Seth Mnookin is the author of the upcoming (next week) book “The Panic Virus“. As someone who spent 2 years researching the issue of the vaccine/autism hypothesis, he was chosen to respond to Andrew Wakefield on CNN.
They note this in the story, but I will point it out again here: Andrew Wakefield would not appear together with Mr. Mnookin. This isn’t new. Last year the program “The Doctors” had a program with Jenny McCarthy, J.B. Handley, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel and others–where they only agreed to go on air if the there were no people with opposing views present.
Mr. Mnookin points out that Mr. Wakefield tried to frame the story as a single reporter (Brian Deer) “out to get him”.
He has framed this consistently as this one renegade journalist who’s out to get him. In fact, there was a British — the Medical Research Council, which licenses doctors in the U.K., spent two-and-a- half years looking into his work. It was the longest investigation they had ever done.
On the subject of Mr. Wakefield’s scientific credibility:
GUPTA: No, I think that — I think this is a pretty big deal, what’s happened today.
But, you know, he didn’t — he hasn’t had really credibility within the scientific world for some time. I mean, as you pointed out, he’s been stripped of his medical license. The paper has been retracted. His co-authors all essentially left the paper.
The problem is that Mr. Wakefield’s audience is not the scientific community. The damage he does is not within or to the science community. The damage is to public health and to the autism communities. I am hopeful that this paper in the BMJ will reduce what credibility Mr. Wakefield still has and the damage he is causing.
Mr. Mnookin has a blog post of his own on the BMJ article and editorial: The problems with the BMJ’s Wakefield-fraud story
Here is the transcript:
COOPER: Also joining us right now is Seth Mnookin, author of “Panic Virus.”
Andrew Wakefield would not go on the program with you.
SETH MNOOKIN, AUTHOR, “THE PANIC VIRUS: A TRUE STORY OF MEDICINE, SCIENCE, AND FEAR”: Right.
COOPER: He would only go on if Sanjay and I were — were asking the questions.
What do you make of what he said?
MNOOKIN: I find it — I find it upsetting and — and disturbing.
He has framed this consistently as this one renegade journalist who’s out to get him. In fact, there was a British — the Medical Research Council, which licenses doctors in the U.K., spent two-and-a- half years looking into his work. It was the longest investigation they had ever done.
And that was the group that stripped him of his right to practice medicine and — and said that he had displayed a callous disregard for children.
There have been dozens of studies.
COOPER: They said a callous disregard for children?
MNOOKIN: Callous disregard for children.
COOPER: That’s why — and that’s — in stripping him of his — of his license?
MNOOKIN: Well, the — the — there were several reasons they listed. The callous disregard had to do with performing unnecessary tests on children who had been brought to him to support this point, including spinal taps, invasive examinations, colonoscopies on very, very young children.
They also found that there was — his evidence couldn’t be backed up. His — his data couldn’t be backed up. So, for it to be portrayed by — by — by Andy Wakefield as this being one person out to get him, you know, I think what he’s banking on is that people won’t actually look and see — look and see what the reality of the situation is.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: When you read this report by — by Deer…
MNOOKIN: Right.
COOPER: And I don’t know this guy Deer at all, but, I mean, I have read his entire report. It’s — it’s — it’s pretty exhaustive.
MNOOKIN: Not only is it exhaustive, but, if you took out everything that Brian Deer had ever written, there would be exhaustive evidence that — that this was not trustworthy.
Dozens of researchers in dozens of countries have studied literally millions of children around the world. And this notion that there’s some sort of conspiracy between public health officials, doctors, journalists, drug companies, researchers around the world, you know, it — it would be the most brilliant conspiracy that had ever been hatched.
And — and — and Andrew Wakefield’s setting himself up as this one renegade or this band of renegades, you know, sort of fighting against this is — is, I think, laughable.
COOPER: Sanjay, does he have any credibility?
GUPTA: No, I think that — I think this is a pretty big deal, what’s happened today.
But, you know, he didn’t — he hasn’t had really credibility within the scientific world for some time. I mean, as you pointed out, he’s been stripped of his medical license. The paper has been retracted. His co-authors all essentially left the paper.
COOPER: But, you know, let me just say one thing. Because there — there is so much distrust of big pharmaceutical companies, there are going to be a lot of people watching this who say…
GUPTA: Well, that…
COOPER: … you know, we’re all in the pockets of big pharma, or, you know, that — that there is this conspiracy.
GUPTA: That’s what I was going to say. I don’t know that it’s going to change people who are still going to be very concerned about vaccines.
And the reality is that, if we had a great answer as to what causes autism, I think that would — that would change this debate altogether. But we don’t. So, you — it’s trying to prove a negative, obviously, an impossible thing to do.
But, in his case, I — I don’t think that it — while as big a deal as this is in science today, I don’t know how much this changes the debate overall, because his — his — his science has been discredited in the scientific community for some time.
COOPER: But — but, I mean, it’s understandable. Look, parents — look, we don’t know about — a lot about autism, and — and the numbers are growing. And that is — is of concern. And it’s understandable parents would latch on to anything.
But — but in terms of just facts, and we do — you know, I believe in facts a lot on this program — I mean, Seth, are there peer-reviewed scientific reports that — that indicate a link between…
MNOOKIN: No.
COOPER: … between vaccines and — and autism?
MNOOKIN: No. And not only is there not peer-reviewed work, this is probably the most studied public health issue involving children over the last 20 years.
COOPER: Would public health officials have an interest in — in hiding a link, if there was?
MNOOKIN: Public health officials, I think, would have an interest in keeping children safe.
Even if there — if there was a link and it was discovered, I think public health officials would — would have an interest in doing whatever they could to protect children. This notion that everyone’s trying to — to — to cover their butts and — because they have already been — been perpetrating this scam, is — to distrust the motives of that many people around the world, you know, you would need to assume that — that everything going on is in some ways out to get you.
I think Sanjay’s point about our not knowing what causes autism is really in some ways the crucial one, because it’s so frightening to parents. The numbers are rising. And here’s something that you can point to. And because it occurs at the same time, you always get vaccinated when you’re a child, and autism is diagnosed when you’re a child, so it’s easy to understand why patients would latch on to that as a connection.
But it has no more validity than — than if I said microwave popcorn causes autism. The numbers have gone up since we have started eating microwave popcorn. There’s just — there’s absolutely no evidence supporting a link.
COOPER: Do — do you agree with that?
GUPTA: Yes. I mean, and I think…
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: And, as a parent, what do you tell other parents?
GUPTA: Well, I — I have three children. I got my kids vaccinated on schedule, on time. So, you know, I mean, that’s — I think the proof’s in the pudding in my case, because I had to make that decision.
But I think, also, you know, that I — you could get a sense of where the debate goes from here. Wakefield’s paper may be discredited, but we still don’t know. We give more vaccines now. We give them in different schedules. Could there be something new that’s possibly causing this uptick in autism?
And — and — and I think the question is going to remain out there, despite what’s happened today. You know, the smallpox vaccine, when it was given, it causes an immune response to the body. It was a — a really profound immune response, more powerful than all the vaccines that we give today, and yet the autism rates are higher now.
So, if it’s the vaccine itself, why wasn’t it happening when we gave these really, really powerful vaccines so many years ago?
COOPER: And, Seth, the report that is out today by this journalist Deer, it indicates that he had a financial — that Wakefield had a financial motive.
MNOOKIN: Right.
COOPER: What was the financial motive?
(CROSSTALK)
MNOOKIN: Well, there were a couple of things.
One, he had filed a patent application for an alternate measles vaccine several months before the paper came out, which he did not disclose at the time. It was precisely the vaccine that you would have wanted if you stopped using the three-in-one MMR vaccine. It was just for measles.
So, that’s one very obvious thing. He also was — his work was being funded by a law firm that was involved in potential vaccine litigation. And a number of the children in this study were also involved with that law firm.
So, the — for — for him to say, you know, “I had no financial connection, and, to prove it, you should read my book,” you know, it — it’s — it’s sort of like saying, no, no, I swear I’m a good guy, and, to prove it, listen to me.
It — you know, it just doesn’t hold up.
COOPER: I read — I read in “Newsweek” this week in an article you wrote about kids who have died because they haven’t been vaccinated…
MNOOKIN: Yes.
COOPER: … died — died from things that they shouldn’t have died of. MNOOKIN: Yes.
COOPER: Whooping cough.
MNOOKIN: In 2010 alone, 10 infants died of whooping cough in California, which is astounding that that is happening today.
There are children that have died of Hib, diseases that I have always assumed were definitely in the past in this country. There was a measles epidemic several years ago in California, in San Diego, that cost $10 million to contain, and resulted in a quarantine of dozens of children.
That meant that those parents then had to find some way to take care of those kids, either not go to work or pay for day care. So, even when you have a case like with that measles epidemic, where it’s true that children didn’t die, you had one infant that was hospitalized for a serious amount of time, and dozens of families that had to pay an enormous amount of money because of this.
COOPER: This is maybe an unfair and an impossible question to answer, is, do you believe Wakefield believes what he’s saying?
MNOOKIN: I talked to him several times over the past several years. Mostly in the context of these conferences that he was referring to where he’s surrounded by people who adulate him.
I think that it’s certainly possible that, at this point, he’s been living in this for so long that he thinks it’s true. I have talked to other people involved in that community who have told me candidly that they wish the conversation could move on from that, because they understood that the science is not…
COOPER: Has the media played a role in perpetuating this? Because you see in a lot of TV shows, you know, on this subject, several sides represented. You have the people who believe the vaccines cause autism and the people who don’t. And it seems to give equal credence, you know.
Or you have a famous person, you know, like Jenny McCarthy, and nothing against her personally, but you know, who is going to get a lot of attention. Has that made the problem worse? Has that given the — this side more credence?
MNOOKIN: I think absolutely. And an example I use is there are people who believe the earth is flat. Most people obviously do not, but if you had one person who believed the earth is flat and one person who said, “No, it’s actually round,” and they were discussing the issue together, it would seem that the consensus was split 50/50.
So here you have a situation in which you have millions of doctors, public health officials, all coming down on one side, and then Andrew Wakefield and a very small number of people who are associated with him, a miniscule number of people, saying, “No, this is what’s actually going on.” But because we can’t present millions of points of view or millions of people, it ends up sounding — there’s this false equivalency. It ends up sounding on the one hand, on the other hand, when there really is only one hand in this case.
COOPER: Do you agree with that, there is only one hand in this?
GUPTA: Yes, and I mean, the one thing I would say with the earth, flat earth, round thing, is we know the answer to that now.
One of the things that again has made this discussion so difficult is that, at the end of the discussion, no matter how much you disagree with the other person, if they come back to you and say, “So what does cause it?” We still don’t have that great answer. It could be some environmental unknown with a genetic predisposition. Who knows? But that, in part, has made this difficult.
Also, you know, just as a parent, I can tell you, it’s so deeply personal. And that also, despite what’s happened today, I think many parents who are dealing with this right now are still believing this, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
COOPER: It’s a fascinating topic. I appreciate both you guys being here with your expertise. Thank you. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Seth Mnookin.
Left Brain Right Brain 
Duncan:
Once again, please give the names of the Papers listed in PubMed where you got your information. If you don’t we will assume you are lying.
Julian Frost, I told Duncan none of those PubMed cites dealt with vaccines and were not pertinent to the doses. Which is the basis of Dedj’s statement.
Duncan is no longer participating in this conversation. I informed him that the use of derogatory terms based on intellectual disability was highly insulting to me, and he ignored that. In fact, he used that to go on the attack.
Duncan’s style is quite common. He has now reached the stage where he is attempting to either get an emotional response or to get banned. Since he already said he was leaving, I see no problem in keeping him to his word.
I posed a simple question to Duncan: what is his connection to the disability community. Apparently he has none. He is just another in the stream of vaccine skeptics who find that the autism community provides a forum for sharpening their debating skills. I don’t see it as my job to correct his homework and make him better at spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. I certainly don’t feel the need to correct the mistakes of a man who can’t follow simple rules.
I’m wondering if I should dedicate a particular John Cooper-Clarke poem to Duncan …
Fair enough Sullivan re. Duncan. Can I just add, for the sake of pedantry, that after some research, ‘chomping’ at the bit is considered legitimate vernacular nowadays. It’s widespread and ongoing misuse have allowed for it’s inclusion, as the terms champing and chomping have the same meaning.(unlike specific and pacific Duncan)
Also Duncan, when he takes his debating skills elsewhere, would do well to understand the difference between intramuscular injections and intravenous. I have never had an intravenous immunisation to my recollection.