• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

New Report Claims Study Linking Autism to Vaccinations was a Fraud

marillion

Vice Admiral
Admiral
I seem to remember the vaccination issue came up a while back but I couldn't find the thread with a search..

Link to story

Blasted almost as soon as it was published, a 1998 study linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism has still managed to scare off hordes of anxious parents from fully vaccinating their children. Now a new investigative report published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) goes further, saying that the study was not only rife with error, but outright fraud, committed for financial gain.

The new report shows how the study's author altered facts about his patient's medical histories so they would fit more neatly with his claims.
 
That's so sad. So many people have gotten on that bandwagon, to the potential detriment of everyone's health.
 
Later the study's author attempted to use it as a basis for a class action lawsuit against MMR makers. The lawyer working on his behalf ended up dropping it because he said it would fail on evidence. The study itself was retracted from the journal that published it, and the other 10 authors listed on it withdrew their support after it was published. The study's author was also stripped of his medical license. The claims made by the study have never been able to be reproduced in any subsequent experiments.


And yet, despite all the facts, hysterical parents still refuse to get their children vaccinated, resulting in the drastic spike in Measles.

Maybe these "studies" should be more thoroughly investigated before they're splashed all over the media. People are too eager for easy answers. No one wants to hear that we don't know what causes Autism. Hell, many doctors can't even agree on what it is.
 
New Report Claims Study Linking Autism to Vaccinations was a Fraud

Duh. I and several other people I know had that jab when we were kids and we turned out fine

\frbswzde hjungFDVCYJFTWEURSDBEAHJ
VTGEYFBEGVUIRSGHLJRWGFBEFGEFBJNIOAU4WEFJNB
KHEJFGUYIR315R247YTJBKFGHGURFAKILEYIOHBTNFIEOVEA;1P
 
It's amazing what people will believe, even in the face of hard scientific data that confirms otherwise. I think Jenny McCarthy's just as culpable as Wakefield on this one, as she has done a significant amount of damage herself by continually propagating this intellectually stunted and groundless idea.
 
My son with autism spectrum disorder is 10 and I always wanted to smack the living hell out of all the morons who asked us if he'd been vaccinated. My husband and I never hesitated to have any of our children vaccinated. In fact, my ASD son was born with such a shitty immune system that measles would probably have caused permanent damage, if not killed him.

My heart aches for all those children who suffered or died because their parents believed Wakefield's lies and didn't have their children vaccinated. If there's a hell, Wakefield will rot in it.
 
I seem to remember the vaccination issue came up a while back but I couldn't find the thread with a search..

Link to story

Blasted almost as soon as it was published, a 1998 study linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism has still managed to scare off hordes of anxious parents from fully vaccinating their children. Now a new investigative report published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) goes further, saying that the study was not only rife with error, but outright fraud, committed for financial gain.

The new report shows how the study's author altered facts about his patient's medical histories so they would fit more neatly with his claims.

Hasn't this been pretty well known for quite some time now? That the study that linked the two was on dubious scientific footing and that, really, there was no reason to even suspect a connection?
 
Seems to me those who commissioned the study need to be taken to task if not to court.

Pathetic scam.
 
Problem is rumors like this are hard to "undo" now that the idea is out there it'll take a generation or more to reverse it people are still going to believe the vaccines cause autism because they didn't hear about this discredited doctor, the falsified study or they'll think the "establishment" discredited him to keep their numbers up.

The damage is done and idiots out there are going to continue to believe there's any link between autism and vaccination.

But, really, if it did cause autism as Penn & Teller pointed out in an episode they did on this subject this past season there's something else to consider. Since we can say a vast majority of children born in this country (or any developed, Western, world) is vaccinated and that only a small number of those people have an Autism Spectrum Disorder then, really, the benefits should still out-weigh the risks.

Studies say that 1 in 150 people in America have an ASD (which includes the milder form of Asperger Syndrome) if everyone of those people were vaccinated and vaccination did cause an ASD I'd take those odds over my kid getting Typhoid Fever, the Measles or some other severe disease that'd pose a great risk to my kid's life.

But, really, considering 2 million people in America, statistically, have an ASD compared to the 300 million people that are in the country and it'd can be said the vast majority of people in this country have been vaccinated it seems to me that finding a connection between the two is really stretching things or trying to find a problem that doesn't exist. And how does it account for the people with an ASD who weren't vaccinated?
 
Big Pharma claims report unfavourable to Big Pharma is hoax. :lol:

Vaccines do not cause autism in children.

Of course not, but you know that's how this story is going to be read by those already inclined to believe it. It's nice that the BMJ has come out with an official word and all, but it won't change anyone's mind.

True. There are some people who refuse to accept that they're wrong about something, even in the face of mounting evidence. Conspiracy theorists will just point to a government cover up.
 
I'm not the biggest fan of Penn & Teller, but I LOVE the way they went off on the anti-vaccination morons.

(Warning: language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo97VouL0ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_nYMEO82mo&feature=related

I'm a big fan of the "Bullshit Show" (though there's been times they've gone a bit off the the rails and even said things I disagree with) but that episode was one of the better ones. Hell, the first minute and a half (the teaser before the opening credits) is all one really needs to watch to get the point. (But, really, the whole episode was a good one.)
 
In other news: Water is wet, the Yankees are rich, and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.


Dear Rosanne Rosannadanna....


But seriously folks, vaccinations are doubtlessly a good thing, but "Big Pharma" pointing fraud fingers? GRRRR!

In other news: Pot Sees Reflection; Kettle Vindicated
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top