Andrew Wakefield: the last gasps of a desperate man?

[HuckleB]

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/01/andrew-wakefield-the-last-gasps-of-a-desperate-man/

"In his interview on Anderson Cooper 360 last night, Andrew Wakefield made some amazing claims against Brian Deer, claiming Brian Deer is part of some vast conspiracy. He wants to distance himself from the word, but that’s what he’s claiming with phrases like “He’s a hit man, he’s been brought in to take me down”, “It’s a ruthless pragmatic attempt…” “Who’s paying this man, I don’t know” and a claim that Mr. Deer is paid by the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries.

Anderson Cooper has Brian Deer on tonight:

Brian Deer throws down the gauntlet and challenges Andrew Wakefield to sue him. Wakefield has already brought forth one case against Mr. Deer—and he forced to pay Brian Deer’s legal fees. Mr. Wakefield brought forth a lengthy complaint to the UK’s press complaints commission, only to abandon it without attempting to prosecute the complaint.

He also goes through a number of Mr. Wakefield’s attacks and shows that they are false.

..."

[HuckleB]

1. The National Autism Association tries and fails to defend Andrew Wakefield’s fraud

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/01/the-national-autism-association-tries-and-fails-to-defend-andrew-wakefields-fraud/

"Of the groups pushing the vaccines-caused-an-epidemic-of-autism idea, the National Autism Association stands out. In a good way. They are the one group that actually has a non-vaccine segment to their agenda. They presented recently at the IACC on issues of safety. Unfortunately, they are stuck in the vaccine-causation debates of 10 years ago. Case in point: coincident with the lifting of the embargo on the BMJ’s pieces on Andrew Wakefield (e.g. How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed) the NAA put out a statement defending Mr. Wakefield. (National Autism Association Says BMJ Article is Yet Another Attempt to Thwart Vaccine Safety Research)

As a part of this defense, they claim that Mr. Wakefield’s research has been replicated. The claim has been made before and upon scrutiny shown to be false.

...

None of these papers is a replication of Mr. Wakefield’s work. And this is the best that the NAA can do to support Mr. Wakefield’s work, given 12 years of research since his paper in the Lancet. It also avoids the very clear problem with trying to “replicate” or “confirm” work that was fraudulent to begin with.

What is even more strange is that the NAA goes on in their piece to discuss the hypothesized link between autism and vaccines. Strange because Mr. Wakefield has been strenuously distancing himself from the impression that his paper “proved” a link between autism and vaccines.

..."

[sharp_stick]

2. If only they were the last gasps

I can see the anti-vax groups supporting this guy for a long time to come.

I don't know what started Wakefield in this direction but he's gone too far now to turn back.

When I was an undergrad there was a grad student and post-doc in the lab of a departmental colleague who were "let go" for scientific misconduct. The way I understand it, they started off with some really interesting and unusual finding. From this they came up with a unique hypothesis all with the support of the lab supervisor and the grad students committee. The problems started shortly after that when the data wasn't conforming to the hypothesis and instead of changing the hypothesis to something a little less interesting but honest they manipulated the data to make it look like the hypothesis was correct. This went on for quite some time before the truth came out and to them it started out as just a little bit of cheating that eventually turned their entire "careers" into a lie.

[HuckleB]

4. I don't disagree.

This quote says it all:

"The problem is that Mr. Wakefield’s audience is not the scientific community. The damage he does is not within or to the science community. The damage is to public health and to the autism communities. I am hopeful that this paper in the BMJ will reduce what credibility Mr. Wakefield still has and the damage he is causing."

From:
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/01/seth-mnookin-responds-to-andrew-wakefield-on-cnn/

[laconicsax]

5. About reducing Wakefield's credibility...

You can't tarnish a rusty blade.

[HuckleB]

7. All too true.

;toast:

[HuckleB]

3. Seth Mnookin responds to Andrew Wakefield on CNN

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/01/seth-mnookin-responds-to-andrew-wakefield-on-cnn/

"...

They note this in the story, but I will point it out again here: Andrew Wakefield would not appear together with Mr. Mnookin. This isn’t new. Last year the program “The Doctors” had a program with Jenny McCarthy, J.B. Handley, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel and others—where they only agreed to go on air if the there were no people with opposing views present.

Mr. Mnookin points out that Mr. Wakefield tried to frame the story as a single reporter (Brian Deer) “out to get him”.

He has framed this consistently as this one renegade journalist who’s out to get him. In fact, there was a British—the Medical Research Council, which licenses doctors in the U.K., spent two-and-a- half years looking into his work. It was the longest investigation they had ever done.

..."

[LeftishBrit]

6. Yes

It is NOT just Brian Deer who has discredited Wakefield.

In any case, even if there had been no fraud, Wakefield's study was simply bad and undeserving of publication, an opinion that I formed when reading it long ago. Only 12 children, and no control group: i.e. how many *non*-autistic children might have been found to have measles virus in the gut? And all of these children were selected for having both autism and bowel disease, making it impossible to tell which of these (if either) was associated with measles virus. One paper that slipped through the peer-review net, and then was taken up by very irresponsible British tabloid writers.

[HuckleB]

8. Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses

http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/48/4/456.full

"Although child vaccination rates remain high, some parental concern persists that vaccines might cause autism. Three specific hypotheses have been proposed: (1) the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine causes autism by damaging the intestinal lining, which allows the entrance of encephalopathic proteins; (2) thimerosal, an ethylmercury-containing preservative in some vaccines, is toxic to the central nervous system; and (3) the simultaneous administration of multiple vaccines overwhelms or weakens the immune system. We will discuss the genesis of each of these theories and review the relevant epidemiological evidence.

A worldwide increase in the rate of autism diagnoses—likely driven by broadened diagnostic criteria and increased awareness—has fueled concerns that an environmental exposure like vaccines might cause autism. Theories for this putative association have centered on the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, thimerosal, and the large number of vaccines currently administered. However, both epidemiological and biological studies fail to support these claims."

Full paper can be read at the link.

[laconicsax]

9. They left one hypothesis out.

I believe it was suggested by a neurologist:

The MMR vaccine turns 'perfectly healthy' children with 'no underlying conditions' autistic cash cows.

Oh, and FORMALDEHYDE! FORMALDEHYDE! FORMALDEHYDE!

[HuckleB]

10. But, but... BIG PHARMA! BIG PHARMA! BIG PHARMA!

Fact checking the Age of Autism’s defense of Andrew Wakefield
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/01/fact-checking-the-age-of-autisms-defense-of-andrew-wakefield/