The Lancet Recants Study Linking Autism To Vaccine

JamJam writes "The Lancet, a major British medical journal, has retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease. British surgeon and medical researcher Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues originally released their study in 1998. Since then 10 of Wakefield's 13 co-authors have renounced the study's conclusions and The Lancet has said it should never have published the research. Wakefield now faces being stripped of his right to practice medicine in Britain. The vaccine-autism debate should now end."

Comments

big pharma had nothing to do with this decision!

[Anonymous Coward]

i'm sure big pharma had nothing to do with the Lancet changing its view!

The debate is long from over.

[gd2shoe]

Just because one side of the debate has used bad data and judgment doesn't mean there is no merit to the debate. The other side does too. The trick is finding the truth in the whirlwind of lies and deceit.

Anecdotally, my brother works for a hospital. Everyone who works in the Emergency room was offered the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it became available. Each of those who got the vaccine came down with swine flu. Most of those who were unvacinated didn't.

These companies do make mistakes. Like any large organization with money at stake, they want to believe they can handle these problems quietly without large payouts. Is there a link between vaccines and autism? I don't know. I don't believe for a moment that the debate is over. There's way too much anecdotal evidence, even if there is no merit.

Re:The debate is long from over.

[Runaway1956]

You could be right.

On the other hand, there are PROVEN bad reactions to almost every vaccination. The next opportunity you get to watch a doctor stick needles into an infant or a young child, STAY ALERT. You will see that the legal guardian is offered brochures on each and every vaccination. Take those brochures, and read them. Take the information from them, and research.

The "selling point" of inoculations is not that they are safe - but that they are SAFER than going without.

I was both ignorant and complacent about the risks of those inoculations, until I met in person a mindless little vegetable who was the victim of early childhood vaccinations. The staff at the children's hospital had no doubts as to the cause of the child's condition. They openly told the parents that reactions to two vaccinations in combination had destroyed the child's nervous system. A chance in something like 20 million, but the chance is there.

As for inoculations containing mercury in any form - I'm against them. On the one hand, the environmentalists make a huge issue of mercury in any amount in the air, water, and food - then we have these huge corporations telling us that mercury is perfectly safe when they inject it into our bodies. Hmmmm. I'm not reassured.

Re:The debate is long from over.

[Dahamma]

Yes, but that same 1% of the population with 10% risk also has a 75.8% risk of dying from measles, mumps, or a severely ingrown hangnail, and can in fact contract all of those from sunlight as well, so it's very dangerous and herd immunity does not apply.

And underdeveloped countries have significantly more dirt and fewer shoes, and as everyone knows lots of dirt and lack of shoes can cause autism.

Wow, this debate gets a LOT more fun when you stop bothering with provable facts. I can see people still keep it up! Thanks!

If everyone actually considered things *objectively*, by definition there wouldn't be loonies and this whole issue would not even be debated.

Re:The debate is long from over.

[keraneuology]

Anybody who thinks that vaccines cause autism in 100% of the cases is wrong. Anybody who thinks that the argument is that autism is *ONLY* caused by vaccines is wrong. You clearly fall into the 2nd camp. In 2007 the federal "vaccine court" found that the MMR vaccination *DID* cause autism in a child by the name of Bailey Banks in that the vaccine caused an inflammation of the brain that led to PPD-NOS. In 2008 this same court found that in the instance of patient Hannah Poling the vaccine caused "autism-like" symptoms by aggravating a pre-existing condition. (Autism-like? If it quacks...) In the vast majority of cases the vaccine is safe - the numbers don't lie. HOWEVER the vaccine appears to be safe if and only if the child is neurotypical and, as there is no incentive, nobody is working on determining just how atypical one must be and in what manner before the vaccines are unsafe. The prevailing attitude is "sit down, shut up, you cannot decide what risks are acceptable for your child, we don't care if it is safe in this particular instance and if it turns out to destroy your family's life then oh well." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-and-david-kirby/vaccine-court-autism-deba_b_169673.html

Who are you refering to?

[gd2shoe]

Are you referring to what I wrote, to what ak_hepcat wrote, to what JamJam wrote, or to the original article?

"The vaccine-autism debate should now end"

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't imagine being that naive.

There are legal fortunes to be made. Government regulators to ensconce. The issue is far too lucrative to be allowed to vanish because some trumped up nonsense published last century has been discredited.

Politically protected 'science' doesn't submit to mere evidence. See climate-gate.

Re:For our sake

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course drugs dont have side effects. How could that shit ever happen. Drugs only do 1 thing they dont do other things that they werent designed for. And you are a retarded conspiracy theorist if you think its possible for drugs to have more than one effect. Whats next black helocopters flying out my ass to drop stormtroopers on antarctica for the underground alien base so the aliens can rule the world? Idiuts!