The Anti-Vaccine Movement: Dr. Andrew Wakefield

In 2010, the study that sparked the anti-vaccine movement was fully retracted from the journal which published it as a result of its author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, being found to have a massive conflict of interest, amidst other ethical issues. Dr. Wakefield was employed by lawyers suing over alleged vaccine injuries (Novella, 2010). For the purpose of money, Dr. Wakefield sparked a worldwide debate over the legitimacy of vaccines as a whole, and has caused the deaths of thousands by proxy. The misinformed parent isn’t the victim, they were vaccinated and protected, the one suffering is the child whose parents feared autism more than measles. The Measles Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine is a beneficial form of treatment and any links to autism
Dr. Andrew Wakefield conducted a study in 1998 which sparked the entire anti-vaccine movement. He studied twelve children and within that sample size found what he apparently believed to be a statistically valid correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism/irritable bowel syndrome (Wakefield et al. 1997). However, Mr. Wakefield was afterwards stripped of his medical license in the UK and his study was retracted from the publishing journal as a result of ethical violations and mistakes found in the study. During the study, Mr. Wakefield was in the employ of lawyers currently suing against vaccine injuries and his study was likely funded by the money the lawyers were paying him as an expert witness. Also, the sample size for the study is so small and with no data on how the participants were chosen one cannot say whether or not this sample size was also biased or not. Even worse than the motivational ethical violations are the ones where abuse was taken against the children in the study. Invasive procedures were performed to find any shred of evidence that might be used to support Wakefield’s conclusion of irritable bowel syndrome. These procedures include colonoscopies and lumbar punctures (spinal taps) which were unnecessary and honestly dangerous for a group of children aged anywhere between three and ten years old (Wakefield et al. 1997). The British Medical Journal also published a series of articles exposing the fraud and revealing
Dr. Wakefield’s whistleblowing study was heavily discredited and all arguments to have come since the study are similarly flawed and unfounded. The MMR Vaccine is a beneficial form of treatment and any links to autism are unfounded and harmful. Dr. Wakefield was not unreasonably stripped of his medical license. Unfortunately, it took ten years for his study to be fully retracted. Thought was put behind the dismantling of this horrendously harmful rumor, even if none was put behind its formation. When someone asks how vaccines cause autism, there’s only one real answer. They