Study linking autism to vaccine retracted

This week, the medical journal The Lancet retracted a 1998 study linking autism to vaccines after it was found to be rife with bias and error. Britain's General Medical Council concluded that the author of the study, Andrew Wakefield, had acted "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in conducting the study, including accepting payment from lawyers of parents who thought their children had been harmed by the MMR vaccine. Wakefield was also found to have subjected children to painful and unnecessary tests, including paying children at his son's birthday party to have blood drawn for research purposes.

Hopefully, some of the resources spent combating the antivaccine movement inspired by Wakefield's flawed report will be reallocated to developing effective treatments for childhood disorders like autism. In a New York Times editorial by a parent who spent thousands of dollars on untested treatments for her son, Liane Kupferberg Carter decries the touted anecdotal evidence of antivax crusaders like Jenny McCarthy, writing, "Warm and fuzzy anecdotes don’t do it for me. Give me hard science any day, with its double blind studies and rigorous peer review."

Vaccines take a shot

Our Skeptic Check program that includes an interview with Pediatritian Paul Offit about the safety of vaccines went out just last night and has already generated responses in our email inbox and on Facebook. In general, people feel that vaccines are safe and important - but there is a lingering mistrust of the industry behind them. Below is a letter from one listener and the response from Paul Offit. You can hear the show at: Vaccines: Give 'Em Your Best Shot.

Dear AWA,

I want you to know how much I enjoy the show you folks put together every week. I was pleased that you took on the vaccine controversy. There have been people in my life who believed the autism canard and I found it impossible to reason with them. I'm writing because I think you came up short in your discussion of why these attitudes exist...

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Paul Offit's reply:

While I certainly agree that pharmaceutical companies have acted aggressively, unethically and even illegally (witness the recent Pfizer settlement) regarding the sale and promotion of drugs, I just don't see where this applies to vaccines...

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