at birth, and breech presentation are all risk factors, but pretty modest ones, which means they’re interesting from a research perspective, but none of them explains the condition in a particular person. This is often the case with risk factors. Boys are affected more than girls, and the incidence of autism continues to rise, in part because of improved diagnosis – people who were previously given labels like ‘mentally subnormal’ or ‘schizophrenia’ were now receiving a diagnosis of ‘autism’ – but also possibly because of other factors which are still not understood. Into this vacuum of uncertainty, the MMR story appeared.
There was also something strangely attractive about autism as an idea to journalists and other commentators. Among other things, it’s a disorder of language, which might touch a particular chord with writers; but it’s also philosophically enjoyable to think about, because the flaws in social reasoning which are exhibited by people with autism give us an excuse to talk and think about our social norms and conventions. Books about autism and the autistic outlook on the world have become bestsellers. Here are some wise words for us all from Luke Jackson, a thirteen-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome, who has written a book of advice for teenagers with the condition (
If the person asks something like ‘Does my bum look fat?’ or even ‘I am not sure I like this dress’ then that is called ‘fishing for compliments’. These are very hard things to understand, but I am told that instead of being completely honest and saying that yes their bum does look fat, it is politer to answer with something like ‘Don’t be daft, you look great.’ You are not lying, simply evading an awkward question and complimenting them at the same time. Be economical with the truth!
Asperger’s syndrome, or autistic spectrum disorder, is being applied to an increasingly large number of people, and children or adults who might previously have been considered ‘quirky’ now frequently have their personality medicalised with suggestions that they have ‘traits of Asperger’s’. Its growth as a pseudo-diagnostic category has taken on similar proportions to ‘mild dyslexia’ – you will have your own views on whether this process is helpful – and its widespread use has allowed us all to feel that we can participate in the wonder and mystery of autism, each with a personal connection to the MMR scare.
Except of course, in most cases, genuine autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, and most people with autism don’t write quirky books about their odd take on the world which reveal so much to us about our conventions and social mores in a charmingly plain and unselfconscious narrative style. Similarly, most people with autism do not have the telegenic single skills which the media have so enjoyed talking up in their crass documentaries, like being
That these are the sort of things most people think of when the word ‘autism’ pops into their head is testament to the mythologisation and paradoxical ‘popularity’ of the diagnosis. Mike Fitzpatrick, a GP with a son who has autism, says that there are two questions on the subject which will make him want to slap you. One is: ‘Do you think it was caused by MMR?’ The other is: ‘Does he have any special skills?’
Leo Blair
But the biggest public health disaster of all was a sweet little baby called Leo. In December 2001 the Blairs were asked if their infant son had been given the MMR vaccine, and refused to answer. Most other politicians have been happy to clarify whether their children have had the vaccine, but you can imagine how people might believe the Blairs were the kind of family not to have their children immunised, especially with everyone talking about ‘herd immunity’, and the worry that they might be immunising their child, and placing it at risk, in order that the rest of the population should be safer.
Concerns were particularly raised by the ubiquity of Cherie Blair’s closest friend and aide. Carole Caplin was a New Age guru, a ‘life coach’ and a ‘people person’, although her boyfriend, Peter Foster, was a convicted fraudster. Foster helped arrange the Blairs’ property deals, and he also says that they took Leo to a New Age healer, Jack Temple, who offered crystal dowsing, homoeopathy, herbalism and neolithic-circle healing in his back garden.
I’m not sure how much credence to give to Foster’s claims myself, but the impact on the MMR scare is that they were widely reported at the time. We were told that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom agreed to Temple waving a crystal pendulum over his son to protect him (and therefore his classmates, of course) from measles, mumps and rubella; and that Tony let Cherie give Temple some of his own hair and nail clippings, which Temple preserved in jars of alcohol. He said he only needed to swing his pendulum over the jar to know if their owner was healthy or ill.
Some things are certainly true. Using this crystal dowsing pendulum, Temple did claim that he could harness energy from heavenly bodies. He sold remedies with names like ‘Volcanic Memory’, ‘Rancid Butter’, ‘Monkey Sticks’, ‘Banana Stem’ and, my own personal favourite, ‘Sphincter’. He was also a very well-connected man. Jerry Hall endorsed him. The Duchess of York wrote the introduction to his book The Healer:
‘I tell all my patients who are pregnant that when the baby is born they must put it on the breast until there is no longer a pulse in the umbilical cord. It usually takes about 30 minutes. By doing this they transfer the mother’s immune system to the baby, who will then have a fully-functioning immune system and will not need vaccines.’ … Mr Temple refused to confirm yesterday whether he advised Mrs Blair not to have her baby Leo vaccinated. But he said: ‘If women follow my advice their children will not need the MMR injection, end of story.’
Cherie Blair was also a regular visitor to Carole’s mum, Sylvia Caplin, a spiritual guru. ‘There was a particularly active period in the summer when Sylvia was channelling for Cherie over two or three times a week, with almost daily contact between them,’ the
We move on to what is potentially a very political subject: the MMR vaccine. The Blairs publicly endorsed it, then caused a minor furore by refusing to say whether their baby, Leo, had been inoculated. Sylvia [Caplin] doesn’t hesitate: ‘I’m against it,’ she says. ‘I’m appalled at so much being given to little children. The thing about these drugs is the toxic substance they put the vaccines in – for a tiny child, the MMR is a ridiculous thing to do.
‘It has definitely caused autism. All the denials that come from the old school of medicine are open to question because logic and common sense must tell you that there’s some toxic substance in it. Do you not think that’s going to have an effect on a tiny child? Would you allow it? No – too much, too soon, in the wrong formula.’
It was also reported – doubtless as part of a cheap smear – that Cherie Blair and Carole Caplin encouraged the Prime Minister to have Sylvia ‘douse and consult The Light, believed by Sylvia to be a higher being or God, by use of her pendulum’ to decide if it was safe to go to war in Iraq. And while we’re on the subject, in December 2001
I’m not saying I buy all of this. I’m just saying, this is what people were thinking about when the Blairs refused to publicly clarify the issue of whether they had given their child the MMR vaccine as all hell broke loose around it. This is not a hunch. Thirty-two per cent of all the stories written that year about MMR mentioned whether Leo Blair had had the vaccine or not (even Andrew Wakefield was only mentioned in 25 per cent), and it was one of the most well-recalled facts about the story in population surveys. The public, quite understandably, were taking Leo Blair’s treatment as a yardstick of the Prime Minister’s confidence in the vaccine, and few could understand why it should be a secret, if it wasn’t an issue.
The Blairs, meanwhile, cited their child’s right to privacy, which they felt was more important than an emerging public health crisis. It’s striking that Cherie Blair has now decided, in marketing her lucrative autobiography, to waive that principle which was so vital at the time, and has written at length in her heavily promoted book not just about the precise bonk that conceived Leo, but also about whether he had the jab (she says yes, but she seems to obfuscate on whether it was single vaccines, and indeed on the question of when he had it: frankly, I give up on these people).
