Well, well, well
Sunday, February 8th, 2009 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serai.
Here's an eye-opener:
Did the founder of the antivax movement fake the autism/vaccine link?
Seems there's some evidence that the whole panic about vaccinations causing autism may have been made up out of whole cloth.
The UK-based Sunday Times has a potential bombshell on their site; they claim Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who started the whole "vaccines cause autism" garbage, faked his data to make that claim.
About 10 years ago, Wakefield published a study dealing with children who were autistic, developing symptoms shortly after getting their shots, and linked this with irritated intestinal tracts. This study came under a lot of fire, and eventually most of the authors retracted the conclusion that autism was associated with "environmental factors", that is, vaccinations. By then, though, it was too late, and the modern antivaccination movement was born.
The Sunday Times investigated Wakefield’s original research, and alleges that the symptoms Wakefield reports in his research do not match hospital records of the 12 children studied at the time. In only one case were there symptoms that arose after the injection; in many of the other cases symptoms started before the children had been vaccinated (in fact, there have been allegations for some time that neurological issues occurred in the children before they had actually been vaccinated, casting doubt on Wakefield’s work). Also, hospital pathologists reported that the bowels of many of the children were normal, but Wakefield reported them as having inflammatory disease in his journal paper.
If these allegations are true, then it means that Wakefield out-and-out lied in his original work. He has denied this, according to the Sunday Times, but won’t make further comments.
This may cause a firestorm in the antivax community, but there are two things I will guarantee: the first is that in the end antivaxxers will stick to their beliefs that vaccines cause health problems like autism, because this is not and never has been, for them, about the facts and evidence. It’s a belief system, and like most other belief systems, it is impenetrable to evidence. If you have any doubts, I suggest you read the comments to the post I made the other day about measles being on the rise in the UK. One commenter on that post is saying all manners of outrageous things, and ignores the evidence that I (and a pediatrician) have left in the comments to him.
Second, and somewhat related, this hardly matters. Many, many independent tests have shown that vaccines are unrelated to the onset of autism. There is vast evidence that vaccines are very safe, and what small risk they pose is massively outweighed by the good they do. Whether Wakefield faked his results or not, he’s still wrong.
The good news is that if this pans out, then perhaps there will be a net loss of people from the antivax side of the argument. The ones who are true believers won’t waver in their faith, of course, but anyone with doubts may finally see reality for the way it is.
I will be very interested indeed on following this story. If anyone finds more information, please send it along.
(Links and emphases from the source.)
My favorite comment (from the post regarding measles):
We in the US would be happy to trade our antivaccination crackpots for crackpots of a more harmless variety, should any other country be willing. We would particularly be interested in acquiring crackpots who search Nessie and other animals for which no substantial evidence of their existence exists, as lake monsters and unicorns are very amusing figments. Perhaps one such crackpot could set up shop here in Charleston, SC, and boost the local economy by creating South Carolina Lizard Man-based tourism.
Hee!
My, my. Medical researchers jiggering the numbers to bolster their own blinkered arguments? Imagine that!
Here's an eye-opener:
Did the founder of the antivax movement fake the autism/vaccine link?
Seems there's some evidence that the whole panic about vaccinations causing autism may have been made up out of whole cloth.
The UK-based Sunday Times has a potential bombshell on their site; they claim Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who started the whole "vaccines cause autism" garbage, faked his data to make that claim.
About 10 years ago, Wakefield published a study dealing with children who were autistic, developing symptoms shortly after getting their shots, and linked this with irritated intestinal tracts. This study came under a lot of fire, and eventually most of the authors retracted the conclusion that autism was associated with "environmental factors", that is, vaccinations. By then, though, it was too late, and the modern antivaccination movement was born.
The Sunday Times investigated Wakefield’s original research, and alleges that the symptoms Wakefield reports in his research do not match hospital records of the 12 children studied at the time. In only one case were there symptoms that arose after the injection; in many of the other cases symptoms started before the children had been vaccinated (in fact, there have been allegations for some time that neurological issues occurred in the children before they had actually been vaccinated, casting doubt on Wakefield’s work). Also, hospital pathologists reported that the bowels of many of the children were normal, but Wakefield reported them as having inflammatory disease in his journal paper.
If these allegations are true, then it means that Wakefield out-and-out lied in his original work. He has denied this, according to the Sunday Times, but won’t make further comments.
This may cause a firestorm in the antivax community, but there are two things I will guarantee: the first is that in the end antivaxxers will stick to their beliefs that vaccines cause health problems like autism, because this is not and never has been, for them, about the facts and evidence. It’s a belief system, and like most other belief systems, it is impenetrable to evidence. If you have any doubts, I suggest you read the comments to the post I made the other day about measles being on the rise in the UK. One commenter on that post is saying all manners of outrageous things, and ignores the evidence that I (and a pediatrician) have left in the comments to him.
Second, and somewhat related, this hardly matters. Many, many independent tests have shown that vaccines are unrelated to the onset of autism. There is vast evidence that vaccines are very safe, and what small risk they pose is massively outweighed by the good they do. Whether Wakefield faked his results or not, he’s still wrong.
The good news is that if this pans out, then perhaps there will be a net loss of people from the antivax side of the argument. The ones who are true believers won’t waver in their faith, of course, but anyone with doubts may finally see reality for the way it is.
I will be very interested indeed on following this story. If anyone finds more information, please send it along.
(Links and emphases from the source.)
My favorite comment (from the post regarding measles):
We in the US would be happy to trade our antivaccination crackpots for crackpots of a more harmless variety, should any other country be willing. We would particularly be interested in acquiring crackpots who search Nessie and other animals for which no substantial evidence of their existence exists, as lake monsters and unicorns are very amusing figments. Perhaps one such crackpot could set up shop here in Charleston, SC, and boost the local economy by creating South Carolina Lizard Man-based tourism.
Hee!
My, my. Medical researchers jiggering the numbers to bolster their own blinkered arguments? Imagine that!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Monday, February 9th, 2009 08:11 am (UTC)I'm not saying the MMR caused the childrens problems in the way Wakefield described, and perhaps there was genetic predisposition given the right trigger but I'm in no doubt that the MMR given at that age and in that formulation instead of separately as mine were given as a child, provided that trigger. There are many parents and teachers who feel exactly as I do. We deal with the fallout, we've seen the pictures of what were once healthy children who've lost their functionality after the MMR and so, many of us remain suspicious. Most would like to see the MMR given separately as vaccines always were, so that children are able to deal with it instead of having their systems overwhelmed because of 'convenience and cost'
If my daughter has children, she has already decided that they will get separate vaccines even if we have to go to Europe to do so.
no subject
Date: Monday, February 9th, 2009 09:13 am (UTC)Americans in particular seem to have a love of panicking and running around screaming with their hair on fire, even when the chances of being affected by something are vanishingly small. There have been incredibly harmful and/or wasteful fads in this country based on nothing more than somebody claiming they "heard about" some nefarious plot or connection. (Oddly enough, the same people who are so fearful of this kind of thing will happily put their kids into the family car every day, despite the fact that thousands more die in car accidents every year than have ever been affected by vaccines.)
no subject
Date: Monday, February 9th, 2009 07:58 pm (UTC)