From this article: "...the lawyer had offered to pay the school for
a "clinical and scientific study," and had sent a first instalment of
[Pounds sterling] 25000. This was held in suspense while Zuckerman sought
confidential ethical advice from the British Medical Association, although
Wakefield had already started spending it."
In earlier Rapid Responses in the BMJ to editorials and other
articles discussing this sad affair, those believing the MMR-autism link
would summarily dismiss anyone with an opposing view who had the flimsiest
of "vested interests". Now we see that Wakefield had the most venal of
vested interests: he was paid to find a link. I have not looked in detail,
but there seems nothing about this on the support group (JABS) website
(http://www.jabs.org.uk/). Clicking there on "Vaccine News and Info"
brings up first a story from the Daily Mail in 2004 titled "MMR killed my
daughter". Wakefield still remains a hounded hero to them.
The sub-head to last week's editorial was "Clear evidence of
falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine
scare",(1) but it won't. Only clear evidence of the real cause of autism
would do that - although perhaps even that would not be enough.
What it is time for is a closure of dialogue in the BMJ on this
matter. The editorial saw the resurfacing of all the invalid arguments
that we have read so many times before. Those who discount and decry the
mass of evidence now available that MMR is not linked to autism have had
their say in this journal, and it is time for that door to close. The
Earth is not flat and that is that. Or, perhaps more appropriately, the
Apollo missions did indeed land on the Moon.
1 Godlee F, Smith J, Markovitch H. Wakefield's article linking MMR
vaccine and autism was fraudulent. BMJ 2011;342:c7452
Rapid Response:
Time to stop
From this article: "...the lawyer had offered to pay the school for
a "clinical and scientific study," and had sent a first instalment of
[Pounds sterling] 25000. This was held in suspense while Zuckerman sought
confidential ethical advice from the British Medical Association, although
Wakefield had already started spending it."
In earlier Rapid Responses in the BMJ to editorials and other
articles discussing this sad affair, those believing the MMR-autism link
would summarily dismiss anyone with an opposing view who had the flimsiest
of "vested interests". Now we see that Wakefield had the most venal of
vested interests: he was paid to find a link. I have not looked in detail,
but there seems nothing about this on the support group (JABS) website
(http://www.jabs.org.uk/). Clicking there on "Vaccine News and Info"
brings up first a story from the Daily Mail in 2004 titled "MMR killed my
daughter". Wakefield still remains a hounded hero to them.
The sub-head to last week's editorial was "Clear evidence of
falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine
scare",(1) but it won't. Only clear evidence of the real cause of autism
would do that - although perhaps even that would not be enough.
What it is time for is a closure of dialogue in the BMJ on this
matter. The editorial saw the resurfacing of all the invalid arguments
that we have read so many times before. Those who discount and decry the
mass of evidence now available that MMR is not linked to autism have had
their say in this journal, and it is time for that door to close. The
Earth is not flat and that is that. Or, perhaps more appropriately, the
Apollo missions did indeed land on the Moon.
1 Godlee F, Smith J, Markovitch H. Wakefield's article linking MMR
vaccine and autism was fraudulent. BMJ 2011;342:c7452
Competing interests: No competing interests