http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/06/autism.vaccines/index.html?hpt=T2

Booya! Take that, anti-vaccine groups!

CNN)—A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines is an “elaborate fraud,” according to a medical journal—a charge the physician behind the study vigorously denies.

The British medical journal BMJ, which published the results of its investigation, concluded Dr. Andrew Wakefield misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study—and that there was “no doubt” Wakefield was responsible. The journalist who wrote the BMJ articles said Thursday he believes Wakefield should face criminal charges.

Robin Bobcat - 06 January 2011 02:37 PM

Booya! Take that, anti-vaccine groups!

Eh, most of the really vocal ones will either say 1) that Wakefield is merely the victim of a vast conspiracy involving Big Pharma and the Government and the Mainstream Media and probably the New World Order and the Jews as well, and/or 2) even if Wakefield is a liar, that doesn’t mean that he’s wrong.  So this won’t do anything at all regarding those people.  It might do something towards influencing the anti-vaccination people who read Wakefield’s paper and made their decision about vaccines based on its “evidence”, but too many anti-vaccination people simply used Wakefield’s paper to just reinforce something that they wanted to be true (it’s not the fault of random chance or or their own genetic material that made their kid autistic, it’s all somebody else’s fault!!!).  The latter type are looking for evidence to support what they want to be true, rather than deciding what is true based on the evidence.  Taking away some of their evidence will just make them move on to some other “facts”.  They have too much emotionally invested in having somebody other than themselves to blame for what’s wrong with their kids.

And of course, Wakefield has already made a pile of money from this whole thing, and is still probably going to keep right on making a pile of money off all of this.

Too true.. I actually had a nice chat with a pediatrician in the lobby this morning on the subject. She was pretty upset about the whole sordid mess.

I try not to wish ill of anyone, but I honestly hope that Wakefield is sued into the gutter over this, to the point that ‘vaccines cause autism’ will rightfully be associated with the ravings of shabbily-dressed homeless people, along with ‘the cheese is talking to me’ and ‘I am king of the bus (but only while I’m not wearing pants)’.

Say what you will about Bill Gates, the man’s smart, has a lot of money, and is willing to DO something:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/03/gupta.gates.vaccines.world.health/

I caught a whiff of this about 10 days ago. (The newest article by Deer, the reporter that dug in and found out about the whole sordid affair.)  I have spent ten or so days reading everything i could find on the issue.  Wow, there was a LOT.

This Wakefield guy is a scum!!  He SHOULD be prosecuted under crimes against humanity!  He went in to this “study” TWO YEARS after signing on to help “cook up” something to help a set of attorneys sue and win against the vaccine companies.   Then, he arranged for money from the legal defense fund to pay for treatment on the kids that was already going to be paid for be their free NHS system!  He continued getting paid all the way through 2004, the year Brian Deer was finally able to break the story of what was really going on.  He lied, not just in changing all of the parameters and data for the study, but about having done so or receiving any monies for having done so.  He is STILL lying about it!!

ugh.

Some conspiracy all right!

Oh!  I forgot to mention that he had already patented a “whacko” vaccine based on the bone marrow of some health nut that he felt would be “better” than REAL medicine.  this guy is not only a crook, but a quack!!

Orac put together a pretty good blog post HERE.

It seems that Wakefield’s various crimes/lies might actually be worse than was previously thought!

Jeeeze…. Ok, now taking bets on how long it takes before he is dragged out into the street and shot, his body left to rot s a warning to others?