Andrew Wakefield, Jackie Fletcher and the wilfully ignorant JABS nutters, the pig-ignorant journalists and all the rest of the merry crew who perpetrated the MMR hoax – are they proud of their achievement?
There have been 300 cases of measles in Hackney. Now it’s cropped up south of the river. My family and I live within the borough of Lewisham so this is getting close to home. Little H has been vaccinated but I am aware that vaccinations are not perfect – although the vaccinated face a much lower risk of contracting the disease than the unvaccinated, the risk is not zero.
A vaccination level of at least 95% is needed to prevent the disease from spreading. In Lewisham, thanks to the fear and confusion created and spread by the antivaxxers, it is only 64.3%. Measles is going to spread. The fact that there are two widely separated hot-spots suggest that the disease is already spread throughout London and with such low immunisation rates things are likely to get a lot worse.
Nor is the problem confined to London. It is in Scotland too. In the whole of 2007, Health Protection Scotland reported four cases of measles. This year there have already been 36 cases.
Thanks to the MMR hoaxers, measles is not the only problem – the population is inadequately protected from mumps and rubella too. Contrary to the propaganda of the antivaxxers, none of these three diseases are trivial. As any man who has been sterilised by mumps, any woman who has lost her unborn child due to rubella and any child who has been blinded by measles would agree.
If it happens to you, you know who to thank.
Tags: Andrew Wakefield, Bad Science, JABS, Jackie Fletcher, measles, MMR, Quackery
March 19, 2008 at 10:10 am |
I wonder whether there is a case for making vaccinations COMPULSORY to allow children to attend state nursery and childcare? This is what a lot of places in the US do.
If people are dopey enough to pay for single jabs, fine, it’s their money. But I don’t see why other kids at the nursery (and their parents), and the staff, should be exposed to vaccine-preventable illness.
March 19, 2008 at 11:48 am |
Don’t forget that mumps can casue deafness too.
March 19, 2008 at 1:10 pm |
Anthony Cox of the Black Triangle blog looked at media coverage of MMR and found that BBC online and the Daily Wail were still quoting JABS (not to mention linking to the JABS website).
March 19, 2008 at 2:13 pm |
And as aresult, people looking for advice are diverted there. Combine that with the JABS policy of censoring disagreement and the result is an epidemic.
March 19, 2008 at 5:08 pm |
I wonder if Dr Aust is a doctor?
If you are what do you make of Charles Richet Nobel Prize 1913
Or Thomas Rivers 1935.
Or Rosalind Dietrich 1988 etc.
March 19, 2008 at 5:24 pm |
Dr Wakefield ADVOCATES vaccinations using SAFE vaccines.
He cannot be blamed for the Government not supplying SAFE vaccines.
He is ONE man AGAINST the PHARMA and GOVT PROPAGANDA machine.
We have outbreaks of illness because of FAILURE by PHARMA and GOVERNMENT. NOT by people who insist on SAFE and yes, EFFECTIVE ie vaccines that REALLY DO WORK!
I blame JOE BLOGGS myself.
OR GORDON BENNETT.
What do you call products eg vaccines that DONT give protection?
I call it FRAUD.
You are right; all the ILLNESSES vaccine preventable are SERIOUS ILLNESSES. NOW!
Before vaccination they were often very minor in some cases AND becoming RARER and RARER.
The real situation is COMPLEX but blaming one pro safe vaccine man is RIDICULOUS.
If you subscribe to vaccinations for illness there are 3 500 000 illnesses to go.
Now at the current rate of up to 10 shots a day you would need to take 10 shots ten times a day for 100 years to be FULLY PROTECTED.
Are you going to put people in prison for missing ONE of their SHOTS?
1984 has arrived???
Fall off a bike or get hit by a cricket ball and you cry for at least 5 mins.
Why does a vaccine make people scream non stop for 5 days and then be ill for the rest of their lives? Autism affects 1 million people in hundreds of countries. Asthma 1 person in three in many countries. And before vaccines how many? NONE.
China no autism 2000 when vaccines sent there from USA.
2003 650 000 cases
2008 1 500 000 case
All to stop how many people getting ill?
March 19, 2008 at 10:18 pm |
John Fryer, isn’t it quite easy to see that vaccines do give protection, when incidence of diseases go up as vaccination levels go down?
March 19, 2008 at 10:24 pm |
Three and a half million illnesses? Where do you get that from? I am suggesting that people be vaccinated against diseases that are common in this country.
And ten shots a day? That’s another number you’ve just made up. Your assertion that there was no asthma before vaccination is yet another lie.
Re your friend Andrew Wakefield. His research has been shown to be flawed numerous times. His research associates have distanced themselves from him and his conclusions.
Where do you get your figures for autism in China from?
I’ve never known anyone scream non-stop for five days for any reason. I and my family have received numerous vaccinations btw.
Nobody is suggesting putting people in prison for missing a shot. Less of the strawman arguments please. This is not JABS so you wil not be able to shout people down here or have their posts deleted when you cannot answer them.
March 19, 2008 at 10:36 pm |
My VIEW is more IMPORTANT because I capitalise WORDS every so OFTEN.
March 19, 2008 at 10:42 pm |
And THEN write another POST with some random information IN IT.
Fall off a BIKE or get hit by a CRICKET ball and you cry for at least 5 mins. THAT is government PROPAGANDA for you.
(I’ll stop now)
March 19, 2008 at 11:34 pm |
Yes. A very clear one, I should think: it’s a sort of social contract. The government will provide you with daycare and educate your children, and in return you and your child take whatever steps are reasonable to make sure that the other children in those places won’t suffer because of it. If some parents aren’t prepared to hold up their end of the bargain, they don’t get to participate.
In any case, there’s an argument that the government is morally obliged to act in cases where a helpless and blameless child is put in danger by parents who are too stupid and/or ignorant to take proper care of him. Isn’t that why we have social services?
Yes, that would be silly. Once you’ve caught them, you should inject them with the vaccine and let them on their merry way. No sense tying up a prison place — especially since the vaccination rates in the prisons would plummet and that would be unsafe.
March 20, 2008 at 2:46 am |
John, John, John: [citations needed]
Stop MAKING up THINGS you TOOL.
March 20, 2008 at 6:10 am |
I wonder whether there is a case for making vaccinations COMPULSORY to allow children to attend state nursery and childcare?
Yes. A very clear one, I should think: it’s a sort of social contract. The government will provide you with daycare and educate your children, and in return you and your child take whatever steps are reasonable to make sure that the other children in those places won’t suffer because of it. If some parents aren’t prepared to hold up their end of the bargain, they don’t get to participate.
A blessing in disguise judging by state shoddy childcare and low standards of education. Reverse the idea – more scary to send a child into the system.
March 20, 2008 at 10:26 am |
John Fryer – you said “Before vaccination they were often very minor in some cases AND becoming RARER and RARER”
Here’s my page on the consequences of measles
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p8aO-jytGk-BW1nfyNJRNaw
Vaccination – and particularly the very safe MMR vaccine – helps prevent this kind of thing.
March 20, 2008 at 11:29 am |
Expect more cases of measles in the NE of England soon after this.
The journalist responsible tried to justify his article in a letter I blogged about here.
I’d be a bit worried about compulsory vaccinations for school and nursery children. It would lead to a whole new set of false assumptions about why I home-educate my children!
March 20, 2008 at 12:11 pm |
Duplicate post
March 20, 2008 at 12:41 pm |
So Andy advocates safe vaccines? He’ll approve of the MMR jab then.
None of the concerns about the MMR vaccine and autism add up – for some anti-vaccination lobbyists it’s the mercury in thiomersal/thimerosal that’s to blame; for others it’s the fact that MMR is three jabs in one (an alleged ‘overload’ to the immune system); and for others it’s vaccines that cause autism. Any vaccine.
1. MMR never contained thiomersal.
2. There is no evidence for the idea that the MMR triple-jab represents an ‘overload’ to the immune system.
3. The weight of evidence suggests that autism is not caused by vaccination.
4. Co-authors on the Lancet paper later retracted their ‘findings’.
There is no consistency between the various arguments that some or all vaccines cause autism. There is no good evidence for any one of these disparate arguments. There is no reason to think that the MMR triple-jab causes autism.
Links:
1. No thiomersal in triple jab: BreathSpa
2. No evidence of overload: NHS resource
3. See for yourself –
4. Interesting article about The Lancet and the Wakefield paper here: Guardian article
March 20, 2008 at 8:53 pm |
*Yawn*
For those that don’t already know, I’m a PhD, biomedical researcher, University lecturer, teacher of science and medical students… all that dull stuff. NOT a medical doctor – leave that to the missus, who is (hospital general medicine).
I’ve given up debating MMR / vaccines / Andrew Wakefield with John Stone / JABS et al. I used to argue with them over at NHS Blog Doctor but it gradually robbed me of the will to live.
Re John Fryer’s: “What do you make of Charles Richet Nobel Prize 1913…
Or Thomas Rivers 1935…Or Rosalind Dietrich 1988 etc.”
The first two are eminent scientists of their day. Don’t know the third. Can’t see what the point is.
Re. “Saint” Andy Wakefield, agree 100% with JQH, and so does every other researcher and medic I know, including several GI clinician scientists I have worked with. The operative phrase is “fiddled the data”. All the evidence says he was a rotten doctor, and an appalling scientist.
The newspaper story Sharon linked to is a complete load of garbage, featuring all the usual conspiracy fantasists like JAckie Fletcher and the laughable Paul Shattock. For the low-down on this lot, anyone that’s not already looked should visit Brian Deer’s site. And for the scientific take on the US case it refers to (which is actually about a rare mitochondrial disease, NOT about autism) the most comprehensive blog source is Orac’s Respectful Insolence blog, though a good intro to the whole thing is in the New Scientist here .
March 29, 2008 at 11:58 pm |
John I’m afraid doesn’t like evidence and citations because they tend to contradict his world view. Everyone who’s ever visited the Jabs forum will know that citations and evidence are for wimps. Self-diagnosis and quack-diagnosis are their preferred tools of reference. Oh, and erm… making stuff up, to which Wakefield’s colleagues have already testified.
According to them he did not, indeed could not, find what he said he found. Every subsequent study has come to the same conclusion. There never has been any evidence to associate the triple MMR vaccine to Autism, Asperger’s etc.
I have no doubt that Wakefield supports “safe” vaccines. Who doesn’t? However, his definition of a safe vaccine might just be restricted to those he for which he is a patent holder. It is common knowledge that Wakefield and the Royal Free applied for vaccine patents prior to his non-findings that resulted in the MMR scare.