Dr. Andrew Wakefield has lost his medical license. He is the doctor that originally supported the link between autism and vaccines. Since his study, no one else has been able to recreate his results. There have also been people that claim that his research results were influenced by him being a paid professional witness in lawsuits involving vaccines.
He has also been criticized for how he obtained blood samples from children at a birthday party. His original report was published in 1998 in the Lancet Journal. In February, it was retracted. Dr. Wakefield still believes that vaccines are a causal factor in autism cases.
In an exclusive interview this morning, on the Today show, he states that he believes that the government put pressure on the medical board to take away his license. He also says that the American government accepts the fact that vaccines are linked to autism, and that is why they have been secretly settling cases out of court, since 1991. However, the government says that they do not believe that anymore.
Dr. Wakefield says that he will continue his work. “Callous Disregard“, his book that is now available in stores, gives his side. I haven’t read it, yet. What do you think?
4 comments:
Good, he did more harm than anything. He had admitted his study was done with made up data within a short time after it was released, but no one picked up on that. They just kept quoting his study. Meanwhile, there have been some pretty bad outbreaks of measles and mumps in different places in the US, because people aren't vaccinating their children.
My son's dad had Characterists of Asperger's way before there was a name for it. I never thought there was a connection to vacinating him and his having autism; in my son's case. Because his dad was so much like him... just milder.
There have been several outbreaks of both measles and mumps in our area, just in the last week. Very scary for the kids that didn't not get vaccinated. Sad that this doctor wasn't held accountible sooner.
While there may yet be a reason why vaccinations could be a factor, it's completely wrong to suggest that they're a cause.
I see no reason to tolerate unprofessional behaviour (making up results) from anyone so I'm happy with this decision.
I am not willing to say that there isnt at least a link between autism and vaccines. That said, the evidence on such a life altering,no world altering, scenerio needs to have stout facts to back it up. Anything less just causes undo panic and like V over S said- there are outbreaks starting to happen from diseases that have been a non-issue for some time now. The risk of not vaccinating is just not worth it without a lot better evidence than what this man put out.
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