Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest
Andrew Wakefield's MMR/autism study 'fraud', says British Medical Journal
-
08-01-2011 4:08pm#1There doesn't appear to be a thread on this here, but it doesn't hurt to get a bit more exposure for this story (even though it's already being reported everywhere).
We already knew that Wakefield's study linking MMR to autism was bullsh*t, but thehttp://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html
A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.
"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a link by falsifying the data."
Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May. "Meanwhile, the damage to public health continues, fueled by unbalanced media reporting and an ineffective response from government, researchers, journals and the medical profession," BMJ states in an editorial accompanying the work.
Explainer: Autism and vaccines
Speaking to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Wakefield said his work has been "grossly distorted" and that he was the target of "a ruthless, pragmatic attempt to crush any attempt to investigate valid vaccine safety concerns."
The now-discredited paper panicked many parents and led to a sharp drop in the number of children getting the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after its publication, falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the ensuing years.
In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.
"But perhaps as important as the scare's effect on infectious disease is the energy, emotion and money that have been diverted away from efforts to understand the real causes of autism and how to help children and families who live with it," the BMJ editorial states.
Wakefield has been unable to reproduce his results in the face of criticism, and other researchers have been unable to match them. Most of his co-authors withdrew their names from the study in 2004 after learning he had had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose. After years on controversy, the Lancet, the prestigious journal that originally published the research, retracted Wakefield's paper last February.
The series of articles launched Wednesday are investigative journalism, not results of a clinical study. The writer, Brian Deer, said Wakefield "chiseled" the data before him, "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."
Unfortunately, (Wakefield's) core group of supporters is not going to let the facts dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism.
--Dr. Max Wiznitzer, pediatric neurologist
According to BMJ, Wakefield received more than 435,000 pounds ($674,000) from the lawyers. Godlee said the study shows that of the 12 cases Wakefield examined in his paper, five showed developmental problems before receiving the MMR vaccine and three never had autism.
"It's always hard to explain fraud and where it affects people to lie in science," Godlee said. "But it does seem a financial motive was underlying this, both in terms of payments by lawyers and through legal aid grants that he received but also through financial schemes that he hoped would benefit him through diagnostic and other tests for autism and MMR-related issues."
But Wakefield told CNN that claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism "came from the parents, not me," and that his paper had "nothing to do with the litigation."
"These children were seen on the basis of their clinical symptoms, for their clinical need, and they were seen by expert clinicians and their disease diagnosed by them, not by me," he said.
Wakefield dismissed Deer as "a hit man who has been brought into take me down" by pharmaceutical interests. Deer has signed a disclosure form stating that he has no financial interest in the business.
Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, said the reporting "represents Wakefield as a person where the ends justified the means." But he said the latest news may have little effect on those families who still blame vaccines for their children's conditions.
"Unfortunately, his core group of supporters is not going to let the facts dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism," Wiznitzer said. "They need to be open-minded and examine the information as everybody else."
Wakefield's defenders include David Kirby, a journalist who has written extensively on autism. He told CNN that Wakefield not only has denied falsifying data, he has said he had no way to do so.
"I have known him for a number of years. He does not strike me as a charlatan or a liar," Kirby said. If the BMJ allegations are true, then Wakefield "did a terrible thing" -- but he added, "I personally find it hard to believe that he did that."
There's been a few good interviews in the last couple of days that detail the full extent of the deception. Here's one with the investigative journalist who uncovered the fraud:
I'm sure this won't deter nutjobs like Jenny McCarthy, JB Handley and Jim Carrey from pushing their disgusting anti-vax agenda, but hopefully it'll put a few more parents at ease.29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ2m0nJscO0Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
Paul Offit's great, I've listened to loads of interviews with him, very honest, knowledgeable and articulate
0 -
Shocker, doctor and medical researcher who has devoted his life to developing a vaccine which has saved thousands of lives in developing countries is also a strong advocate of vaccines! Stop the press!OutlawPete wrote: »
Offit has mainly been using as evidence for vaccine safety studies which he was not involved with, so if someone wants to challenge those studies then they should go ahead.
Instead anti-vaxxers prefer to resort to conspiracy thinking and ad hominem attacks to defend their position, because they know that the science shows that vaccines are safe.0 -
OutlawPete wrote: »
Yep, and Wakefield was paid by the parents of autistic kids but you'll choose to believe him anyway. If you go looking for conspiracy you'll find it anywhere. If you take an honest and objective look at the evidence you'll have a needle in your arm faster than you can say "japanese encephalitis B".0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
My generation should have been wiped out in that case! I recall mothers having measles, mumps, rubella and ChickenPox parties in the 70s - done so the children would catch the illnesses and get them over and done with!
How lucky for them:In roughly the last 150 years, measles has been estimated to have killed
about 200 million people worldwide. During the 1850s, measles killed a
fifth of Hawaii's people. In 1875, measles killed over 40,000 Fijians,
approximately one-third of the population. In the 19th century, the
disease decimated the Andamanese population. In 1954, the virus
causing the disease was isolated from an 11-year old boy from the United
States, David Edmonston, and adapted and propagated on chick embryo
tissue culture. To date, 21 strains of the measles virus have been
identified. While at Merck, Maurice Hilleman developed the first
successful vaccine. Licensed vaccines to prevent the disease became
available in 1963.
link
A bit more relavant info:
HOW COMMON ARE THESE DISEASES?
Measles:
Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine, by the age of 25 years
almost everyone had suffered from measles infection. In Ireland the number
of cases of measles reported annually has dropped significantly since the
introduction of the measles vaccine in 1985 and the MMR vaccine in 1988
as shown in Figure 1. In the 1950s in Ireland an average of 8,500 cases of
measles were reported each year. In the 1970s an average of 7 children
died in Ireland every year from measles. In 1985 there were almost 10,000
cases of measles notified. By 1991 this had dropped to 135.
Outbreaks of measles, however, continue to occur in Ireland. In 1993 over
4,328 cases of measles were reported. In 2000 over 1,600 cases of
measles were reported to the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC).
Most of these cases were in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area
and there were three associated deaths. The uptake of MMR vaccine in
Ireland is currently not high enough to prevent outbreaks from occurring.
...
CAN CHILDREN DIE FROM MEASLES?
About one million children worldwide die from measles each year making
it the eighth commonest killer disease of children. Death rates for measles
vary depending on age. On average, between 1 in 2,500 and 1 in 5,000
cases die from measles. However, in recent years, deaths from measles
have been reported as approximately 1-2 per 1,000 reported cases in the
United States. This has also been the experience in several recent
outbreaks in Europe due to low vaccine uptake, where there have been
fatal cases of measles. In Ireland eight deaths from measles were reported
to the Central Statistics Office between 1990 and 1999. There were
three deaths and over 1,600 reported cases in Ireland in 2000 and three
deaths in 2,961 reported cases (1 in 1,000) in the Netherlands during an
outbreak in 1999/ 2000.
The risk of death is significantly higher in children developing measles under
one year of age. This group are not currently offered the vaccine as they
are too young and can only be protected through the ‘population
protection’ of high vaccine uptake. Young adults who acquire measles at
an older age also have a higher rate of encephalitis. A serious
complication of measles in children is subacute sclerosing
panencephalitis (SSPE). This is a rare degenerative neurological
condition that can develop some years after natural measles infection and
causes gradual loss of function and death within a few years. The risk is
greatest in those who were infected at a young age. The average interval
from measlesinfection to the onset of SSPE is around eight years. Measles
vaccine directly protects against SSPE. (I hope people understand what this
is saying! How fun do those measels parties sound now???)
WHY IS THE MMR VACCINE SO IMPORTANT?
Population protection (also known as ‘herd immunity’):
This means that if someone incubating measles (or mumps or rubella) has
contact with others in the community, the disease will not spread if
immunisation uptake rates are high as the chance of being in contact with
someone who is not immune is so small if most people have immunity.
Children who cannot be immunised (e.g. those with leukaemia, cancer or on
immunosuppressive treatment) depend on high population levels for their
personal protection as do children under one year of age. Women who
have not been immunised against rubella depend on high ‘population
protection’ to prevent them from catching rubella and their babies
being damaged. (Children, pregnant women, leukemia patients & cancer patients
depend on the population immunizing itself for their survival).
Potential eradication of disease:
The World Health Organisation concluded in 1996 that measles eradication
is feasible through immunisation. This will only occur, however, if uptake of
the vaccine is high. Smallpox has already been eradicated by vaccination
and rapid progress is being made towards eradication of poliomyelitis
through immunisation. Many countries have already virtually eliminated
measles (e.g.) Finland, Sweden, Spain and United States.
...
MMR vaccine is a live virus vaccine. This means that it contains measles,
mumps and rubella viruses that have been modified (or attenuated) so
that they are extremely unlikely to cause disease symptoms in humans.
The vaccine has been developed to produce an immune response sufficient
to protect children against the real disease, with no illness at all or only a
very mild version of the illness.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATCHING MEASLES AND
HAVING THE LIVE VIRUS VACCINE INJECTED INTO THE BODY?
The difference between catching measles and receiving the vaccine relate
to the fact that the measles virus is in an attenuated form in the vaccine.
As a result the vaccine strain can stimulate the child’s immune system to
protect them from future infection with the wild virus, without the
complications associated with wild virus infection. On the other hand
infection with the wild measles virus weakens the immune system, often
leading to a secondary infection such as pneumonia or middle ear infection.
Like all vaccines, side effects can occur with MMR. However these are
almost always trivial and, as can be seen from the table below, the small
risks from the vaccine are far outweighed by the substantial risks
associated with wild measles infection.
Complications of measles versus MMR vaccine.
Measles
Ear infection: 1 in 20
Hospitalised: 1 in 5
Encephalitis: 1 in 1,000
Pneumonia: 1 in 20
Death: 1 in 2,500 to
1 in 5,000
MMR vaccine
Ear infection: 1 in 2,000
Hospitalised: 1 in 1,000
Encephalitis: 1 in 1,000,000
Pneumonia: None
Death: None
DOES THE MMR VACCINE CAUSE SERIOUS DISEASES?
AUTISM
Autism is a condition that involves delayed speech and communication. The
first signs of autism tend to show at around 1-2 years of age. The MMR
vaccine is also given around thisage, so it is not surprising that some
parents have linked the two events. However, there is no evidence that
MMR causes autism.
The suggestion of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism was first
made in a Danish TV programme in 1993, by a mother of twins, one of
whom had autism, which the mother believed was caused by the MMR
vaccine. At that time, no scientist had ever suggested a link.
In 1998, Dr Andrew Wakefield and colleagues in London published a paper
in the Lancet describing 12 children with developmental and bowel
problems. Eight of the children had autism, which the parents reported
began soon after vaccination with MMR. The hypothesis put forward was
that the MMR vaccine caused a leaky bowel. This allowed a toxin to enter
which affected the brain and caused autism. This hypothesis is not proven,
and the researchers themselves stated that they had not proven a link
with MMR vaccine.
A number of studies have failed to demonstrate any link between MMR and
autism. A UK study published in the Lancet in June 1999 by Taylor et al.
looked at the immunisation records of 498 cases of autism, born between
1979 and 1998. They found no change in trends in autism after the
introduction of MMR, no difference in the age at diagnosis between
vaccinated and unvaccinated children and no clustering of developmental
regression in the months after vaccination.
A Finnish study by Patja et al. that reviewed adverse drug reactions
reported, after 1.8 million individuals were immunised with 3 million doses of
MMR, that no case of inflammatory bowel disease or autism was linked to
the vaccine during a long follow up period (1982-1996). An earlier paper by
Peltola et al., using the same Finnish dataset, identified those vaccinees
for whom gastro-intestinal (GI) symptoms were reported and traced them
to check the prevalence of autism. Out of 31 children with GI symptoms
none developed autism.
In February 2001, a UK study was published in the British Medical Journal
by Kaye et al. The study reported a notable rise from 1988 to 1999 in the
diagnosis of autism as recorded by UK general practitioners. Over that
same time period there was no change in the proportion of children who
had been vaccinated with MMR. The study authors concluded that these
data provided no evidence to support a causal association between MMR
vaccination and the risk of autism.
A paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association in March 2001
by Dales et al. compared trends over time in autism and in MMR
immunisation coverage in California. The paper concluded that ‘these data
do not suggest an association between MMR immunisation among young
children and an increase in autism occurrence’.
Read Me (Pdf containing a lot more interesting info than the parts I've posted)
You are playing with trouble by relying on folk wisdom which originates
from a really bad case of correlation necessitates causation & unscientific
& falsified fearmongering & it could does lead to people dying.
0 -
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
Phill Ewinn wrote: »Yeah, you tell 'em. Fvck Tony Blair, the brittish medical society et al. Fill those babies with mercury ! You the fvckin' man.
What about the British medical society et al? I think you'll find that the
only people mentioning these et al. people are the posters on here who
are stating that mercury was taken out of vaccines as a "precautionary
measure" even though
"Major scientific and medical bodies such as the Institute of Medicine and
World Health Organization (WHO) as well as governmental agencies such
as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC reject any
role for thiomersal in autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders. Multiple
lines of scientific evidence have been cited to support this conclusion,
such as the clinical symptoms of mercury poisoning differing significantly
from those of autism. In addition, multiple population studies have not
found an association between thiomersal and autism, but have found that
rates of autism have continued to increase despite removal of thiomersal
from vaccines. In spite of the consensus of the scientific community,
many parents continue to believe thiomersal is linked to autism."
link
0 -
-
I've just discovered that a compound named dihydrogen monoxide commonly
containing chlorine is exposed to the public daily even though exposure to
the compound for an extended time period results in death. In the year
2000 alone nearly half a million people worldwide died from over-exposure
to this chemical compound, link, what is wrong with the youth of today??? :eek:
The companies are making a killing off harvesting this chemical compound
and feeding it to the public, they use it in a lot of their products to cut costs!!!!
Ban it!!! Ban it!!! Ban it!!! :mad:0 -
Shocker, doctor and medical researcher who has devoted his life to developing a vaccine which has saved thousands of lives in developing countries is also a strong advocate of vaccines! Stop the press!
Offit has serious conflicts of interest and is a proven liar (he even had to redraft one of his books and pay Generation Rescue a large sum as a result). He receives millions working with Merck and simply can not declare himself as being unbiased on the issue of vaccine's and their possible role in regressive autism, all the while: profiting heavily from the status quo, the very notion is laughable.
With regards to him saving lives, his first rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn when it was found that it increased the chances of children developing bowel blockage by 60% (one infant died five days after receiving the vaccine). Congress also reprimand him for his voting practices on the CDC panel with regards to his own vaccine.
He's not the hero you think he is.Instead anti-vaxxers prefer to resort to conspiracy thinking and ad hominem attacks to defend their position, because they know that the science shows that vaccines are safe.
Which "anti-vaxxers" exactly??
You always post this nonsense but never quote anyone that would prove them to be: "anti-vaccine". So, who are they, where are they - these members of the "anti-vaccine movement" that you keep going on and on about? The parents of autistic children? Generation Rescue? Age of Autism? Who? Age of Autism, Generation Rescue etc are most certainly NOT "anti-vaccine" and NEVER EVER have been either, in fact they go out of their way to provide information on how best to vaccinate.
From what I can tell, they tend to spend their time calling for toxins to be removed from vaccines (hence their slogan: Green Our Vaccines) and they also recommend single vaccines and spacing (to those that stil have that option that is) but their main goal has always been 'further research' (and science based at that, hate to burst your bubble on it being any other kind).
Now, you may not agree with "spacing of vaccines" or with the call to remove further "toxins" and the like, that's your business - but please stop calling these people "anti-vaxxers", they're not and to continue to so, just shows your ignorance. It's akin to labeling people that were calling for seat belts to become mandatory back in the 80's, as being "Anti-automobile".However at this point there's been a huge amount of research done on the subject, the majority of which shows that there is no link between MMR and autism, so she is clearly ignoring the research and using elaborate conspiracies as her justification.
You KNOW very well that these groups are NOT "ignoring" the research done so far, so why are you regurgitating this nonsense. Why don't you just debate the issues that these people have and stop trying to label them as "nuts" all the time.Also, in Japan they stopped giving the MMR jab in 1993, yet autism rates continued to rise. If there was a link, then rates would surely plummet after the vaccine was stopped.
You were told why these studies were flawed, pay attention. I mean, you don't have to agree with the reasoning, but quit with the bullshit of people ignoring studies, it's simply not true.The research has been done, the jury is out.
More bull****, the jury is NOT "out".
For a jury to be "out", they have to be contemplating something and the studies that need to be done in order for them to be "contemplating", are not being done. The only research at the moment is coming from small independent groups with poor funding who, even if they do publish something - they will just get debunked for the study being too small.
If people like you would quit talking bollox by saying that the research has been done and that "science" proves there is no connection between vaccines and autism, then proper irrefutable studies might actually take place.Whatever causes autism, it is not the MMR jab.
Look, Wakefield NEVER said that MMR was the "cause" of autism, it's a myth.
From the 1998 research paper that appeared in the Lancet:
So, enough already with this witch hunt, even if he did do all he is being accused of (which I don't believe for a second he did) it still wouldn't amount to a hill of beans, as the research in this area is still ongoing with out him and will be for quite sometime.We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described. Virological studies are underway that may help to resolve this issue.
If there is a causal link between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and this syndrome, a rising incidence might be anticipated after the introduction of this vaccine in the UK in 1988.
We have identified a chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuropsychiatric dysfunction. In most cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation.
Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine.
The only way to stop the debate is to do the research that is needed and not keep pointing to flawed studies and declaring them to be some kind of proof.
0 -
FFS these anti vaccine nut jobs are all the same. It's always "I'm not anti vaccine", "more research is needed", "those studies are flawed", "we have no problem with high quality research". Of course the truth is that they are anti vaccine and the only research they will accept as "high quality" is that which supports their agenda, no matter how poorly performed (bonus points if it's disseminated by way of youtube). Naturally they tend to be the same nuts that are anti water fluoridation.OutlawPete wrote: »Offit has serious conflicts of interest and is a proven liar (he even had to redraft one of his books and pay Generation Rescue a large sum as a result). He receives millions working with Merck and simply can not declare himself as being unbiased on the issue of vaccine's and their possible role in regressive autism, all the while: profiting heavily from the status quo, the very notion is laughable.
With regards to him saving lives, his first rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn when it was found that it increased the chances of children developing bowel blockage by 60% (one infant died five days after receiving the vaccine). Congress also reprimand him for his voting practices on the CDC panel with regards to his own vaccine.
He's not the hero you think he is.
Which "anti-vaxxers" exactly??
You always post this nonsense but never quote anyone that would prove them to be: "anti-vaccine". So, who are they, where are they - these members of the "anti-vaccine movement" that you keep going on and on about? The parents of autistic children? Generation Rescue? Age of Autism? Who? Age of Autism, Generation Rescue etc are most certainly NOT "anti-vaccine" and NEVER EVER have been either, in fact they go out of their way to provide information on how best to vaccinate.
From what I can tell, they tend to spend their time calling for toxins to be removed from vaccines (hence their slogan: Green Our Vaccines) and they also recommend single vaccines and spacing (to those that stil have that option that is) but their main goal has always been 'further research' (and science based at that, hate to burst your bubble on it being any other kind).
Now, you may not agree with "spacing of vaccines" or with the call to remove further "toxins" and the like, that's your business - but please stop calling these people "anti-vaxxers", they're not and to continue to so, just shows your ignorance. It's akin to labeling people that were calling for seat belts to become mandatory back in the 80's, as being "Anti-automobile".
You KNOW very well that these groups are NOT "ignoring" the research done so far, so why are you regurgitating this nonsense. Why don't you just debate the issues that these people have and stop trying to label them as "nuts" all the time.
You were told why these studies were flawed, pay attention. I mean, you don't have to agree with the reasoning, but quit with the bullshit of people ignoring studies, it's simply not true.
More bull****, the jury is NOT "out".
For a jury to be "out", they have to be contemplating something and the studies that need to be done in order for them to be "contemplating", are not being done. The only research at the moment is coming from small independent groups with poor funding who, even if they do publish something - they will just get debunked for the study being too small.
If people like you would quit talking bollox by saying that the research has been done and that "science" proves there is no connection between vaccines and autism, then proper irrefutable studies might actually take place.
Look, Wakefield NEVER said that MMR was the "cause" of autism, it's a myth.
From the 1998 research paper that appeared in the Lancet:
So, enough already with this witch hunt, even if he did do all he is being accused of (which I don't believe for a second he did) it still wouldn't amount to a hill of beans, as the research in this area is still ongoing with out him and will be for quite sometime.
The only way to stop the debate is to do the research that is needed and not keep pointing to flawed studies and declaring them to be some kind of proof.0 -
-
Advertisement
![[Deleted User]](/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Hw-Q23S_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdBn5G7Y2RA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW1IEqKuf6s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERTgmlfxj7I
Advertisement