Andrew Wakefield Unethical so Age of Autism Stands By Him

The British General Medical Council (GMC) has just announced its verdict in their investigation into Andrew Wakefield, ruling that he had acted dishonestly and irresponsibly:

The verdict, read out by panel chairman Dr Surendra Kumar, criticised Dr Wakefield for the invasive tests, such as spinal taps, that were carried out on children and which were found to be against their best clinical interests.

The panel said Dr Wakefield, who was working at London's Royal Free Hospital as a gastroenterologist at the time, did not have the ethical approval or relevant qualifications for such tests.

[…]

Dr Kumar said he had acted with "callous disregard for the distress and pain the children might suffer".

He also said Dr Wakefield should have disclosed the fact that he had been paid to advise solicitors acting for parents who believed their children had been harmed by the MMR.

[My bold.]

In 1998, Wakefield claimed to have found a link between the measles virus in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of children (following the MMR vaccine), and autism.  Wakefield’s small study, popularized by idiotic news media, led to an MMR-autism scare, a significant drop in vaccine rates and a resurgence of measles in the UK.  Wakefield may claim he didn’t say that MMR causes autism, but he certainly implied it strongly enough (and again, with the help of the press), that many people believed (and still believe) that the MMR vaccine causes GI problems which causes autism.  The evidence though, from a panel of 28 experts, clearly showed that this was not true.  The GMC have now, with this ruling, confirmed that in addition to Wakefield’s conclusions being false, he also acted unethically.  We still have to wait to see what sanctions they hand down.

Various vaccines-cause-autism groups immediately revised their positions, based on the conclusions of this independent expert body, and stated that they were wrong previously to claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism.

Ha – just kidding.  Of course they haven’t.  Nothing would ever convince these people that their previously determined conclusion could ever be wrong.  Just take a look at the flurry of activity from the Age of Autism blog in the last three days:

A Sad Day for the Future of Children – where they “unequivocally renounce the GMC’s findings” – no evidence, nothing they can say that is wrong with the GMC’s findings – they just renounce them because, well, because they do, so there.

Then from Mark Blaxill we have Naked Intimidation: The Wakefield Inquisition is Only the Tip of the Autism Censorship Iceberg - where he smears the witnesses in the case, oh and anecdotes, anecdotes I tell you (un-sourced) about anti-vaccination scientists being censored.  And “the only thing for the autism community to do now is stand by Andy Wakefield” – because clearly “the only thing” you can do when a discredited doctor is also found guilty of ethical violations, is to “stand by” him.  That’s “the only thing” you can do.  No other options, obviously.  Their hands are tied, you see.

And if that wasn’t clear enough, we have National Autism Association Supports Dr. Andrew Wakefield – the title says all you need to know.

Celebrity idiot Jenny McCarthy’s charity chimes in with Generation Rescue Supports Dr. Andrew Wakefield - (beginning to see a trend here).

Finally, we have fearless conversation advocate and fearless litigant to anyone who disagrees with her, Barbara Loe Fisher, who writes Vaccines: Doctor Judges & Juries Hanging Their Own – a touching story of the first time she met Wakefield.  (Why?  Who knows.)

And a couple more that I couldn’t be bothered to read.

Nothing could possibly ever convince these people that they might have been wrong.  Nothing.  Ever.  If you want to read some good sources on the GMC’s verdict, see below.

Further Reading

Steven Novella writes Andrew Wakefield “Acted Unethically”.

Investigative reporter Brian Deer (writing a year ago) MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism – on how Wakefield changed and misreported results in his research:

Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the [MMR shot], 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.

Ben Goldacre The Wakefield MMR verdict.

And finally, there is the GMC’s actual report.

Comments

[Liz Ditz]

I sometimes write a post that collates blog responses, both positive and negative, to a given issue.

I'm keeping one now on responses to the GMC's ruling on Andrew Wakefield's conduct.

I've added your blog to the list.

The post is at

http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2010/01/andrew-wakefield-dishonesty-misleading-conduct-and-serious-professional-misconduct.html

I find it...curious that the "autism is vaccine injury" crowd have responded so little to the GMC verdict. Yes, there was a flurry of posts at Age of Autism...but elsewhere, nothing. Or nothing I can find.

I suspect that a lot of conversation is going on in closed listservs at Google, Yahoo and elsewhere.

[Joseph]

They say stuff like "we stand by Andy" but we know and they know that events like this and the OAP verdicts are major blows. They keep losing badly on many different fronts, scientific and legal.

[genewitch]

i was listening to KNX 1070 los angeles AM radio station when the news about this broke, and they gave exactly 13 seconds to the soundbite report from the GMC. Then they let someone who was anti-vax talk for about 50 seconds. I was going to call them on their bullshit reporting, but an hour later, the same story was repeated with just the soundbite and the lead-in. so maybe they got a bunch of angry calls.

[genewitch]

I should note that hearing the 50 second spiel by the anti-vaxxer nearly made me wreak my vehicle on the freeway. I was very very infuriated.

[stillflumoxed]

i still can't tell you exactly what autism looks like, or how it's diagnosed in kids. (especially newborns...who says that the kid has to wave at mommy and smile all the time? maybe she's just a stern person and the child is just more aware?) seriously, just about everyone i know could be autistic. i'm not saying it isn't real and affecting many, but if so many are developing it and it can vary in style, how in the world can you honestly say it's one thing or another?

[Tom Foss]

Stilflumoxed: Have you tried looking at the diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorders? Here's a site that explains them from the DSM-IV (which may mean that it's slightly outdated, as it doesn't reference the DSM-IV-TR). Wikipedia has a decent explanation of the early childhood symptoms as well.

Just because a set of disorders presents in a variety of ways doesn't mean that there aren't diagnostic criteria.

[Stilflumoxed]

Thanks Tom!
Those links did provide me with more insight and i didn't mean to sound like i was dismissing the disease. I had just read your piece on Mike Adams and was feeling a bit at odds; Adams is obviously passionate about the problems and wants to help everyone, but it hurts my mind to read his stuff or take him seriously. Has he ever responded?
Thanks for writing that piece and making it clear to me that there are people who still wait for evidence before making a decision. You too Skeptico. Been a fan of this site for years!

[seekingthetruth]

See Dr. Mercola's interview with Wakefield and you will be stunned. THis is a bonifide cover up by the gov't, whistelblower included. Must see Youtube.

[Ryan W.]

So I've been engaging in a self-induced blog celibacy for two years, but..

Must see Youtube.

Is this the new thing the woos do instead of "google it"? Now I have to actually watch it? I harken for the olden times like 2005 when the woos still read. They're getting reeeeally lazy now.

Seriously? YouTube it??

[Tom Foss]

Where is the coverup, seekingthetruth? Did the "gov't" (interesting that you don't say which one--Wakefield is British, don'cha know) rewrite Wakefield's Lancet paper to make it a small-scale study with little power to do more than suggest new avenues of research? Did the "gov't" contaminate the lab Wakefield used with measles viruses so he'd get a false positive result? Did the "gov't" force Wakefield to pay kids at his son's birthday party for blood samples? Did the "gov't" rewrite the medical records of some of Wakefield's test participants to show that they had autism symptoms before vaccination? Did the "gov't" force Wakefield not to disclose that he'd been hired by lawyers looking for evidence to use against vaccine manufacturers? Did the "gov't" force Wakefield to perform dangerous and unnecessary procedures like lumbar punctures on autistic children? Exactly how did the "gov't" invent Wakefield's grossly unethical actions?

[Chris]

There is another youtube where his comments are reviewed and called a tall story:
http://www.youtube.com/user/briandeer#p/a/u/0/dcRw9ZZ6HxA

[Nerina]

As a mom of a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome (who was born in 1995) I remember when Dr. Wakefield's original research and "leaky gut" theory was making the rounds. I remember, too, feeling enormous guilt for having my child vaccinated and then the subsequent debate about vaccinating my other children. Once my initial panic subsided, I did the research. I vaccinated all of my children. What I resent MOST is how some autism advocacy groups (and I believe they can do good work in raising awareness about the disability) inflict such guilt on parents who are just trying to make the right decisions for their kids. When I told some other parents of autistic kids that I had my other children vaccinated, they were completely aghast. They thought I was irresponsible and abusive to subject them to something that is "KNOWN" to "cause autism."

If we are really concerned with treating this disability and really concerned with preventing its occurrence, why aren't these groups screaming the results of the GMC investigation? What is really going on here?

[Isabela]

cool post!!!