Archive | Vaccines RSS feed for this section

Dr. Bob’s Facebook delusions

21 Jan

Dr. Bob Sears is best known for his 2007 work, The Vaccine Book, ostensibly written “to give parents a balanced look at pros and cons of vaccination so that they can make an educated decision.” In reality, the book has only added to the unnecessary fear, uncertainty and doubt about vaccines that have driven thousands of parents to leave their children vulnerable to preventable diseases. And while America’s medical establishment has caught on to Sears, he still enjoys a following. His book has sold about 50,000 copies, and Sear’s Facebook page lists over 6,000 followers.

Last week Sears told his FB followers that we can only truly know that vaccines are safer than the diseases they protect us from if the CDC studies health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Sears no doubt includes autism in those “health outcomes”, since he has advised parents to avoid vaccinating their autistic children until they are “recovered” from the disorder.  Anti-vaccine activists have been agitating for such a study for years, most recently at the shameful Congressional anti-vaccine hearing last November 29. Jenny McCarthy’s Generation Rescue even attempted such a survey by telephone in 2007. It found that autism was more common among unvaccinated children than vaccinated.

Epidemiologists tell us such a study, done well, would be unethical, since it would mean leaving many thousands of children vulnerable to disease, just to prove what medical science already knows – that vaccines don’t cause autism. Sears says there are enough totally unvaccinated children around to conduct such a study, and on Facebook he cited a paper that supposedly shows that 5-10 percent of American children have never been vaccinated.

 The IOM and the CDC continue to hide behind the claim that to do a comparative study of unvaccinated versus vaccinated children would be unethical. But as long as they neglect to do this research, many parents will continue to decline vaccines over the concern about lack of safety research.

The IOM states that one challenge of an unvaccinated study is that there is an inadequate number of study subjects, as less than 1% of children are completely unvaccinated. I don’t agree with this statistic. It’s more like 5%, and could even be 10%. One brand new international study revealed that 10% of households surveyed had children who were completely unvaccinated. 10%!!! And it was the more educated and wealthier families that were more likely to be unvaccinated. The IOM’s claim that there aren’t enough unvaccinated children to study simply isn’t true. With over 4 million babies being born in the U.S. every year, they would have their pick of about 400,000 unvaccinated children to study each year.

Sears links to a meta-analysis of vaccine surveys published last summer in the journal Tropical Medicine and International Health. Xavier Bosch-Capblanch from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and his team reviewed 241 nationally representative household vaccination surveys in 96 low and medium income countries. The percentage of unvaccinated children (ages 12-59 months) was 9.9% across all surveys, but ranged from zero percent (Albania,Peru, and Uzbekistan) to 28.5% (Ethiopia). Sears’s claim that ten percent of American children are completely unvaccinated puts the country on par with Namibia (9.2% in 2007), Haiti (10.3% in 2006), and Yemen (10.9% in 2006). It also means that scores of developing countries, including Vietnam (1%) Tajikistan (.9%), and Sierra Leone (1.9%), should think twice before issuing visas for American children.

If Sears was truly serious about helping parents make an educated decision, he could have cited Allison Kennedy, a CDC epidemiologist, who  surveyed parents to examine intentions, behaviors and concerns about vaccines. In Confidence about vaccines in the United States: Understanding Patient Perceptions (2011), her team found  about two percent of US children aged six or younger were totally unvaccinated. Those numbers are in line with Smith et.al. (2004), which reported a minuscule .3% unvaccinated of children 19-35 months old. The CDC’s 2010 National Immunization Survey found that 1 percent of toddlers were completely unvaccinated.

Despite Sears’s best efforts, the percent of fully vaccinated children has increased over the past decade. That’s discouraging news for Sears and others who have doubled down on a vaxed v. unvaxed study. But overall rates should not mask the real harm of anti-vaccine propaganda  – encouraging community clusters of vaccine rejectionism that have led to unnecessary suffering. One such cluster incubated a measles outbreak in San Diego in 2008. The index patient was a boy who had just returned from a trip to Switzerland. By the time the virus was contained, four others came down with a disease that can lead to pneumonia, encephalitis, and even death. His family’s pediatrician? Dr. Bob Sears.

What kind of doctor, you might ask, would encourage parents to withhold an important vaccine? The kind who aligns himself with the worst elements of the antivaccine movement. The kind who misrepresents published science so as to fuel the anti-vaccine movement’s push for an unethical study. The kind to fabricate his own, untested vaccine schedule, then package it in The Vaccine Book.

—
By Autism News Beat

Last chance to participate: UJA Adults with Autism Survey

29 Dec

IAN, the Interactive Autism Network, the UJA Federation of New York and the Autism Science Foundation have teamed up to sponsor the Adult with ASD Survey.

The survey closes on December 31, so time is short to participate.  You can take the survey here.

Here is a description of the effort from the ASF:

As many of you know, there is little information about the changing needs of adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to guide those planning programs and services. That is why the UJA Federation of New York and the Autism Science Foundation are asking adults with ASD (and their parents or guardians) to complete a survey addressing what is going well in daily life, and what is a challenge. The results of this survey will inform decision making with regard to which programs should be expanded and which may no longer be of value.

We invite you to take this survey by joining the Interactive Autism Network (IAN)—the world’s largest online autism research project—and then completing the UJA Adult with ASD Survey. As a member of IAN, you’ll be informed about future surveys and studies, with a chance to provide ongoing input regarding the experience of adults with ASD over time.

Your participation is critical, and will inform those planning programs about which resources and services adults with ASD and their families need most.

Eligibility for Study Participation:

You are eligible to participate in IAN and the UJA Adult with ASD Survey if you are:

An 18-35 year old adult with ASD who is independent (that is, you are not under anyone’s legal guardianship)
The parent of an independent 18-35 year old adult with ASD (that is, your adult son or daughter with ASD is not under legal guardianship and maintains the right to make their own medical and legal decisions)
The legally authorized representative of a dependent 18-35 year old adult with ASD (For example, you may have legal guardianship or medical power of attorney for the adult with ASD)
Participation Details:

IAN registration and this survey can be completed entirely online and will take approximately 20 minutes.

If you’d like to read the IAN Research study consent form, including privacy policies, before continuing, click here:

https://www.ianresearch.org/pdfs/ian_consent.pdf

Principal Investigator: Dr. Paul A. Law

Contact Information: If you have any questions, the IAN team is happy to answer them for you. You can contact them at 1-866-348-3440 or ian@kennedykrieger.org.

To begin registration and the survey, click on the link below:
http://bit.ly/ORf7d5

—
By Matt Carey

What has become of Autism Science Digest?

26 Dec

Autism Science Digest was an effort by AutismOne to publish their take on autism science in a magazine format for a general audience. AutismOne is best known for their annual parent convention which focused largely on alternative medicine and vaccine causation.

It is about the time that AutismOne should be publishing their speaker list for next year’s conference so I checked their website. For those interested, the speaker list reads like most past lists.  Andrew Wakefield, the former researcher who promoted the idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism, will speak. So will Keri Rivera, who last year gathered much criticism for promoting forcing disabled children to ingest bleach or undergo bleach laced enemas. Interestingly, neither Mark nor David Geier are on the list. The Geiers have been frequent speakers at AutismOne and other venues favorable to their failed ideas about mercury in vaccines causing autism, as well as bizarre proposals that using drugs to shut down sex hormone production can be used to treat autism.  While not a regular at AutismOne, Luc Montagnier will not make a return visit.  Last year Dr. Montagnier brought the prestige of a Nobel Laureate to the convention. While his presence was touted strongly by supporters of AutismOne, Dr. Montagnier’s ideas were lacking the scientific rigor one might expect from a Nobel laureate (to put it mildly). Of course Jenny McCarthy returns, perhaps to tell us all once again that those who don’t follow her ideas wish for our children to remain disabled so we can bask in the sympathy of our acquaintances.

That all said, while perusing the AutismOne website I noted that the cover for their “Autism Science Digest” hadn’t changed since my last visit.  That was some time ago. The cover informs readers about the then upcoming 2012 AutismOne convention (last April), so my interest was piqued and I checked the page for the “Digest” and found this announcement: Autism Science Digest is temporarily unavailable.

One is left wondering how “temporary” temporary is in this case. Autism Science Digest was launched in August 2011 so the lifespan (should temporary=permanent) seems a bit short.

—
By Matt Carey

Andrew Wakefield, who sparked the unjustified MMR controversy, wins the Golden Duck Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to quackery.

23 Dec

Andrew Wakefield, the person most responsible for propagating the now failed notion that the MMR vaccine causes autism, has been awarded the “Golden Duck” award for 2012 by the Good Thinking Society. The announcement begins:

Good Thinking launched its annual Golden Duck award for quackery in 2012, which seeks to recognize those who have supported or practiced pseudoscience in the most ludicrous, dangerous, irrational or irresponsible manner. It was decided that the inaugural award should be for lifetime achievement in any field, and the winner is Andrew Wakefield. His nomination statement can be found here…

One of the members of Winchester Skeptics in the Pub is quoted:

We were very keen to team up with the Good Thinking Society to help choose the winner of the inaugural Golden Duck.

“All candidates fared well in the voting, but it became clear that the one thing the good thinking people of Winchester really can’t stand is a doctor who blatantly abandons and abuses the scientific method.”

Further reading at The Guardian in Struck off MMR doctor handed award for ‘lifetime achievement in quackery’

—
By Matt Carey

A multicenter blinded analysis indicates no association between chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and either xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus or polytropic murine leukemia virus

19 Dec

There was much discussion of the possible imprtance of the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) in conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), prostate cancer and autism. To be clear, the possibility of an autism association was made in the press, not in the research literature. For XMRV in general, there was much discussion in the press, in journals and online as it became clear over time that there were possible problems with the analyses that led to the main papers on the topic. The present study includes work by a multi-site team including the principle author of the original study linking XMRV with CFS/ME.

If one can boil a large, multi-site study result into one line, it would be this:

Here, the original investigators who found XMRV and pMLV (polytropic murine leukemia virus) in blood of subjects with this disorder report that this association is not confirmed in a blinded analysis of samples from rigorously characterized subjects

I.e. there is no link between XMRV and CFS/ME.

Here is the abstract, and the full paper is online as well:

The disabling disorder known as chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) has been linked in two independent studies to infection with xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and polytropic murine leukemia virus (pMLV). Although the associations were not confirmed in subsequent studies by other investigators, patients continue to question the consensus of the scientific community in rejecting the validity of the association. Here we report blinded analysis of peripheral blood from a rigorously characterized, geographically diverse population of 147 patients with CFS/ME and 146 healthy subjects by the investigators describing the original association. This analysis reveals no evidence of either XMRV or pMLV infection. IMPORTANCE Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis has an estimated prevalence of 42/10,000 in the United States, with annual direct medical costs of $7 billion. Here, the original investigators who found XMRV and pMLV (polytropic murine leukemia virus) in blood of subjects with this disorder report that this association is not confirmed in a blinded analysis of samples from rigorously characterized subjects. The increasing frequency with which molecular methods are used for pathogen discovery poses new challenges to public health and support of science. It is imperative that strategies be developed to rapidly and coherently address discoveries so that they can be carried forward for translation to clinical medicine or abandoned to focus resource investment more productively. Our study provides a paradigm for pathogen dediscovery that may be helpful to others working in this field.

There was a lot of hope in the CFS/ME community that this was a breakthrough that could lead to a treatment. Unfortunately, the answers they seek are elsewhere.

As this is an autism-focused site, allow me to bring this back to autism. Unlike CFS/ME, there were no papers claiming an association between autism and XMRV. Instead there were public comments by the researcher involved and inflammatory journalism. In a search for XMRV autism the first article I get is: Is Autism Associated with A Viral Infection?, by David Kirby published at the Huffington Post. Mr. Kirby’s article was probably the first that pushed the (now failed) XMRV/autism hypothesis strongly into the public’s eye. Mr. Kirby was well known for some time previous for his work promoting the idea that vaccines cause autism. In specific, he was a major proponent of the idea that thimerosal in vaccines caused autism, having published a book Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic. For his Huffington Post article on XMRV, Mr. Kirby had some rather irresponsbile speculations from XMRV researcher Judy Mikovits and the founder of her reseach institute Annette Whittemore. From those quotes, Mr. Kirby proceeded to present the XMRV news story in his own way, as a series of speculative questions to create an impression built like a house of cards. The impression he left the reader with was that the XMRV story helped to explain a possible link between autism and vaccines. Following a quoted statement by Mikovits, Mr. Kirby wrote

So there you have it – a possible explanation of regressive autism in a significant number of cases associated with immune system deregulation triggered by vaccination.

Of course, much more work is needed to nail down the exact significance of such an association. For example, is the virus implicated in the cause of autism, or do children harbor the virus as a result of autism?

Notice that he doesn’t say, “much more work is needed to show that this is a real association“. No, rather than stress again that the hypothesis was poorly supported, he jumps to assuming the association and asking what significance it has. Classic David Kirby.

To be fair, the comments by Mikovits and the founder of the research center where she worked (Annette Whittemore) fed directly into his story. To say it again, those statements by Mikovits and Whittemore were irresponsible given the early stage this work was in. But even with those statements, Mr. Kirby had no justification to go into this speculative paragraph:

The discovery raises more questions than it answers. What, exactly, is it about immunization that might switch on XMRV viral expression? Could the effect of heavy metals upon cytokine balances be at play? Where did this retrovirus come from, and how did it apparently become so prevalent in children with autism? Did these children inherit the virus from a parent, or was there some other unexplained route of transmission? Why has the NIH said nothing about XMRV in association with autism, and did Dr. Insel know about these findings without sharing them with the IACC

Again, we see the series-of-questions approach that is Mr. Kirby’s style. He isn’t saying immunization switches on XMRV viral expression (whatever he meant by “XMRV viral expression”. It sounds technical though). He’s posing it as a question. Notice how he brought in his mercury hypothesis, but as “heavy metals”. “Could the effect of heavy metals upon cytokine balances be at play?”. This is a great example of a sciency-sounding sentence that has no substance. Whoever was his editor at the Huffington Post should have shot that back with “do you even know what your talking about here?” But if the editor at the Huffington Post was doing his/her job, this article (and many more by Mr. Kirby) wouldn’t have been published there anyway. It is worth noting that by the time this article was written, the evidence was overwhelmingly against the idea that mercury in vaccines raised autism risk, but this was Mr. Kirby’s way of loosely tying his failed hypothesis to his then current speculation.

To pull the last sentence out of Mr. Kirby’s paragraph: “And why had the NIH said nothing about XMRV?”. Perhaps because they were more responsible than Mr. Kirby.

As a point of fact, XMRV is not prevalent in autistics (Lack of infection with XMRV or other MLV-related viruses in blood, post-mortem brains and paternal gametes of autistic individuals and PCR and serology find no association between xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and autism.) In fact, as will be discussed below, it appears to not infect humans. Unfortunately, Mr. Kirby has not seen fit to post corrections. To the XMRV story or others.

The impression Mr. Kirby created with his story was strong. For example, he gathered 298 comments to his article, largely focused on vaccines. Here’s the last one, prominently at the top of the list:

David: As big as this autism story is, it is only one toe of the elephant. Here is another: There are no protections in place to prevent more XMRV from entering the nation’s blood supply. There is as of yet no XMRV screening test for donated blood. And — I just called my local Red Cross – there is as of yet nothing to prevent people diagnosed with CFS from donating blood. We are all at risk.

The elephant: How did our government let this potentially deadly retrovirus spread unchecked for twenty-five years? XMRV has, so far, now has been found to occur in people with autism, lymphoma, a severe form of prostate cancer, atypical MS, ME/CFS, and fibromyalgia. Twenty-three years ago the CDC was first informed of an outbreak of what we now know to be an XMRV-associated local epidemic. Eighteen years ago a study showed a retrovirus was associated with ME/CFS.

The band played on.

Yes, let’s spread fear about the blood supply, based on news reports, speculation and bad science.

Some of the authors of this present XMRV and CFS/ME study were also involved in a separate major multisite study on MMR and autism. I am referring to a study intended to replicate the key findings of some of Andrew Wakefield’s research. That study, by Mady Hornig, W. Ian Lipkin and others, Lack of association between measles virus vaccine and autism with enteropathy: a case-control study been re-interpreted by some as supporting Mr. Wakefield’s work. Some have gone so far as to claim that Mr. Lipkin’s team is signalling support for Mr. Wakefield’s work by citing it in other studies. It’s a stretch, a mind boggling stretch, and it’s wrong.

From the CFS/ME paper:

Sensitive molecular methods for microbial discovery and surveillance have enabled unique insights into biology and medicine. However, increased sensitivity for bona fide signal increases the risk that low-level contaminants may also be amplified. This can lead to spurious findings that pose challenges for public health and require an expensive and complex pathogen dediscovery process. Examples wherein authors of this paper have been engaged in this process include refutation of associations between enterovirus 71 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (24) and MMR vaccine and autism (25).

Lipkin and Hornig consider their work to be a “refutation” of the association between MMR and autism. But don’t take that one sentence from the paper as the only proof. Here’s an interveiw with Prof. Lipkin at Nature.

Had we done this when Andrew Wakefield [the former medical researcher who proposed that autism was caused by vaccines] came out with the initial report about the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, and had something this definitive, there are many more children who would have been vaccinated against measles during the ten years it took us to finally complete the MMR–autism work. So I think it’s crucial that we don’t do things in a half-baked fashion, so we can test hypotheses and move on to new ones.

The interviewer even includes the MMR refutation as part of a question: “You have disproved the autism–MMR connection and other controversial disease links.”

In general, what can one say about XMRV? Aside from the drama involved in the story (which I did not discuss in detail in this article), and the questions about CFS/ME, autism, prostate cancer and more, what can we say? Prof. Lipkin says it very clearly in the interview:

We did not find any genetic sequences [of XMRV or related viruses] in the people with CFS or the controls. As far as we know, there is no human being that is infected with XMRV.

But there were papers (some now retracted) claiming some links between XMRV and human disease? What about those? Another quote pulled from the interview:

I think the explanation is that there was contamination. I don’t see any reason to invoke anything beyond that.

For this you have to give Judy Mikovits some credit. She worked with the team that was attempting to replicate her results. Contrast this with, say, Andrew Wakefield. A man whose hospital offered him the opportunity to replicate his own results, and he quit rather than accept that offer. A man who has repeatedly denied the science which has been clearly against his hypothesis. A man who denies the fact that he acted unethically in many ways in conducting his research. Judy Mikovits made some mistakes, both scientific and socially, but she seems to be part of the solution.

But that’s a bit of a sideshow. The main conclusion is that XMRV is not involved with autism. Or, apparently, any human disease.

With apologies for revisiting David Kirby and Andrew Wakefield.

—
By Matt Carey

AAP opposes worldwide ban on thimerosal

17 Dec

In a series of articles released today, the American Academy of Pediatrics outlines its opposition to a proposed UN treaty which, if approved, would ban the preservative thimerosal from vaccines worldwide. The ban is also opposed by the World Health Organization and the US Public Health Service. It is estimated that multidose vaccines with thimerosal as a preservative are used in 120 countries to immunize approximately 84 million children, saving about 1.4 million lives each year.

The AAP’s opposition reverses the professional organization’s call in 1999 for the removal of thimerosal from the US pediatric vaccine schedule. That action is frequently cited by anti-vaccine groups as evidence that health officials know that vaccines cause autism and other neurological conditions. But Dr. Louis Z. Cooper and Dr. Samuel L. Katz, co-authors of  one of today’s articles, directly take on that concern:

Had the AAP (and, we suspect, the USPHS) known what research has revealed in the intervening 14 years, it is inconceivable to us that these organizations would have made the joint statement of July 7, 1999. The World Health Organization recommendation to delete the ban on thimerosal must be heeded or it will cause tremendous damage to current programs to protect all children from death and disability caused by vaccine-preventable diseases.

The 1999 domestic ban surfaced during a Nov. 29 congressional hearing on autism, where representatives of both parties repeated long-debunked anti-vaccine talking points. Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) asked the CDC’s Dr. Colleen Boyle why thimerosal was taken out of childhood vaccines if there were no concerns about its safety. Boyle wisely agreed to get back to him with an answer. An anti-vaccine hearing is no place for reasoned discussion.

In another article, researchers Katherine King, PhD, MSc; Megan Paterson, and Shane K. Green, PhD; reaffirm that “there is no credible scientific evidence that the use of thimerosal in vaccines presents any risk to human health.” They continue:

Extensive pharmacologic and epidemiological research has shown early, theoretical concerns about links to autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders to be false. Indeed, the exculpatory strength of the data now available on thimerosal is well evidenced by recent statements from the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, US Institute of Medicine, and American Academy of Pediatrics, all of which have concluded that thimerosal exposure through vaccination is not harmful to human health.

The AAP’s latest action is a shot across the bow to anti-vaccine groups. The UN’s proposed thimerosal ban has been championed by Mark Geier, the disgraced Maryland geneticist best known for chemically castrating disabled children. Two years ago, he told a group of African delegates gathered for a session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Japan that thimerosal “is favored by the pharmaceutical industry because it is cheap and enables the industry to keep making vaccines in old and dirty factories.”

Geier is a regular at Jenny McCarthy’s annual anti-vaccine conference, where he receives standing ovations from anti-vaccine parents. Ten states have either revoked his medical license over the last two years, or allowed it to expire, for Geier’s ethical lapses which included lying about his qualifications risking children’s health with unproven medical treatments.

—
By AutismNewsBeat

Prof. Walker Smith’s memories perhaps not so enduring

12 Nov

Prof. John Walker-Smith was a pediatric gastronterologist  (now retired) who worked with Andrew Wakefield on the research that formed the basis for the now retracted 1998 article in The Lancet that sparked the public fear over a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Multiple studies since have demonstrated that the MMR does not increase autism risk and even Prof. Walker-Smith has stated through his attorney that the Wakefield autism/MMR hypothesis is without merit.

Prof. Walker-Smith was found guilty of misconduct and stripped of his medical license by the General Medical Council (GMC), but that ruling was quashed on appeal. In the appeal decision the judge ruled:

It had to decide what Professor Walker-Smith thought he was doing: if he believed he was undertaking research in the guise of clinical investigation and treatment, he deserved the finding that he had been guilty of serious professional misconduct and the sanction of erasure; if not, he did not, unless, perhaps, his actions fell outside the spectrum of that which would have been considered reasonable medical practice by an academic clinician.

Prof. Walker-Smith and Andrew Wakefield took the position that the work they performed was not research driven, but was clinically indicated tests on children later collected as a case series. That the study for which they received ethical approval was not performed. So there was no problem in that children were seen before the approval was granted.

Prof. Walker-Smith wrote an autobiography (Enduring Memories). Two autobiographies, really. One in 2003 (before Brian Deer exposed the ethical lapses involved in the Royal Free Hospital’s research program) and another in 2012 (after the GMC hearings).

Mr. Deer has contrasted some excerpts from the two versions. Here is a snippet fro the 2002 edition:

The centre piece of the research however would be first a study to see if there was significant bowel inflammation in these children which could be treated. A secondary but important question would be whether measles virus, especially the vaccine virus strain, was present in any inflamed tissue which might be found. ”

The inflammation study-the Lancet work-was the center piece of the research with the measles virus work as a secondary project. The first measles virus effort was unpublished.

According to Prof. Walker-Smith in 2003, ethical approval was obtained and a pilot study went ahead:

My own role in all this was permissive as Andy Wakefield was the research leader, the conductor of the orchestra, a classical role in research for a gastroenterologist. A team was assembled, an ethical committee application was obtained and a pilot study went ahead.

The 2012 version differs notably from the above. The center piece is no longer the inflammation study, but the measles virus study and the work was not part of an ethics board approved study, but as a byproduct of routine investigation:

The centre piece of the research per se would be to determine whether measles virus, especially the vaccine virus strain, was resent in any inflamed tissue which might be found in these children and to investigate a pathogenetic hypothesis. This research could only be contemplated as a by-product of routine investigation.

Where the ethical approval statement from 2003 says a study went ahead, in 2012 the statement indicates that the project “was not implemented”.

A team was assembled, an ethical committee application was developed to investigate an hypothesis and was submitted by Andy Wakefield but based upon our clinically indicated diagnostic approach. The Ethical Committee approved the application but in the event the study was not implemented.

More modest studies based upon ethically approved research biopsies went ahead

The 2003 version is basically consistent with the GMC charges and the story unearthed by Brian Deer. The 2012 version is consistent with the failed defense Prof. Walker-Smith and Andrew Wakefield gave to the GMC. The decision against Prof. Walker-Smith was quashed.

For many reasons the argument that the quash of the GMC decision somehow exonerated Andrew Wakefield was not convincing from the start. From where I sit, it is even less so in light of a 2003 account clearly setting out the work as a research project.

Controversial autism doctor Mark Geier loses licenses in Missouri, Illinois

4 Nov

Mark Geier has been discussed a great deal here on Left Brain/Right Brain. Including very recently on the topic of this article. Much of that discussion has recently centered on his belief that not only is autism caused by mercury, but that mercury somehow is bound to testosterone and that by reducing the amount of testosterone in the body one can reduce the amount of mercury and, thus in his flawed model, treat autism. Mr. Geier’s clinical practice was found to have been flawed as well and he lost his license to practice medicine in his home state of Maryland. He was licensed in multiple other states as well, including Missouri and Illinois. With the loss of his license in Maryland, other states have followed in license actions.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reports: ” Controversial autism doctor Mark Geier loses licenses in Missouri, Illinois”.

Todd W. Of Harpocrates Speaks writes about this in “Mark Geier on his Last Leg” where he notes that Mark Geier is still licensed in Hawai’i only.

Todd W. keeps a map of states where Mark Geier has lost his license.

—
By Matt Carey

For the first time in history!

29 Oct

Here’s one of those statements that seem dramatic until one puts it into historical context:

For the first time in history, a biologically plausible mechanism of action has been discovered linking a vaccine to a serious adverse event.

Who wrote that? Someone from a group calling itself “SaneVax”. And repeated by none other than Dan Olmsted, proprietor of the Age of Autism blog. Yes, a man who has for years promoted the (failed) idea that mercury in vaccines caused an epidemic of autism is repeating the claim that ” For the first time in history, a biologically plausible mechanism of action has been discovered linking a vaccine to a serious adverse event.” The same Dan Olmsted who has offered up support for Andrew Wakefield and his failed claims that the MMR vaccine also caused a rise in autism rates.

Begs the question of why Mr. Olmsted has put so much time and effort into ideas like mercury and the MMR if they had no biologically plausible mechanism.

Of course no one believes Mr. Olmsted has changed his mind. It’s fairly clear this is just sloppy writing by “SaneVax” and some quick copy-and-paste work by Mr. Olmsted (sure he cited the source but did he read it?) . It would be amusing if the thimerosal and MMR ideas didn’t cause (and didn’t continue to cause) harm both within the autism communities and the general population.

For the record, this claimed “first biologically plausible mechanism” is from a paper by Prof. Shaw. His paper proposing a link between aluminum in vaccines and autism was very poor. Add this to the lack of relavence to autism andI see little point in putting much time into this new (gardasil) paper.

Also for the record and more historical context:

There were reactions to multi dose vaccines in the pre preservative era. The biologically plausible mechanism there was the growth of bacteria introduced into the vial by the needle.

There were reactions to the early polio vaccine produced by Cutter Laboratories. The biologically plausible mechanism there was the injection of live polio virus instead of the inactivated virus that was supposed to be used.

Similarly, the live virus in the oral polio vaccine  can occasionally cause paralysis. The OPV is no longer used in the U. S. after the efforts of a true vaccine safety advocate.

It probably seems strange but it is these last examples that strike me then most sad. Sure, they forgot their own claims that vaccines cause autism. But these other examples are very real, demonstrated vaccine reactions with clear biological mechanisms. But I am being naive. I am expecting a discussion of facts rather than a public relations and political commentary.

Edit to add: I’m not the first to notice this sloppy writing.

Brian Deer: VanDerHorst-Larson: misinformed mother scatters food for the birds

19 Oct

Brian Deer recently lectured at the University of Wisconsin La-Crosse on his journalism involving Andrew Wakefield’s research efforts and the improprieties found in those efforts. Not surprisingly, this led to a response by Mr. Wakefield and his supporters. I’ve pretty much given up on fact checking their complaints. Or, in this case, even really reading them.

But, complaints were made and, in this case, Mr. Deer has responded. His written response as VanDerHorst-Larson: misinformed mother scatters food for the birds.

Mr. Deer introduces his article with these paragraphs:

After the collapse of what was only ever a fringe campaign in the United States, claiming that vaccines were responsible for an epidemic of autism, small groups of ill-informed, misguided and sometimes frankly malicious, people became desperate for attention. This led to a barrage of emails – often abusive or crammed with hate speech – to university staff following my October 2012 lectures in Wisconsin.

The complaint below by one Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson, who said she was founder of something she called the “Canary Party”, was one of the few that didn’t ooze with personal bile. But even she hadn’t checked her facts.

Ms VanDerHorst-Larson’s complaints are numbered, and I respond beneath each.

An example of such a complaint, with a partial quote of Mr. Deer’s response is given here:

8. Mr. Deer also failed to disclose that there were no complaints against Wakefield by the children’s families, most of whom very strongly support him, and many of whom credit his team with a diagnosis that led to effective treatment of their children’s bowel disease.

The father of the only child in Wakefield’s series who was not entered in (failed) UK compensation litigation described Wakefield’s reporting in the Lancet as “a clear misrepresentation of my son’s history” and “an outright fabrication”.

If you wish to read a point by point response, again, the link is VanDerHorst-Larson: misinformed mother scatters food for the birds.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →