Autism and Vaccinations
Mar. 2nd, 2004 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sepdetMy mother, a retired microbiologist, was so disturbed by this news that she wrote the following and asked that it be disseminated. I hate sending email to the universe, but this is , indeed, rather important:
_____________
AUTISM AND VACCINATIONS
In 1998, Lancet, a respected British medical journal, published a study which seemed to show a connection between vaccination with MMR ( mumps, measles, rubella) vaccine and autism. Other scientists discredited this study. They tried similar studies, and did NOT get results supporting any connection between vaccination and autism. Unfortunately, the original story was widely circulated, and alarmed parents began witholding vaccination from their children. The damage was done: the immunity level of kids to these diseases has sunk to alarmingly low levels, setting up conditions that encourage an epidemic.
BIASED STUDY
Now it appears that the study was not only unreliable, but was flawed by a conflict of interest on the part of the researchers. The researchers were being PAID by a legal aid service which was interested in finding evidence to support having families sue over immunization. So the researchers had a strong incentive to find such a connection. I have attached the reference URL and the full story at the end of this letter.
DANGER
What would an epidemic of one of these diseases be like? We can refer to an historical case, where measles spread through a population with little or no immunity. When Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery traveled west, they were entertained and helped by friendly Native American tribes along the way. They stayed for some time with several of these, including the Mandan tribe, and made friends they hoped to see again on the return trip. But when they returned, they found many of the villages abandoned, and the people scattered or dead. The killer? Measles. Measles!!! They died because those people had the same low immunity many American children have today. It would be a cruel joke to mark the 100th anniversary of this expedition with another epidemic!
Summary:
1. There IS no connection between immunization with MMR, and the development of autism. The study suggesting the connection was wrong, and may have been biased.
2. There IS a direct and absolute connection between vulnerability to catching any of these three potentially FATAL diseases, and failure to offer your children the safety of immunization.
Vaccinate before it's too late!
Ann Brundige, Ogden Utah
Please forward this to parents you feel would be concerned about their children's health.
The source:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040221/ap_on_he_me/britain_mmr_2
The story:
Journal Regrets Vaccine-Autism Link Study
Sat Feb 21, 3:29 PM ET
By JANE WARDELL, Associated Press Writer
LONDON - A leading medical journal said Saturday it should not have published a controversial 1998 study that claimed a link between childhood vaccinations and autism.
The editor of the Lancet, Dr. Richard Horton, said Dr. Andrew Wakefield and a team of British scientists who conducted the study on the triple measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine didn't reveal that they were being paid by a legal aid service looking into whether families could sue over the immunizations.
Horton called it a "fatal conflict of interest."
Wakefield's study suggested that the MMR vaccine could put children at risk of autism -- a developmental disorder often arising in the first few years of life -- and inflammatory bowel disease.
The paper has since been discredited on scientific grounds, but some parents have clung to the findings and health officials say that vaccinations have fallen dangerously low since its publication.
Allegations to be published in The Sunday Times say Wakefield and his team at the Royal Free Hospital were being paid by the Legal Services Commission, a legal aid service which was considering whether families could sue over children believed damaged by the MMR injection.
"In my view, if we had known the conflict of interest Dr. Wakefield had in this work, I think that would have strongly affected the peer reviewers about the credibility of this work, and in my judgment it would have been rejected," Horton told the British Broadcasting Corp.
Wakefield defended his study in a statement to the editors of The Lancet.
"The clinical and pathological findings in these children stand as reported," he said. "My colleagues and I have acted at all times in the best medical interests of these children and will continue to do so."
The Legal Services Commission could not be reached for comment.
The allegations have led to calls for a public inquiry.
Health Secretary John Reid said the General Medical Council, the health industry's watchdog, plans to mount an investigation "as a matter of urgency."
Evan Harris, a lawmaker with the opposition Liberal Democrat party and a member of Parliament's science and technology committee, also called for an independent inquiry "given the importance attached to the work of the Royal Free Hospital group by the media in the MMR debate."
_____________
AUTISM AND VACCINATIONS
In 1998, Lancet, a respected British medical journal, published a study which seemed to show a connection between vaccination with MMR ( mumps, measles, rubella) vaccine and autism. Other scientists discredited this study. They tried similar studies, and did NOT get results supporting any connection between vaccination and autism. Unfortunately, the original story was widely circulated, and alarmed parents began witholding vaccination from their children. The damage was done: the immunity level of kids to these diseases has sunk to alarmingly low levels, setting up conditions that encourage an epidemic.
BIASED STUDY
Now it appears that the study was not only unreliable, but was flawed by a conflict of interest on the part of the researchers. The researchers were being PAID by a legal aid service which was interested in finding evidence to support having families sue over immunization. So the researchers had a strong incentive to find such a connection. I have attached the reference URL and the full story at the end of this letter.
DANGER
What would an epidemic of one of these diseases be like? We can refer to an historical case, where measles spread through a population with little or no immunity. When Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery traveled west, they were entertained and helped by friendly Native American tribes along the way. They stayed for some time with several of these, including the Mandan tribe, and made friends they hoped to see again on the return trip. But when they returned, they found many of the villages abandoned, and the people scattered or dead. The killer? Measles. Measles!!! They died because those people had the same low immunity many American children have today. It would be a cruel joke to mark the 100th anniversary of this expedition with another epidemic!
Summary:
1. There IS no connection between immunization with MMR, and the development of autism. The study suggesting the connection was wrong, and may have been biased.
2. There IS a direct and absolute connection between vulnerability to catching any of these three potentially FATAL diseases, and failure to offer your children the safety of immunization.
Vaccinate before it's too late!
Ann Brundige, Ogden Utah
Please forward this to parents you feel would be concerned about their children's health.
The source:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040221/ap_on_he_me/britain_mmr_2
The story:
Journal Regrets Vaccine-Autism Link Study
Sat Feb 21, 3:29 PM ET
By JANE WARDELL, Associated Press Writer
LONDON - A leading medical journal said Saturday it should not have published a controversial 1998 study that claimed a link between childhood vaccinations and autism.
The editor of the Lancet, Dr. Richard Horton, said Dr. Andrew Wakefield and a team of British scientists who conducted the study on the triple measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine didn't reveal that they were being paid by a legal aid service looking into whether families could sue over the immunizations.
Horton called it a "fatal conflict of interest."
Wakefield's study suggested that the MMR vaccine could put children at risk of autism -- a developmental disorder often arising in the first few years of life -- and inflammatory bowel disease.
The paper has since been discredited on scientific grounds, but some parents have clung to the findings and health officials say that vaccinations have fallen dangerously low since its publication.
Allegations to be published in The Sunday Times say Wakefield and his team at the Royal Free Hospital were being paid by the Legal Services Commission, a legal aid service which was considering whether families could sue over children believed damaged by the MMR injection.
"In my view, if we had known the conflict of interest Dr. Wakefield had in this work, I think that would have strongly affected the peer reviewers about the credibility of this work, and in my judgment it would have been rejected," Horton told the British Broadcasting Corp.
Wakefield defended his study in a statement to the editors of The Lancet.
"The clinical and pathological findings in these children stand as reported," he said. "My colleagues and I have acted at all times in the best medical interests of these children and will continue to do so."
The Legal Services Commission could not be reached for comment.
The allegations have led to calls for a public inquiry.
Health Secretary John Reid said the General Medical Council, the health industry's watchdog, plans to mount an investigation "as a matter of urgency."
Evan Harris, a lawmaker with the opposition Liberal Democrat party and a member of Parliament's science and technology committee, also called for an independent inquiry "given the importance attached to the work of the Royal Free Hospital group by the media in the MMR debate."
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-02 04:04 pm (UTC)It makes me sad to think numerous kids out there may potentially get exposed to life-threatening diseases, all because of some people's laziness, greed, and gods know what else.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-02 04:18 pm (UTC)I have passed this on to all my friends who are parents, teachers, or just passionate remailers of information. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-03 06:17 am (UTC)Having known someone in college who was partially deaf because his mother had gotten rubella while pregnant --- *sigh*.
From a UPI article I found in the Pro-MED database, dated 3 Nov 2003:
The current rate of MMR vaccine coverage in the United Kingdom stands at about 86%, and in some areas the coverage rate has dropped as low as 61%. Health officials think a vaccine coverage rate of about 95% is necessary to prevent outbreaks and anything below 90% could allow outbreaks to flourish. In the US, MMR vaccine coverage is about 91.6%, but "we hear anecdotal reports of lower coverage in certain areas," CDC's Orenstein said. Several areas have rates of only 87% or lower, including Arizona (except for Maricopa County), Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Shelby County Tennessee, Houston Texas, and parts of Colorado. Some states have vaccination rates below the 90 per cent mark,
including Alaska, most of California, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, Washington, and Wyoming. The numbers are averages for these whole states, so there could be pockets where the coverage rates are much lower, Orenstein said. Even if some local populations have only 50% immunization coverage, they could be overlooked within an average of 91% for the whole state, he explained.