Posted on 01/06/2011 7:22:02 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Some may wonder why anyone still wondered about the credibility of an infamous study conducted by Andrew Wakefield and published by The Lancet that purported to show a link between vaccinations and autism. Two years ago, the Times of London published its exposé of Wakefield’s “research,” in which Wakefield faked data and drew conclusions from a ridiculously small sample — a fact that should have warned the Lancet to refuse publication in the first place, even if Wakefield hadn’t faked the data. However, belief in Wakefield’s claims continues, even after Reason addressed the issue in May 2010 once again as anti-vaccination advocates insisted that Wakefield’s research was valid and that the Times debunking was either incorrect or a sellout to Big Pharma.
This time, it’s Wakefield’s colleagues in medicine who are calling him a fraud:
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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.
How much will this declaration push back against the anti-vaccination industry? When this study first got published, it worried a lot of parents, who reasonably thought that a peer-reviewed study in The Lancet carried some scientific weight, an assumption we’ve learned since that time was sorely mistaken. As Sanjay Gupta says at the end, much of this has been known for almost two years, and even before the Times reported on Wakefield’s fraud, the study’s size and methodology had been considered very suspect, especially for its sweeping conclusion on a disease that’s still not well understood.
After that report, though, some continued to insist on opposing vaccinations in a movement that began to look a lot more like a religious movement than a rational response to scientific data. Take a look again at the Reason video from May (or watch the very NSFW takedown by Penn & Teller on their BS show) to see exactly who this announcement needs to convince. Will it change people’s minds about a supposed link whose connection never got substantiated in any subsequent study to have it called a fraud? It will certainly convince the rational, but those almost certainly changed their minds about vaccinations after the February 2009 exposure of Wakefield’s fraud. Having his colleagues in medical research call this “one of the greatest frauds in science” will certainly help spread the word, but don’t expect people with this much invested in their belief of eeeeeevil pharmaceutical companies to go willingly into the light.
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Sounds like anti-depressant research.
We will get some of the shoots and will not get most.
How it goes from a handful to tens of shots seems more like business than medicine.
In CA there is a form you have to present to school or they will not take them.
Hepatitis B vaccine:
So true. There are big bucks in medical/scientific fraud.
A fraud conducted in peer reviewed journals.
The same form is required in Florida as well. Get the required ones and also ask for the form each time (here it’s called the blue form) and have the pediatrician sign off on it. They are required to keep a copy as well. This will save you a trip and charge to get the form when you need it. If you can get two original copies signed. You’ll need the extra for 7th grade. You can get that TB booster for “free” (after paying thousands in State property and sales taxes) at the local health clinic. Just don’t touch anything while you are there ;D!
Happy parenting!
Science stakes its reputation on the peer review system.
The peer review system is broken. This is well know dirty little secret in the science community.
I have 50 years on my little guy so you know it’s fun. :-)
It’s much easier if you don’t send them to daycare or school, particularly daycare. Many of the vaccinations are for illnesses that are primarily transmitted in daycare centers. Others, such as the chicken-pox vaccine, are oriented toward reducing school absenteeism (and parents’ corresponding work absenteeism).
I get the children vaccinated mainly for the stuff that will kill you, like meningitis and polio, and I get them fewer at a time and at older ages than the schools require.
In a recent look into papers that were retracted due to errors or fraud I played with the numbers and figured out that an individual American is many times more likely to be murdered over the next year than an individual American scientific paper is likely to be found to be fraudulent.
So pick up an American scientific paper, and look at your neighbor. Your neighbor is much more likely to be murdered during the next 365 days than the paper is likely to be fraudulent.
Although there is fraud in science, just as there is murder in America, it isn’t really that common.
We try to avoid his contact with people who seem sick, but outside of that we don't worry about it because he needs to build an immune system as well.
His mom fed him till two a few months ago, so he had an extra level of protection.
He’s gotten over some nasty bugs quick and he's been sick several times from contact germs.
I've been on the run since before December 15. The wife was finishing up a semester at school, on her final day she got the flu. I was to get some bit of time off but instead had to do even more.
First the baby was sick, then mom, then we went on vacation in Vegas for Xmas, came home, mom went out of country for a few days and then she came back and school started up again.
I start over at USC again in a few days on Monday.
Between watching baby, living life, covering for wife so she can study and go to school many hours a day, then sicknesses, life has been a bit rough lately.
We are grateful to be employed in this economy. We don't trust all these shots and like you will only seek out the most important ones.
Enjoy him. Their childhood goes so fast it will make your head spin! My baby is 15 now going off with her friends and their parents to Lake Tahoe for a ski trip next month. I’m worrying about her staying warm like she’s still three. It’s enough to make a grown man or woman cry!
P.S. Be sure to buy him one of those electric jeeps when he’s four or so. You’ll never smile like that in your life and neither will he!
Oh yeah! Ours saw her first car when her older cousin got one for Christmas. When she finally got hers a few years later the look on her face was priceless! She stayed in that thing for hours. She wore a road along the side of our home.
It seems to me that they’re trying to vaccinate against anything that might cause the children to miss a day or two of daycare. And I think they load them up with six shots a visit because parents are too damn busy to come in more than once.
I move at my own speed with vaccines and my kids never get more than two at a time. It’s a hassle having to go in several times a years, but it’s better for them. I also nix several of the shots, my day old baby does NOT need a Hep B vaccine.
This study having faked data does not prove that giving tens of vaccines to newborn children at 2, 4, and 6 months old is safe.
Every vaccine has preservatives, adjuvants, media, as well as the toxins or viruses for the body to supposedly learn to fight off.
Very few vaccines are real immunizations.
Some are very valuable, after 2 years of age when the immune system is a bit more mature, because the child will either probably not get the disease for about 5 years, or get a lesser case.
But don’t kid yourself. Any immune effects will wear off soon, and some will not take at all. The hoopla (sorry) about whooping cough is silly because recently vaccinated people can pass the disease better to others than those with intact, unvaccinated immune systems. The vaccine only prevents part of the pertussis toxin so the vaccinated will get a lesser case and most likely not know it was pertussis. This they will be out and about, passing it on. They also have less of a chance to fight it off than the unvaccinated.
Each vaccine is so complicated. There isn’t any black and white. Even if vaccination does not even contribute to autism, which is probably not true, it is not pure and safe to put all these things into a newborn’s system. No doubt it will affect his immune system for life, possibly setting him up for chro ic and autoimmune conditions.
I recommend serious independent biological and immunological research before vaccinating newborns. Or at the very least, keeping your baby out of group daycare and only vaccinating after age 2.
They use to combine? Lawyers put a stop to it? Do you have kids that have needed vaccines lately? There are more combined vaccines than ever. The numbers keep increasing. They are not going down.
I don’t really care about the autism thing as that is not why I am suspect. The massive amount of vaccinations on a brand new immune system is more than enough reason to delay and or avoid.
They use to combine? Lawyers put a stop to it? Do you have kids that have needed vaccines lately? There are more combined vaccines than ever. The numbers keep increasing. They are not going down.
I don’t really care about the autism thing as that is not why I am suspect. The massive amount of vaccinations on a brand new immune system is more than enough reason to delay and or avoid.
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