MMR doctor 'to face GMC charges' (BBC) {autism, vaccine link unproven}

[eppur_se_muova]

The doctor who first suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism is to be charged with serious professional misconduct, it is reported.

The Independent newspaper reports that the General Medical Council will accuse Mr Andrew Wakefield of carrying out "inadequately founded" research.

Vaccination rates fell sharply after Dr Wakefield questioned the safety of MMR, raising fears of a measles epidemic.

His initial Lancet paper has since been disowned by the journal.
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The Independent reports that Mr Wakefield will face four charges: that he published inadequately founded research, failed to obtain ethical committee approval for the work, obtained funding for it improperly, and subjected children to "unnecessary and invasive investigations".
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5070670.stm

[Maraya1969]

1. I heard on the TV that 1 in 166 children will develop Autism. I wonder`

What the statistics were in the 50's? Many people link it to mercury and mercury is present in vaccines so I hear.

This link is about Mercury in the environment and how the levels have risen in the last several years.

http://www.mercola.com/2005/apr/2/autism_mercury.htm

The vaccine they use now is called MMR for Measles, Mumps and Rubella. I don't know about Rubella but in the 60's when I was a kid everyone got Measles and Mumps and we didn't die from them. Maybe they cause other problems but they just seemed like they were the childhood diseases you were supposed to get.

[trotsky]

2. Problem with that theory is that mercury is not, and never has been,

in the MMR vaccine.

I don't know about Rubella but in the 60's when I was a kid everyone got Measles and Mumps and we didn't die from them.

Rubella itself is not a terribly fatal disease. Except if you are a pregnant woman, and then it's either fatal or causes severe birth defects for the fetus. Measles and mumps not often fatal either, it was the complications from infection (and resulting high fever) that spurred a vaccine. Mumps can cause sterility in men, for instance.

We must be on guard against romanticizing the past and thinking these diseases weren't that bad. They were far, far worse than ANY danger that vaccines pose - even the imagined ones.

[Snow]

3. Talk about thimerasol exposure in the '50s

every time I skinned a knee or an elbow, my mother slathered thimerasol all over the scrape. It was red/pink and stung, but her feel better. And that happened to doggone near every other kid in the US in the 50s. Is that a less effective way of getting thimerasol into your system than the amount that's present in some vaccines as a preservative? Dunno - but you sure don't hear much about it.

[trotsky]

4. Not to mention the diagnosis factor.

Oh yeah, that'll get the anti-vax crusaders groaning, but it's a fact: autism spectrum disorders are much more likely to be recognized and diagnosed than ever. Years ago, it was just your weird uncle who had an obsession with model trains and never married. Or that strange cousin that didn't talk to anyone. Plus a diagnosis of autism doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with you, or anything that will prevent you from leading a perfectly normal life. People throw this "1 in 166" figure around like vaccines are making 1 out of every 166 children functionally disabled.

[Warpy]

6. That was merthiolate or mercurachrome

Again, completely different animals from thimerosol and perfectly OK as topical disinfectants.

[Trillo]

7. It appears merthiolate is thimerosal

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c2coff=1&safe=off&as_qdr=all&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=+merthiolate+thimerosal&spell=1

[Snow]

8. Indeed it was,

but as Simpletrend points out, merthiolate and mercurachrome were ethylmercury, thimerasol. And it was being applied to open wounds.

[Warpy]

5. I almost died from measles

It can spread to the brain and mine did. I was in a coma for over a week. One of my friends did die in that epidemic.

Don't give me that crap about safe diseases. They are not.

Environmental mercury from mine tailings, coal burnings, and contaminated predator fish is a completely different animal from the trace amounts found in thimerosol preserved vaccines.

This has been done to death, researched by pediatric neurologists completely unconnected to Big Pill. NO CORRELATION has ever been found.

I'm glad that guy is finally being prosecuted for starting this crap. Who knows how many kids he killed with his stupid alarmism and faked research?

[Radio_Lady]

9. This is scary -- "he had now moved to the US"...will he practice medicine?