A doctor uses a stethoscope to examine a young girl's heart and lungs. Photo: wiki commons.

The ongoing dilemma regarding vaccines and the wavering confidence the public has for the Center For Disease Control (CDC) is both controversial and disturbing. Nonetheless, the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) and Autism issue has become so controversial that concerns over immunizations have taken center stage.

1998 was the first year the U.K. dispensed the MMR vaccine, and shortly thereafter, a number of cases of autism appeared in Ayrshire, Scotland.

As a result, some mothers in England traveled with their infants and children to Paris, where children could be inoculated via a single dose of measles vaccine. It was believed that if the MMR vaccine was connected to autism, that a single shot would counteract this problem.

In the U.S., single vaccines were available until around 1998/1999. Following the outbreak in Scotland, I immunized my own son via a single measles shot that same year.

During the 1980s, the statistics for autism in Britain and America were one in 2500. By 1998, it had jumped in the U.S. to one in 146. Today, the statistic is one in 68.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, of the Royal Free Hospital in London, discovered the measles virus in the guts of 150 autistic children. He claims that the children had become autistic shortly after receiving their MMR immunizations.

On February 28, 1998, Dr. Wakefield reported his findings in The Lancet Journal. He was subsequently ostracized by the medical community and lost his job. Recently his studies were found to be valid by whistle blower Dr. William Thompson at the CDC, who argued that the CDC had covered up data linking autism to the MMR vaccine.

A debate is raging that vaccinations should be mandated. Why the need to mandate something supposedly life saving? Some parents are reluctant to immunize their children when they suspect the truth is being withheld and the studies perhaps flawed or dishonest. Mandating? The MMR has been mandated for years. Single shots were removed – no longer available!

In 2003 researches in Denmark studied the effects of thimerosal (mercury) and wrote in The Medicine Report, “Mercury is a known neurotoxin. Placing it in maternal and infant vaccines is at best irresponsible, at worst criminal.” Yet the CDC, without any research, allowed mercury in vaccines for years. The FDA long ago alerted the public to the neurological affects of mercury in fish. Where was the CDC?

I believe that Dr. Wakefield’s research is perfectly valid. Most people are not aware of it. But the CDC is! So why does the CDC continue to permit the administering of the MMR shots in light of all the disturbing evidence?

I believe that the CDC has failed us.

We can no longer remain silent, nor let an irresponsible government body take responsibility for our children’s well being. Infants and children don’t have a voice, the CDC appears to be an unworthy one, and our voices have remained silent for far too long!