Vaccination-Autism Study Shown to be Fraudulent

[HuskyCaucasian]

(I wasnt sure if this was a Slam or Filibuster topic, so move it if needed)

 

Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds

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."

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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.

 

I have a few friends who refuse to vaccinate their kids, and I thought this article on Solon.com about Jenny McCarthy's autism foundation was very interesting. Basically, they are using almost 10 year old data to support their cause.

Edited January 7, 2011 by Athomeboy_2000

[StrangeSox]

Well, the study was actually retracted a while ago. And Wakefield lost his license in the biggest investigation in the UK to date. Problems were known with it as far back as 2001 or 2002, and there was never any support. This latest story, however, is the first one to break the deliberate fraud.

 

Here's Brian Deer's piece in the British Journal of Medicine. He's been the main journalist exposing this fraud from the beginning.

 

The sad thing is this won't do anything to convince the anti-vaxxer idiots. They'll just say it's part of the coverup! Never mind that California had its worst case of Whooping Cough since the 50's, that infectious diseases are on the rise in areas where people are stupidly deciding not to vaccinate.

 

edit: Jenny McCarthy is a C-celebrity moron and should shut her dumb ass up. She is doing a lot of harm with this bulls***.

Edited January 7, 2011 by StrangeSox

[CrimsonWeltall]

No evidence can ever convince a conspiracy theorist.

 

This is just more evidence of Big Pharma trying to attack brave Andrew Wakefield, the only doctor in the world who actually cares about autistic children.

[jasonxctf]

I was never a big shots cause autism guy. But I will tell you, that when my little girl went for her 2 month appt and the doctors said 6 shots at one time, I told them to tap the brakes and spread them out a little bit. 4 at 2 months, 2 at 3 months with the boosters that follow on the same schedule.

 

Common sense just tells me that it doesn't seem right to inject a 2 month old, 9lb baby, with all of those things at once isn't a good thing.

[Rex Kickass]

I was never a big shots cause autism guy. But I will tell you, that when my little girl went for her 2 month appt and the doctors said 6 shots at one time, I told them to tap the brakes and spread them out a little bit. 4 at 2 months, 2 at 3 months with the boosters that follow on the same schedule.

 

Common sense just tells me that it doesn't seem right to inject a 2 month old, 9lb baby, with all of those things at once isn't a good thing.

 

There's a big difference between spacing out vaccination and a mentality of "Vaccines are Dangerous."

[StrangeSox]

Yeah, I've no problem with legitimate research into vaccine safety and efficacy. People do suffer adverse consequences from them on rare occasions. Just not autism.

[Controlled Chaos]

Well, the study was actually retracted a while ago. And Wakefield lost his license in the biggest investigation in the UK to date. Problems were known with it as far back as 2001 or 2002, and there was never any support. This latest story, however, is the first one to break the deliberate fraud.

 

Here's Brian Deer's piece in the British Journal of Medicine. He's been the main journalist exposing this fraud from the beginning.

 

The sad thing is this won't do anything to convince the anti-vaxxer idiots. They'll just say it's part of the coverup! Never mind that California had its worst case of Whooping Cough since the 50's, that infectious diseases are on the rise in areas where people are stupidly deciding not to vaccinate.

 

edit: Jenny McCarthy is a C-celebrity moron and should shut her dumb ass up. She is doing a lot of harm with this bulls***.

I wouldn't be so quick to judge. My kids are vaccinated, so I'm not really on her side of the debate, but if some of the things that happened to her happened to me, I could see myself searching for answers. I think your post was fine without the "edit"

[Balta1701]

I wouldn't be so quick to judge. My kids are vaccinated, so I'm not really on her side of the debate, but if some of the things that happened to her happened to me, I could see myself searching for answers. I think your post was fine without the "edit"

The issue we're going to have here is that her "search for answers" has helped harm and likely kill dozens, potentially hundreds, potentially thousands of people. A lot of them other people's children.

[StrangeSox]

I wouldn't be so quick to judge. My kids are vaccinated, so I'm not really on her side of the debate, but if some of the things that happened to her happened to me, I could see myself searching for answers. I think your post was fine without the "edit"

I would. I understand someone searching for answers to a tragedy, but that doesn't excuse jumping onto the anti-vaccine bandwagon, ignoring all evidence to the contrary (while having none to support your position) and causing demonstrable, measurable harm in the process. If this was a different board, I wouldn't have phrased my dislike of her so nicely.

[StrangeSox]

Example of anti-vaxxer stupidty leading to deaths of 10 infants and hospitalization of over 200:.

 

edit:

 

The problem is that the sick, the elderly and the very young rely on "herd immunity" since they cannot be vaccinated themselves. The idea is that, if at least a certain percentage of the population is inoculated (something like 90%), then the disease will be virtually non-existent as it won't have enough hosts to survive and spread. If you fall below that threshold, though, those who cannot get vaccinated are at risk thanks to those who voluntarily chose not to be vaccinated due to misinformed, disingenuous or outright lies from anti-vaccine pseudoscience.

Edited January 7, 2011 by StrangeSox

[CrimsonWeltall]

The issue we're going to have here is that her "search for answers" has helped harm and likely kill dozens, potentially hundreds, potentially thousands of people. A lot of them other people's children.

 

This.

 

Jenny McCarthy continually lies about vaccines and vaccine safety to promote herself. She has no intellectual honesty whatsoever.

[Texsox]

I believe it is also dangerous for people to stop thinking about what goes into their body and just allow anyone with an MD to decide for them. But as soon as people take responsibility for their own decisions, other people begin to attack. You can't choose a different path, and accept the risk/rewards in our society. You must stay in lock step with everyone else.

[Balta1701]

I believe it is also dangerous for people to stop thinking about what goes into their body and just allow anyone with an MD to decide for them. But as soon as people take responsibility for their own decisions, other people begin to attack. You can't choose a different path, and accept the risk/rewards in out society. You must stay in lock step with everyone else.

So Tex...if I listen to an anti-vaccine person, and my child dies...at what point did it decide to take responsibility for what was put into its body?

[Texsox]

So Tex...if I listen to an anti-vaccine person, and my child dies...at what point did it decide to take responsibility for what was put into its body?

It is the same answer to the question

If you vaccinate and the child dies, at what point did the child decide to take responsibility for what was put into its body?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Balta1701]

It is the same answer to the question

If you vaccinate and the child dies, at what point did the child decide to take responsibility for what was put into its body?

Ok, so who takes responsibility then when a doctor takes a ton of money from a pharmaceutical company, deliberately falsifies his results, and creates a cult of people who follow his guidelines, and people die because of it? The parents? The Kids? The doctors? The company(ies) involved? Or do we just pretend nothing bad is happening?

[StrangeSox]

I believe it is also dangerous for people to stop thinking about what goes into their body and just allow anyone with an MD to decide for them. But as soon as people take responsibility for their own decisions, other people begin to attack. You can't choose a different path, and accept the risk/rewards in out society. You must stay in lock step with everyone else.

 

How, exactly, does the average person evaluate medicinal efficacy and causation for problems down the road?

 

I can "think" about vaccines all I want, but the truth is I will never be in a position to evaluate their safety or efficacy. In the end, I'm going to have to rely on doctors and medical researchers to determine the best diagnoses, treatments, cures and preventions for disease. That doesn't mean you blindly trust what one physician or one report says, but you follow the body of evidence.

 

There's no virtue in eschewing rational thought and reliance on expertise in favor of ill-informed and emotional decisions when it comes to medical care. That's not taking responsibility for a decision, it's embracing ignorance and pseudoscience. And, in the case of vaccines, it's putting others at risk.

[StrangeSox]

Ok, so who takes responsibility then when a doctor takes a ton of money from a pharmaceutical company, deliberately falsifies his results, and creates a cult of people who follow his guidelines, and people die because of it? The parents? The Kids? The doctors? The company(ies) involved? Or do we just pretend nothing bad is happening?

 

STop telling Text to conform to well-established medical practices that have prevented millions of illnesses and have no causal link to autism!

 

QUESTION EVERYTHING!!!1!!11!1!1

[lostfan]

For fun, search Jenny McCarthy's name in Twitter.

[Balta1701]

STop telling Text to conform to well-established medical practices that have prevented millions of illnesses and have no causal link to autism!

 

QUESTION EVERYTHING!!!1!!11!1!1

Really, there's nothing wrong with actually questioning everything. That's the basis for science in the first place.

 

The problem is...if you're wrong, you're deliberately wrong, and people suffer because of it...why should you be protected?

 

Tex has stated a position that as far as I can tell would protect everyone in this case...that it should be ok for them all to have done what they did because it was a person's choice what to put in their bodies. I think we've seen what happens in that situation before; people put out toxic quack medicines that kill lots of people and make themselves solid amounts of money. The early part of the 20th century, pre-FDA, saw that all the time.

[StrangeSox]

Really, there's nothing wrong with actually questioning everything. That's the basis for science in the first place.

 

I'm not deriding skepticism. I'm deriding solipsism/however you want to define irrational, unwarranted skepticism beyond a reasonable level.

 

The problem is...if you're wrong, you're deliberately wrong, and people suffer because of it...why should you be protected?

 

Tex has stated a position that as far as I can tell would protect everyone in this case...that it should be ok for them all to have done what they did because it was a person's choice what to put in their bodies. I think we've seen what happens in that situation before; people put out toxic quack medicines that kill lots of people and make themselves solid amounts of money. The early part of the 20th century, pre-FDA, saw that all the time.

 

Exactly. McCarthy and the rest of the anti-vaccine movement have had a direct impact on the health of this country. And it's only in a negative way.

[Texsox]

STop telling Text to conform to well-established medical practices that have prevented millions of illnesses and have no causal link to autism!

 

QUESTION EVERYTHING!!!1!!11!1!1

 

Doctor says take ADD meds, take them.

Dermatologists says take birth control meds to help your complexion, take them.

Don't worry about your health, never question the Doctors, they are infallible.

 

Don't Question What Goes In Your Body!!!11!!!1!!

[Texsox]

Ok, so who takes responsibility then when a doctor takes a ton of money from a pharmaceutical company, deliberately falsifies his results, and creates a cult of people who follow his guidelines, and people die because of it? The parents? The Kids? The doctors? The company(ies) involved? Or do we just pretend nothing bad is happening?

 

Ok, so who takes responsibility then when a doctor takes money from a pharmaceutical company, trips to educational conferences, golf outings, theater tickets, then prescribes that companies meds and the patient experiences a negative outcome? The parents? The Kids? The doctors? The company(ies) involved? Or do we just pretend nothing bad is happening?

 

Take responsibility for what goes in your body. Ask questions, demand answers. Do a little research before going on a drug regiment.

 

But to each their own. I prefer to be informed before taking anything. Y'all blindly trust any Doctor

[Texsox]

And really, can anyone around here f***ing read? Where did I ever write I was anti-vaccine?

[NorthSideSox72]

This reminds me a bit of the airbag debate, back when they were a new fangled thing in cars.

 

Yes, its definitely OK and probably good to have a running undercurrent of questioning from the public. It tends to help dig up problems, and it keeps the providers more honest.

 

But remember the idiots, back in the early 90's or so, who pointed out the dozen or so deaths in a few years' time from airbags? And then the panic-driven frenzy that air bags were deadly? Nevermind that for every person that died because of air bag impact, another thousand or so would be saved... there were people for YEARS, who always had them disabled because of that panic, and no amount of sense or logic would deter them. Some people feel the same way about seat belts.

 

Vaccinations are demonstrably, obviously a good thing. But a little questioning and probing doesn't hurt either. Air bags did indeed get safer after all of that mess.

 

[Y2HH]

Penn & Teller sum up vaccinations quite brilliantly.