British Researcher Wakefield Defends Link Between Vaccine and Autism

British Researcher Wakefield Defends Link Between Vaccine and Autism







(ABCNEWS.com)



Controversial
British surgeon Dr. Andrew Wakefield today defended allegations by
authors that his research citing a possible link between the measles,
mumps and rubella vaccine and autism were outright "fraudulent."
"There was no fraud, there was no falsification, there was no hoax,"
Wakefield told George Stephanopolous today on "Good Morning America."

Evidence Wakefield published in 1998 gave birth to the belief of a connection between vaccines and autism, which ignited a nationwide public health scare and a larger anti-vaccine movement.

But authors of the editorial published nearly two weeks ago in the
British Medical Journal confirmed previous suggestions that Wakefield
skewed patients' medical records to support his hypothesis that the
widely-used measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) combination vaccine was
causing autism and irritable bowel disease.

"The work certainly does raise a question mark over MMR vaccine," Wakefield said in a 1998 interview.
But editorial authors wrote, "clear evidence of falsification of data
should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare."
According to the editorial, Wakefield stood to gain financially from his
purported findings because of his involvement in a lawsuit against
manufacturers of the MMR vaccine. British news reports said Wakefield
was hired as a consultant by lawyers trying to sue the vaccine's
manufacturers. His compensation, they said, was about $750,000.










Wakefield
today denied any allegations of wrongdoing. He said British reporter
Brian Deers, who led the latest investigation unraveling Wakefield's
research, used selective information from the study to build a case
against Wakefield.
The editorial may not be enough to dissuade many people who believe
Wakefield's claims, no matter how compelling the scientific evidence,
according to Dr. Paul Offit, chief of the Section of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.

"It's unfair for the BMJ to call him a fraud, because as a fraud you
have to have mal intent," said Offit. "But if you give Wakefield a lie
detector test and ask him if he thinks MMR causes autism, he'd say yes.
And he would probably pass, because he holds to it as one holds to a
religious belief."

Science Lost in Personal Stories

Wakefield's claim, first
published in The Lancet, has since been roundly discredited. Though the
paper was retracted from the journal in February 2010, it is still
cited by some doctors and many parents of children with autism.
Colleen McGrath, 42, of San Diego, Calif., heard Wakefield speak at an
autism conference in July 2010 and said she knew she was doing the right
thing by selectively choosing which vaccines would be best for her two
children.

Vaccines and Autism Debate Rolls On

McGrath's children do not
have autism. But as preschool teacher, she said she and her colleagues
began wondering whether there was a connection between some of the
children who were vaccinated and their subsequent diagnoses of
developmental disorders.

McGrath held off on giving her son, age 9, the second of the two doses
that make up the MMR vaccine. And now she says she does not plan to
vaccinate either of her children against whooping cough.

"I don't know if I did right or wrong, or whether vaccinating them would
make a difference," said McGrath. "But I'm taking precautions because
of what I've researched and seen and heard from friends, teachers, and
other parents."

Source:-
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