Study linking vaccine to autism shown to be fraud

[catsittingstill]

The first study to suggest that childhood vaccination caused autism was published in the medical journal Lancet and had 13 authors. By now, 10 of them have renounced its conclusions, and Lancet has retracted it.  This morning I found this interesting article in the New York Times

The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.

The analysis was damning enough that apparently the accompanying editorial in the British Medical Journal called the study "an elaborate fraud."

Interesting.
[Later edit  Mdlbear brought to my attention that the original, flawed, study was apparently funded by a law firm intending to sue manufacturers of vaccines--this financial incentive coming to light was apparently what made a bunch of the co-authors withdraw their names from the paper.  CNN mentions it in this piece. as well as here.  I thank Mdlbear for the enlightening information.]

Comments

[mdlbear]

The Times article fails to mention that the study was funded by a group of lawyers who intended to sue vaccine companies. See http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html?hpt=T1

..."falsifying medical histories of children and essentially concocting a picture, which was the picture he was contracted to find by lawyers hoping to sue vaccine manufacturers and to create a vaccine scare."

[catsittingstill]

Wow--

This was worse than I thought.

I think I'm going to edit this piece to reflect the information you have brought to my attention.

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

The worst part of this is that the misinformation that has been spread from that article is so hard to counter even with a full retraction and rebuttal.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I agree.

The rates of measles, mumps, and rubella went up after this study came out and have never come back down to their previous frequency. It definitely had an effect.

And measles and mumps can have very serious complications. I don't know as much about rubella--although I think it can cause miscarriage, which actually, might be showing up in the next few years.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

Rubella is the primary cause of deafness in babies at birth.

[jhayman.livejournal.com]

Measles, mumps and rubella can be devastating diseases. Measles often results in pneumonia, or encephalitis and can require hospitalization. It can cause death. When I was a kid, my across the back fence neighbour had a daughter deaf as a result of measles. Mumps can also cause deafness, and injury to multiple glands: pancreas, testes, ovaries and more.

By contrast, rubella is a mild disease. The devastating effects are on the unborn. Women who have rubella in the first trimester can end up with miscarriage or stillbirth. If born alive they may have heart disorders, blindness, deafness, etc.

The anti-vaccine movement makes me crazy.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[boywizard.livejournal.com]

I'm really conflicted on the issue of opting out of childhood vaccination; while I strongly believe in personal autonomy (and by extension, the right of a parent to make decisions for their child), I also think that those who refuse to vaccinate are expecting the rest of society to assume the risk (if any), while they avoid the risk but still reap the benefits. This seems selfish to me. I'm not sure what percentage of the population declining vaccination will result in a significant increase in the diseases the vaccines prevent.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, 95% vaccination is the estimated point at which the unvaccinated group receives a benefit.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, viruses and bacteria do not recognize our persons.

[tattercoats.livejournal.com]

OK, wading in with a little trepidation... in the UK at least, part of the problem was that the vaccine was only offered in its batched triple version, at least through the NHS. Single vaccines were and are available privately, and they're not cheap. Hence the issue of whether the triple vaccine was overloading youngsters' systems was blown into a question, for many, of whether or not to vaccinate at all, rather than whether to opt for the single vaccines. Anecdotal evidence suggested that TPTB tried to reduce even private availability of these vaccines.

And at the height of this, the PM refused to confirm whether he had had his own infact son vaccinated...

Again anecdotally, there are individuals who have been compensated by the UK Govt for damage done by the vaccine, and other indiciduals who will swear that their childrens' behaviour changed after the vaccine, and that said children were later diagnosed as autism.

I may not believe Andrew Wakefield, but that doesn't mean I believe the Govt either. They have a track record of lying.

I'm not anti-vaccine. I had my youngest given the single vaccines, the ones without mercury in.

[judifilksign.livejournal.com]

I've had similar concerns to the "stacking" of vaccines in children to tattercoats . My daughter Sparkle's behaviors and language *did* regress after her toddler shots. I don't believe that any specific ingredient was the cause, but I sometimes wonder if so many at once provided a triggering event for her autism.

Our family is included in Children's Hospital's research for causes of autism. Maybe with all of the information and blood testing they are doing, one day we'll have the key to why the numbers are increasing so. Vaccines, plastics, geek genes mixing...we just don't know.

I still advocate for vaccines, though. I'd rather have an autistic daughter than one dead or maimed from dread, preventable diseases.