Andrew Wakefield's vaccine-autism link 'elaborate fraud'; 2 sides to story
ENGLAND -- The British Medical Journal says a study by researcher Andrew Wakefield, linking autism to childhood vaccines, was a fraud - but some defend Wakefield and believe in the results of the study.
Wakefield lost his medical license in the UK for unethical professional conduct, and there is a call for him to be prosecuted now for what some are calling an "elaborate fraud."
Alex B. Berezow, the editor of Real Clear Science, holds a Ph.D. in microbiology, and is among those who believes Wakefield should be prosecuted.
Was the study a fraud? Check out the links below and join the discussion here.
Opposing view
There's definitely an opposing view to this hot issue that's been strongly debated for years.
Martin Walker wrote, "Landscaping Wakefield's Grave" where he presents another side to this issue.
Over the last three years Walker has been a campaign writer for the parents of MMR vaccine damaged children covering every day of the now two year hearing of the General Medical Council that is trying Dr. Wakefield and two other doctors.
His GMC accounts can be found at www.cryshame.com, and his own website is, www.slingshotpublications.com.
Walker is an investigative writer who has written several books about aspects of the medical industrial complex. He started focusing on conflict of interest, intervention by pharmaceutical companies in government and patient groups in 1993.
Fear tactic or truth?
Alex Berezow says some parents declined to have their children vaccinated because of Wakefield's study, endangering their health. He said some of those children have died.
He also believes that Wakefield's research led other scientists to waste time and money, and for those reasons, Wakefield, he thinks, should be prosecuted.
In 1998, Wakefield conducted a small study with 12 children in which he reported finding a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism.
However, it was allegedly revealed that Wakefield manufactured the vaccine-autism link by falsifying patient histories. Despite the British journal's accusations, Wakefield maintains he did not commit fraud.
Scientific fraud is a very serious matter. From a fiscal standpoint, it is essentially stealing money.
Click here to read more from CNN: "Vaccine-autism researcher should be prosecuted."
Was the study a fraud? Check out the links below and join the discussion here.
Sources: CNN, Age of Autism
Comments
Andrew Wakefield has been revealed as a quack in the truest sense of the term. His defenders should be called the same. read more a www.hubslist.org
The hospital that employed Wakefield as a researcher offered Wakefield salary, staff, and research support to perform a study involving 150 children in an attempt to replicate Wakefield’s controversial preliminary results. To any researcher in an academic setting, where the struggle for funding is a daily reality, that should have been a godsend.
Although Wakefield was content to accept direct payment from lawyers and legal aid money to support the litigation-driven preliminary work that (before he had enrolled any patients in his study) he assured the lawyers would show that MMR caused autism, after initially accepting the hospital’s offer and then doing nothing for months, Wakefield never, ever attempted to replicate his dodgy preliminary study. It’s difficult to come up with more than one reason why he would have turned down the funding and made that choice.
Wakefield's work has been thoroughly gutted, and there is no support for his failed hypothesis. (Even Wakefield’s colleague and former business partner acknowledged in a paper that he co-authored that the results “eliminate[d] the remaining support for the hypothesis that ASD with GI complaints is related to MMR exposure.”)
So, yes, there are two sides to this story: Wakefield's side, and the truth.
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