MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism

stovelid

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece

I had no idea that the inoculation rate fell so sharply when their study was published.

di11on

Wow!

You have to question the ability of many parents to properly consider the information at their disposal to balance the risks and make the best decisions in the interests of their children.

It's amazing that so many people obviously made a decision not to immunize, exposing their children to very serious, potentially fatal diseases on the basis of a "scare" without properly weighing up the information for themselves.

The power of the media is scary!

Interesting, the report says there were 1,348 cases of measles in England and Wales last year and two of these died. That's a HUGE risk! And if 2 died, how many suffered other complications like deafness of blindness?

Nevyn

di11on wrote: »

Wow!

You have to question the ability of many parents to properly consider the information at their disposal to balance the risks and make the best decisions in the interests of their children.

At their disposal is the important part.

Neither of mine have had the MMR and given that my son went on to be
diagnosed with aspergers syndrome I am very relieved and glad I didn't
have the gut wrenching worry that I had in some way caused or contruibuted
to this happening by getting him the MMR.

di11on wrote: »

It's amazing that so many people obviously made a decision not to immunize, exposing their children to very serious, potentially fatal diseases on the basis of a "scare" without properly weighing up the information for themselves.

I did weigh it up as carefully as I could and given there is autism already in the family
and so little was known about autism back then I still stand by the choice we made as parents.

di11on wrote: »

Interesting, the report says there were 1,348 cases of measles in England and Wales last year and two of these died. That's a HUGE risk! And if 2 died, how many suffered other complications like deafness of blindness?

Well why don't you go find out rather then scare mongering yourself.

di11on

Thaedydal wrote: »

Well why don't you go find out rather then scare mongering yourself.

That was a hypothetical question - a way of saying that measles IS a very serious disease, a leading cause of vaccine preventable child mortality. In the last 150 years, it is estimated that measles has killed over 200 million people. In developed countries, the mortality rate is approximately 3 per thousand and serious complications of it are relatively common.

During an outbreak in southern Italy, the Measles complication rate was 7.6%. Linky

Read more about it here:

Wikipedia Article on Measles
World Health Organisation Factsheet on Measles

People have a responsibility to society to vaccinate their children against this, and other diseases. If levels of vaccine uptake are too low, it: 1) uneccesarily exposes children to a very serious disease and 2) because complication rates are high, high rates of infection will quickly overwhelm available health care resources. If over 95% of people are immunized, "herd immunity" is achieved.

MrsA

I have found the decision to give the MMR one of the hardest I have had to make as a parent so far.

However, I did what research I could, and spoke to medical professionals who are not involved in my sons life and asked as many questions as I could think of.

Today he got the MMR, I will admit I am scared, but, I am far more scared of what could happen to him if he got measles.

I am glad we have made the right choice for us.

M

Nevyn

Vacincations while they are in the best intrest over all are not mandatory.
We still have parental choice.

Given these new foundings I do hope that there is as much awareness raised of
how flawed the 'research' was as there was coverage of it in the first place.

di11on

Thaedydal wrote: »

Vacincations while they are in the best intrest over all are not mandatory.
We still have parental choice.

Given these new foundings I do hope that there is as much awareness raised of
how flawed the 'research' was as there was coverage of it in the first place.

Absolutely! Sadly though, it seems inevitble that the damage won't be completely undone.

You'd have to wonder what his motives were to misrepresent and misreport his findings. You'd almost have more respect for him if there was some sinister motive behind it all than if it was just to make his work and results appear valid and interesting!

stovelid

di11on wrote: »

You'd have towonder what his motives were to misrepresent and misreport his findings. You'd almost have more respect for him if there was some sinister motive behind it all than if it was just to make his work and results appear valid and interesting!

I guess that few scientific studies have had such a seismic effect on parents as this one. Perhaps they just didn't expect the scrutiny that followed.

Nevyn

Cos at the time we didn't understand non neurotypical behaviours as much as we do know and a lot of people did not want the horror of an autistic ( or what was formerly call retarded ) child.


http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mhsnidgbsney/rss2/

No link between MMR vaccine and autism, say US court

An American court today ruled that there was no proven link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
12/02/2009 - 15:36:31

An American court today ruled that there was no proven link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

The Special Court of Federal Claims, reviewing three test cases, said the petitioners had “failed to demonstrate” that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could contribute to autism.

Referring to one of the cases, special master George Hastings said the parents of a child with the disorder had been “misled” by physicians who were guilty in his view of “gross medical misjudgement”.

In another of the rulings, the theories of causation were described as “speculative and unpersuasive

tallaght01

There is absoloutely no linke between the MMR and autism, or any other type of developmental delay.

Wakefield and the media have a lot to answer for. Whether or not he purposely manipulated the data, it was rubbish data anyway.

It was a study that should never have been published.

The reality is that in populations of kids who have never had the MMR, they don't have less autism than kids who have had the MMR. That should be pretty convincing.

The Wakefield study was rubbish. There have been several very good studies over the last few years showing that there is no link between MMR and autism, but they don't get the same publicity.

It would be very rare to find a paediatrician who doesn't get their kids vaccinated with MMR. And I've never heard of one getting this nonsensical single vaccine, that's basically ripping off worried parents.

I guess most of us forget how serious an illness measles can be. It's the 4th r 5th leading killer of children in developing countries where they have no vaccines.

undecided

I remember this all hit the headlines coming up to the time my son was to have it. I agonised over the desicion and chose to give it to him. He was diagnosed a year ago with aspergers/asd in saying that there is autism in the extended family but ill never know if the MMR was to blame. If I had another child I would vacinate also I think Id rather a child with autism than the risks of measles

embee

When it came time for my daughter to get the MMR, I said to myself...

There's no link with autism. That's been shown.

Measles, Mumps or Rubella - these can kill her at worst and in a best case scenario they can leave a child with an awful legacy of deafness, blindness, sterility etc.

I'd rather give her the jab to be honest and any other kids I may have in the future will be receiving the MMR too.

I'll be getting her the cervical cancer vaccine too when she is of age.

tallaght01

undecided wrote: »

I remember this all hit the headlines coming up to the time my son was to have it. I agonised over the desicion and chose to give it to him. He was diagnosed a year ago with aspergers/asd in saying that there is autism in the extended family but ill never know if the MMR was to blame. If I had another child I would vacinate also I think Id rather a child with autism than the risks of measles

You can absoloutely rest assured that you had no part in your child's asberger's by allowing them to have the vaccine. You did nothing wrong at all. Please don't let the crazies in the media make you believe that you made the wrong decision

Ickle Magoo

When it came time for my son to get his MMR, I hummed & hawed for ages. The news seemed to veer between new evidence for the no camp & another worrying report by the yes camp. At this stage I'm fairly convinced that there is no link & I'm relieved he got the MMR but when you are in the position of taking ultimate responsibility for making that choice and have the future of child in your hands, it doesn't seem so black & white and I can completely understand why other parents would choose not to.

MrPudding

I have 4 kids and I have to say we did not hesitate for a second. All have been vaccinated.

MrP

littlebug

Same here... didn't hesitate for a minute. I feel strongly about the herd immunity idea. Yes I know that most children who do contract measles etc won't die or even suffer the worst effects BUT the thought of my choices meaning that my child forms a link in the chain that means one child dies or becomes blind or disabled, was enough for me to immunise.

A couple of years ago my OH's colleague's young baby contracted German measles (confirmed). The father also got sick with similar symptoms. He worked closely with my husband who had no idea if he was immune or not. My youngest child hadn't had the MMR yet. A friend of mine who was pregnant had discovered that she wasn't immune. Thankfully the potentially disastrous chain of events that could have happened there didn't materialise but it really opened my eyes to how easily the illness could spread and while it was a relatively minor illness for one child it could have led to disastrous effects for another unborn one.