Is this the end of Wakefield?!


Question: Is this the end of Wakefield?
No, not the West Yorkshire city.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05…

A re-examination of Andrew Wakefield's infamous study and paper has revealed scientific fraud on a massive scale. Patients medical notes re-written, as well as everyone knows the BMJ withdrawing the original paper after all the co-authors disassociated themselves with it when evidence of fraud came out years ago.

This has caused real harm to children across the world as well as wasting resources investigating the real causes and problems of autism.

Will this be the end now of alties and anti-vaxers claiming that vaccines cause autism?

Answers:

Unfortunately, no. When the link between MMR and autism was disproven over the course of many, many studies, the anti-vaxxers either whined that all the studies must be wrong because their mommy intuition said they were, or just moved on to blaming "vaccine overload" (the ridiculous idea that taking multiple vaccines at once will "overload" a child's immune system, which is regularly exposed to seven heappiles of viruses and bacteria, and magically make them autistic) as their latest theory. And when that wears thin, I suspect they'll be shouting that "vaccines weaken the immune system and LET THE AUTISMS IN" or something similarly ridiculous.

Wakefield should be charged for every vaccine-preventable death of a child in a country with access to the vaccine: his 'study' may not have personally been what caused that child's parents to not vaccinate their children, but it certainly was the 'study' that started this irrational paranoia that parents now have about vaccinating their children.

It amazes me that one person could start such a... pyramid scheme, I guess you could say, of stupidity. It amazes me that one person could be responsible for, at minimum, thousands of deaths... but not be charged with murder.

It still amazes me that parents would rather have a child die from a vaccine preventable disease than take the perceived (but 100% false) risk of them "becoming autistic" from the vaccine.

Good work, largely anti-vaxxing society. As a group, you've forgotten the horrors of vaccine-preventable diseases and clearly a few of you need to watch your children die before your memory is refreshed. As a group, you've stated rather loudly that it is better to be dead than to have a disability.

Great work, antivaxxers. Can't wait to see who will be dead because of your movement next.

Edit:

Mr E: Autism is not a tragedy. Autism is not an end. Autism is not a horror. Autism is not worse than death. Please do not presume you have the right to speak to the quality and enjoyment of life that autistic people have, or to assume that an autistic adult would have rather died from polio or rotavirus or measles as a child than be an autistic adult (even though we've already established vaccines don't cause autism).

Good grief, that's the part that gets me most about the whole "vaccines cause autism" movement. Even if it were true, which it is not, do you realize how backwards and moronic it is to be screaming that it's better to be dead from a vaccine preventable disease than to be disabled? How insulting it is? I mean, if your premise is that it's better to be dead than to be disabled, why aren't you guys out drowning people in wheelchairs, because they're clearly suffering? How about those bastards with down syndrome, why aren't you organizing a campaign to abort more of them for their own good?



Wakefields' career in the UK is over.

I completely agree with Gary Y. Rather than accept the study he produced was flawed and fraudulent, the anti-vaxxers will make him a martyr. They are already claiming that there is some grand conspiracy to silence him.

"Will this be the end now of alties and anti-vaxers claiming that vaccines cause autism?"

No. Their position was never based on evidence or reason. It is purely an emotional one,- so it does not matter how much data you present, or how much his study is debunked, there will still be people who claim that the MMR causes Autism. -That's what they want to "believe". The truth is inconvenient to those with a hidden agenda.

Edit: @ Nosey: Actually read Wakefields study. Brian Deer isn't a fraud.

Additionally, Wakefields' work has never been replicated. Ever. Stop lying.

Edit: Hi Nate!

Edit: Oh he'll fit right in in the USA.



One peculiar aspect of those sucked into alt med fantasy land is their almost universal inability to recognise emerging or new evidence.

This "stick-in-the-mud" stupidity allows them to cling onto archaic myths and defend them to the hilt, irrespective of ANY subsequent information that may come to light. As far as this ignorance goes, there appears to be no desire for further personal education or indeed even a desire to understand what is in front of them.

Will this be an end to anti-vaxers? No, it's too much of a darn good yarn for them; who wants to see an end to their favourite "TV show", however far-fetched and ridiculous the entertainment is?



I hope so.

I still fail to understand how autism is a fate worse than death, because essentially that's what the anti vaccination lobby is saying.

If there was a pill that made my child 99% resistant to all cancers, but ran the risk of giving him a stutter, you better believe I would give it to him.

But even with all that being said there is still no link between vaccines and autism, and there will still be angry people looking for a big bad monster to blame for their difficulties with raising an autistic child. And they view Wakefield as their champion, out to slay the evil vaccination beast for the good of the people.



Sadly, no.
It would appear the SOB lost his license to practice and is now spewing his garbage here as a pseudo-celebrity on a cross.

Look guys, we were happy to accept the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, even that Harry Potter kid, but I have to admit, this is one import I'm not very happy about...

The integrity of his research has not been questioned?!?!?!?
He outright made up data on half of his subjects in that study.
Pfft.



Nope, and Wakefield has already said that it is a conspiracy, in an interview with Anderson Cooper (who was quite harsh on him).

Hey Rhianna!

Edit: I'm sorry nosey, but where has it come out that Brian Deer is a fraud? I can't tell if it's from your favorite crank website, because you posted links that lead nowhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6kOxkPJf…



Nope. He will become a matyr to the whackos. Look at this: http://www.wesupportandywakefield.com/ Enough to make you sick.



They will claim this is all part of a diabolical plot by "Big Pharma" to suppress the truth...



Are you joking? He's a martyr now. The more he gets criticised the stronger he will become to the likes of JB and co



There were a number of flaws in Wakefield's original study beyond the charges that he fudged the data in an attempt to identify a CAUSAL link (as opposed to a strong association. Very different thing.)

Wakefield et al have published dozens of papers, though, on the association between altered intestinal flora and autism. To my knowledge, the integrity of this research has not yet been questioned. And these data represent significant insight into possible etiology of the condition... and a profound new area of study. (A mantle which nobody else has yet taken up for reasons I cannot understand.)

It'll be interesting to see whether the rest of the Wakefield Group's work is investigated... and whether ALL of these data are compromised.

naturopathic doctor



enough people have seen their own children get vaccinated, develop a high fever, then become autistic before their own eyes. they don't need a report from anyone, pro or con, to know the truth. why would anyone conspire to conceal or falsify evidence of their role in possibly contributing to such a tragedy? i can't imagine.



No way-- you have totally misrepresented the facts.
vaccination is an abomination!!!!



Not if you do a thorough investigation of the story and not rely on 30 second sound bites:

The position of John Witherow, chief editor of the British newspaper The
Sunday Times London, may be in jeopardy following an escalating debate over
a story about anti-vaccine campaigner Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Freelance
journalist Brian Deer’s shown-to-be-false story alleged that Wakefield
“fixed” data in a Lancet medical journal paper to show a link between the
MMR vaccine, autism and serious bowel disorders in children.
For the allegation in Deer’s story to be true meant that for 10 years, a
single-handed action by Wakefield had to have gone completely unnoticed by
the other 12 authors on the well-known paper. While 10 of the authors have
partially retracted the suggested interpretation in the paper of a possible
link between the MMR vaccine and autism, the bulk of the Lancet paper still
stands and has been replicated in other scientific studies.
The Times also did not mention as part of the story that an investigation
into Wakefield was triggered by a complaint from Brian Deer himself, meaning
that his article was a report on the hearing into his own complaint.
I have enormous respect for Dr. Wakefield, as in my opinion he is one of the
most well-respected academic researchers on autism in the world. This latest
attempt to smear his name, in which freelancer Brian Deer said he “changed
and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a
possible link with autism,” has been called out for what it is: fraud.
nI order to understand the graveness of this latest attack, it helps to
first know a bit of background.
Sadly, Dr. Wakefield has been persecuted for more than a decade by both
Pharma-funded special interest groups as well as public health officials
maintaining close relationships with vaccine manufacturers.
His crime?
Daring to publish a study in The Lancet in 1998 calling for more scientific
investigation into the possible link between the MMR vaccine and
autism<>.http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articl…
What he and colleagues identified was a previously unknown combination of
bowel disease and autism in 12 children. Bowel symptoms are common in
autistic children but had until then been regarded as simply a manifestation
of their behavioral problems.
The finding that these children had real and severe bowel disease was a
groundbreaking discovery in and of itself, but then, against the advice of
others in the team, Dr. Wakefield explained in the paper that eight parents
said their previously normal child had fallen ill after receiving the MMR
inoculation -- a mixture of weakened but live measles, mumps and rubella
virus.

Dr. Wakefield has found evidence of measles virus infection in damaged bowel
tissue from some of the children, and later revealed he had seen 170
children with the bowel effects and
autism<>,http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articl…
and that a majority of the parents involved had said their children fell ill
after being given the MMR vaccine.

After these findings were publicized, rates of MMR vaccine in the UK
promptly fell, Dr. Wakefield was fired from his position and later was
charged with professional misconduct by the UK's General Medical Council
(GMC). The paper was also removed from The Lancet amidst all the
controversy.

It should be noted that through it all, Dr. Wakefield has defended his
findings and said he did not regret his decision to get involved in the MMR
controversy. Back in 2001, he said:

"Losing a London hospital teaching job doesn't do much for my CV but there
are bigger issues at stake. What matters now most of all is what happens to
these children."

Then, just last month, writer Brian Deer published an article in The Sunday
Times London attempting to further tarnish Dr. Wakefield’s reputation by
saying he “fixed” data for the study.

What’s Really Going On Here?

It has now come out that Brian Deer’s allegations were totally false and
amounted to nothing more than a smear campaign. But it’s not just a simple
case of a reporter with mistaken facts, because Brian Deer was the one who
originally furnished allegations against Dr. Wakefield in the first place.

In other words, the GMC’s investigation was triggered by a complaint made by
Deer, so he was essentially reporting on a disciplinary hearing that he
himself instigated.




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