Vaccines and Autism
Origins
A pervasive myth, created by renowned cooker and disgraced former doctor, Andrew Wakefield.
This fabrication was first thrust forth into the public eye when, in 1998, a study was published in the medical journal "The Lancet", alleging a link between the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine and autism.
The journal did eventually retract the study, but unfortunately this happened many years too late, as it was used as the basis for much poor reporting in the news media, and most likely formed the opinions of many a cookers parent(s), on the subject of vaccine safety.
Subsequent studies conducted on *millions* of children have shown absolutely no causal links to autism whatsoever. No tenuous links, in fact, no links of any kind, at all. Ever. In fact, even more hilariously, the actual retracted study states:
We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described
— The Lancet, Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children
Interestingly, despite Wankfield being regarded as the father of the modern "anti-vax" movement, at the time he birthed said movement from his deformed loins, he wasn't actually "anti-vax". In fact, he was instead, trying to instill fear in the public over the combined MMR vaccine. He invented a condition he called ”autistic enterocolitis”, and claimed to have found a connection between this condition, and children with autism, beginning after the administration of the MMR vaccination.
He stood to profit massively from this in two ways, firstly, by starting a "testing clinic" for the illness, which, given that it didn't exist, would have been the only facility able to "detect it", and secondly, by means of a patent on a singular Measles vaccine, which was the whole key to the grift to begin with, presumably selling millions of units after his fraudulent study had discredited the combination vaccine according to his plan.
Timeline of events
- 1988 – MMR introduced in UK, for the first time boys are immunised against rubella, there is a chance of getting wider measles vaccine coverage and mumps vaccination is included for the first time.
- 1993 onwards – Andrew Wakefield proposes measles jab causes Crohn’s disease, this is later disproved.
- 1995 – Uptake rate of vaccine is 95% enough for herd immunity for mumps, measles and rubella.
- 1998 – Andrew Wakefield suggests MMR and autism link at press briefing to launch research published in the Lancet
- 1998 – 14 year study suggests no problems with MMR vaccine published in Lancet.
- 1999 – Research published in the Lancet from the Royal Free, where Wakefield did his research, finds no evidence for MMR and autism link.
- 2000 – Andrew Wakefield and John O’Leary present evidence to US congress suggesting link between MMR and autism.
- 2000 – Another large scale study suggests benefits of MMR vastly outweigh risks.
- 2001 – BMJ study using GP Research Database suggests no link between MMR and autism.
- 2001 – Andrew Wakefield resigns from the Royal Free and University College Medical School
- 2002 – John O’Leary and colleagues suggest measles are present in guts of patients with austim in a paper in the Journal of Clinical Pathology: Molecular pathology. Scientists question methods and later a US legal case says methods unreliable.
- 2002-2004 – A large number of scientific studies find no link between MMR and autism including research published in British Medical Journal, New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics and Lancet
- 2004 – 10 co-authors on the 1998 Wakefield Lancet paper issue a retraction and editor of the Lancet says, with hindsight, they shouldn’t have published the paper.
- 2004-2005 – Uptake of MMR vaccine falls to 81%.
- 2005 – Large scale Japanese study shows MMR not linked to autism; Japan withdrew MMR and cases of autism continue to increase.
- 2005-2006 Uptake of MMR vaccine at 84%.
- April 2006 - 13 year old boy becomes the first person in the UK to die from measles in 14 years.
- June 2006 - It is announced that Andrew Wakefield is to face the General Medical Council over charges of professional misconduct.
- 2007 - Uptake of MMR vaccine increased to 85%. Department of Health would like the vaccine uptake to rise to 95% – a level that would give herd immunity.
- July 2007 - GMC starts hearings against Wakefield and two of his colleagues.
- January 2010 - GMC issues preliminary verdicts and finds Wakefield to have been 'irresponsible' in conducting unnecessary and invasive tests on children. The Lancet retracts Wakefield's original paper a couple of days later.
- May 2010 - Wakefield is found guilty of serious professional misconduct and is struck off the medical register.