From Last Week:
Retracted Autism Study an Elaborate Fraud
Quote:
A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.
An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.
Wakefield has been unable to reproduce his results in the face of criticism, and other researchers have been unable to match them. Most of his co-authors withdrew their names from the study in 2004 after learning he had had been paid by a law firm that intended to sue vaccine manufacturers -- a serious conflict of interest he failed to disclose.
According to BMJ, Wakefield received more than 435,000 pounds ($674,000) from the lawyers. Godlee said the study shows that of the 12 cases Wakefield examined in his paper, five showed developmental problems before receiving the MMR vaccine and three never had autism.
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(emphasis mine)
And now today:
Vaccine Study's Author Held Related Patent
Quote:
(CNN) -- The author of a now-retracted study linking autism to childhood vaccines expected a related medical test to rack up sales of up to $43 million a year, a British medical journal reported Tuesday.
The venture "was to be launched off the back of the vaccine scare, diagnosing a purported -- and still unsubstantiated -- 'new syndrome,'" BMJ reported Tuesday. A prospectus for potential investors suggested that a test for the disorder Wakefield dubbed "autistic enterocolitis" could produce as much as 28 million pounds ($43 million U.S.) in revenue, the journal reported, with "litigation driven testing" of patients in the United States and Britain its initial market.
Among his partners in the enterprise was the father of one of the 12 children in the 1998 study that launched the controversy, the journal reported.
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Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
It was one thing for this fraud to manipulate (um, create?) data to satisfy reseach requirements for maintaining his job. But we now are learning that not only was he "in bed" with lawyers planning to sue vaccine companies, but that he also was planning to market a product based on these false finding that would make him tens of millions of dollars? It's sick, just sick.
I am most saddened for those innocent children who did not receive the necessary vaccines they needed and have had to pay the price for this greedy piece of filth.