Bogus Research and Fraud Found in Study of Vaccines and Autism

Every parent anguishes at the possibility that something done for his or her child may injure them rather than benefit them. In the early 1990s, there was a great deal of concern about the normal childhood vaccines, their ingredients and their side effects. The scientific and medical data were limited, and little evidence of harm from vaccines existed.

Andrew Wakefield, then a physician practicing in the United Kingdom, was the lead author on a study published in the Feb. 28, 1998, issue of the British medical journal The Lancet. The study, of 12 children, appeared to demonstrate a link between the administration of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and both physical problems as well as autism.

In 2008, after many studies had failed to reproduce Wakefield's results and serious questions had been raised about his methodology, The Lancet retracted the article. Additional investigation resulted in Wakefield being stripped of his license to practice medicine.

The result of the original publication was immediate. Parents stopped allowing their children to receive the MMR vaccine. In England, by 2003-2004, only 79.9 percent of 2-year-olds had received their recommended MMR vaccine. Their National Health Service reports that in the year 2009-2010, the percentage had risen to 84.9 percent. That is well under the other regions of the United Kingdom and below the World Health Organization target of 95 percent.

In the Jan. 5, 2011, issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the first part of a series investigating the Wakefield study was published. The introduction to the piece uses the phrase "bogus data" to describe the material used in the Wakefield piece. The author uses the word "frauds" to describe Wakefield's research. In a companion editorial, the BMJ titles its piece "Wakefield's article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent."

Jeffrey P. Baker, MD, PhD, director of Duke's History of Medicine Program and an associate clinical professor of pediatrics, said:

"Vaccine opponents consistently disparage the positive benefits of vaccines, which the vast majority of physicians and public health leaders regard as one of our most powerful tools to protect the health of our children. Deferring or declining vaccines has consequences for our neighbors' children as well as our own. It is important to learn about the diseases they prevent prior to questioning their benefits."

Short Range Impact

Mumps is currently epidemic in England and resulted in a large outbreak in the United States in 2009-2010. Measles outbreaks appear with regularity. Sir Sandy Macara, ex-chairman of the British Medical Association, is quoted by the BBC:

"People here have become a bit blase and they worry more about rare possible risks of vaccination rather than the diseases they prevent.

"One ought to recognise that mothers have a responsibility for ensuring their children are protected."

In the United States, the anti-vaccine movement has included the vaccine for whooping cough. The four states with the highest whooping cough cases counts in 2010 were among the 20 states that allowed parents to refuse to immunize their children based on some form of "strong personal belief." The data for California, Texas, Michigan and Ohio suggest that the highest rates of whooping cough infections can be found in predominately white, wealthy counties with major universities nearby. The California data also suggest that numbers are highest in counties that have the highest rates of personal belief exemptions. Ten infants have died of whooping cough in California in 2010.

Long Term Impact

The public often reads of conflicting medical studies and making educated choices can be difficult. The media are often complicit by overhyping a medical issue for increased viewers or readers. The result is that concerned parents are not asking their doctors when they have questions or concerns, or even worse the doctors are not up to date on current issues in medicine.

The latest information about measles and rubella, mumps and other illnesses that can be prevented by a vaccine is readily available on the Internet. It is often drowned out by sites offering unproven and unscientific medical advice. Parents are often making choices about immunizing their children based upon beliefs and advice that borders on superstition and quackery. Erring on the side of caution when poorly informed does a child little good and potentially much harm.

Ten infants are dead in California because adults failed to follow medically recognized immunization guidelines on whooping cough. Over 7,800 people have become ill in that state alone. Over 20,000 people nationally have been sickened. The hours lost from school and work, and the permanent damages done by the infection, remain to be cataloged.

Measles, mumps and rubella are serious illnesses and their complications include death or long term disability. The apparent frauds committed by former doctor Wakefield and embraced by so many will create damages that will last a life time for some.