Sir, - Unsurprisingly, The Irish Times carried the Oireachtas Committee Report on MMR vaccine and autism quietly in an inner page. This committee met a large number of people, received scientific and other submissions, analysed the information and concluded that there was no proven association between MMR vaccine and autism.
US, UK, French, Finnish and other national bodies have come to the same conclusion. Both the Lancet and the British Medical Journal have editorialised in favour of MMR.
On August 22nd you carried a prominent story on Mr Gormley's and parents' concern at this conclusion. The alleged association between MMR and autism is based on one unproven hypothesis by one single researcher. It has not been substantiated elsewhere. It should be pointed out that there is no known association between infection with wild or natural measles, mumps or rubella virus and autism.
It seems to me highly irrational to associate autism with the dilute, attenuated measles, mumps and rubella viruses that are given in MMR vaccine.
The evidence is quite incontrovertible that there is no substance in MMR vaccine capable of causing such a profound condition as autism.
One's sympathies lie with the parents of these children who are desperate to find a cause for this condition, but they will not find it in the MMR story. - Yours, etc.,
Denis G. Gill, RCSI, Professorial Unit, Children's Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin 1.