Revisiting ‘Autism, Vaccines, and The Oprah Effect’
In June I commented on the autism – vaccine controversy and the role that Oprah had in promoting it. Seven moths later, I am revisiting this issue. 12 years ago, Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues first published his findings in The Lancet providing ‘evidence’ suggesting they had tracked down a shocking cause of autism – that being the MMR Vaccine. Last week The Lancet published a retraction of Wakefield’s paper stating that “it has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect.”
Steven Novella of Science Based Medicine has a detailed article about this which I highly recommend reading. I can only agree with Novella’s conclusion: “I applaud the Lancet for finally retracting the Wakefield study and removing it from the published record. It should not, however, have taken this long.”
Got to wonder what Jenny McCarthy and her pal, Oprah have to say about this.
MURCH, S., ANTHONY, A., LINNELL, J., CASSON, D., MALIK, M., BERELOWITZ, M., DHILLON, A., THOMSON, M., x%x HARVEY, P. (1998). Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children The Lancet, 351 (9103), 637-641 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)11096-0
The Editors of The Lancet, . (2010). Retraction—Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children The Lancet, 375 (9713), 445-445 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60175-4
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May 09, 2010 at 12:13 pm, Autism, Vaccines, and The Oprah Effect | The PostDocs forum said:
[...] “The decadelong vaccine-autism saga began in 1998, when British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues published evidence in The Lancet suggesting they had tracked down a shocking cause of autism… In a dramatic press conference, Wakefield announced the findings and sparked an instant media frenzy. For the British public, a retreat from the use of the MMR vaccine—and a rise in the incidence of measles—began. (Update 2/2010: Revisiting ‘Autism, Vaccines, and The Oprah Effect’) [...]