination and developmental disability

Most on-going research into the cause of autism, which is being performed in the same research facilities that develop vaccines, is looking for a responsibility-absolving genetic cause of the disease. Dr. Yazbak believes this research has yet to produce any major findings and is not likely to do so and, if it did, would not result in a reduction in the incidence of autism. “Research should, therefore, be focused on any and all new environmental insults affecting this generation of children and their parents,” Dr. Yazbak observed and added that the federal government should commission “independent and far-reaching studies of all possible factors.”

Beyond a doubt, children who are born with or have developed autism since 1990 are members of the most vaccinated generation in American history. Prior to the current generation, the parents of these children could claim to be the most vaccinated generation of Americans in history. Considering that the nation's public health “experts” currently recommend 36 vaccinations by the age five and many parents have been vaccinated their entire lives with the recommended regimen plus tetanus boosters and periodic hep A and B inoculations, Dr. Yazbak determined it prudent to scientifically explore the relationship between vaccines and autism.

A different series of 22 mothers who had received live virus vaccine prior to conception or during pregnancy were studied. “Every one of them has at least one child with autism,” Dr. Yazbak reported.

“Several mothers who were in good health and had normal children report that after they were re-vaccinated with MMR or rubella vaccines they experienced health problems; they had miscarriages or delivered prematurely; they still remained rubella-susceptible; their children developed autism and other disabilties,” the report stated.

Tetanus and rabies shots during pregnancy resulted in early onset autism in both resultant children. In many cases, the autism of these 22 women's children began to manifest or worsen after the children received their first MMR vaccination. “In one case, clinical autism started at the age of 11 months after chickenpox,” Dr. Yazbak noted.

Dr. Yazbak's interest in the relationship between autism and vaccines was prompted by the birth of an autistic grandchild after his daughter had received two MMR boosters as an adult. His findings prove to the layperson that there is an inescapable relationship between vaccinations, particularly the MMR, and autism.

His work also indicates that there might be some relationship between the development of autism after a child born to a mother with vaccine-induced disease antibodies is himself vaccinated.

To date, the American Medical Association, The American Academy of Pediatricians, the CDC, the FDA, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, pharmaceutical companies and the U.S. Congress have all maintained the position that there is absolutely no autism/vaccination connection and that the onset of autism around the time of an MMR vaccination is purely coincidence.

Dr. Yazbak's documentation should be thought-provoking enough to get the aforementioned entities to reconsider their position regarding this important matter. With the publication of his work available for peer review, “It is now up to them to prove that vaccines do not predispose to autism. Independent, large-scale studies should be promptly initiated,” Dr. Yazbak concluded.