It is 15 years since Andrew Wakefield first hypothesised a link between the MMR vaccine and autism in children, mediated by an inflammatory bowel condition (subsequently labelled ‘autistic entercolitis’). Over this period Dr Wakefield and his supporters have cited a range of studies which are claimed to ‘verify’, ‘replicate’ or ‘support’ his MMR-autism theory. Here is the most recent list:
‘Here is a list of 28 studies from around the world that support Dr. Wakefield’s research:
1.The Journal of Pediatrics November 1999; 135(5):559-63
2.The Journal of Pediatrics 2000; 138(3): 366-372
3.Journal of Clinical Immunology November 2003; 23(6): 504-517
4.Journal of Neuroimmunology 2005
5.Brain, Behavior and Immunity 1993; 7: 97-103
6.Pediatric Neurology 2003; 28(4): 1-3
7.Neuropsychobiology 2005; 51:77-85
8.The Journal of Pediatrics May 2005;146(5):605-10
9.Autism Insights 2009; 1: 1-11
10.Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology February 2009; 23(2): 95-98
11.Annals of Clinical Psychiatry 2009:21(3): 148-161
12.Journal of Child Neurology June 29, 2009; 000:1-6
13.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders March 2009;39(3):405-13
14.Medical Hypotheses August 1998;51:133-144.
15.Journal of Child Neurology July 2000; ;15(7):429-35
16.Lancet. 1972;2:883–884.
17.Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia January-March 1971;1:48-62
18.Journal of Pediatrics March 2001;138:366-372.
19.Molecular Psychiatry 2002;7:375-382.
20.American Journal of Gastroenterolgy April 2004;598-605.
21.Journal of Clinical Immunology November 2003;23:504-517.
22.Neuroimmunology April 2006;173(1-2):126-34.
23.Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol Biol. Psychiatry December 30 2006;30:1472-1477.
24.Clinical Infectious Diseases September 1 2002;35(Suppl 1):S6-S16
25.Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2004;70(11):6459-6465
26.Journal of Medical Microbiology October 2005;54:987-991
27.Archivosvenezolanos de puericultura y pediatría 2006; Vol 69 (1): 19-25.
28.Gastroenterology. 2005:128 (Suppl 2);Abstract-303
Which of these studies supports a link between MMR and autism? None of them. Which studies support a link between MMR and inflammatory bowel disease? None. In fact, none of these studies focuses on MMR: the term ‘MMR’ is not included in any of the titles.
One study (no 6) by Vijendra Singh, published in 2003, claims a link between measles virus and autism. According to virologists in London, Singh’s methodology was suspect and the evidence for the specific ‘anti-MMR’ antibody he identified was ‘not credible’(see Michael Fitzpatrick, MMR and Autism: What Parents Need To Know, p90).
Several studies claim to show an association between ‘autistic enterocolitis’ and autism. Of these (nos2, 3, 4, 9, 18, 19, 28) all but two feature Dr Wakefield as a co-author. Study no 9 is the work of Wakefield collaborators Arthur Krigsman and Carol Stott, published in a journal whose editors include Wakefield and Stott. Study no 28 is the work of Wakefield’s former Royal Free colleague Federico Balzola. The study by Dr Lenny Gonzalez, (no 27) a former collaborator with Wakefield at his Thoughtful House clinic in Texas, published in Venezuela, reports the extraordinary findings of autistic enterocolitis in 100% of 45 children with autism, and in 66.66% of 57 ‘developmentally normal’ controls. Apart from Wakefield and his former or current colleagues, no other researchers in the world have confirmed the existence of ‘autistic enterocolitis’ in children with autism.
Some studies suggest the presence of gastrointestinal disorders other than ‘enterocolitis’ in association with autism. These include upper gastrointestinal conditions, such as gastritis and oesophagitis (no 1, Horvath;no 10, Galiatsatos; no 20, Torrente); coeliac disease or malabsorption (no 12, Genuis;no 16, Walker-Smith;no 17, Goodwin); microbial factors other than measles (nos14, 15, 24, 25 – the Finegold, Bolte, Sandler team; and no 26 –Parracho and colleagues at Reading). Most of these studies feature small numbers of cases and two (nos 16,17) were published more than 40 years ago.In study no 10, Polymnia Galiatsatos and colleagues in Montreal, Canada report the cases of two young adults, one with colonic inflammation, the other with gastritis. Nikolov and colleagues at Yale(no 13) simply report on ‘gastrointestinal symptoms’ in association with autism.
Other studies suggest immune or autoimmune dysfunction in association with autism: Jyonuchi (nos7,8) and Singh (nos5,11). One study (no 23, Shinohe) focuses on abnormal glutamate metabolism in adults with autistic spectrum disorders. These studies do nothing to advance the vaccine-autism hypothesis.
Given that supporters of Dr Wakefield often claim that his work has been ‘independently’ replicated, it is worth pointing out that Wakefield himself is a co-author on a quarter of the studies listed here (2,3,4, 18,19, 21,22). Others (9, 20, 27,28) feature former Royal Free team members(Ashwood, Torrente, Furlano, Balzola), or subsequent collaborators (Krigsman, Stott, Gonzalez).
Those who, like me, have been following this sad story over the past 15 years, will have noticed that several authorities formerly cited in support of Wakefield’s theory seem to have fallen by the wayside.
In the early days of the MMR controversy, Wakefield often cited the studies of Rosemary Waring and Patricia D’Eufemia in support of his notion of a ‘leaky bowel’. His colleague John Walker-Smith claimed that a letter from Aderbal Sabra published in the Lancet in 1998 (about children with food allergies and ADHD) provided a ‘great public vindication’ of the work of the Royal Free team (see MMR and Autism, p143-4). Tokyo physician Hishashi Kawashima’s claims to have identified measles virus in children with autism were widely promoted – but soon discredited. In Sunderland, retired pharmacy lecturer Paul Shattock, an ardent Wakefield supporter, attracted widespread publicity for his claims to have identified distinctive urinary peptides linking MMR and autism, but his research was never published.
The most widely cited research supposedly supporting Wakefield came from his Dublin collaborator John O’Leary (published in 2002 in separate papers with Uhlmann and Shiels). This was discredited by the evidence of Stephen Bustin in the Omnibus Autism Proceedings in the USA in 2009 (see Stephen A Bustin, Why There Is no Link Between Measles Virus and Autism, DOI: 10.5772/52844).
Another study by Balzola, based on the use of the technique of ‘capsule endoscopy’ in a single (adult) case has also been dropped. It was rapidly followed by a report from another member of his team of ‘acute small bowel perforation secondary to capsule endoscopy’.
Other forgotten Wakefield supporters are the South Carolina immunologist Hugh Fudenberg, and the Florida preacher and vitamin salesman Jeffrey Bradstreet, whose dubious practices were exposed in Brian Deer’s Channel Four documentary in 2004. The father and son team of Mark and David Geier, notorious for their promotion of the ‘Lupron protocol’ of chemical castration and heavy metal chelation as a treatment for autism as well as for their shoddy researches, have also been dropped from the list of supportive researchers.
Another widely quoted ‘study’ supposedly supporting Wakefield was a poster presentation by Stephen Walker (working in collaboration with long-standing Wakefield ally Arthur Krigsman) at the IMFAR meeting in Montreal in 2006.These preliminary, provisional, unconfirmed, non-peer-reviewed findings – of measles virus in bowel biopsy specimens – in an uncontrolled study (which does not mention MMR) were widely reported – and enthusiastically acclaimed by Dr Wakefield. Walker himself disclaimed the interpretation that his work supported any link between measles and autism. This study has never been published.
In conclusion, after 15 years, we are offered 28 studies, none of which supports the MMR-enterocolitis-autism hypothesis. It is not surprising that over this period Wakefield has failed to win the support of a single paediatrician, paediatric gastroenterologist, child psychiatrist or autism specialist in England. Surely it is time to call a halt?
—
By Michael Fitzpatrick
Left Brain Right Brain 
That is interesting and valuable information. Thank you for sharing it.
Here’s a good brief summary of the articles:
http://justthevax.blogspot.com/2011/05/still-no-independent-confirmation-of.html
A slight correction here Sullivan. Dr. Hepner testified that they sequenced the genome of some of their amplicons and it matched a measles vaccine virus strain. Of course there are no GenBank’ed sequences and their lack of proper controls (an odd theme here) invalidates the claim.
Thanks–
for the record–the above is by Mike Fitzpatrick.
Great summation, Matt.
In terms of general plausibility the lame “MMR-measles-virus-damages bowel-and-so-causes-autism” hypothesis never made first base.
If the first part of the proposal held true, then both natural, wild measles virus and also attenuated strains of vaccine measles viruses (be they monovalent or combined vaccines) would do the same damage.
Since they clearly don’t, there has to be a reason why Wakefield picked on MMR specifically. (Yes I know the prime reason was his professional and financial interests which were a major driver in his undeclared conflicts of interest, but you would imagine he might be bright enough to articulate a scientifically half-decent explanation for MMR being the culprit)
Here, according to Wakefield (if we trust that he is telling the truth), is how he became interested in MMR vaccine as the precipitating factor to formulate his *theory* of “MMR vaccine-induced-enterocolitis”.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41450-2004Jul10.html
Charismatic Doctor at Vortex of Vaccine Dispute
Experts Argue Over Findings, but Specialist Sees Possible MMR Link to Autism
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 11, 2004; Page A01
“LONDON — The first lesson a doctor needs to learn, says Andrew Wakefield, is to listen to his patients. And so when Rosemary Kessick brought in her son William in 1996, Wakefield listened carefully.
She described how William had deteriorated at age 15 months from a healthy developing toddler into a withdrawn, incommunicative child who screamed throughout the night, and how his bowels seemed on fire with constant diarrhea and pain. All of this had started, she said, within days after William received the MMR — an injection known here as the “triple jab,” designed to vaccinate youngsters against measles, mumps and rubella.
In the end Wakefield, a specialist in intestinal disease, did more than just listen. Working with colleagues, he came up with the hypothesis that William and other victims were suffering from a unique form of intestinal disorder related to their autism that might have been triggered by the MMR. He also claimed that the vaccine might be one reason for the soaring rates of autism in the developed world over the past two decades….”
While ready that Washington Post article, I learned something new today; how Andy set up another dummy funding scheme/charity (“Visceral”), years before the Lancet published his study…which enabled him to set up “Thoughtful House” in Austin, Texas.
Looking up that “Visceral” charity…I found this excellent article written by “Sullivan” 🙂
https://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2009/12/04/how-much-does-one-get-paid-to-run-thoughtful-house/
So the mere fact of knowing or have been a collaborator or a colleague of Wakefield makes someone suspicious. Fortunately I don’t know him, I have never worked with him, I have never been his colleague as I would probably be the object of this with hunting. Looks too that the contact with Wakefield makes their work invalid or untrue or or a conspiracy against who or what exactly? Do they want to kill children or is it that they hate pharmaceutical companies?
Are the Tribunals in US part of the conspiracy after recognizing that several children have autism because of MMR vaccine then? Fishy fishy.
Research, hot off the press, claims vaccinated children are 3 times more likely to get autism and other CNS disorders than unvaccinated. This research has already been removed from the Internet. The Truth is coming out whether you like it or not and probably sooner rather than later.
You mean the study that was rejected by multiple journals and a new journal put up the abstract for a couple days and then pulled it?
Did you get a copy of the study from the author? Because it wasn’t made public.
Which is to say you are cheering this on without even pretending to have read it
It says what you want to hear so you accept it.
“The Truth is coming out whether you like it or not and probably sooner rather than later.”
Wow. I have been hearing that mantra from anti-vaxers for over fifteen years. The first “study” they tried to tell me told the “truth” was this silly paper:
Med Hypotheses. 2001 Apr;56(4):462-71.
Autism: a novel form of mercury poisoning.
It came out after thimerosal was being removed from childhood vaccines. Which really did not affect the levels of diagnosis. But this was a delicious bit of irony for one of the studies they paid for, it is a plea for vaccines with thimerosal that very same year:
You should ask SafeMinds about the result of a recent study they paid for, but don’t seem to want to talk about:
Environ Health Perspect. 2015 Jun;123(6):579-89. doi: 10.1289/ehp.1408257. Epub 2015 Feb 18.
Examination of the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model: assessments of neurodevelopment, learning, and social behavior.
“The Truth is coming out whether you like it or not and probably sooner rather than later.”
Wow. I have been hearing that mantra from anti-vaxers for over fifteen years. The first “study” they tried to tell me told the “truth” was this silly paper:
Med Hypotheses. 2001 Apr;56(4):462-71.
Autism: a novel form of mercury poisoning.
You should ask SafeMinds about the result of a recent study they paid for, but don’t seem to want to talk about, but it was discussed here on LBRB:
Environ Health Perspect. 2015 Jun;123(6):579-89. doi: 10.1289/ehp.1408257. Epub 2015 Feb 18.
Examination of the safety of pediatric vaccine schedules in a non-human primate model: assessments of neurodevelopment, learning, and social behavior.
So, you got anything sooner than over sixteen years to go?
https://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/search?q=49+studies
Wow. Ginger Taylor’s list of papers she doesn’t understand and other people don’t read?
Seriously–she has ZERO understanding of science. Her articles are the sort that showed me that the vaccines-cause-autism crowd has nothing.
Why? Because (a) I actually read them and (b) I actually understand them. I can see crap science for what it is. Ginger, not even close. Whether she knows her list is nonsense is an interesting question. But it is.
Sorry you got fooled. But that is EXACTLY what Ginger is trying to do. Pull more people in the hell hole of “my kid was damaged by vaccines. There’s no evidence but I have this list of papers that Ginger Taylor (scientific illerate) says so”
Sorry about the semi-double post. Figuring out the triggers for the robot moderation is tricky. Thanks Matt (I know you are busy).
“It is not surprising that over this period Wakefield has failed to win the support of a single paediatrician, paediatric gastroenterologist, child psychiatrist or autism specialist in England. Surely it is time to call a halt?”
There are pediatricians (Dr. Jerome Murphy, Dr. William Torch, etc) and other specialists (Dr. Russell Blaylock, Dr. Andrew Moulden, Dr. Archie Kalokerinos) from the US, Canada, Australia, etc. that support Wakefield’s hypothesis. Surely you don’t consider England’s doctors to be the only ones that matter?
Andrew Moulden was quite literally insane. He was also a scam artist, ripping off parents of disabled children with a fake vaccine injury diagnosis scheme.
It’s hard to find the stuff Moulden out on the web now. His family took most of it down after his death.
So, yeah, Wakefield had a deteriorating scam artist as a supporter.
Yay Andy.
Kalokerinos was nearly as barking mad as Moulden. He claimed that UNICEF were deliberately re-using vaccination syringes to help spread AIDS.
Kalokerinos was nearly as mad as Moulden. He claimed UNICEF was re-using vaccination syringes to help spread AIDS, and that the WHO and Save the Children were engaging in genocide.
With friends like these …
Soo… None of the papers in any way support what Wakefield is saying.. Really? Here’s the conclusion from the very first paper :
“Unrecognized gastrointestinal disorders, especially reflux esophagitis and disaccharide malabsorption, may contribute to the behavioral problems of the non-verbal autistic patients. The observed increase in pancreatico-biliary secretion after secretin infusion suggests an upregulation of secretin receptors in the pancreas and liver. Further studies are required to determine the possible association between the brain and gastrointestinal dysfunctions in children with autistic disorder.”
seems to suggest the very thing Wakefield has been saying.. Sure it doesn’t say MMR caused it but were they even looking at that? No. Wake up sheeple.
Which Wakefield paper does this support? Or are you just saying “Wakefield says autistic people have digestive systems and this is a paper about autistic people with digestive systems”?
And, while we are at it, the secretin studies? Really?
https://www.cochrane.org/CD003495/BEHAV_intravenous-secretin-for-autism-spectrum-disorders-asd
The autism/secretin work was, at best, just wrong. So, you are citing demonstrably false information as support of Wakefield.
I love how you guys compliment yourselves with the “sheeple” insult. “I’m a free thinker! I ain’t no sheeple!” Yeah. Spending your time supporting a known charlatan like Andy Wakefield, years after he was outed.
So, esophageal reflux may lead to beavior issue. Odd, because Wakefield’s thesis was that there was persistent measles virus in the large intestine. Completely different.
Do you read papers or just take quotes out of them and hope no one actually understands their context?