MMR scare doctor: How I made link with autism (Daily Mail)

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MMR scare doctor: How I made link with autism

The doctor behind worldwide concern over the MMR jab yesterday insisted he was right to seek answers for parents whose children had developed autism.

Dr Andrew Wakefield, 51, who linked the condition to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, said he was simply doing his duty "as a physician and a human being" when mothers came to him for help.

But the consultant now fighting to save his career told a disciplinary hearing he had not ordered invasive tests on children, as has been alleged.

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Mother told me of child’s autism after MMR jab, Andrew Wakefield claims (TimesOnline)

The doctor at the centre of the MMR vaccine controversy was told by a mother that her child showed signs of autism after receiving the vaccination — and that other parents were facing the same problem, a medical hearing heard yesterday.

Dr Andrew Wakefield. 51, said that he found the story of a link “compelling” and that it “merited attention”. It was his duty as a human being to help mothers who came to him seeking answers, he said.

Dr Wakefield faces being struck off the medical register after publishing in The Lancet in 1998 findings that suggested the triple vaccine could cause inflammatory bowel disease and autism.

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MMR-autism link doctor Andrew Wakefield defends conduct at GMC hearing (Telegraph)

The doctor at the centre of the controversy over the MMR vaccine has denied committing serious professional misconduct, saying it had been his "duty as a physician and a human being" to investigate potential links between the jab and autism in children.

In a passionate defence of his research Dr Andrew Wakefield told a disciplinary hearing at the General Medical Council in London that he had responded to the "plight" of mothers with sick children.

Dr Wakefield faces being struck off the medical register after he and two colleagues published findings in the respected medical journal The Lancet in 1998 suggesting a link between the triple jab for measles, mumps and rubella and inflammatory bowel disease and autism.

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I know I am in a minority here, but I respect Dr. Wakefield and I am sorry to hear he is being hounded. One can disagree with him without trying to ruin his life.

"Dr." Wakefield is an idiot, plain and simple.

He's to be chastised, not respected.

Why? He had a number of people coming up to him and saying "This happened to my child after this" - surely it was his job, as a good doctor, to investigate those claims and either prove or disprove them? That's the responsibility he has to his patients, and he did it, knowing he would be risking what's happening now happening. Surely that deserves respect? Many wouldn't go down that road as it would be too easy to just dismiss it outright for fear of reprisals for questioning the status quo (i.e. 'vaccines are good'). But he did, and predictably he's now watching his name get dragged through the proverbial mud for publicly claiming things not in the interests of the powers-that-be in this case.

The message to doctors is - conform to the official theory or you will lose your license and be out of a job. This is happening with other conditions as well. For example, doctors in the US are being harassed and losing their licenses for treating Lyme disease (a bacterial infection) with antibiotics instead of referring their patients to psychiatrists. Doctors who treat cancer patients with alternative therapies instead of the highly profitable chemotherapy drugs are losing their licenses and risk jail time if something happens to their patients. Even parents are forced to conform. If a doctor says give your autistic child dangerous anti-psychotic drugs, you had better comply or the government will remove your children and place them in an institution. The medical establishment has lots of power and if you disobey, you will suffer.

CONFORM! OBEY! DON'T DARE QUESTION ANYTHING!

The problem is, he just listed a few examples of circumstantial evidence without actually doing a research study that showed causation. It was irresponsible of him to publish based on what little work he actually did on it. It caused thousands of parents across the world to stop vaccinating their kids, and exposed the masses to new outbreaks of measles where it had previously been eradicated.

There's absolutely no reason that these doctors that practice homeopathy can't do their own research studies to prove their findings. The real question would be, if such treatments work, then why aren't they publishing study after study in The Lancet? Why aren't they proving to the world that using control groups with no treatment, a placebo group, and their own medicine/vitamins/whatever, that their treatments make measurable results over the others? What's stopping them?

Drug companies, money, and publishers, usually. In that order more or less.

Suggest you check out the Oxford Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine for some interesting reading. You can't really get more mainstream than that.

Dr. Wakefield's findings have been confirmed by other researchers.

Revealed: more evidence to challenge the safety of MMR
By Lorraine Fraser at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... nmmr16.xml
Last Updated: 9:54pm BST 15/06/2002

Scientists have found new evidence to support fears that the MMR vaccine is causing children to develop autism and bowel disease, The Telegraph can reveal today.

Specialists from Trinity College, Dublin, have detected the strain of measles virus used in the MMR jab in tissue samples from the inflamed intestines of 12 children, who each developed autism after receiving the injection.

The results will add further weight to claims that MMR may be responsible for a rapid rise in autism in children over the past decade.

His findings weren't confirmed. Some autistic kids having some amount of measles-damaged tissue in their bowels is not proof that MMR causes autism any more than being allergic to Neosporin means Neosporin causes autism. There was no causal evidence found that links MMR or autism.