Health

Vaccine vindicated?

There's no link between the popular vaccine MMR and autism or bowel disease, according to British experts. They looked at five decades of research and concluded that no connection exists. Lead investigator Dr. Anna Donald said the research covered 2,000 separate studies involving millions of children. The British Medical Association commissioned the review after the number of British toddlers receiving the vaccine for mumps, measles, and rubella began dropping. "The science is very rigorous and this really does give a green light to MMR," she said. The battle over vaccinations isn't over, however. What some call a global panic continues, particularly in the United States and Britain. Autism has skyrocketed in recent years and many blame vaccines. The condition affects 1 in 250 children, according to the National Institutes of Health. Rep. Dan Burton called for more research funding to prevent the statistic from "becoming 1 in 25 children." The CDC's Roger Bernier testified that about 97 percent of school-age children have had the MMR vaccine. As a result, only about 100 measles cases are reported annually.