ANTI-VACCINE DOCTOR PLANNED TO PROFIT FROM SCARE

[rayofreason]

Source: Discovery News

Almost exactly one year ago, on Jan. 28, 2010, Andrew Wakefield, the doctor whose 1998 research sparked international concern over whether childhood vaccines cause autism, was found guilty by a British panel of acting unethically in his research on autism. Shortly afterward, The Lancet, which originally published his findings, reviewed his original study and issued a complete retraction.

In May Wakefield was stripped of his license to practice medicine in the United Kingdom. Then last week an editorial in the BMJ (formerly known as the British Medical Journal) called his actions not merely poor research but "deliberate fraud."

Just when it seems the scandal can't get any worse, it does.

According to new research published in today's BMJ, Wakefield's motive for the fraud was money -- and lots of it. Wakefield "planned secret businesses intended to make huge sums of money, in Britain and America, from his now-discredited allegations," according to a BMJ press release.

Read more: http://news.discovery.com/human/anti-vaccine-doctor-planned-to-profit-from-scare.html

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I am amazed at the dogged resistance to evidence among to anti-vaccine crowd. Unfortunately it is not they who suffer the consequences of ignorance and belief in quackery.

[MicaelS]

1. Wonder how they'll spin this one...

Wow this just gets better and better.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Sad--taking advantage of parents who are desperate for help and answers.

[Ian David]

3. ...

[FSogol]

4. Toothpaste for Dinner!

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hlthe2b]

6. There are many that profit from anti-vaccine fears...

This guy made an entire living off of it-- Leonard Horowitz-- a dentist by training that has promoted anti-vaccine hysteria through books and paid seminars through the decades...I dealt with a family who was convinced by Dr. Horowitz not to vaccinate their child, who later developed a very serious complication to measles, encephalitis, and died after a wrenching attempt to save her in a major children's hospital.

I know somewhere there must be a list of these shameful charlatans. If so, it should be published widely.

Yes, I know some will never be convinced...

[chaplainM]

8. Add Oprah to that list . eom.

[hlthe2b]

9. No escaping Oprah, but I haven't seen a show in many years...

So, I can't comment either way on her role.

[Historic NY]

7. Snake oil salesman......profiting on the fear of others.....

medical quackery has killed more people.

[arikara]

10. Who profits from the snake oil?

Prescription drugs kill some 200,000 Americans every year. Will that number go up, now that most clinical trials are conducted overseas—on sick Russians, homeless Poles, and slum-dwelling Chinese—in places where regulation is virtually nonexistent, the F.D.A. doesn’t reach, and “mistakes” can end up in pauper’s graves?

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/01/deadly-medicine-201101

This from a mainstream publication. There are valid concerns on both sides it seems.

[laconicsax]

15. Snake oil is usually sold with a leaf or flower on the bottle nowadays.

Supplements are not regulated by the FDA--their efficacy doesn't have to be proven, there's no control over quality of ingredients, there's no mechanism to prevent a dangerous product from reaching the market.

A fine example of this is the Miracle Mineral Supplement which claims to be the cure to AIDS, hepatitis, malaria, herpes, tuberculosis, and cancer. What's wrong with it? Well, when you take it as directed, it's equivalent to drinking industrial bleach. What does the company say about this? http://miraclemineral.org/importantinfo.php">"Never stop taking MMS"

Because supplements aren't regulated, the FDA had no authority other than to issue a warning to consumers to http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm220747.htm">not use the stuff. They couldn't order the product pulled from the market, fine the makers, or anything else.

[Taverner]

11. Yep

[Odin2005]

12. K&R for exposure.

[HuckleB]

13. A link to the BMJ piece can be found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x98075

[laconicsax]

14. HANNAH POLING! HANNAH POLING! HANNAH POLING!

:banghead:

[xchrom]

16. recommend

[HuckleB]

17. NEJM: The Age-Old Struggle against the Antivaccinationists

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1010594?query=TOC

"Since the introduction of the first vaccine, there has been opposition to vaccination. In the 19th century, despite clear evidence of benefit, routine inoculation with cowpox to protect people against smallpox was hindered by a burgeoning antivaccination movement. The result was ongoing smallpox outbreaks and needless deaths. In 1910, Sir William Osler publicly expressed his frustration with the irrationality of the antivaccinationists by offering to take 10 vaccinated and 10 unvaccinated people with him into the next severe smallpox epidemic, to care for the latter when they inevitably succumbed to the disease, and ultimately to arrange for the funerals of those among them who would die (see the Medical Notes section of the Dec. 22, 1910, issue of the Journal). A century later, smallpox has been eradicated through vaccination, but we are still contending with antivaccinationists.

Since the 18th century, fear and mistrust have arisen every time a new vaccine has been introduced. Antivaccine thinking receded in importance between the 1940s and the early 1980s because of three trends: a boom in vaccine science, discovery, and manufacture; public awareness of widespread outbreaks of infectious diseases (measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, polio, and others) and the desire to protect children from these highly prevalent ills; and a baby boom, accompanied by increasing levels of education and wealth. These events led to public acceptance of vaccines and their use, which resulted in significant decreases in disease outbreaks, illnesses, and deaths. This golden age was relatively short-lived, however. With fewer highly visible outbreaks of infectious disease threatening the public, more vaccines being developed and added to the vaccine schedule, and the media permitting widespread dissemination of poor science and anecdotal claims of harm from vaccines, antivaccine thinking began flourishing once again in the 1970s.1

Little has changed since that time, although now the antivaccinationists' media of choice are typically television and the Internet, including its social media outlets, which are used to sway public opinion and distract attention from scientific evidence. A 1982 television program on diphtheria–pertussis–tetanus (DPT) vaccination entitled “DPT: Vaccine Roulette” led to a national debate on the use of the vaccine, focused on a litany of unproven claims against it. Many countries dropped their programs of universal DPT vaccination in the face of public protests after a period in which pertussis had been well controlled through vaccination2 — the public had become complacent about the risks of the disease and focused on adverse events purportedly associated with vaccination. Countries that dropped routine pertussis vaccination in the 1970s and 1980s then suffered 10 to 100 times the pertussis incidence of countries that maintained high immunization rates; ultimately, the countries that had eliminated their pertussis vaccination programs reinstated them.2 In the United States, vaccine manufacturers faced an onslaught of lawsuits, which led the majority of them to cease vaccine production. These losses prompted the development of new programs, such as the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), in an attempt to keep manufacturers in the U.S. market.

The 1998 publication of an article, recently retracted by the Lancet, by Wakefield et al.3 created a worldwide controversy over the measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) vaccine by claiming that it played a causative role in autism. This claim led to decreased use of MMR vaccine in Britain, Ireland, the United States, and other countries. Ireland, in particular, experienced measles outbreaks in which there were more than 300 cases, 100 hospitalizations, and 3 deaths.4

[HuckleB]

18. Mr. Wakefield’s business plan as discussed at the GMC hearing.

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/01/mr-wakefields-business-plan-as-discussed-at-the-gmc-hearing/

[mzmolly]

19. I'm posting a response from supporters of Wakefield for the record.

"Truth On Alleged Fraud In The Study Of Autism Cases Revealed"

http://starglobaltribune.com/2011/truth-on-alleged-fraud-in-the-study-of-autism-cases-revealed-4411

The truth in this story is that Dr. Wakefield’s findings of bowel disease in association with autism have been replicated (see references) and his work along with that of other doctors has advanced the treatment of these children to the point that the journal, Pediatrics, has published a paper on the treatment for gastrointestinal symptoms in children with autism. The issue of whether MMR is causal for this subgroup of autistic children remains an open question. The epidemiological studies that claim to prove there is no link between the MMR and autism have not had the statistical power to rule out a link for a subset of susceptible children. Much study remains to be done. Attempts to “shoot the messenger” will only result in further erosion of public trust.

...

The following peer-reviewed papers support Dr. Wakefield’s original findings:

Furlano R, Anthony A, Day R, Brown A, Mc Garvey L, Thomson M, et al. “Colonic CD8 and T cell filtration with epithelial damage in children with autism.” J Pediatr 2001;138:366-72.

Sabra S, Bellanti JA, Colon AR. “Ileal lymphoid hyperplasia, non-specific colitis and pervasive developmental disorder in children.” The Lancet 1998;352:234-5.

Torrente F., Machado N., Perez-Machado M., Furlano R., Thomson M., Davies S., Wakefield AJ, Walker-Smith JA, Murch SH. “Enteropathy with T cell infiltration and epithelial IgG deposition in autism.” Molecular Psychiatry. 2002;7:375-382.

Wakefield AJ, Anthony A, Murch SH, Thomson M, Montgomery SM, Davies S, Walker-Smith JA. “Enterocolitis in children with developmental disorder.” American Journal of Gastroenterology 2000;95:2285-2295.

Ashwood P, Anthony A, Pellicer AA, Torrente F, Wakefield AJ. “Intestinal lymphocyte populations in children with regressive autism: evidence for extensive mucosal immunopathology.” Journal of Clinical Immunology, 2003;23:504-517.

...

[laconicsax]

20. Did you happen to read any of those studies?

The second isn't a study at all--it's a letter to the Lancet commenting on the original Wakefield study. ("These are interesting results, let's have more research on this.") This means there are only four studies. (Wakefield lied about how many studies there were...go figure.) All four of those studies describe an association between IBD/autoimmune enteropathy and autism.

-None of the four studies confirm a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
-None of the four studies change the fact that it's been proven that Wakefield fabricated data.
-None of the four studies change the fact that Wakefield committed numerous ethical violations (eg unauthorized invasive procedures on children)
-None of the four studies address the charges in the BMJ.
-None of the four studies can give Wakefield back the right to be called "doctor." He lost that when he was struck from the medical register.

[mzmolly]

21. I don't think Wakefield suggested any study "confirmed" a link?

He never said that his study "confirmed" a link. He said that the various studies support his hypothesis. You are free to disagree.

To the other matters, Wakefield has been sufficiently smeared, I agree. You can see my thread on the BMJ "study" in the health forum for my thoughts on that issue.

[laconicsax]

22. You can't tarnish a rusty blade. n/t

[mzmolly]

23. Agreed. But, Wakefield is a very small blade in the larger scheme of things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/22/business/2-paths-of-bayer-drug-in-80-s-riskier-one-steered-overseas.html?src=pm

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d7_1182492879

''These are the most incriminating internal pharmaceutical industry documents I have ever seen,'' said Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, who as director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group has been investigating the industry's practices for three decades.

...

Even so, Dr. Meyer asked that the issue be ''quietly solved without alerting the Congress, the medical community and the public,'' according to Cutter's account of the 1985 meeting. Dr. Meyer said later that he could not recall making that statement, but another blood-product company's summary of the meeting also noted that the F.D.A. wanted the matter settled ''quickly and quietly.'' Dr. Meyer died in 2001.

THIS kind kind of scandal, does much more to destroy confidence in the industry, than any thing Andrew Wakefield has or hasn't done.

[HuckleB]

24. Kick.

There is some very interesting information in the responses to this thread.