Andrew Wakefield and the Mmr Autism Fraud

ANDREW WAKEFIELD AND THE MMR AUTISM FRAUD In February 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist, published a search paper in which he relate autism and catgut disease to the measles, mumps, and three-day measles (MMR) vaccine creating a public health crisis in England and raising questions about vaccine safety in labor union America. Additional stu dashs commit since sh aver that the data presented was fraudulent, and after ten years of debate and investigation, Dr. Wakefield was discredited, his licence revoked and his research discarded.The damage, however, had been done vaccination rates in the change world argon down to such an extent that it has brought okay diseases that nonplus not been seen for decades. The article in the British medical journal The spear claimed that the three-in-one measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) was causing inflammatory bowel syndrome and encephalon damage in children. The five-page paper, which was backed by a press co nference, kindle substantial media interest. Dr.Wakefield reported on twelve cases of children with what he called regressive autism, who had been admitted to the royal stag Free Hospital in Hampstead (London) amidst July 1996 and February 1997, all within 14 days of receiving the MMR vaccine. These foregoingly healthy children, the ask claimed, suddenly lost elementary language and communication skills. Wakefield theorized that the three vaccines, given together, can alter a childs immune system, allowing the measles virus in the vaccine to infiltrate the intestines certain proteins, escaping from the intestines, could then reach and harm neurons in the brain. Its a moral issue for me, he announced at the 1998 press conference, where he advocated breaking up the two-fold MMR vaccine into unmarried measles, mumps and rubella shots, to be given at yearly intervals. I cant support the go on use of these three vaccines, given in combination, he said, until this issue has been r esolved. As the doctor campaigned, vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland dropped sharply. Wakefield supporters level(p) involved hot flash Minister Tony Blair by suggesting that his youngest son was not vaccinated with MMR.Although at the time, Mr. Blair refused to discourse the issue for privacy reasons, he did submit that, For the record, Cherie and I both totally support the advice, as we take on consistently said. It is not true that we trust the MMR vaccine to be dangerous or believe that it is better to have secernate injections, or believe that it is tie-ined to autism. On the contrary, the vaccine, which is used passim the world, helps prevent the spread of diseases that can, if contracted, cause very serious damage to children. It was later(prenominal) confirmed that Leo Blair had been inoculated. In November 2000, Wakefield appeared on CBS 60 Minutes, linking the epidemic of autism to the MMR vaccine. This delimitate off a spiral of theories that all vaccine s are suspect all due to their content, or because children receive too many of them at the uniform time. The US movement attracted celebrities such as actress Jenny McCarthy, who blamed MMR for her own sons autism. In 1983 the shot schedule was ten. Thats when autism was one in 10,000. Now theres 36, and autism is one in 150, she argued. All arrows point to one direction. Although the moment of children diagnosed with autism has increased dramatically over the last twenty years, it is difficult to say if this is due to improved diagnostic practices or an actual increased prevalence of the disease. Several major studies, however, have ruled out a link with vaccines The October 2004 edition of vaccine published a meta review that looked at cxx studies to assess potential side effects of the MMR vaccine. The authors concluded that a continuative between MMR and autism is unlikely. A 2005 study compared autism rates in lacquer before and after 1993, when the triple MMR vaccine was broken into three separate vaccines that are administered at different times. It was found that autism is still on the rise. In October 2005, the Cochrance Library published a review of 31 scientific studies, none of which found a link between MMR and either autism or bowel disease. Similarly, a 2007 review of independent studies performed after Wakefields publication in the Lancet demonstrated enkindle evidence against the hypothesis of associating MMR with autism.In addition to the provoke scientific evidence contradicting Wakefields claims, British journalist Brian Deer ascertained that in fact, the research had been funded to create evidence against the MMR vaccine. Wakefield had concealed, misreported and changed information about the children in his study. It turned out that two years before embarking on his research, he had been hired by a lawyer who planned to create big money from several class action lawsuits against companies manufacturing the triple MMR vaccine. I have mentioned to you before hat the prime objective is to produce unprocurable evidence in court so as to convince a court that these vaccines are dangerous, the lawyer reminded the doctor in a occult letter, six months before the Lancet report. The sunlight measure investigation in any case discovered that in June 1997, Wakefield had filed for a patent on a single measles vaccine for the success of which he needed to discredit the triple MMR. After the fraud came to light in February 2004, the Lancet retracted the evidence section of the report (they would eventually retract the whole article in 2010).From July 2007 to may 2010, the General Medical Council conducted the longest ever professional fluff hearing. Eventually, they revoked Dr. Wakefields medical licence, citing medical, scientific and ethical misconduct. So why do parents still believe in Wakefields hypothesis? Probably because anecdotes are more satisfying than scientific methodology, and the media are very good at coitus the bad story and very bad at telling the very story. In the UK and Ireland, fueled by sensationalist media coverage, MMR breathing in levels between 1998 and 2008 dropped from 92 percent to 73 percent. 5 percent vaccine uptake levels are required for herd immunity (i. e. , the point when diseases cannot spread in a population). In 2008, measles was declared endemic again in the UK. There were a total of 1,348 cases that year, up 36 per cent from the previous year and up a staggering 2,400 per cent from 1998, when there were retri thatory 56 cases. In 2006 a 13-year-old boy became the first person to die of measles in Britain since 1992, with a second child dying in 2008. In the United States, the herd immunity is crumbling as states make it easier for parents to choose out of the vaccinations that are usually required to enroll in school.A study published in the journal Pediatrics (2010) by researchers from the University of Michigan showed that 12 percent of pa rents have refused at least one recommended vaccine for their children. As a result, diseases such as whooping cough and measles are do a comeback. In 2010, 9,500 cases of whooping cough were reported in California, the most in 65 years. Ten patients died, all of them infants too young to be vaccinated. And even though measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000, 2011 sawing machine the highest number of measles cases in 15 years. None of these cases resulted in death, but one out of three people had to be hospitalized.This then is Andrew Wakefields legacy an elaborate hoax for financial gain that has set back the medical clock 100 years for millions of children whose parents refuse to accept overwhelming and sound scientific evidence and would rather expose them to the very real dangers of infectious disease. Another casualty, ironically, is autism itself. Significant time, energy and financial resources were wasted that could have been spent on research and developing new treatments. Mr. Wakefield has taken up residence in an affluent suburb of Austin, Texas. Although not allowed to practice medicine, he still lectures to an adoring audience. To our community, Andrew Wakefield is Nelson Mandela and Jesus Christ rolled up into one, agree to J. B. Handley of Generation Rescue. The WHO estimates that 380 people die of measles every day. ? SOURCES Ahmed, Kamal. Blair Baby Has Had MMR Jab. The defender 23 December 2001. Asaithambi, Rathi. Time to Get Tough on vaccine Refusal. Baltimore Sun 11 April 2012. Chivers, Tom. MMR Autism Scare So, Farewell Then, Dr Andrew Wakefield. The Telegraph 24 May 2010. Deer, Brian. MMR The Truth behind the Crisis. The Sunday Times 14 November 2004. Deer, Brian. Revealed MMR Research Scandal. The Sunday Times 22 February 2004. DeStefano, F. Vaccines and Autism Evidence Does Not Support a causal Association. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics December 2007 756-759. Dominus, Susan. The Crash and Burn of an Autism G uru. The New York Times 20 April 2011. Freeper, Berlin. The Autism Vaccine Hoax. The Wall Street Journal 8 January 2011. Mascarelli, Amanda. Vaccine Opt-Outs Causing Breaks in Herd Immunity. Los Angeles Times 5 August 2011. Sifferlin, Alexandria. rubeola 2011 Was the Worst in the U. S. in 15 Years. Time 19 April 2012.