Please join us Thursday night at 8 on Smart Talk as we explore the debate surrounding a connection between vaccines and autism. Our guests includeMark Blaxill, father of a daughter with autism and author of The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine and a Manmade Epidemic,    Dr. Jeanette Ramer, a developmental pediatrician at the Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital, and Dr. Cynthia DeMuth, a pediatrician with Pinnacle Health System's Children and Teen Center.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield's 1998 report, published in the British medical journal Lancet was the first study to link a childhood vaccine (MMR) to autism. His findings - that the MMR vaccine was linked to the onset of autism in eight of the 12 children he studied - struck fear into the heart of many parents, thousands of whom decided not to immunize their children. Lancet retracted the report last year and 10 of its 13 co-authors renounced the paper's conclusions after serious questions were raised about the research methodology. Now, a British journalist has written an expose that further debunks Wakefield's findings. The journalist, Brian Deer, writes a scathing denunciation in the British Medical Journal that accuses Dr. Wakefield of faking his data. Dr. Wakefield stands by his research and rejects any notion that he altered the data in his studies and perpetrated a fraud.

The discrediting of Dr. Wakefield's report is hugely significant because his study seemed to provide a scientific basis for much of the anti-vaccine movement. In fact, there are some reports that as many as 125,000 children in America born in the late 1990s did not get the MMR vaccine because of the scare.  The Centers for Disease Control writes in a fact sheet on the MMR vaccine and autism on its website, "Because signs of autism may appear around the same time children receive the MMR vaccine, some parents may worry that the vaccine causes autism. Vaccine safety experts, including experts at CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), agree that MMR vaccine is not responsible for recent increases in the number of children with autism. In 2004, a report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) concluded that there is no link between autism and MMR vaccine, and that there is no link between autism and vaccines that contain thimerosal as a preservative."

Still, there remain many vaccines-cause-autism supporters around the world. Our guest Mark Blaxill counts Dr. Wakefield as a friend. He makes a passionate argument for society to reexamine its use of mercury in medicines and writes, "Autism is a national emergency. Before 1930, the rate of autism in children was effectively zero. For several decades up until around 1990, the rate remained low. Then the rates began increasing dramatically. For children born in 1998 the rate was nearly 1%. Something terrible has happened to a generation of children. Autism is manmade. We need to find its causes and halt the epidemic in its tracks

Dr. Ramer's practice has treated 500-700 children with a variety of autism spectrum disorders. She doesn't think much of Dr. Wakefield's research. "It's bunk," she scoffs. "Clearly, parents have to make the decision whether to vaccinate. I understand why it's scary, but there isn't any evidence of a connection. I was a little more "iffy" about it when it first came out. I told parents it may be reasonable to wait it out. But now, I don't think there is any evidence that links the vaccines to autism.  No one has been able to replicate his findings."  What worries Dr. Ramer even more is her growing sense of an "anti-science" bias among parents.

As a general pediatrician at a Pinnacle Health clinic, Dr. DeMuth sees families who raise concerns about giving their children immunizations. "I do my best to talk them into it. People forget what these diseases are like, the tremendous suffering that an outbreak of some of these diseases can cause. We try to make reasonable explanations. And if they still won't go along, we have them sign a Refusal to Vaccinate Form that drives home the seriousness of the choice they're making." Dr. DeMuth also worries about what she calls the herd mentality. "Some parents figure, 'Well, I'm not going to get my child vaccinated because everybody else is vaccinated so we're really not at risk.' That will change if more and more people choose not to vaccinate.  It puts everyone at greater risk."

We invite you to join this important conversation. Call in live with your question or comment to 1-800-729-7532. Or send us an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or post a comment to www.facebook.com/witf.org.