MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism

The BBC reported this just today:

THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

I know some will cry conspiracy, but to be honest the "MMR vaccine causes autism" just didn't hold up. I was a military brat, and we got shots (with mercury in them) every single year while we were growing up... ever since we were tiny infants. This isn't a mere 12 children, it's thousands and thousands of children worldwide... and they've had the vaccination programs since the 1940's, so that's 60 years of injections on thousands of kids each year.

And yet the rate of autism on military bases is no higher than anywhere else.

Children of missionaries (more shots) don't show unusual numbers of autistics.

Children of diplomats (ditto) don't show unusual numbers of autistics.

I'm not surprised, but I have a very low opinion of this medical fraudster.

Ive been convinced that this has been a red herring for some time.

As you note military dependants have the same rate of autism as the general population despite more exposure to thmerisol.

European countries removed it years ago and the rise in cases mirrors the US.

Its been out of US vaccines (Except the flu shot) for years and the rise has not changed.

The anti vaccine crowd seems to ignore the changed diagnostic criteria and the refinement of the whole Autism Spectrum.

Autism's such a broad spectrum disorder that it clouds the issue in some cases (IMHO). The truly deep sort is fairly rare (where the child is almost completely unresponsive) -- high functioning ones are more common. I taught two high functioning autistic children, and they were both delightful (but the parents knew how to deal with the behavior.)

I have often thought that further defining it might provide some insight. I don't entirely rule out socio-environmental factors as making things worse, but I lean more towards genetics. I'm not sure how many broad-spectrum map studies have been done and how many have been done across time.

Again, the problem is that some time ago they would just be considered "weird" rather than "autistic spectrum disorder."

Well, as far as the vaccine causing autism, I have heard the debates going back and forth for ages now. I know only from personal experience, that the timing of my son's ASD (he has Childhood Disintigrative Disorder) started within 2 months of having a vaccination.

Before that time, he was completely normal, and in fact, ahead of the curves in most areas. Then, suddenly, within a period of 2 months, lost everything. And still loses everything in cycles. It's a horrid disorder, and we've had to deal with a lot of trauma with him, but we're getting through.

As I said, I can't say for sure that the vaccine caused it, there's plenty of other factors which may have. My 2 daughters had their vaccines as normal, and are fine. So, related? I can't prove it either way. The timing was quite funny there to say the least, and it makes me wonder, but.... I'm also not going to scream "THE VACCINES DID IT!!" That's sensationalism, and just trying to place blame. When you have no way to prove it, and only a suspicion, and no one else is seeing reliable proof, then it really is difficult to justify.

There's a lot of environmental factors that can contribute to autism, none of which we can control nor predict, and I, personally, think it's on the rise because of a great many factors going on in the atmosphere, the water, the ground, the amount of electricity we are being surrounded by constantly, etc etc.. we can't say what will affect and what will not, when dealing with our bodies and brains. The amount of frequencies our brains are being hit with on a daily basis is far higher now than it ever has been... and you don't think that will have an effect on the developing brain of a child?

I think the answer probably lies somewhere in one of those factors. The vaccines? No, I don't think so. Maybe doesn't HELP things, but I don't think it's a direct cause.


Anyhow, it's sickening, indeed, when a doctor will falsify records to prove a point. If he had done it to my son, I would put a serious hurting on him. My son is not a lab rat, and certainly is not there to beef up your scores, whatever case you're tryng to build.

[edit on 8-2-2009 by Jomina]

reply to post by Byrd


Who says that all vaccines cause Autism? That actually would be a simplified argument, some vaccines cause Autism and a variety of mental problems, the reason why it should be priority number one, not dismissing everyone that reports the facts of a child getting shots and going into convulsions and then turning Autistic immediately after.

Maybe some kids go into Autism from some vaccines in some batches, like many people that also get sickened from salmonella or get food posioning, the idea that it doesn't happen at all, will be in the future where the argument exists, these science quacks that deny everything about their precious drugs being harmful are the problem. Gee, some people have allergies, does that mean everyone has them too? But these doctors and scientists trying to debunk something that can't be explained away engage in wishful thinking that they harm nobody at all. Sure I wouldn't want to accept the fact that I caused some kids Autism, that would mean that I would have to alter my practices and that would affect my pocket book and my professionsl standing amongst my "groupthink" peers. They can't know for certain why these vaccines might damage these kids because they can't figure out the reasons, so everyone blames something other than themselves.
Assuming drugs are manufactured perfectly everytime would be like assuming no childrens' toys have lead in them, or that all tires are perfectly made, or that all foods are safe to eat since they are available in the stores.

reply to post by FredT


There also happens to be mercury in High Fructose Syrup, so maybe the mercury could be in all kinds of junk these kids are ingesting? Maybe it could be in the air if your town has a garbage incinerator....add a little lead in the toys the kids are chewing on and bang! There you have your synergy going on under the radar, out of view of the public and the scientists eyes. Our food industry appears just as slick as our drug industry and neither of them manufacture perfect foods with immaculate production processes, maybe people can sell the public toxic junk in their food and they can even add flouride into the water as a once waste product of aluminum production and tell everyone that ingesting it will make their teeth pretty. People as George Carlin said "are dumb".

I've heard before that Mercury is poisonous to humans.. is this correct?

Because I had a route canal like 5 years ago, and the idiot dentist apparently used mercury.

Can anyone tell me the risk of this element? .. or why it is used in the first place in any medical procedure?

Originally posted by Jomina
Well, as far as the vaccine causing autism, I have heard the debates going back and forth for ages now. I know only from personal experience, that the timing of my son's ASD (he has Childhood Disintigrative Disorder) started within 2 months of having a vaccination.

First note... I'm so sorry you and your family are facing this. It's terribly traumatic and I hope you have a medical team that you like and trust.

There's a lot of environmental factors that can contribute to autism, none of which we can control nor predict, and I, personally, think it's on the rise because of a great many factors going on in the atmosphere, the water, the ground, the amount of electricity we are being surrounded by constantly, etc etc.. we can't say what will affect and what will not, when dealing with our bodies and brains. The amount of frequencies our brains are being hit with on a daily basis is far higher now than it ever has been... and you don't think that will have an effect on the developing brain of a child?

This is something I've wondered about, but the problem in studying it is that the diagnosis is new (so they might have been labeled "retarded" or something else 40 years ago)

I do wonder about the development issue -- is there a point at which some sort of neurological connections are supposed to be forming in the brain and the wiring goes "off" somehow? The one family member we have who is severely autistic was "normal" for the first 3 months of his life (or so they said... I kept telling my husband that I thought something was wrong with the baby from the first time I saw him at a few weeks old).

But I'm no MD.

Anyhow, it's sickening, indeed, when a doctor will falsify records to prove a point. If he had done it to my son, I would put a serious hurting on him. My son is not a lab rat, and certainly is not there to beef up your scores, whatever case you're tryng to build.

Well said! I hope that there's a review of this and that he loses his license.

Sadly, some scientists and researchers do fake data (which is why we're so cautious about accepting early reports)... for fame, glory, and who knows what else. But it's a horrible price they inflict on society and I am beginning to have the opinion that they need to face civil penalties.

Bad experimental setup occurs -- that shouldn't be punished (although they should be taken apart by their colleagues.) Sometimes you just happen to pick a sample that is biased (because you're using 10 or 20 cases and by coincidence you get a high percentage of what you're looking for.)

But outright fraud, frankly, needs to be hauled to court and some heavy legal and financial slapping needs to be done.

Originally posted by Majorion
I've heard before that Mercury is poisonous to humans.. is this correct?

Correct. HOWEVER, lots of things (including water) are poisonous to humans if taken in sufficiently large doses. To find out how poisonous something is, look for the "MSDS data sheet" on it.

So here it is for the element mercury:
www.jtbaker.com...

In compounds it may be more toxic or less toxic. You have to check the MSDS to find out what's going on.

Because I had a route canal like 5 years ago, and the idiot dentist apparently used mercury.

That's interesting, because mercury based fillings haven't been used for quite awhile. Mercury-based antiseptic compounds (which have just tiny trace amounts of the elements) are still being used (like "mercurichrome") but there's not enough there to do more than kill local surface germs.

Can anyone tell me the risk of this element? .. or why it is used in the first place in any medical procedure?

It's a very effective germicide.

Thank you Byrd, you've been very informative. That link you provided about the MSDS data is very helpful indeed.

Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, it may have been the compound Mercurochrome.

Majorion

More is developing on the story -- including that Wakefield was hired by a lawyer originally who intended to sue about the vaccines:

February 1996 A solicitor, Richard Barr, hires Andrew Wakefield at £150 per hour to support a legal attack on MMR makers as some parents raise concerns over the vaccine

www.timesonline.co.uk...

Nice find, Byrd, and thanks for posting this!

What's really distressing to me is how much damage has been done by this one episode of fraud – it has become almost impossible to even discuss the safety of vaccines because the accusations that they were responsible for rising autism rates have so completely polarized the issue.

I agree that misrepresentation of data in a medical study should be severely punished. The peer review process should take care of the honest mistakes – poor study design, a small sample being skewed through no fault of the researcher, whatever. And an inability to reproduce results should take care of the rest of the bad science.

But in this case we see that in a sufficiently emotional area, with a sufficiently subjective diagnosis, the panic continued despite repeated failures to reproduce the data.

I hope that this news will start to turn the trend away from hysteria over vaccines. I wonder what the introduction of the HPV vaccine would have looked like if the entire vaccination issue hadn't been so politicized during these years – I think it's possible that the HPV vaccine (which I think was released too early and pushed too hard) would have faced a more skeptical reception among scientists if it hadn't been so desirable to show a "successful" vaccine.

Just for the record, it wasn't the mercury they were blaming, but the MMR itself.

And these quotes are from the study: here

We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described. Virological studies are underway that may help to resolve this issue.

We have identified a chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuropsychiatric dysfunction. In most cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation. Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine.

So the study (legit or not) wasn't as inflammatory as the media made it seem.




Before you rule out the MMR/Autism link totally, you might want to take a look here

Because many autistic children harbor elevated levels of measles antibodies

analysis showed a significant increase in the level of MMR antibodies in autistic children

suggesting a strong association between MMR and CNS autoimmunity in autism. Stemming from this evidence, we suggest that an inappropriate antibody response to MMR, specifically the measles component thereof, might be related to pathogenesis of autism.

There have been a few studies showing elevated measles antibodies in people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. It can take a while to find them because you have to wade through all the articles on "the Autism/Vaccination fight". I'll keep searching and add links when I find more.

Originally posted by Byrd
The BBC reported this just today:

THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.

www.timesonline.co.uk...

I know some will cry conspiracy, but to be honest the "MMR vaccine causes autism" just didn't hold up. I was a military brat, and we got shots (with mercury in them) every single year while we were growing up... ever since we were tiny infants. This isn't a mere 12 children, it's thousands and thousands of children worldwide... and they've had the vaccination programs since the 1940's, so that's 60 years of injections on thousands of kids each year.

And yet the rate of autism on military bases is no higher than anywhere else.

Children of missionaries (more shots) don't show unusual numbers of autistics.

Children of diplomats (ditto) don't show unusual numbers of autistics.

I'm not surprised, but I have a very low opinion of this medical fraudster.

A smear campaign was launched against Wakefield to discredit him by Big Pharma as they would lose billions $$$ in lost sales.

Anyone who points out their nasty chemicals side effects is discredited.

they have been inviting a lot of reporters to free lunches and conferences.

did you not hear the massive fraud that big pharma are doing by getting their own employees reviewing/approving their own drugs?

some of the "REVIEWERS" were non-existent and some were on their own payroll.

some people had been paid $10000 to $50000 to "append" their name to big pharma self review paper findings.

so before pointing at wakefield point at the corrupt pharma and vaccine companies.

did you not know 245000 americans are killed by side effects from prescription drugs every year in america alone.

3500 millionaires killed by terrorists on 11/9 and 24/7 publicity since 5 years ago.60 million hours of publicity.

245000 killed by big pharma, zero publicity.

How do you think it is that one of our students in Pre-K became retarded after her shots and they won a lawsuit against the government???
If the disclaimer in the paperwork that the parents signed, STATED that some children can have 'reactions'?

Originally posted by Clearskies
How do you think it is that one of our students in Pre-K became retarded after her shots and they won a lawsuit against the government???
If the disclaimer in the paperwork that the parents signed, STATED that some children can have 'reactions'?

yes.you are correct.

huge numbers of people injured/killed by vaccines.

look at this:-

www.rockymountainnews.com...

Originally posted by Byrd

Originally posted by Majorion
I've heard before that Mercury is poisonous to humans.. is this correct?

Correct. HOWEVER, lots of things (including water) are poisonous to humans if taken in sufficiently large doses. To find out how poisonous something is, look for the "MSDS data sheet" on it.

For the record, I just want to say that that was a terrible "however". You're basically downplaying mercury's toxicity for some reason.

Because I had a route canal like 5 years ago, and the idiot dentist apparently used mercury.

That's interesting, because mercury based fillings haven't been used for quite awhile. Mercury-based antiseptic compounds (which have just tiny trace amounts of the elements) are still being used (like "mercurichrome") but there's not enough there to do more than kill local surface germs.

That's not true. Actually most dentists still use amalgam fillings. They do this despite having an alternative, completely non-toxic ceramic substance, which you have to request in most cases btw. Some dentists may conscientiously insist they replace or recommend you have amalgam fillings replace. Personally I would insist nothing less from my dentist (if I had a regular one).

Can anyone tell me the risk of this element? .. or why it is used in the first place in any medical procedure?

It's a very effective germicide.

Yeah, and it is also one of the most toxic substance known to nerve and brain cells aside from radioactive material.

With regards to autism, I think a big piece of the puzzle is here:

" In 1976, children received 10 vaccines before attending school. Today they will receive over 36 injections. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Center for Disease Control assured parents that it was safe to not only give these vaccines, but that they could be given at one time with complete safety.

In the early 1980s, the incidence of autism was 1 in10,000 births. By 2005, the incidence had leaped to 1 in 250 births and today it is 1 in 150 births and still climbing.One of the strongest links to this terrible set of disorders was a drastic change in the vaccine programs of the United States and many other countries, which included a dramatic increase in the number of vaccines being given at a very early age."-Dr Russell Blaylock

Whether in dental amalgams or vaccines, mercury is bad bad bad stuff.

Here's a great one hour presentation by Dr. Boyd Haley, Chemistry Professor, University of Kentucky - internationally known scientist on mercury toxicity.

Mercury - What is its role in Autism and Alzheimer's Disease?

Originally posted by Clearskies
How do you think it is that one of our students in Pre-K became retarded after her shots and they won a lawsuit against the government???
If the disclaimer in the paperwork that the parents signed, STATED that some children can have 'reactions'?

My son was homeschooled for Kindergarten and when my husband and I split I had to go back to work to support me and the kids so there was no choice but to enroll him in public school. Of course they required shots which we did not believe in but at the time I had to do something. He was tested at the public school for grade level and they took him into 1st grade.

He did a horrible backslide. He forgot everything he had ever learned. We even had to go back to pull ups for a time period. He was later diagnosed as a high functioning autistic. I will swear until the day I die it was those shots. I have the report from his entrance test. He was a normal 6 year old little boy and very bright before those shots.

He is now 12 and finally after a long struggle is about to start 2nd grade reading and 5th grade Math. I do not believe these shots affect every child the same. I have 4 kids 3 of which have had all the shots and he is the only one these shots have affected in this way.

reply to post by mommy4life


I'm sorry for your experience!
Though, you sound like you have done very well with your child!

I don't have much experience with autism, except the first class I worked with at my old Pre-K. 2003
I thought then, how tragic that their beautiful daughter was injured by our medical system and NO amount of money was equal to that.
I have been studying this whole mess.
I think many are intent on keeping us shooting our children with drugs.
Every time I go to the doctor, somebody wants to give a flu shot. Teenage girls are used as guinea pigs for gardasil!
They used to say that a child with a cold was the reason for their subsequent autism!
Their immune system couldn't handle it.
Well, no really? How strong is an infants immune system?
Using rhesus monkey tissue to grow a disease that is then put in a shot with numerous preservatives?



[edit on 9-2-2009 by Clearskies]

Thanks! His step-dad and I have worked really hard to get him to where he is now. We do not yet know what the future holds for him but his doctor tells us to keep up what we are doing because it does seem to be working very well for him.
We did start homeschooling again and have seen the biggest jumps from that. The public schools here did not have the people he needed. We just hope and keep striving to get him to where he can have a good quality life ahead of him.

[edit on 2/9/2009 by mommy4life]