THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.
Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.
The research was published in February 1998 in an article in The Lancet medical journal. It claimed that the families of eight out of 12 children attending a routine clinic at the hospital had blamed MMR for their autism, and said that problems came on within days of the jab. The team also claimed to have discovered a new inflammatory bowel disease underlying the children’s conditions.
However, our investigation, confirmed by evidence presented to the General Medical Council (GMC), reveals that: In most of the 12 cases, the children’s ailments as described in The Lancet were different from their hospital and GP records. Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated. Hospital pathologists, looking for inflammatory bowel disease, reported in the majority of cases that the gut was normal. This was then reviewed and the Lancet paper showed them as abnormal.
Despite involving just a dozen children, the 1998 paper’s impact was extraordinary. After its publication, rates of inoculation fell from 92% to below 80%. Populations acquire “herd immunity” from measles when more than 95% of people have been vaccinated.
Last week official figures showed that 1,348 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales were reported last year, compared with 56 in 1998. Two children have died of the disease.
With two professors, John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch, Wakefield is defending himself against allegations of serious professional misconduct brought by the GMC. The charges relate to ethical aspects of the project, not its findings. All three men deny any misconduct.
Through his lawyers, Wakefield this weekend denied the issues raised by our investigation, but declined to comment further.
Unbelievable. I think we all know though that in the end anti-vaccination morons will stick to their beliefs and moronic mouthpieces like Jenny McCarthy will continue on their idiotic crusade.
On the celebrity angle, if it makes you feel any better, Amanda Peet has described parents that don't vaccinate their children as "parasites."
The Gentleman from Texas abstains. Discourteously.
PRFYNAFBTFC-Vice Admiral: MFS Masturbating Walrus :: Omine subtilite Odobenus rosmarus masturbari Soy un perdedor.
"WHO POOPED IN A NORMAL ROOM?!"-Commander William T. Riker
"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Thomas Paine
"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten."
Ecclesiastes 9:5 (KJV)
In any sensible world he'd have 1292 counts of reckless endangerment (at minimum, if not one for every man woman and child in britain) and 2 counts of manslaughter, and could make his objection that he had no idea faking a report to cause a vaccine scare would hurt people... to a jury.
The anti-vaccination core are basically arguing that Deer got the medical records in an unethical way and, if this information really was true, it would have been in the press a long time ago. AT least you know they are losing bad when that is all they can come up with.
Say NO to circumcisionIT'S A BOY! This is a great link to show expecting parents.
Zixinus wrote:What I'd like to find out, is why. This is a doctor, isn't it in his interest for patients to buy vaccines?
It's much more in his perceived interest to author 'trailblazing' papers. There's prestige attendant upon publishing interesting findings with serious implications for medicine.
Not to mention the possibility of attracting research funding, should he have been interested in that, too.
I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011
Hmm. No time to comment, but here [pdf] is his response to the investigative reporter.
A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men; claiming higher authority for existence, or sanction for its laws, that nature, reason, and the regularly ascertained will of the people; steadily refusing to put its sword and purse in the service of any religious creed or family is a standing offense to most of the Governments of the world, and to some narrow and bigoted people among ourselves.
This is still not as mental as the MRSA scare, where all the "positive" results the papers harped about came from a guy with no qualifications doing the tests in his garden shed.
As far as I was aware, the fact that Wakefield was a con artist was old news. I mean the fact that his initial paper where he posited the "link" between the MMR jab and bowel problems and autism was a study of only 12 children, an utterly worthless sample size, should clue folks in.
Of course, the media are worse than fucking useless when it comes to science reporting, so no surprises that it got blown up into National Doom From Vaccines.
Zixinus wrote:What I'd like to find out, is why. This is a doctor, isn't it in his interest for patients to buy vaccines?
Not necessary. Presumably he gets paid for hours worked or number of patients seen, and if the health system is stretched, chances are he will see the same number of patients either way. So unless he has shares in the company making the vaccine..
Vendetta wrote:
As far as I was aware, the fact that Wakefield was a con artist was old news. I mean the fact that his initial paper where he posited the "link" between the MMR jab and bowel problems and autism was a study of only 12 children, an utterly worthless sample size, should clue folks in.
Of course, the media are worse than fucking useless when it comes to science reporting, so no surprises that it got blown up into National Doom From Vaccines.
Given that no one else noticed this link before, at best for Wakefield's perspective is that the MMR jab given to those kids had some weird funky stuff going into it causing contamination, or more likely it was a recall bias error. Otherwise it looked exactly as you said, Wakefield was making this shit up.
Never apologise for being a geek, because they won't apologise to you for being an arsehole. John Barrowman - 22 June 2014 Perth Supernova.
Countries I have been to - 14.
Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, USA.
Always on the lookout for more nice places to visit.
mr friendly guy wrote:Given that no one else noticed this link before, at best for Wakefield's perspective is that the MMR jab given to those kids had some weird funky stuff going into it causing contamination, or more likely it was a recall bias error. Otherwise it looked exactly as you said, Wakefield was making this shit up.
Yeah, his original paper is far more guarded than the media blew it up into, of course, but really, the fact remains that it's far too small a sample size to draw anything like useful correlation from, especially given how many doses of MMR must be given every year, and even mentioning a hypothetical link based on that sample size was irresponsible at best, and downright stupid at worst.
