2 JUNE 2007, Page 19

Vaccination risks Sir: Doctors Elliman, Bedford an

Vaccination risks Sir: Doctors Elliman, Bedford and Hamilton (Letters, 26 May) dismiss Prof. Gordon Stewart's evidence, but there was a Medical Research Council-funded study last year (Hamden et al) in the British Medical Journal which showed that whooping cough was proliferating despite vaccination (and going undetected because the illness was presumed eradicated). So Prof. Stewart is credible after all.

In the meantime, we can surely reasonably ask these doctors whether it was wise to administer five vaccines to an unwell infant (Harry Clark) and whether the autopsy should not have looked conscientiously at the possibility of adverse reactions to this complex of pharmaceutical products, irrespective of their a priori view.

John Stone (autism parent) London N22