Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Dr. Wakefield

http://darryl-cunningham.blogspot.com/2010/05/facts-in-case-of-dr-andrew-wakefield.html


The standards for conflicts of interest were different in '98. That's why Wakefield didn't disclose the fact that he was involved with litigation. Was it the right thing to do? Probably not. I advocate being as honest as possible in as many situations as possible. But the $68,000 question is did he violate the rules for conflict of interest within the scientific community at the time? And the answer's no. The real breach of ethics lies with the "scientists" who broke their own rules by applying the current standard for conflict of interest retroactively.

Also, the tests on the children were approved in '96, but because they didn't take place until '98, the people in charge of this witch hunt had enough ambiguity on their side to claim that this was another breach of ethics. It was not.

Another bit of nonsense here, is the assertion that these studies have been accurately reproduced. They have not. While studies involving the comparison of children with and without the MMR vaccine took place, and did indeed find no correlation between the shot and autism, the method of using only test subjects for whom said symptoms were reported, as was the case for the Wakefield report, has not been replicated.

There are, however, many examples of what I would call nature's own double blind studies, that support the claims of Dr Wakefield. Here's one: There are zero (0) reported cases of autism within Amish communities in the northeast. This is striking because, location wise, the Amish are in the heart of "autism country". Obviously Amish children receive no vaccinations, yet are among the healthiest in America.. and %100 autism free. They also don't suffer from any measles outbreaks, as your little cartoon vaguely and baselessly alluded to. The drawings are fitting, though. Certainly reflective of the level of maturity associated with blind faith in science, and denial of the blatant reality that it, too, can be corrupted.

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