Manipulated Data Behind MMR-Autism Controversy

by Kristina Chew · 2009-02-07 16:16:00 UTC
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MMR vaccine from newmediaexplorer and KATUConfidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses, including evidence presented to the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK, have revealed that Dr. Andrew Wakefield altered and misrepresented results in his 1998 study in the medical journal The Lancet. The Sunday Times Online reports:

Confidential medical documents and interviews with witnesses have established that Andrew Wakefield manipulated patients’ data, which triggered fears that the MMR triple vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella was linked to the condition.
....
.....our investigation, confirmed by evidence presented to the General Medical Council (GMC), reveals that: In most of the 12 cases, the children’s ailments as described in The Lancet were different from their hospital and GP records. Although the research paper claimed that problems came on within days of the jab, in only one case did medical records suggest this was true, and in many of the cases medical concerns had been raised before the children were vaccinated. Hospital pathologists, looking for inflammatory bowel disease, reported in the majority of cases that the gut was normal. This was then reviewed and the Lancet paper showed them as abnormal.

Another article in the Times Online offers a detailed account of the case and of each of the twelve children involved and notes:

This evidence [presented to the GMC], combined with unprecedented access to medical records, a mass of confidential documents and cooperation from parents during an investigation by this newspaper, has shown the selective reporting and changes to findings that allowed a link between MMR and autism to be asserted.

Dr. Wakefield is currently under investigation by the GMC on charges of medical ethics violations.

While there were only twelve children in the study, the impact of the 1998 paper have been enormous, with rates of vaccination falling from 92% to below 80% in the UK; the US experiencing its largest outbreak of measles since 2001 in 2008; and parents of children fearful of vaccinating their children, due to a misinformed belief that vaccines or something in vaccines could be linked to autism.

Image from KATU.

Kristina Chew
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