This Just in . . . Vaccines STILL Do Not Cause Autism

[Doctor X]

From the wonderful Quackwatch:

Yet another study debunks vaccination-autism link.

New findings from the CHildhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) study have found no difference in the blood levels of mercury among children ages 2-5 with autism spectrum disorders and children who were developing normally. [Hertz-Picciotto I and others. Blood mercury concentrations in CHARGE Study: Children with and without autism. Environmental Health Perspectives, Oct 19, 2009] The complete report is available at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2009/0 ... 900736.pdf

and:

Vaccination crusader honored and libeled.

Paul Offit, M.D., has received the American Academy of Pediatrics President's "Certificate for Outstanding Service," in recognition of his ongoing commitment to promote immunization." Offit, a pediatrician, is chief of infectious diseases and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. His 2008 book, Autism's False Prophets, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... ckwatch-20 exposed the opportunism of lawyers, journalists, celebrities, practitioners, politicians, and miscellaneous cranks who are promoting the myth that vaccines cause autism. Vaccine opponents, enraged by both the book and the award, have responded by making false and misleading statements about him.

--J.D.

[DrMatt]

I was unable to find either of those on Quackwatch, even using their Glimpse search.

[Anaxagoras]

Jack?

From the wonderful Quackwatch:

Yet another study debunks vaccination-autism link.

New findings from the CHildhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) study have found no difference in the blood levels of mercury among children ages 2-5 with autism spectrum disorders and children who were developing normally. [Hertz-Picciotto I and others. Blood mercury concentrations in CHARGE Study: Children with and without autism. Environmental Health Perspectives, Oct 19, 2009] The complete report is available at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2009/0 ... 900736.pdf

and:

Vaccination crusader honored and libeled.

Paul Offit, M.D., has received the American Academy of Pediatrics President's "Certificate for Outstanding Service," in recognition of his ongoing commitment to promote immunization." Offit, a pediatrician, is chief of infectious diseases and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. His 2008 book, Autism's False Prophets, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... ckwatch-20 exposed the opportunism of lawyers, journalists, celebrities, practitioners, politicians, and miscellaneous cranks who are promoting the myth that vaccines cause autism. Vaccine opponents, enraged by both the book and the award, have responded by making false and misleading statements about him.

--J.D.

[Doctor X]

No actually.

Looks like he just cut and pasted the articles without giving the full citation to Barrett's webpage.

--J.D.

[DrMatt]

No actually.

Looks like he just cut and pasted the articles without giving the full citation to Barrett's webpage.

--J.D.

What IS the citation to Barrett's web page? All I got was a reference to his main home page. I could not find the articles in question there. Where are they?

[robinson]

I can't find them either.

[Doctor X]

--J.D.

[DrMatt]

Oh, so the citation is to Doctor X, not to Barrett.

[Doctor X]

Vaccine scaremonger slammed.

The British General Medical Council (GMC), which registers doctors in the United Kingdom, has reported that Dr. Andrew Wakefield had acted dishonestly and irresponsibly in connection with a research project and its subsequent publication. The hearing, which started in July 2007, centered on a study of children by Wakefield and twelve others that linked the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism and bowel problems. Subsequent studies found no connections, but sensational publicity caused immunization rates in the UK to drop more than 10 percent. Ten of the study's authors have since renounced its conclusions; and Lancet's editor said he should not have published the study and that Wakefield's links to litigation against the manufacturers of the MMR vaccine were a "fatal conflict of interest."

The GMC began investigating after learning that Wakefield had failed to declare he had been paid £55,000 to advise lawyers representing parents who belived that the vaccine had harmed their children. The GMC said that Wakefield had improperly recruited the patients at his son's birthday party, paid them £5 to give blood specimens, and later subjected some of them inappropriately to colonoscopy, lumbar punctures, and other tests without approval from a research review board. Wakefield was also criticized for not disclosing that he had filed a patent for a vaccine to compete with the MMR, and for starting a child on an experimental product called Transfer Factor, which he planned to market. The GMC panel concluded that the allegations against Wakefield could amount to "serious professional misconduct" and will deliberate on what action to take at a hearings scheduled to begin in April. http://www.casewatch.org/foreign/wakefi ... ndings.pdf

During the investigation, Wakefield relocated to Austin, Texas, where he helped found Thoughtful House Center for Children, a "nonprofit" clinic that offers many unsubstantiated treatments for autism. He does not have a medical license but oversees the clinic's research program. The clinic's latest (2008) tax filing lists his salary as $270,000. http://www.casewatch.org/990/thoughtful_house_2008.pdf

--J.D.

[Doctor X]

Lancet retracts Wakefield article.

The Lancet has retracted publication of a 1998 paper in which Dr. Andrew Wakefield and colleagues suggested that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine might be linked to autism. The paper didn't declare that cause-and-effect had been demonstrated, but at the press conference announcing its publication, Wakefield attacked the triple vaccine; and he has continued to do so ever since. Subsequent studies have found no connections, but sensational publicity caused immunization rates in the UK to drop more than 10 percent and have left lingering doubts among parents worldwide. The Lancet retraction came five days after The British General Medical Council, which registers doctors in the United Kingdom, reported that Wakefield had acted dishonestly, irresponsibly, unethically, and callously in connection with the research project and its subsequent publication. The paper remains publicly visible, but the online version displays the word "RETRACTED" in bright red letters on every page of the PDF version. For further details, see
http://www.autism-watch.org/news/lancet.shtml

--J.D.

[Pyrrho]

Dumped by The Lancet? That's gonna leave a mark.

[Llacheu]

Being dumped by the Lancet won't really affect the anti-vaxers. It may help the few people on the fence who keep up with news about medicine and medical journals.

[Doctor X]

It will be seen as all part of T3h Conspiracy to Suprezz t3h Tw00f!

--J.D.

[Pyrrho]

Propaganda arm of Big Pharma, etc.

[Doctor X]

The CONSPIRACY continues!!!

Journal: Study Linking Vaccine to Autism was Fraud

LONDON – The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research.

The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered.

A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.

The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.

Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy.

Deer's article was paid for by the Sunday Times of London and Britain's Channel 4 television network. It was published online Thursday in the medical journal, BMJ. In an accompanying editorial, BMJ editor Fiona Godlee and colleagues called Wakefield's study "an elaborate fraud." They said Wakefield's work in other journals should be examined to see if it should be retracted.

Last May, Wakefield was stripped of his right to practice medicine in Britain. Many other published studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccination and autism.

But measles has surged since Wakefield's paper was published and there are sporadic outbreaks in Europe and the U.S. In 2008, measles was deemed endemic in England and Wales.

Linkypoo

--J.D.

[Mentat]

I blame Obama.

[Doctor X]

Stephen Barret, M.D. of QuackWatch offers further information:

The BMJ plans to publish three articles by Brian Deer, the investigative reporter who uncovered Wakefield's misconduct. In an accompanying blog, Deer summarized his findings this way:

"The British Medical Journal has begun a series that will bare the MMR scandal in detail never published before. Drawing on interviews, documents, and properly obtained data collected during seven years of inquiries, we show how one man, former gastroenterology researcher Andrew Wakefield, was able to manufacture the appearance of a purported medical syndrome, whilst not only in receipt of large sums of money, but also scheming businesses that promised him more. His was a fraud, moreover, of more than academic vanity. It unleashed fear, parental guilt, costly government intervention, and outbreaks of infectious disease." [Deer B. Piltdown medicine: The missing link between MMR and autism. BMJ Group Blogs, Jan 6, 2011] http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2011/01/06/bri ... mj_podblog

The first of Deer's three articles details how he examined the medical records and interviewed the parents of the 12 children used in Wakefield's study and found that all of the cases reported in the 1998 Lancet paper were misrepresented. [Deer B. How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed. BMJ 342:c5347, 2011] http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347

In an accompanying editorial, three of the BMJ's top editors wrote:

"The Lancet paper has of course been retracted, but for far narrower misconduct than is now apparent. The retraction statement cites the GMC's findings that the patients were not consecutively referred and the study did not have ethical approval, leaving the door open for those who want to continue to believe that the science, flawed though it always was, still stands. We hope that declaring the paper a fraud will close that door for good." [Godlee F and others. Wakefield's article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent: Clear evidence of falsification should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare. BMJ 342:c7452, 2011] http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.full

--J.D.

[clarsct]

So.....

Why are these Anti-Vax types NOT charged with child abuse and neglect?

[Doctor X]

Indeed. Why not?

--J.D.

[DrMatt]

Has that ever been successfully applied to Christian Scientists?

Are public schools still able to require that their students be vaccinated? Isn't that widely considered governmental overreach into the realm of the free market? Aren't public schools themselves considered overreach?