Is the Vaccine/Autism Debate Finally Over, Dr. Wakefield?

Can you spell F*R*A*U*D?

Last week, the British Medical Journal reported its investigative findings and concluded that the infamous Lancet paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefield 13 years ago — the paper that fueled years of explosive speculation that childhood vaccines cause autism — was not just wrong, it was out-and-out fraud.

Shame on you, Dr Wakefield!

• You lied about the number of children in your “study” with autism.
• You claimed that the kids were all healthy and normal before they were vaccinated, when, in fact, some had developmental problems to begin with.
• You pointed to abnormal behavior that showed up within days of immunization, but there was actually a gap of months in some cases, putting in question any cause and effect.

All of this was crafted to create panic among parents and the medical community, making them doubt the safety of childhood vaccines and jump to misguided conclusions about the cause of a mysterious and devastating neurologic condition that is, to this day, poorly understood.

Perhaps it was a cynical attempt to make up data to support a spurious, non-existent relationship and design a career. As you know, that’s how it often works in medicine. The most sure-fire way to make a name for yourself is to discover something new. If you haven’t done the heavy lifting and discovered anything real, you’d better be crafty. Is that why you fudged the facts, proposed a connection that was difficult to disprove, and figured you just might make it stick?

It stuck alright.

But Andrew (may I call you Andrew?), what was the collateral damage? How many children have died of vaccine-preventable illnesses in the last 13 years?

At least 259 died of measles. Another 302 died of whooping cough. If you think diphtheria  is a disease of the past, tell that to the mothers of the 41 plus children who succumbed to that devastating infection in the past 13 years.

Every one of those children had a story, had people who loved them, had a future. Did you think about any of them as you falsified your data?

The ripple effect that’s most difficult to quantify is the number of children and adults who aren’t immunized today as a result of the fear and misinformation you spread. Did you know that unvaccinated kids are 10 times more likely to contract a serious, life threatening illness, and that the unvaccinated pose a threat to all of us because of their potential to bring disease into our communities?

And that doesn’t begin to address the injustice you’ve done to all those parents and children who struggle to understand why autism has rocked their families. You lost your medical license, but that’s not nearly enough.

No matter how loudly you’re discredited, it’s not likely to make the fear of vaccines go away. Your voice has been joined by others, including celebrities, who we Americans revere more than science or scientists. But David Ropeik, an instructor at Harvard, says something else will eventually shift the balance. “As more and more people get measles and kids die, which is happening around the world, eventually the threat of the disease will come back and surmount our fear of the vaccine.”

How sad. Was it worth it, Andy?