Researcher Fabricated Autism Link In Vaccine
Posted by JeanneSager at 10:30 AM on February 9, 2009
The man who launched a decade’s-long fear for parents heading to have their children vaccinated has been proven a forgery.
The Sunday Times revealed the results of an investigation today showing Andrew Wakefield, the man who posited that the MMR vaccine was at the root of the increased autism diagnoses, fabricated his research.
Published in 1998 in The Lancet, the study claimed eight out of twelve children vaccinated with the MMR innoculation began showing symptoms that fall somewhere on the autism spectrum within days of getting the shot. It was performed at the same time as another study, for which Wakefield was paid, that was supposed to help parents who believed there was a link between the two put up a legal case. Some of the kids were used in both studies, and Wakefield has often been accused of crossing a clear ethical boundary in performing both studies.
The study has borne numerous attacks over the years – in part because it included just twelve children – but it is the most-often quoted piece of evidence by parents who point a finger at pro-vax parents as risking their kids’ lives (this despite studies published in the time period since that have debunked his story). The investigation by the Times is just another nail in the coffin for that line of thinking. The investigation revealed that in most of the twelve cases, the ailments described in Wakefield’s published reports were different from their hospital and general practitioner records.
From the Times: “Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated.”
I feel for parents of autistic children who are searching for a reason. Autism is very real and equally terrifying, but as a parent who has vaccinated her child, I have always bristled at the inference that I am
a bad parent for making that choice – with so little evidence to support their claims.
Image: USA Today
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“Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated.”
So then one out of 12 healthy children vaccinated with MMR immediately developed autism afterwards. Interesting.
As a parent, are you willing to take those odds? 1:12
I guess you’d have to be a parent of a child who regressed into autism after a vaccine to know exactly what the true risk is.
“Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated.”
One out of twelve.
Ughhh. bensmyson, just because the symptoms in that one child appeared after a vaccination doesn’t mean the vaccination caused them. Symptoms may occur after solid food was first introduced, that doesn’t mean food causes autism. The allegation is that in 11/12 cases the researcher(s) were lying.
Did you miss this bit?
“medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated”
That means it wasn’t “one out of 12 healthy children”, but “one out of 12 children who already exhibited early signs of autism”.
I don’t know the numbers involved, but I suspect they are very, very small. And to say the vaccine causes autism in kids who already have it? That’s a stretch…