LETTER: ‘Appalling and unjustifiable attack' on Dr Wakefield

SIR – In the article published in The Southern Star, July 29th, 2016, entitled ‘Campaigner O’ Leary shocked at threat of legal action from California film firm,’ Fiona O’ Leary continues to peddle the untruth that ‘vaccines do not cause autism.’

Despite a warning to desist from undermining the film, Vaxxed, and from launching attacks on Dr Andrew Wakefield, Fiona O’Leary continues to do so. I am surprised that The Southern Star facilitated her appalling and unjustifiable attack on Dr Wakefield by publishing her accusation, blaming him for what she alleges to be the ‘thousands of children who die each year because of not receiving life-saving vaccines’ for ‘the poor uptake of the MMR vaccine’ and for an alleged ‘outbreak of measles in Ireland.’ 

I am equally surprised that The Southern Star failed to provide any balance in the article. 

The public should have been informed that the film, Vaxxed, denounced as ‘dangerous’ by Fiona O’Leary, features the admission by Dr William Thompson, a senior scientist at the US Centres for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) that it omitted crucial data in their final report conducted in 2004 proving the link between vaccines and autism. In the film, Dr Thompson provides the crucial data destroyed by the CDC as evidence of the cover-up.

She continues to defend the safety of the MMR vaccine despite landmark legal judgements in different jurisdictions that awarded compensation to victims of vaccine-induced autism. I referred to those judgements in a letter published in The Southern Star, in March of this year. 

Fiona Pettit O’ Leary had accused me, during the General Election campaign, of ‘putting children at risk’ when I called for a review of the findings linking autism and the MMR vaccine made by Dr Wakefield. I made that call in view of the spiralling numbers of autism cases worldwide and I am totally justified having done so. 

The game is up regarding the link between vaccines and autism. Truth has had the ultimate victory.  

The Vaxxed documentary confirms Dr Wakefield’s findings and confirms that while he and other medics who dared to speak out were being scapegoated, governments were fully aware that the MMR vaccine was causing autism. Millions of children and their families have been damaged as a result.  

This is criminal. 

Yours sincerely,

Theresa Heaney,

‘Deodatus’,

Timoleague,