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British Doctor Who Launched Vaccine-Autism Scare Falsified Data
Investigative reporting sheds light on what may be a shameless case of medical alarmism
There's plenty to be worried about when it comes to medicine. From toxins, to cancer, and even medicines with unexpectedly nasty side effects, doctors have their hands full dealing with real problems. While some in the medical and scientific community tend to ignore such dangers, sometimes to gain esteem or funding, others gravitate to the opposite extreme of spreading alarmism.
The latter may be the case with Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician who fathered the scare about the possible link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. According to extensive investigative reporting by Sunday Times of London, a British newspaper, Dr. Wakefield falsified data and lied to make his case in his 1998 Lancet journal paper.
In his paper, Dr. Wakefield claimed that 8 of 12 families of autistic children who attended the clinic at his hospital began to show signs of the illness immediately after getting the "jab" -- the British name for the MMR vaccine. In the paper, he claimed that the measles virus infected the children's bowels, giving them inflammatory bowel disease, which in turn triggered the autism.
However, the Sunday Times of London found a far different story. Investigative reporter Brian Deer, who has been covering the story since its start, found that hospital and other records showed signs that the children were already developing autism before they had received any injection. And while that difference might be attributable to innocent oversight, the newspaper discovered even more shocking allegations.
According to Mr. Deer, the physicians working under Dr. Wakefield were unable to find signs of inflammatory bowel disease in many of the children, but Dr. Wakefield ordered his team to falsify the data to indicate they had. Furthermore, one of the children deemed to have the condition was taken by a parent to three other labs which were unable to find signs of the illness.
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Investigative reporting sheds light on what may be a shameless case of medical alarmism
There's plenty to be worried about when it comes to medicine. From toxins, to cancer, and even medicines with unexpectedly nasty side effects, doctors have their hands full dealing with real problems. While some in the medical and scientific community tend to ignore such dangers, sometimes to gain esteem or funding, others gravitate to the opposite extreme of spreading alarmism.
The latter may be the case with Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician who fathered the scare about the possible link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. According to extensive investigative reporting by Sunday Times of London, a British newspaper, Dr. Wakefield falsified data and lied to make his case in his 1998 Lancet journal paper.
In his paper, Dr. Wakefield claimed that 8 of 12 families of autistic children who attended the clinic at his hospital began to show signs of the illness immediately after getting the "jab" -- the British name for the MMR vaccine. In the paper, he claimed that the measles virus infected the children's bowels, giving them inflammatory bowel disease, which in turn triggered the autism.
However, the Sunday Times of London found a far different story. Investigative reporter Brian Deer, who has been covering the story since its start, found that hospital and other records showed signs that the children were already developing autism before they had received any injection. And while that difference might be attributable to innocent oversight, the newspaper discovered even more shocking allegations.
According to Mr. Deer, the physicians working under Dr. Wakefield were unable to find signs of inflammatory bowel disease in many of the children, but Dr. Wakefield ordered his team to falsify the data to indicate they had. Furthermore, one of the children deemed to have the condition was taken by a parent to three other labs which were unable to find signs of the illness.
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