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F. Edward Yazback, M.D., F.A.A.P., is retired pediatrician who writes regularly about autism and vaccines, particularly on websites. He is a former professor at Brown University, and is now based in Falmouth, Massachusetts, studying the medical histories of children with autism spectrum disorders in an effort to determine what triggers their condition.

Dr. Yazbak is a leading proponent of the theory that vaccination of young children and pregnant women is a risk factor for subsequent development of autism. Yazbak is thus in the movement which contends that there are flaws within the current medical understanding of the diagnosis, pathogenesis, and treatment of autism. He is the grandfather of a boy with autism, who has what Yazbak describes as 'autistic enterocolitis' (a syndrome first postulated by Andrew Wakefield in a controversial 1998 study published in the prominent medical journal Lancet). Dr. Yazbak was a school physician for 34 years, and has published numerous review and comment articles, largely focusing on regressive (or late onset) autism. In addition to his recent review articles on autism, in 1966 he co-authored an article on the Apgar scores of twins [1].

Yazbak contends the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, when given to pregnant mothers and infant children, is a factor in the perceived increasing number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Yazbak's first research on pregnancy and MMR involved seven women, contacted by email through vaccine groups, who received the MMR, and their children. His results were published on a website rather than a peer-reviewed medical journal. "All of the children who resulted from these pregnancies have had developmental problems, six of the seven (85 percent) were diagnosed with autism and the seventh seems to exhibit symptoms often associated with autistic spectrum disorders," he wrote in the article.

Dr. Yazbak has also questioned the logic behind supporting research to develop new vaccines designed to deliver disease immunity to both the mother and her infant in utero.

Contents 1 Quotes 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

• "It is inevitable that the present intransigent and unbending attitude of the vaccine authorities will lead to measles, mumps and rubella outbreaks. When these diseases return, and they will, the authorities — and the authorities alone— will have to be held responsible. There is no reasonable justification to tell a parent who is adamant about not using MMR but who is willing to return three times for the monovalent vaccines, that they are simply not available and/or illegal. Dr. Wakefield only asked that more research be done into the triple live-virus vaccine. To intimate that his research will cause epidemics is a flagrant distortion of the truth."

- Dr. Edward Yazbak (November 30, 2000) "Autism, MMR and 60 Minutes Another Pediatrician's Perspective" [2]

• List of vaccine-related topics

1. Yazbak FE. "Autism in the United States: A Perspective" (PDF) "Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons", Vol 8, No 4, Winter 2003
2. Yazbak FE. "Autism, MMR and "60 Minutes: A Perspective"
3. Yazbak FE. ,"Autism seems to be increasing worldwide, if not in London" - Letter - "British Medical Journal" 2004;328:226-227 (January 24, 2004)
4. Geier MR, Geier DA. "Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines" (PDF) "Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Vol 11, No 1, Spring 2006"

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