Many studies have shown no link between vaccines and autism; now it appears that the one study that did show a link may have been a fraud!
Read the following article reported by the Times Online UK:
THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found.
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.
The research was published in February 1998 in an article in The Lancet medical journal. It claimed that the families of eight out of 12 children attending a routine clinic at the hospital had blamed MMR for their autism, and said that problems came on within days of the jab. The team also claimed to have discovered a new inflammatory bowel disease underlying the children’s conditions.
However, our investigation, confirmed by evidence presented to the General Medical Council (GMC), reveals that: In most of the 12 cases, the children’s ailments as described in The Lancet were different from their hospital and GP records. Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated. Hospital pathologists, looking for inflammatory bowel disease, reported in the majority of cases that the gut was normal. This was then reviewed and the Lancet paper showed them as abnormal.
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%. Populations acquire “herd immunity” from measles when more than 95% of people have been vaccinated.
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.
With two professors, John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch, Wakefield is defending himself against allegations of serious professional misconduct brought by the GMC. The charges relate to ethical aspects of the project, not its findings. All three men deny any misconduct.
Through his lawyers, Wakefield this weekend denied the issues raised by our investigation, but declined to comment further.
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20 Responses
It is interesting that the advocates of alternative medicine and “medical revisionism” have a very poor track record.
Maybe Michael Savage was right when he claimed that autism is “[a] fraud, a racket. … I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ”
Maybe or Maybe not??
That would explain why larger controlled studies failed to duplicate his results.
This highly-technical article is confusing and not conclusive at all. It merely raises questions, and does not show any atttempt to contact Dr. Wakefield for a rebuttal.
The reason that Dr. Wakefield’s report linking autism to multiple simultaneous vaccinations had such an impact was that it made a lot of sense.
A vaccination challenges the child’s immature immune system. Giving three challenges at one time can overwhelm the immune system in some children.
There are many anecdotal incidents among people in our community, where perfectly normal children became autistic right after one of these multiple shots.
If you care about your child’s health, don’t allow any vaccinations when your child is ill, and allow only one vaccination at a time when he is healthy.
Wait a few months, before giving the next shot, after making sure that the child has fully recovered from the previous shot.
#2 – no, it typically involves an intelligent kid who has trouble communicating, and with no evidence it is caused by any germ or virus. In the past such children were assumed to be retarded. Brats can act quite normal when they want to, Autistic kids can’t. Arguably many diagnosis of “autism” are simply trying to manipulate the “bell curve” (of what is normal) to get insurance coverage, but that’s an unrelated issue. A genuine autistic child is clearly not a spoiled brat.
#4 – if you read the permission form on vaccinations, it always warns against taking a vaccine while sick (which has nothing to do with the mythical connection of vaccines with autism).
There’s no hiddush there.
#2- Are you kidding? Do you actually know any autistic kids personally? Do you know children with Asperger’s or on the Autistic Spectrum?
I am a special education specialist and have studied autism in depth. It is well accepted in the medical community that vaccinations do NOT cause autism. Although the exact cause has not been determined, there is certainly a genetic component (not to be confused with heredity).
The vaccination theory has been ruled out in a number of ways. For example, the rates of diagnosis continued to rise along the same trajectory after mercury (which was claimed to be the culprit) was removed from nearly all vaccines. Secondly, people claimed that their child developed symptoms of autism after being vaccinated; however, 1) other explanations have been found for this phenomenon and 2) where available, home videos of these children before vaccination showed that the symptoms were there but had not been identified. The most logical explanation for the rise in diagnoses after vaccination is that vaccination is done at around the age when the gap between autistic children and non-disabled peers begins to widen as the non-autistic children’s verbal and social behaviors increase at this age.
@#2: To Mr. Savage: You picked a very poor example indeed. Screaming and being silent are not diagnostic criteria of autism (though they may raise the red flags that lead to a proper diagnosis). You are simply changing the angle of the “refrigerator mother” theory that was disproven long ago. I assure you that very many children with autism have fathers who talk to them in the manner you have demonstrated, and it does not help in the least. So, in your own words, my message to you is, “Don’t act like a moron… Straighten up. Act like a man, idiot.”
To parents of young children:
Please realize that vaccines protect your children from very dangerous diseases.
– The chance of being protected from the diseases if you give them the shots is about 99%
– The chance of being protected from the diseases if you do not give them the shots is about 0%
– The chance of them having autism if you give them the shots is about 1/150 (about 0.007%)
– The chance of them having autism if you do not give them the shots is still about 1/150 (about 0.007%)
Also bear in mind that if you do not vaccinate your child, you are also putting other children at risk because your child can carry the germs to others. Being that the vaccines are not quite 100% effective, and that some people have compromised immune systems and cannot benefit from vaccines, other people who do their best to safeguard themselves from risk will be in danger because of people who declined to vaccinate by choice. Think of the measles outbreak in Israel a while back — babies too young to be vaccinated became seriously ill because so many people were suspicious about shots. THE CHANCE OF SPREADING ILLNESS DUE TO SKIPPING THE SHOTS IS MUCH, MUCH HIGHER THAN THE CHANCE THAT A CHILD WILL ACTUALLY GET AUTISM BECAUSE OF A SHOT.
Yes, I have bitachon that HaShem determines who will get sick and who will be well. But I am also well aware of the mitzva, “vinishmartem me’od linafshosechem.”
#7 can u please post your source for “where available, home videos of these children before vaccination showed that the symptoms were there but had not been identified”, and any other sources you have? thank you
No one has addressed the issue of overwhelming the child’s immune system with an overload of diseased toxins, which ALL VACCINES Contain.
If they didn’t contain toxic material, they couldn’t challenge the child’s immune system.
Do all of you vaccine supporters really believe that ALL children can tolerate 36 different tixic injections in their early years, without serious consequences for many?
To #8 think613:
Too bad not everyone is as levelheaded as you! It seems that more and more people in the frum velt are opting out and not vaccinating their children. Last year, I had a scare when it was announced on YWN that someone was at a chasunah hall that was then diagnosed with the measles. I was at that very same hall ONE DAY LATER with my then 8 month old daughter who did not yet receive her measles vaccine! Luckily, she was safe by one day. When I called my pediatrician to double check, he emotionally stated the all these recent outbreaks (most noticeably in the frum world) were because of people’s ignorance in regard to communicable diseases! If they really understood the threat that these childhood diseases pose, they would all be immunizing their children. Unfortunately, many parents nowadays are too young to remember the terrible affects that these diseases had on their parents’ generation.
May the Rofeh Kol Basar bring moshiach and thereby eliminate the need for thid debate once and for all!
@saa (9): I heard about the home videos in person from an autism specialist who did the investigation. (Basically, the point is that hindsight is 20/20) I will try to contact her and find out where the official research reports are available. The other facts I mentioned are well-known in the medical community and have been corroborated by much research as well as common sense.
Here are a few links that can help you find relevant research:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/thimerosal.htm
http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/4705/20155.aspx
http://www.immunizationinfo.org/immunization_science.cfm?cat=1
And finally, a less official article but it cites numerous references: http://www.quackwatch.org/03HealthPromotion/immu/autism.html
@deepthinker (10): Depends what you’re calling toxic. While vaccines may or may not contain toxins, your comment doesn’t ring true with what I know about vaccines. You say, “If they didn’t contain toxic material, they couldn’t challenge the child’s immune system.” However, vaccines do not work by challenging the child’s immune system with toxins! Most vaccines (not all, different ones work differently) work by injecting a deactivated form of a virus into the body. This enables the immune system to produce antibodies to that virus without actually contracting the disease. Therefore, if the child later is exposed to a live virus, his/her immune system will be equipped to fight it before the virus has a chance to attack the body.
This is actually not so different from an infant’s receiving some of the benefits of its mother’s immunity.
Perhaps the mother of a Autistic Child has a difficult pregnancy and difficult labor.
What I am trying to say is Autism could have a Genetic Link and a child may have a proclivity to it before he or she is inoculated.
@Yank, I haven’t heard about any patterns in that regard, but autism has been shown to be triggered by toxins or infections that the mother is exposed to while expecting. I say “triggered” because while the exact connection is not known yet, the foremost theory is that there was some genetic predisposition to begin with.
I want to clarify that comment #15 was written in response to #13 before #14 was posted. I meant to say that I have not heard of any association between autism and difficult labor. As to #14, that has absolutely been supported by research.
those who dont immunize their children are risking others & will have to take responsibilty for causing harm to others!
think613, thank you for your well-informed posts. In some ways, Wakefield et al have caused more harm through their “research” than Bruno Bettelheim did through his.
think613-If an Expectant Mother drinks and smokes during Pregnancy does this increase the risk of her child becoming either high or low functioning Autistic? Can Smoking and Drinking alter Genetics?
@anon(18), Dunno about that… Bettelheim (of “refrigerator mom” infamy) caused a great deal of suffering, between the guilt and the kids being forcibly removed from what were in fact functional, loving homes and put into institutions… For the record, autism IS NOT caused by deficient parenting! (although psychologically abusive parenting can have other dire consequences…)
@yank (19), I am not sure whether smoking and drinking cause autism per se, but they definitely can cause a host of other physical and neurological problems. The big issue with drinking in particular is that the amount of alcohol it takes to damage a fetus is variable, so we can’t even say that a certain amount is safe — it should just be avoided.
Genetics are complex. To put it very simply, a person’s actual DNA come from their parents and don’t generally change. However, some genes don’t have any effect unless other conditions are present. This is what is generally meant by a “genetic predisposition” — in this case, we might say that a person who has a gene associated with autism might not have an autism spectrum disorder at all. The question remaining is what can “turn on” the gene and make it cause autism. Certain things have been identified as increasing the risk of autism when an expectant mother is exposed, although I don’t recall what — certain infections and chemicals, not common ones as far as I know.