JABS (short for Justice, Awareness and Basic Support) is a British pressure group launched in Wigan in January 1994. Beginning as a

support group In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic. Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping str ...

for the parents of children they claim became ill after the

MMR vaccine The MMR vaccine is a vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles), abbreviated as ''MMR''. The first dose is generally given to children around 9 months to 15 months of age, with a second dose at 15 months to 6 years of age, ...

(which they claim gave their children epilepsy,

brain damage Neurotrauma, brain damage or brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating t ...

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

– see: MMR vaccine and autism), the group is currently against all forms of vaccination.

Beginnings

The group began as a

after Jackie Fletcher placed an advert in the newspaper to find parents whose children became ill after their first

after her child was diagnosed with epilepsy ten days after he received an MMR vaccination. According to a pro-JABS article published by ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...

'', "30 families from a small community responded" originally, and by 2002 over two thousand families had been in contact.

Membership and organisation

JABS members are parents of children allegedly became ill after vaccination, particularly MMR, which they initially claimed to be a cause of

and other medical issues, prior to claims that the MMR vaccine was a cause of autism and of

inflammatory bowel disease Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of inflammation, inflammatory conditions of the colon (anatomy), colon and small intestine, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis being the principal types. Crohn's disease affects the small intestine a ...

. In 1996, 400 families has joined the group to seek compensation from the Department of Health over alleged "vaccine damage". It was described in 2001 as the "main organisation" for parents who are "convinced of the link between the MMR vaccine and their child's subsequent development of autism". The group has also claimed that many cases of shaken baby syndrome were caused by vaccines. It has been described as an anti-vaccine or a "vaccine critical" group. Alongside the earlier U.S.-based National Vaccine Information Center, it has been described as "instrumental" in "misinforming the public, misdirecting health resources, engendering spurious controversy, and facilitating declining vaccination rates to levels below those needed for ' herd immunity' in some regions by way of their emotional pleas". JABS founder Jackie Fletcher says the group is not anti-vaccine, but seeks greater information and compensation for alleged vaccine side-effects. The group currently has a Facebook page and operates an

online message board An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...

, JABSforum.

Richard Barr and Andrew Wakefield

A solicitor for the group, Richard Barr, began acting for JABS shortly after its formation. He applied for

legal aid Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to co ...

to fund clinical studies into associations between the vaccine and the alleged side-effects claimed by JABS. He formed a partnership with Andrew Wakefield in 1996, who was paid £150 per hour by the law firm. The pair were awarded £55,000 by the

Legal Aid Board Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

to start their research. JABS referred children to Wakefield, and Wakefield admitted several children of JABS parents to the

Royal Free Hospital The Royal Free Hospital (also known simply as the Royal Free) is a major teaching hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden. The hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs services at Barn ...

for tests in 1996. Barr also paid a substantial sum to then-doctor Wakefield two years before his now-retracted 1998 ''Lancet'' report, urging Wakefield to discredit the

. Brian Deer has described this partnership as "the foundation of the vaccine crisis, both in Britain and throughout the world".

References

{{reflist Anti-vaccination organizations Autism pseudoscience MMR vaccine and autism Organizations established in 1994