Dr. David Ayoub | Springfield, Ill Autism-vaccine link should not be dismissed

Autism-vaccine link should not be dismissed


07/19/2008



Bob Wilmott's column regarding the vaccine link to autism reads more like a press release from the vaccine manufacturers than a balanced journalistic piece looking critically at both sides of the debate ("Doctor dismisses link of autism to vaccines," July 14). As a physician who has researched this topic extensively, I fully believe there is an autism link to vaccines.

Studies that are alleged to dismiss this link are designed poorly, are biased and, in some instances, are fraudulent, often funded by the drug industry, authored by individuals who have strong financial ties to vaccine makers.
Pediatricians trust and rely on information published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which receives tens of millions of dollars each year from pharmaceutical companies. Some studies published in Pediatrics, its trade journal, have been criticized or proven wrong, such as a large epidemiological study last year by autism "expert" Eric Fombonne.

Dr. Wilmott's plea to be wary of Internet resources is akin to the directive to "ignore the man behind the curtain." With the recent concession by government health officials that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund, the facade of lies is beginning to crumble. I urge parents and pediatricians to do their own research with a thorough review of available literature and stop trusting reassuring claims from the very agencies that are responsible for this horrible debacle.

Dr. David Ayoub | Springfield, Ill