Lies, damned lies, and ... medical studies, in this instance.

[unixronin]

New reports from the UK indicate that Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who criticized the safety of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and claimed to have found a link between the vaccine and autism, falsified his data to make it appear to fit his conclusion.

Despite involving just a dozen children, the 1998 paper’s impact was extraordinary.  After its publication, rates of inoculation fell from 92% to below 80%.  Populations acquire “herd immunity” from measles when more than 95% of people have been vaccinated.

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.

Now let me see, what was that oath?  Something about hypocrites?  No, wait, Hippocrates, that's it.  "First, do no harm."

Comments

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I teach Mad Science after school to elementary age students. When I ask them to compare results in an experiment, I typically obviously bias the experiment to produce the results that I "want". The students always call me on it. If they get it, I am teaching that scientists can (and do) slant their research analysis (and sometime raw data) to produce further funding for their research. I do it playfully. Unfortunately, many scientists do not. There are $$ Billions at stake here. That is simply too much money for pure researchers to ignore. Especially with research funds as hard to get as they have been the last decade or more.

[I have concerns about the safety of our vaccines in use. The big pharma companies abandoned that production long ago. There is no effective verification of safety, and hasn't been for decades. There is also no verification that the vaccines submitted to the FDA are the ones actually in use. It troubles me.]