How a zealot’s word led us astray on autism

[SarahB]

A dozen years ago, a British physician named Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a paper in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet that did immeasurable harm to children.

Wakefield, who back in 1998 was working at London’s Royal Free Hospital, claimed in the article that the vaccination of 12 children with measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine had caused a reaction in their bowels that caused autism.

At a press conference shortly after the paper came out, Wakefield urged parents not to give their children the combination vaccine.

The British press went crazy over the report. The word and the fear quickly spread around the world.

Since the controversial paper was published, British parents abandoned the vaccine in droves, leading to a resurgence of measles. Vaccination rates for measles have never recovered, and there are outbreaks of the disease in the U.K. every year.

And across the globe, millions of parents who choose to follow their own doctors' advice and vaccinate their children have had to face the anxiety of an alleged link to a dread disease.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35218819/ns/health-health_care/

In my opinion, they're too charitable. Wakefield is a rank opportunist who had a patent on a competing vaccine (yes, he was part of "Big Pharma", ironically) and used a false study to scare monger in a deadly money-making scheme.

Anyone who still is pushing the "vaccine cause autism" meme after this has just as much blood on their hands as Dr. Wakefield.

[TheWraith]

1. True, but some people will still choose not to believe science.

Faith-based medicine. :eyes:

[stopbush]

11. There are penty of those types here on DU.

[TheWraith]

13. Regrettably so.

Our claim to be the reality-based side, while infinitely better than the Republicans, isn't 100% accurate.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. He is a disgrace to the medical profession...

Did he never hear "First, do no harm"?

He should be stripped of his medical degree and punished.

All his ill-gotten gains should be confiscated as well...

Shame on him.

[xchrom]

3. Recomme

[endless october]

4. he had a lot of help from the natural medicine blogs as well.

and i used to sort of like those before they lost their MINDS over anti-vax woo-woo nonsense.

now i see an article on natural news about something totally unrelated that i might be interested in and i don't even click it. and they went so fucking nuts over spreading anti-vax nonsense about the H1N1 vaccine that i most likely won't ever trust them again.

[stray cat]

5. Lead like brainless lemmings maybe

[progressoid]

6. I'm sure Jenny McCarthy will go on Oprah and straighten everything out.

:eyes:

[Robyn66]

10. Jenny McCarthy just makes me ANGRY!

Her "my child is broken" "cure autism" bullshit makes me insane!

:mad: :nuke:

[concerned1]

7. The good doctor is still doing irreproducible research - in Austin:

http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/staff/

Dr. Andrew Wakefield - is the Executive Director of Thoughtful House Center for Children. His extensive background in research, including the publication of over one hundred forty original scientific articles, book chapters, and invited scientific commentaries, makes him uniquely qualified to lead the research program at Thoughtful House...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. Thank you for your post...

And welcome to DU!

That so-called doctor needs to be put out of business.

[Canuckistanian]

9. We stopped believing in it a long time ago

When the FIRST small studies said there were no obvious links.

Since then there have been some large studies. Now it isn't even being discussed in our autism group.

[apocalypsehow]

12. In Before the Mighty Roiling Flames Commence. (And Rec, BTW).

:popcorn:

[SarahB]

14. I can't help but notice that the anti-vaccine crowd has been absent from these threads.

What could it mean, I wonder?