Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20110105/autism-vaccine-study-110105/
Journal calls study linking vaccine to autism a 'fraud'
CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Wednesday Jan. 5, 2011 7:06 PM ET
The editors of a prestigious medical journal are declaring that a British study, since retracted by its publisher, that claimed to have found a link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was "an elaborate fraud" based on the "falsification of data."
In an explosive series of articles that began publication Monday, the British Medical Journal declares that there is "no doubt" that lead researcher Andrew Wakefield manipulated and even falsified his data to show a link between the vaccine and both autism and bowel disease. The study, published in the medical journal Lancet in 1998 and retracted last February, spurred millions of parents around the world to opt not to get the shot for their children.
In the years since the study's publication, measles outbreaks have occurred across Europe and North America. In 2006, a 13-year-old boy was the first recorded measles death in Britain in 14 years. In 2008, measles was declared endemic in England and Wales for the first time in more than a decade.
In an editorial, BMJ editor Dr. Fiona Godlee, deputy editor Jane Smith and associate editor Harvey Marcovitch said "the MMR scare was based not on bad science but on a deliberate fraud" and that "clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare."
Parental worries about the vaccine have endured despite the medical community's swift and vocal criticism of the study. Experts pointed out that the small sample size -- only 12 children were included in the study -- was insufficient to produce data of statistical significance. They also expressed concern about subject selection bias, and the lack of a control group.
In 2004, the Lancet issued a partial retraction of the study, citing Wakefield's "fatal conflict of interest." Two years before the journal published his study, Wakefield began working as a paid consultant to lawyers looking for evidence with which to sue makers of the vaccine, on behalf of parents of autistic children. The journal said that at the time the study was published it was unaware of Wakefield's work with the lawyers.
In the editorial, the editors point out that in the decade after the study was first published, other research has failed to find a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
"Who perpetrated this fraud? There is no doubt that it was Wakefield. Is it possible that he was wrong, but not dishonest: that he was so incompetent that he was unable to fairly describe the project, or to report even one of the 12 children's cases accurately? No," they write. "A great deal of thought and effort must have gone into drafting the paper to achieve the results he wanted: the discrepancies all led in one direction; misreporting was gross..."
Journal calls study linking vaccine to autism a 'fraud'
CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Wednesday Jan. 5, 2011 7:06 PM ET
The editors of a prestigious medical journal are declaring that a British study, since retracted by its publisher, that claimed to have found a link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was "an elaborate fraud" based on the "falsification of data."
In an explosive series of articles that began publication Monday, the British Medical Journal declares that there is "no doubt" that lead researcher Andrew Wakefield manipulated and even falsified his data to show a link between the vaccine and both autism and bowel disease. The study, published in the medical journal Lancet in 1998 and retracted last February, spurred millions of parents around the world to opt not to get the shot for their children.
In the years since the study's publication, measles outbreaks have occurred across Europe and North America. In 2006, a 13-year-old boy was the first recorded measles death in Britain in 14 years. In 2008, measles was declared endemic in England and Wales for the first time in more than a decade.
In an editorial, BMJ editor Dr. Fiona Godlee, deputy editor Jane Smith and associate editor Harvey Marcovitch said "the MMR scare was based not on bad science but on a deliberate fraud" and that "clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare."
Parental worries about the vaccine have endured despite the medical community's swift and vocal criticism of the study. Experts pointed out that the small sample size -- only 12 children were included in the study -- was insufficient to produce data of statistical significance. They also expressed concern about subject selection bias, and the lack of a control group.
In 2004, the Lancet issued a partial retraction of the study, citing Wakefield's "fatal conflict of interest." Two years before the journal published his study, Wakefield began working as a paid consultant to lawyers looking for evidence with which to sue makers of the vaccine, on behalf of parents of autistic children. The journal said that at the time the study was published it was unaware of Wakefield's work with the lawyers.
In the editorial, the editors point out that in the decade after the study was first published, other research has failed to find a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
"Who perpetrated this fraud? There is no doubt that it was Wakefield. Is it possible that he was wrong, but not dishonest: that he was so incompetent that he was unable to fairly describe the project, or to report even one of the 12 children's cases accurately? No," they write. "A great deal of thought and effort must have gone into drafting the paper to achieve the results he wanted: the discrepancies all led in one direction; misreporting was gross..."