Thursday, February 12, 2009

News on the Autism - Vaccine Link

I brought up the topic of Autism and Vaccination a while back. My brother just passed me this article on the topic:

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.

Apparently, the guy fudged his data - only the most heinous sin possible in the world of science.

But here's the truly amazing part:

Despite involving just a dozen children, the 1998 paper’s impact was extraordinary. After its publication, rates of inoculation fell from 92% to below 80%.

Wow, one study involving 12 children reduced inoculation rates 12% 13%. Amazing. Who says one person can't make a difference?

1 comment:

  1. My favorite part is, "Last week official figures showed that 1,348 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales were reported last year, compared with 56 in 1998. Two children have died of the disease."

    We vaccine biologists have a true hate for this man. He took fame and easy science over the true health of those around him. That's 10 yrs of science since then and we're still fighting against his bad data. He needs to be put in jail, seriously.

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