Study that linked MMR to autism contained fudged data

[AtmaWeapon]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle5683671.ece

The research was published in February 1998 in an article in The Lancet medical journal. It claimed that the families of eight out of 12 children attending a routine clinic at the hospital had blamed MMR for their autism, and said that problems came on within days of the jab. The team also claimed to have discovered a new inflammatory bowel disease underlying the children’s conditions.

However, our investigation, confirmed by evidence presented to the General Medical Council (GMC), reveals that: In most of the 12 cases, the children’s ailments as described in The Lancet were different from their hospital and GP records. Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated. Hospital pathologists, looking for inflammatory bowel disease, reported in the majority of cases that the gut was normal. This was then reviewed and the Lancet paper showed them as abnormal.

[...]

Last week official figures showed that 1,348 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales were reported last year, compared with 56 in 1998. Two children have died of the disease.

*edit* Also this http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle5683643.ece (this article's better)

Some used statistics to see if autism took off in 1988, when MMR was introduced. It did not. Others used virology to see if MMR caused bowel disease, a core suggestion in the paper. It did not. Yet more replicated the exact Wakefield tests. They showed nothing like what he said.

Ignoring the fact that the data was fudged, I'm incensed that anyone in the medical world would take a study on a sample population of 12 seriously enough to cause the craze that's happened over this. It's worse that the data was fixed; the media's given it so much attention that it'll take generations for the incorrect data to be stricken from the public's knowledge. "Wisdom of the crowd" indeed.

I suppose this is the part where I'm supposed to troll Beldaran by pointing out this was scientifically motivated and ha ha science killed kids. I'd be a fool to do so. This was motivated by lust for fame and/or money; science seeks truth no matter what. Just as men pervert religion, this man perverted science and used it as a tool to gain power. The root cause is the same thing that's caused every other problem in history: evil.

[rock_nog]

To be fair, the medical world on the whole did not take this seriously, and there were numerous studies since then that could find no evidence whatsoever for any link between the vaccine and autism. The craze was not fueled by science, but rather a small group of lying bastards and the mainstream media which craves sensationalist bullshit. I think that's what boggled my mind the most about the whole thing - the complete disconnect between the scientific community and the public reaction on this issue.

And really, I find the public response appalling here. Year after year, study after study fails to replicate these results, and what do people do? They just start screaming "Conspiracy!" There have been outbreaks of preventable diseases because of this. Children have died because of this. But people bought in to this bullshit because they've been conditioned to believe that the evil scientists must be lying to them.

[phattonez]

I saw a video once about about the connection between autism and epigenetics. It seemed more plausible to me since one twin had autism and the other was perfectly normal. Of course, I can't claim that it definitely is epigenetics, but it looked pretty good.