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New Data faked in famous Lancet anti-vaccination study?
http://scienceblogs....case_of_scien.php

If you want to know where the current ridiculous anti-vaccination scare came from, there's one well known source: Andrew Wakefield. He published a paper in 1998 that claimed there was a link between vaccination and autism that was a popular sensation, and had a dramatic effect.

[...]


PZ quotes from a story at TimesOnline:
http://www.timesonli...rticle5683671.ece

:-(

How many more people are going to have to die before quackery like this is bottled up again...?

Cheers,
Scott.
New Ah, the MMR-Autism Scare
It gave the woo-woos vast amounts of ammunition for not vaccinating their sprogs against three diseases that were well under control, and now are causing problems.

However, it's not quite fair to lay all the blame at Wakefield's feet; the British press played a huge part in this sorry tale, as Ben Goldacre explains:

http://www.badscienc...-medias-mmr-hoax/
New Thanks.
Interesting article and discussion, there. Thanks.

Too much of science reporting (over here as well) is taking an article published in one of the big journals and blowing it up all out of proportion as an example of either the latest breakthrough or the latest contradiction to established theories. The press loves nothing more than controversy and newness, so it's not surprising that they ran with Wakefield's article.

c.f. TheRegister and their global warming reporting. Clicks are clicks.

So, you're right that it's not all his fault. However, if one is a careful scientist/researcher, one doesn't falsify evidence, etc., in order to make it fit the preconceived conclusion as he apparently did.

Goldacre's right that science doesn't work if researchers can't speak their minds even if they're cranks. But, they have to play by the same rules of high-quality evidence as everyone else. So, if this latest TimesOnline story is correct, I still lay much of the blame with Wakefield.

Cheers,
Scott.
New dunno about mmr but anecdotal
oldest boy was hospitalized about 48 hrs after his first one, damn near died and I am convinced it was a reaction and his brain functions seemed incredibly different after the shots, possibly due to the febrile convultions
however all of the following kids took it fine.
So it does have nasty side effects, those effects are in a small portion of the population
think then take or dont
New That's not the controversey
Sometimes there is a reaction including fever, and sometimes that has neurological consequences. No sane person on either side denies that.

The questionable idea is that the large increase in the number of autism cases is explained by something unique to vaccinations. That would have to be a more common reaction than the high fever one, a subtle reaction that is not usually noticeable soon enough for people to make the connection.

The big philosophy question is whether you should take a personal risk in order to help protect the population. In real life (assuming there isn't some big hidden danger like the bogus autism study said) the personal risk calculation for those without some special contraindication and the population risk calculation point the same way: you are safer, and your population is safer, if you take the vaccine. But then you don't have anything to talk about in ethics class.

New what protection of the larger population?
we have people coming over the border will all kinds of grungy communicable diseases and we dont seem to give a crap about that.
New Vaccination isn't pointless...
...and the sums to prove it have been done, by finer minds than ours.
New You shoulda seen "American Experience" on PBS last night.
It was about polio, "March of Dimes", Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin, etc culminating in the late in the 1950's. After testing on monkeys, Salk tested kids in orphanages and mental/handicapped institutions. Things like informed consent was an unknown concept.

When the dead virus vaccine was deployed, a California manufacturer screwed up and shipped vaccine with a live virus. They caused polio and even deaths. That resulted in a hiatus in the US immunization program.

Perhaps you had to have been there, but the polio scare was number two to only the Red scare in the 1950's.
Alex
New I was there . . .
. . and the propaganda was intense. Pictures of rows of iron lung machines and kids in leg braces everywhere. Contribution cans in the shape of iron lungs littered public places everywhere.
New That's my wife's main objection
Most of these things aren't tested, or at least aren't tested with children in mind, before being sprung on the populace. No argument about the efficacy; it's the ever-changing formulation that causes concern.
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
New I was there, grew up with kids on sticks
polio and small pox is different than measles, mumps diptheria and pertussis are worse
thanx,
bill
New Still helps
Probably even more than without them.

If there are no incoming viruses, not much for the vaccine to fight.

     Data faked in famous Lancet anti-vaccination study? - (Another Scott) - (11)
         Ah, the MMR-Autism Scare - (pwhysall) - (1)
             Thanks. - (Another Scott)
         dunno about mmr but anecdotal - (boxley) - (8)
             That's not the controversey - (mhuber) - (7)
                 what protection of the larger population? - (boxley) - (6)
                     Vaccination isn't pointless... - (pwhysall)
                     You shoulda seen "American Experience" on PBS last night. - (a6l6e6x) - (3)
                         I was there . . . - (Andrew Grygus)
                         That's my wife's main objection - (malraux)
                         I was there, grew up with kids on sticks - (boxley)
                     Still helps - (mhuber)

Ultima ratio regum.
68 ms