• An All Party Parliamentary Group on Autism has been formed at Westminster. It is currently looking at diagnosis, education, care and causation issues. The Chair is Dr. Stephen Ladyman MP (Labour, Thanet South). Vice-Chairs are Lord Clement-Jones (LibDem), Stephen Hesford MP (Labour), and Tim Loughton MP (Conservative). The Treasurer is Brian Cotter MP (Labour).

• The Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament appointed a Reporter, Mary Scanlon MSP, in Autumn 2000, to examine the issues surrounding the MMR/autism link and to report back to the Committee
• The Scottish National Party and Tommy Sheridan MSP of the Scottish Socialist Party have called for the re-introduction of single (monvalent) vaccines in Scotland

• In February 2002, Nick Harvey MP, Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, stated in correspondence to David Thrower that "We do not doubt the integrity with which (Dr. Wakefield) approaches his work, which is still at an interim stage, we note that Dr. Wakefield’s opinions are not currently shared by the vast majority (of the medical establishment). However, there are also a number of parents who are convinced that the MMR vaccine has been the cause of their children developing autism......Liberal Democrats......respect the right of parents to choose to have the vaccinations administered separately, this being preferable to children slipping through the net entirely".

• The Conservative health spokesman, Dr. Liam Fox, has expressed his support for MMR but has also expressed his view that the provision of single vaccines would be preferable to children being unimmunised at all, and would reflect the wishes of parents for being offered a choice.
• A Conservative MP, Ms. Julie Kirkbride, has promoted a Private Member’s Bill to bring about the re-introduction of single vaccines.

65. US House of Representatives

• In April 2000, Rep. Dan Burton, Chairman of the US House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, initiated a series of hearings into the relationship between vaccination and autism.
• Burton concluded that "conflict of interest rules employed by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centre for Disease Control have been weak, enforcement has been lax, and committee members with substantial ties to pharmaceutical companies have been given waivers to participate in committee meetings".
• The Committee on Government Reform found that the majority of members of both the FDA and CDC committees had financial ties to vaccine manufacturers or held patents on vaccines under development.
• The Committee Chairman, Rep. Dan Burton, said: "For the public to have confidence in the decisions made by their government, they must be assured that those decisions are not being affected by conflict of interest. It has become clear over the course of this investigation that the FDA’s Vaccines & Related Biological Products Advisory Committee and the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices are dominated by individuals with close working relationships with the vaccine producers. This was never the intent of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires that a diversity of views be represented on advisory committees" (my emphasis).
• Parents giving evidence to the Committee on Government Reform told repeatedly-similar stories of how their child had developed normally, then received triple vaccines (MMR or DPT) and had gradually become autistic.
• A number of researchers in the field gave detailed evidence on autism incidence and its steep climb to near-epidemic (for a supposedly-rare condition) proportions
• The cause of autism could not be explained away by genetics, because genetics do not cause epidemics within only two decades - the two decades that multiple vaccines have become standard
• The US agencies defending MMR made poor presentations. Some acknowledged financial links with vaccine manufacturers. Others said they were "looking into" the MMR/autism connection, but their stance suggested an entrenched hostility to the concept of any link. Overall, these agency representatives displayed indifference and an unconvincing grasp of the facts. (Note: an entire industry of "looking into it" has developed, both in the US and the UK (in the US, this has reported to have consumed $100m in two decades of lack of progress). Controversial areas of research are avoided, in favour of more abstract genetic-background research. Key leads are not followed up, so progress is understandably very poor. At every turn, the researchers try to prove that MMR and DPT are not involved. Obvious approaches, such as comparing significant-size cohorts of triple-vaccine-immunised and unimmunised children - the most promising line of any scientific exploration - are not taken.)
• Further hearings by the Committee are planned.

Other relevant points:

• There has been strong criticism of the US regulatory mechanisms for drugs and adverse drug reactions by the Committee on Government Reform, and by others. The consumer group Public Citizen found that only 13% of 88 follow-up studies required as a condition for the licensing of drugs launched in the early 1990s were actually completed. Public Citizen’s Health research Group said that the neglect of follow-up studies could mean that side effects are going undetected.
• A "USA Today" investigation of FDA advisory committees between 1/1/98 and 30/6/00 found that at 55% of meetings, half or more of the FDA advisors present had conflicts of interest. At some meetings, over 90% of advisors present had conflicts of interest.
• Federal law generally prohibits the FDA from using experts with financial conflicts of interest, but this has been side-stepped by using waivers. The FDA issued more than 800 waivers between 1998 and late 2000. Some 300 advisors serve on 18 advisory committees.