Posted on 09/09/2008 11:05:45 PM PDT by neverdem
Ten years ago, a clinical research paper triggered widespread and persistent fears that a combined vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella — the so-called MMR vaccine — causes autism in young children. That theory has been soundly refuted by a variety of other research over the years, and now a new study that tried to replicate the original study has provided further evidence that it was a false alarm.
The initial paper, published in The Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, drew an inferential link between the vaccine, the gastrointestinal problems found in many autistic children and autism. In later papers, researchers theorized that the measles part of the vaccine caused inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract that allowed toxins to enter the body and damage the central nervous system, causing autism.
Now, a team of researchers from Columbia University, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tried and failed to replicate the earlier findings.
These researchers studied a group of 38 children with gastrointestinal problems, of whom 25 were autistic and 13 were not. All had received the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella. The scientists found no evidence that...
--snip--
Meanwhile, the original paper’s publisher — The Lancet — complained in 2004 that the lead author had concealed a conflict of interest. Ten of his co-authors retracted the paper’s implication that the vaccine might be linked to autism. Three of the authors are now defending themselves before a fitness-to-practice panel in London on charges related to their autism research.
Sadly, even after all of this, many parents of autistic children still blame the vaccine. The big losers in this debate are the children who are not being vaccinated because of parental fears and are at risk of contracting serious — sometimes fatal — diseases.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It's very problematic when they do get it right. It's too bad. It's their choice to politicize the news.
It will make no difference whatsoever to the anti-vaccine mob.
Michael Savage said:
"I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, `Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot."
I recall the Times’ own Bob Herbert had a fervent rant (column) on this vaccine-causes-autism hypothesis a couple of years ago. He treated it as though it were thoroughly confirmed science, of course, and treated anyone who doubted it with the kind of scathing contempt that libs love when they have no facts.
btw, is “Lancet” still “prestigious” considering some of the politicized garbage they’ve published re: Iraq casualties, etc.?
I don’t think Savage is anywhere near correct about the “99%” although he may well be right about some smaller portion of cases. But there are plenty of real, tragic, and terribly difficult cases that cannot be managed with simply a “shut up, brat”
Re: The Lancet: it takes only one false story to bring a conservative publication down, but an infinite number of Jayson Blairs, typing randomly for an infinite amount of time would not damage the cred of the Grey Lady in the eyes of her adoring audience. Same with The Lancet.
Popularity of a Hallucinogen May Thwart Its Medical Uses
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Blame George Noory and Coast to Coast for spreading BS.
I’m not questioning that it may be over-diagnosed, only the “99%” figure that Savage uses.
Sample size isn't too big, but it's not that cheap to get the biopsy sample. It adds to the evidence that the MMR vaccine was a lame hypothesis.
My high school English teacher told me I was autistic...
I got even.
I married his daughter...
Those parents who refuse to innoculate their children because of autism fears may allow such diseases as measels to occur. Measles has its danger to the unborn if it were to reemerge. It is the most contageous known disease. It seems as if such fears have caused an increase in measles outbreaks in the United States.
The big losers in this debate are the children who are not being vaccinated because of parental fears and are at risk of contracting serious — sometimes fatal — diseases.
No kidding. Not to mention that these children then become conductors for a range of "viruses/diseases" which then mutate into something the Doctors around the SF Bay Area could only call "the creeping crud" back in the 90s.
No joke: At public playgrounds, we moms would find polite ways to question other mothers: "Has your child has his shots"? If the answer was no, we'd leave the park pronto.
And this is ALSO why when public funding came forward through the schools, etc., to innoculate children of illegals, I was for it. I couldn't stop City Hall from their Sanctuariness, but I could try to help preserve the health of those children here LEGALLY; and obviously, illegally.
And oh, didn't I just love being called "traitor to our country" by the hard right immigration reformists. Some times in life, you just gotta make do with leftovers, and stone soup.
There has to be a reason why it has been on the increase.
As the grandmother of an autistic youngster, I want answers.
Ours is a success story as our young man has just started college but there's no doubt he was very autistic as a little guy but has gradually improved over the years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.