At Exceptional Parents Unlimited in central Fresno children with disabilities and their families learn together.
Kelly Cahill, who works to help little ones achieve with the diagnosis of autism, had harsh words after hearing the latest twist about the British doctor who led the world's parents away from immunizations for fear they could cause autism.
Kelly Cahill said, "It's really unfortunate that this Dr. Wakefield has set families up to entertain the fear of vaccinations because vaccinations have been proven to save children from life threatening diseases."
For more than a decade parents like Dan Lacek chose not to vaccinate their children. His oldest became severely sick. "To find out it's been a fraud and it's a conscious effort to mislead people, that's frustrating."
According to the British Medical Journal, Doctor Andrew Wakefield's study claiming a link between the measles-mumps-ruebella vaccine and autism was not only wrong but the data in the case files was falsified. Wakefield denies it. ABC's Senior Medcal Editor Dr. Richard Besser says parents want answers that medicine does not yet have. "Until science can tell those parents why their children have autism and how to cure it and for other parents how to prevent it, that won't be put to rest. Thankfully there's more research dollars going into that now than ever before."
And here at EPU Cahill adds parents who learn about this development may or may not choose to accept it. "We just have to respect parents and take them where we need them to go so they can better serve their families."
