MMR experts ‘gagged’ over changes in immunisation policy

Published on Sunday 28 April 2002 01:00

A MEMBER of the government’s expert group on the MMR vaccine has claimed the panel was prevented from making a recommendation on single jabs.

The accusation comes just days before the group’s long-awaited report into the safety of the triple vaccination.

The panel, which has taken eight months to produce its report, will not recommend any changes in immunisation policy - despite fears of a possible link between the vaccine and autism and a declining uptake of the inoculation in Scotland.

The expert, who asked not to be named, said: "When three or four of us were pushing for single vaccines to be considered it was made very clear to us by civil servants and other members that it wasn’t within the remit of the committee. The bottom line was that we weren’t permitted to deal with it.

"The Executive doesn’t set up committees such as ours to do research and draw a conclusion, it’s basically to support what the Executive wants to hear. It wants no change and that is what it got."

The group is expected to recommend that a national autism register be set up to identify the number of children in Scotland suffering from the condition. It will also call for more research into the causes of autism and treatments for the condition, as well as a review of education services for autistic children.

Since it was launched by former health minister Susan Deacon, the group has been dogged by controversy.

The publication of its report was delayed in February following a serious split over whether parents should be offered single vaccines. It later emerged that four members of the group had financial links to a pharmaceutical firm which makes the vaccine.

Weeks later, a number of the experts who supported parents being given a choice of single vaccines threatened to quit, claiming that the inquiry had become a whitewash.

Last night the expert added: "After I attended the first meeting I knew the group was never going to sort out the single-vaccine issue. No one wants to make a decision. No one wants to be fingered as the person that does it. The person that has to do it is the health minister.

"Deacon wriggled out of having to make a decision by setting up a group with very limited powers. Now we are back to square one again."

The establishment of the expert group followed a report by the Scottish parliament’s health committee, which found there was no proven link between the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism, or the digestive condition Crohn's disease.

Nevertheless, the health committee had said it wanted "clear guidance" on whether single vaccines should be offered as an alternative to the triple jab.

Shadow health minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "I am sure there will be a lot in the report that is worthwhile, but there is an expectation that it will have something to say about MMR and the single vaccine. If it does not people will wonder what the point of this exercise has been."

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