Ever wonder how the whole "vaccines cause autism" campaign began? Here's a definitive summary from the investigative reporter who uncovered much of the sleazy story. Some of it is startling. How could so many be so persuaded by such a small study (12 children!)?
Wakefield had been payrolled to create evidence against the shot, and, while planning extraordinary business schemes, meant to profit from the scare, he had changed and misreported data on the anonymous children to rig the results published in the journal.That contract ultimately paid Wakefield around $750,000.[snip]
But the investigation discovered that, while Wakefield held himself out to be a dispassionate scientist, two years before the Lancet paper was published - and before any of the 12 children were even referred to the hospital - he had been hired by a lawyer, Richard Barr: a jobbing solicitor in the small eastern English town of King's Lynn, who hoped to raise a speculative class action lawsuit against drug companies which manufactured MMR.
Unlike expert witnesses, who give professional advice and opinions, Wakefield negotiated a lucrative contract with Barr, then aged 48, to conduct clinical and scientific research. The goal was to find evidence of what the two men called "a new syndrome", intended to be the centrepiece of (later failed) litigation on behalf of an eventual 1,600 families, mostly recruited through media stories.
It's amazing, and despite the complete discrediting of Wakefield, his study, the Lancet's withdrawal of the paper and the UK Medical Council's finding that Wakefield was guilty of "some three dozen charges, including four of dishonesty and 12 involving the abuse of developmentally-challenged children," the anti-vaccine forces continue to agitate in this country.
Posted by Linkmeister at May 12, 2010 10:09 AM | TrackBack