Simply a concerned parent--Ian S (original) (raw)

Ian S Barnett,
Senior Lecturer in Law; Barrister
University of Hertfordshire AL1 3RR

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Re: Simply a concerned parent

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/330/7491/552#100748

Dear Sirs

I do not have any hidden agendas. I am simply a concerned parent of a 17 month old boy. My wife and I decided in the end to give him single jabs for measles, mumps and rubella.

This was due in part to the following:

a. the lack of credible research showing there was no link between MMR and autism. Perhaps it's my legal background but studies that state they find no evidence of such a link is not the same as stating there is no link.

b. Every time a pro-MMR study is produced the anti-MMR lobby find some fundamental flaw in it. When an anti-MMR study is produced there does not seems to be any publicity given to it. Not being a medical person but a simple lawyer and law lecturer who does one believe?

c. My personal concern of putting three virus at once into one child (though I admit again I am not medically qualified). It seems strange to me that if for example, a person has a bad dose of flu, surely the worst thing he needs is to be exposed to another illness at the same time?

d. My frustration at Mr Brian Deer's Dispatches programme, (which I was hoping would present a balanced view on the matter); it seemed so biased against Andrew Wakefield it made me even more convinced that the single jabs route was correct.

e. In my own place at work two of my lecturer colleagues' children have had serious adverse reactions after the MMR. One of the children becoming autistic. My colleague has no doubts whatsoever that it was the MMR jab and strongly advised me not to have my son vaccinated with the triple jab.

These types of stories are being heard about constantly and are not going to go away. We do need proper independent research from persons who are not on either side of the issue. Only then will parental concern be satisfied.

Competing interests: Parent of 17 month old boy who is having single jabs