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http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html
Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds
Editor's note: Watch Anderson Cooper's interview with the author of the
discredited study, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, on "AC360°" at 10 p.m. ET tonight.
(CNN) -- A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood
vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to
public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the
study's author, 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.
"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the
authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-
chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what
seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a
link by falsifying the data."
Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May. "Meanwhile, the
damage to public health continues, fueled by unbalanced media reporting and
an ineffective response from government, researchers, journals and the
medical profession," BMJ states in an editorial accompanying the work.
Explainer: Autism and vaccines
Speaking to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Wakefield said his work has been "
grossly distorted" and that he was the target of "a ruthless, pragmatic
attempt to crush any attempt to investigate valid vaccine safety concerns."
The now-discredited paper panicked many parents and led to a sharp drop in
the number of children getting the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and
rubella. Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after its publication,
falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the
ensuing years.
In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in
any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. More than 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their
vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.
"But perhaps as important as the scare's effect on infectious disease is the
energy, emotion and money that have been diverted away from efforts to
understand the real causes of autism and how to help children and families
who live with it," the BMJ editorial states.
Wakefield has been unable to reproduce his results in the face of criticism,
and other researchers have been unable to match them. Most of his co-
authors withdrew their names from the study in 2004 after learning he had
had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a
serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose. After years on
controversy, the Lancet, the prestigious journal that originally published
the research, retracted Wakefield's paper last February.
The series of articles launched Wednesday are investigative journalism, not
results of a clinical study. The writer, Brian Deer, said Wakefield "
chiseled" the data before him, "falsifying medical histories of children and
essentially concocting a picture, which was the picture he was contracted
to find by lawyers hoping to sue vaccine manufacturers and to create a
vaccine scare."
According to BMJ, Wakefield received more than 435,000 pounds ($674,000)
from the lawyers. Godlee said the study shows that of the 12 cases Wakefield
examined in his paper, five showed developmental problems before receiving
the MMR vaccine and three never had autism.
"It's always hard to explain fraud and where it affects people to lie in
science," Godlee said. "But it does seem a financial motive was underlying
this, both in terms of payments by lawyers and through legal aid grants that
he received but also through financial schemes that he hoped would benefit
him through diagnostic and other tests for autism and MMR-related issues."
But Wakefield told CNN that claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and
autism "came from the parents, not me," and that his paper had "nothing to
do with the litigation."
Read autism coverage on "The Chart" blog.
"These children were seen on the basis of their clinical symptoms, for their
clinical need, and they were seen by expert clinicians and their disease
diagnosed by them, not by me," he said.
Wakefield dismissed Deer as "a hit man who has been brought into take me
down" by pharmaceutical interests. Deer has signed a disclosure form stating
that he has no financial interest in the business.
Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children's
Hospital in Cleveland, said the reporting "represents Wakefield as a person
where the ends justified the means." But he said the latest news may have
little effect on those families who still blame vaccines for their children'
s conditions.
"Unfortunately, his core group of supporters is not going to let the facts
dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism," Wiznitzer said. "They need
to be open-minded and examine the information as everybody else."
Wakefield's defenders include David Kirby, a journalist who has written
extensively on autism. He told CNN that Wakefield not only has denied
falsifying data, he has said he had no way to do so.
"I have known him for a number of years. He does not strike me as a
charlatan or a liar," Kirby said. If the BMJ allegations are true, then
Wakefield "did a terrible thing" -- but he added, "I personally find it hard
to believe that he did that."
Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds
Editor's note: Watch Anderson Cooper's interview with the author of the
discredited study, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, on "AC360°" at 10 p.m. ET tonight.
(CNN) -- A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood
vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to
public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the
study's author, 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.
"It's one thing to have a bad study, a study full of error, and for the
authors then to admit that they made errors," Fiona Godlee, BMJ's editor-in-
chief, told CNN. "But in this case, we have a very different picture of what
seems to be a deliberate attempt to create an impression that there was a
link by falsifying the data."
Britain stripped Wakefield of his medical license in May. "Meanwhile, the
damage to public health continues, fueled by unbalanced media reporting and
an ineffective response from government, researchers, journals and the
medical profession," BMJ states in an editorial accompanying the work.
Explainer: Autism and vaccines
Speaking to CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," Wakefield said his work has been "
grossly distorted" and that he was the target of "a ruthless, pragmatic
attempt to crush any attempt to investigate valid vaccine safety concerns."
The now-discredited paper panicked many parents and led to a sharp drop in
the number of children getting the vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and
rubella. Vaccination rates dropped sharply in Britain after its publication,
falling as low as 80% by 2004. Measles cases have gone up sharply in the
ensuing years.
In the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than in
any other year since 1997, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. More than 90% of those infected had not been vaccinated or their
vaccination status was unknown, the CDC reported.
"But perhaps as important as the scare's effect on infectious disease is the
energy, emotion and money that have been diverted away from efforts to
understand the real causes of autism and how to help children and families
who live with it," the BMJ editorial states.
Wakefield has been unable to reproduce his results in the face of criticism,
and other researchers have been unable to match them. Most of his co-
authors withdrew their names from the study in 2004 after learning he had
had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a
serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose. After years on
controversy, the Lancet, the prestigious journal that originally published
the research, retracted Wakefield's paper last February.
The series of articles launched Wednesday are investigative journalism, not
results of a clinical study. The writer, Brian Deer, said Wakefield "
chiseled" the data before him, "falsifying medical histories of children and
essentially concocting a picture, which was the picture he was contracted
to find by lawyers hoping to sue vaccine manufacturers and to create a
vaccine scare."
According to BMJ, Wakefield received more than 435,000 pounds ($674,000)
from the lawyers. Godlee said the study shows that of the 12 cases Wakefield
examined in his paper, five showed developmental problems before receiving
the MMR vaccine and three never had autism.
"It's always hard to explain fraud and where it affects people to lie in
science," Godlee said. "But it does seem a financial motive was underlying
this, both in terms of payments by lawyers and through legal aid grants that
he received but also through financial schemes that he hoped would benefit
him through diagnostic and other tests for autism and MMR-related issues."
But Wakefield told CNN that claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and
autism "came from the parents, not me," and that his paper had "nothing to
do with the litigation."
Read autism coverage on "The Chart" blog.
"These children were seen on the basis of their clinical symptoms, for their
clinical need, and they were seen by expert clinicians and their disease
diagnosed by them, not by me," he said.
Wakefield dismissed Deer as "a hit man who has been brought into take me
down" by pharmaceutical interests. Deer has signed a disclosure form stating
that he has no financial interest in the business.
Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children's
Hospital in Cleveland, said the reporting "represents Wakefield as a person
where the ends justified the means." But he said the latest news may have
little effect on those families who still blame vaccines for their children'
s conditions.
"Unfortunately, his core group of supporters is not going to let the facts
dissuade their beliefs that MMR causes autism," Wiznitzer said. "They need
to be open-minded and examine the information as everybody else."
Wakefield's defenders include David Kirby, a journalist who has written
extensively on autism. He told CNN that Wakefield not only has denied
falsifying data, he has said he had no way to do so.
"I have known him for a number of years. He does not strike me as a
charlatan or a liar," Kirby said. If the BMJ allegations are true, then
Wakefield "did a terrible thing" -- but he added, "I personally find it hard
to believe that he did that."
