Science: Autism/vaccine ‘link’ debunked
From The Times:
THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.
Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.
The research was published in February 1998 in an article in The Lancet medical journal. It claimed that the families of eight out of 12 children attending a routine clinic at the hospital had blamed MMR for their autism, and said that problems came on within days of the jab. The team also claimed to have discovered a new inflammatory bowel disease underlying the children’s conditions.
However, our investigation, confirmed by evidence presented to the General Medical Council (GMC), reveals that: In most of the 12 cases, the children’s ailments as described in The Lancet were different from their hospital and GP records. Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated. Hospital pathologists, looking for inflammatory bowel disease, reported in the majority of cases that the gut was normal. This was then reviewed and the Lancet paper showed them as abnormal.
Detailed studies show that the children who receive vaccines do NOT have a higher incidence of autism than those who DO receive vaccines.
No doubt a commenter will accuse this newspaper of being in the pocket of Big Pharma.
February 9th, 2009 at 11:44 am
No doubt a commenter will accuse this newspaper of being in the pocket of Big Pharma.
Doesn’t seem like The Autism Industry really needs the boogeyman of “Big Pharma” anymore. I think it served its purpose when the Autism brandname was still in its formative stages, but now that Autism has become such big business, they really don’t need a villain anymore.
February 10th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Wasn’t the reason they were saying that there is a link between autism and vaccines was because of the mercury in vaccines? I just found out that the government, the IATP, did a study on 1/26/09 that showed that there is mercury in high fructose corn syrup due to the processing that goes on with the corn. They need to do studies on HFCS and autism to see what those results are.
HFCS Mercury Study
February 10th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
From Wikipedia:
And they NO LONGER USE ANY SUBSTANCE CONTAINING MERCURY. Sorry. It’s true. They’ve done study after study. Nothing, Nada.
All of the “evidence” about autism and vaccines is anecdotal, and it is driven by hysteria. Lack of vaccinations kills. It kills babies and children.
February 10th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Only multi-use vials of the influenza vaccine still contain thimerosal, the mercury containing preservative that people have so flipped out about. Preservative-free versions of the flu vaccine are available in single-use syringes.
Nonetheless, there have now been FOUR major studies that have looked for a link between thimerosal and autism and found NOTHING.
The MMR-autism link was spurious to begin with. Wakefield’s study of 12 children was wildly extrapolated to make broad conclusions about the safety of an almost 40 year old vaccine with MILLIONS of safely administered doses. Now it turns out that Wakefield’s data was completely fraudulent.
This is a DEAD issue. Too much time, money & effort has been WASTED that could have been used pursuing more meaningful avenues of research regarding the causes & treatment of autism.
February 14th, 2009 at 10:55 am
What I want to know is why the numerous studies implicating father’s age at birth are not publicised widely…this is actually a preventable contributor and yet it seems to be stifled in the media — why?
February 16th, 2009 at 7:31 am
One small study was faked. That proves nothing. It doesn’t prove there is no link between vaccinations and autism. It only proves that a couple of researchers faked their study. A really small study of only 8 children couldn’t prove that vaccines caused all autism anyhow.
But how can vaccines be properly studied when we don’t even know all of the ingredients? Vaccines fall under trade secret protection and all of the ingredients (culture medium and adjuvant) do not have to appear on the package insert?
February 16th, 2009 at 7:44 am
Barb: ‘It doesn’t prove there is no link between vaccinations and autism.”
Can you prove there’s no link between rising hemlines and the economy? Actually, I think there are some studies have a greater mathematical basis.