Andy Wakefield, still one of the most reviled doctors of his generation

You might find this hard to believe, but I do occasionally blog about things other than the DI and little kennie ham. I know it certainly does look like I spend most of my time in those areas, but I do read and post about other topics. While my excuse is that the DI and kennie are the source of so much foolishness and I do so enjoy dealing with their particular brand of idiocy. I do also derive a great deal of humor when reading the things they post. However, while they are pretty easy target, I have posted on other topics, and an area I have commented on a number of times, and one where I find no humor at all, is the prevalent anti-vaccination movement in this and other countries.

The majority of the modern anti-vaxx movement can be traced back to the unethical and criminal conduct of one Andrew Wakefield.  If you aren't familiar with Andy, he used to be a doctor until he did a pile of things that lost him that prestigious title -- all of these things revolved around his fraudulent claims that the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism.  While it did make him a hero to other anti-vaxxers, like Jenny McCarthy, it also made him responsible for the resurgence of diseases that we had pretty much eradicated through the vaccination programs.  Which, in my opinion, makes his responsible for each and every one of the children who has had to suffer from those diseases and particularly responsible for every child that has died of those diseases.

So Andy is no longer a doctor, has moved the United States, and has a new job as a crusader against vaccines.  He's also made a movie about the subject which has been savagely reviewed as  . . .  for lack of a better word . . . crap.  But Andy, being Andy, refused to just go away.  He's been trying to salvage his reputation and recently made a video post of the website of his movie: (http://vaxxedthemovie.com/dr-andrew-wakefield-deals-with-allegations/).

For some reason they still call him a Dr. on his movie site, which I am not sure is appropriate because in January 2010 the United Kingdom General Medical Council (GMC) ruled that Wakefield had failed in his duties as a responsible consultant, acted against the interests of his patients [which were children], and was dishonest and irresponsible in his research.  In May 2010 he was struck off the United Kingdom medical register.  It was the harshest sanction that the GMC is allowed to impose, and it effectively ended his career as a doctor.  (Wikipedia: Andrew Wakefield)

As far as I know, he's not licensed to practice medicine of any kind here in the US.  So I guess calling him 'Dr' is the same as when someone calls Kent Holvind 'Dr Dino', or my personal favorite carbonated beverage 'Dr. Pepper', right?

But in any event, Andy posted a video responding to the criticisms of the claims he made in his movie and I caught a link to the Skeptical Raptor that takes each and every one of his self-defensive comments and rips them apart.  The post is detailed and very, very thorough.  Hope you enjoy it: "Andrew Wakefield – dishonest attempt at self-justification".  To quote the article:

Wakefield’s claims in the Allegations video can be put into three categories:

1. there were no serious ethical violations or fraud in relation to the article he published in the Lancet;
2. he’d done nothing wrong otherwise, measles outbreaks are not his fault, the GMC decision was generally wrong, and Walker-Smith’s acquittal shows that; and
3. Brian Deer’s articles are a fraud motivated by a conspiracy.

None of these claims hold water.

I think I need to add the Skeptical Raptor to my reading list.  I do encourage you to enjoy the article and in particular the very specific dismantling of each and every claim made by Andy.  You know, Andy ought to sue . . . oh wait, didn't he try that in England and lost.  

A New York Times profile said:

"Andrew Wakefield has become one of the most reviled doctors of his generation, blamed directly and indirectly, depending on the accuser, for irresponsibly starting a panic with tragic repercussions: vaccination rates so low that childhood diseases once all but eradicated here—whooping cough and measles, among them—have re-emerged, endangering young lives." (Dominus, Susan (20 April 2011). "The Crash and Burn of an Autism Guru". New York Times Magazine.  (Wikipedia: Andrew Wakefield) 

My final word on this subject, at least for this post is:

Vaccinate your Children!

Mis-representing science

While this post is not specifically about Evolution, it is about the consequences of mis-representing science.

About 10 years ago Dr. Andrew Wakefield published the results of a study that suggested there was a link between Autism and the MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella) vaccinations. It prompted an anti-vaccination movement that has had both ordinary people and celebrities on each side of the argument. The result, inoculation rates went down! However why didn't autism rates also decline? Maybe because it appears that Wakefield falsified his results? "MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism" spells it our pretty clearly. Not only has NO ONE been able to duplicate the results and not only did 10 of the 13 authors of the study retract any interpretation of the vaccinations causing autism, but the Sunday Times did an investigation and found that Wakefield lied.

So what, no big deal, right? Well how about in the United Kingdom there were 56 cases of measles in 1998 and ten years later there are 1,348 cases with two children dead. Measles are on the rise in Australia and Switzerland as well. How about in Minnesota? "Invasive Haemophilus influenzae Type B Disease in Five Young Children --- Minnesota, 2008" The largest outbreak in over 16 years. Three of the five were not vaccinated, one started the series of shots but did not continue, and the fifth, while fully vaccinated, had an immunodeficiency problem. One of the un-vaccinated children has died.

In other words the mis-representation of science has caused the deaths of children! These deaths may very well have been preventable!

And supporters of the so-called 'academic freedom' bills want to keep on encouraging those mis-representations!

OK, am I overstating things a little? I don't think so. What happens when the medical profession is taught that an Intelligent Designer is responsible for life as we know it? What happens to research programs? What happens to vaccinations? What happens to cancer research? Since Intelligent Design has offered no testable ideas and the more garden-variety of Creationism stops the whole discussion and relies on prayer -- what happens? People and kids will be dying of things that are currently treatable and preventable! That is the crime! And folks like the Discovery Institute will probably tell us it's the "Will of the Intelligent Designer"! Sound familiar? Didn't we used to be right here a couple of hundred years ago? All the medical advances we have made are going to get tossed out the window! All based on lies and mis-representation!

Let's quit all water treatments, it's based on science. Let's stop prenatal care and God-forbid we actually perform surgery! Let's just gather around the hospital bed, hold hands and pray to the so-called intelligent designer and see how effective that is!

Folks, have your kids vaccinated! If you have an objection, do the research on the effectiveness of the specific vaccine. You might object to some of the numbers on the cervical cancer vaccine, but you certainly can't object to the success of the MMR vaccine. Base your vaccination decision on the real data, not the trumped up misinformation published by Wakefield or other anti-vaccination groups! Get the facts and make the decision! Don't allow a mis-representation to push you in a dangerous -- for your kids -- direction. How would you feel today if your child died from a preventable disease, and it was your decision that contributed?