Andrew Wakefield would be at the top of Professor Cramers hit list… why? Because he did exactly what my title infers, he put two and two together and concluded that he reached ten. Lol. Wakefield was formally a doctor conducting studies on, as well as making a career out of gastrointestinal surgeries with a focus on inflammatory bowel disease. Most importantly, not mentioned in that lengthy description of his profession, the title he is most associated with today, “anti-vaccine activist”. This derives from his research conducted and published in 1998 where he hypothesized but more so sermonized that the MMR vaccine provokes the later development of Autism as well as gastrointestinal disease... or what I like to call his “ten”. His study began without randomization of his cohort and with an extremely small sample size, 12 participants all picked due to physician referral. Whatever this means…. in my eyes I see this as an extremely biased mode of gathering participants. Why did the physician feel the need to refer? Did they all have the same criteria that make the data skewed in only one direction favoring Wakefields hypothesis…? Claiming that the participants were sent through several examinations and tests prior to their inclusion in the study is one checkpoint that is discussed in articles about the MRI’s used to assess the twelve. This would be data and research released that independent scientists could use to verify his findings. However, scientists did look into this data as well as interviews and documents made public by the General Medical Council, and their findings just did not add up…(shocker).
Besides altering his data, lying publicly, and publishing a false article for personal gain Andrew Wakefield, Im sure is a great guy and doctor. I just wonder if the patients knew Wakefield was going to scew their medical histories as well as their tests conducted to support his argument that he had indeed reached a major breakthrough. A breakthrough that occurred, you guessed it, in his own institution, the “Royal Free Hospital and Medical School in London”. This strikes scientists as well as outsiders as major foreplay as this would be a huge financial gain and popularity scheme for his institution. Lets get to the specifics to see exactly what Wakefield claims he discovered through his extremely small sample size. Wakefield reported that allegedly nine out of the twelve participants developed Autism from the MMR vaccine because they were in fact “normal” at birth. Independent scientists have found this to be false as the data they have retracted does NOT show these findings but that 3/9 of these supposed “autism victims” were not even given an autism diagnosis! As well as parents have came back to contradict his claim that all patients were healthy at birth when five had actually experienced developmental concerns at a very young age. Essentially, Wakefield was doing the most to make sure his data was skewed in his favor by lying about medical histories, changing data regarding the onset of symptoms following the vaccine from months to days, and most importantly the fact this study was funded to his institution.
Finally, I would like to conclude with the public response from this retracted study and how this seriously affected many outlooks on the MMR vaccine. Most importantly it comes back to the refutes and evidence that has been made public, proving to the educated, as well as the uneducated, a simple way of saying “he did it to gain money as he is a anti-vaccine lobbyist”. In simple terms. For myself, it is important that articles and facts are posted informing those who don’t know much about the vaccine or Autism what is accurate versus what is absurd so that we are not gullible in what we hear or see on the internet and in the news. As for Wakefield, as of 2012, he works and still supports anti-vaccine lobbies. While there are still those who choose to not participate in vaccines for various reasons, this proposition has almost throughly been terminated by most. The facts are everywhere, the evidence is undeniable that the motives for Wakefields propositions were for personal gain. However, I believe I would be doing myself an injustice if I didn’t mention that I feel as if the public is also in a state of confusion regarding the vaccine as a whole. Governments are the ones who are typically responsible for how vaccines and immunizations are promoted to the public eye. Websites and packets can be found from various sources but these are going to be specific to the culture you are immersed in which effects the information included in these sources. There is danger in the point of view. This is where I find it most important to be educated on the subject instead of led by deceiving public media. Stick to the facts!
MicroBio 