A blog that has extensively covered the alleged vaccine-autism link is Respectful Insolence. There’s an archive with many articles on the antivax movement and the science debunking their claims. Also recommended is Science-Based Medicine.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a good section on vaccine information and safety, including info on Wakefield and autism claims. Also try this site for comprehensive vaccine/vaccine safety information.
Well, I’ve never been anti-MMR vaccination. But this news has made me change my position on a tangential issue. Up until now, I’ve taken the position that it’s not completely unreasonable for a person to be wary of the MMR vaccine based on these findings, even though subsequent research failed to replicate Wakefield’s results.
Based on this new revelation, I now agree that it’s objectively unreasonable for anyone to reject MMR vaccine on the basis that it may cause autism.
Yeah, but TV is all about being exciting, and Jenny McCarthy is far more exciting than some scientist no one’s ever heard of. She’s also a mom, which makes Oprah’s audience relate to her. And the scientist would probably want to talk about, y’know, science, and that makes most middle Americans’ eyes glaze over.
I’m not saying Oprah shouldn’t do such a show, and I think it would be irresponsible of her not to do it. I’m just saying, is all.
Wakefield should have his doctorate taken away in a public ceremony, and his next experiment should be on himself.
Robin
It’s starting to get attention here.
I don’t doubt this, but can someone show a citation I can use to persuade others of this? Edit: specifically, that he is known to have been colluding with lawyers.
From the LA Times article posted above:
Not sure if that’s sufficient, but from what I understand Deer’s report is fairly thorough.
Brian Deer’s website has all of the Wakefield dirty laundry in exhaustive detail.
I still can’t find it on CNN, or on the website of any other major news outlet. The American media silence on this astonishing.
Possibly they aren’t jumping on it because the story is a year old. Jackmannii first posted about this in January of 2008. It isn’t a breaking story. Its a story that has been unfolding for a year.
Careful, her minge is armed and dangerous.
Wakefield will continue to say there is a link (see above). Those already against the MMR will continue to be so, and will dismiss criticism of him as being slurs perpetuated by the medical and pharmalogical establishment. These conspiracy things are about trust, and the anti MMR crowd already distrust precisely those people who are now pointing out that Wakefield is a fraud.
The revelations about alleged data manipulation/invention are new, and that’s why the story is back in the news.
FEBRUARY 1998: Andrew Wakefield’s paper is published in The Lancet, linking the MMR triple vaccine with autism
2000: Demand for single vaccines rises
JANUARY 2001: The Government rejects calls for a single measles vaccine on the NHS
2001: MMR vaccinations fall to 84.2 per cent of children, down from 92 per cent in 1996
EARLY 2003: Immunisation rates reach low of 78.9 per cent
NOVEMBER 2003: Dr Simon Murch says there is “unequivocal evidence that MMR is not a risk factor for autism”
2004: It emerges that while preparing his Lancet paper, Dr Wakefield was being paid by lawyers for parents of children allegedly damaged by MMR
2004: Immunisation rates rise to 81 per cent
2004: Number of cases of mumps: 16,436, up from 4,204 the previous year. In 2005 the number is up to 56,390
MID-2005: Immunisation rates rise to 85 per cent
OCTOBER 2005: Cochrane Library says there is no credible evidence that MMR harms
APRIL 2006: A boy, 13, who had not received the MMR vaccine, becomes the first person to die of measles in 14 years*
Add to this the revelation in early 2007 that Wakefield was actually paid over 400,000 pounds by lawyers before his study was published (part of 3.4 million pounds paid out of a legal aid fund to physicians and scientists recruited to support a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers). At some point during the scandal, most of Wakefield’s co-authors backed away from his MMR paper).
So the repercussions continue today, including the dangers to children from lowered immunization rates.
The revelations are new - the suspicions aren’t. Its hard for the media to get worked up over a story that takes years to unfold - their (and our) little attention spans have been shortened by too much Spongebob.
I would like to see this get more media attention, but it has to come out as a sensationalistic book - along with how much government money we’ve wasted trying to reproduce falsified results and how many kids have died of measles because parents have been trying to avoid autism that isn’t cause by vaccines. This sort of dribbling information to the media isn’t going to get anyone on Oprah. I dislike anti-vaxers as much as the next Doper, but this is not a sexy story as it is currently written. (I have a few friends who are unfortunately anti-vaxers - I just refuse to discuss it with them).
I agree that Wakefield should be held responsible for much, however, since the child cited here was already about 5 years old when Wakefield’s paper got published I’d rather not hold him accountable for this, but the parents who’d apparently already decided against the MMR. (I’m absolutely pro vaccine)
Based on vaccination schedules in the U.K., five years old is not too late to get the MMR.
“It (the MMR) is given to a child at around 13 months of age after the immunity the baby got from their mother fades. It is given again when children are aged between three and five.”
Link.
So whether it was due to Wakefield, other antivax scaremongering or some unknown factor, this child did not get vaccinated and subsequently died of a vaccine-preventable disease.
By the way, it appears Wakefield got the Keith Olbermann “Worst Person In The World” award for 2/10. I’ll have to see if I can locate a video link.
So? Most folks get their kids immunized way before age 5. And if you want to claim that this kid dying is a direct result of Wakefields paper, you should be able to prove that these specific parents were unable to give their kid the vacine until age 5, then saw the paper. I think it’s far more likely that the specifica parents involved were of the small group of anti vaccine folks prior to Wakefield. Don’t get me wrong, the guy has lots to answer for in my book. Just not the specific kids death. That was more likely to do w/the parents ignorance.
But if it’s not specifically due to Wakefield, shouldn’t be part of the list. The list is damning enough w/o it.
I saw Olbermann last night and yes, Wakefield was Worst. And, of course, Keith, being Keith didn’t do his trademark smiling while I’m saying it “Worst person in the world” that he does when its O’Reilly, but rather his “serious and I’m disgusted by this person” voice.
I dug up the video.
I did not claim that this child’s death was “a direct result of Wakefield”. Try reading my last post again. What the scare traceable to his flawed if not fraudulent paper arguably did lead to were dropping immunization rates and the resurgence of measles in Britain. It’s impossible to lay specific cases of illness and death at any one person’s door. There are numerous antivax advocates, poorly informed parents, credulous/sensationalistic news media and even a few foolish, enabling physicians to share the blame.
I’ll take a shot at it.
He should be hanged until he passes out. Then he should be drawn, disemboweled, his intestines ripped out and burned while he is made to watch, quartered, and his quarters sent to the four corners of the earth, to be buried in unconsecrated ground, to finally be dug up and eaten by vultures.
How’s that 
One question: Is Bernie Madoff and his ilk next?
