Surprise! Surprise!

Dr. Wakfield, the grandfather of the Autism/MMR link had his medical license revoked last week.

Why, you ask?

Well, because he performed awful, excruciatingly painful invasive experiments on Autistic children — gaving them lumbar injections and disease in order to line his own pockets. His scanty research was tangled in lies and deceit and later recalled and revoked from the Lancet. This jerk-face scared parents around the world because he stood to make millions off a single injection dose of MMR which he conveniently patented 9 months before he even started his research, not to mention, he got paid exorbitant amounts to act as the key “expert” witness in a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies long before he started his research.

He is sick effer and now he lives in the U.S. where anti-vaccer’s embrace him as a victim.

To this date, no evidence exists linking the MMR to Autism. None. Notta. We cannot believe it to be true until evidence supports it. Refrain from vaccinating your child(ren) at their peril.

Herd immunity has its limitations. Photo via Sura Nualpradid.

Every few years, I write on the very important topic of immunizing your children on time. As new reports and news stories become available, it allows me the opportunity to advocate for a very important cause – child vaccinations.

In recent years, well meaning parents enlightened and emboldened by mere conjecture and rumors have started to reject and refuse life saving immunizations for their children. Science concludes that much of the decisions to not vaccinate children is based on misguided trends and misinformation.

Much of these rumors started with outspoken celebrities, because they’re so much smarter than everyday people don’tchya know? Celebrities love selling parents on the demerits of vaccinations as the root of all evil, i.e.; Autism. Never mind that scientist after scientist has completely refuted this claim, parents are so afraid that their kids might turn out to be freaks, that they’re willing to make these hasty decisions in fear and loathing often relying on a false sense of security that “herd immunity” will prevail. Recent outbreaks of various, once eradicated or nearly eradicated diseases have only furthered the lack of evidence to support the herd immunity theory.

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I suppose all parenting is based on some sort of ideology, but when does ideology interfere and cross the line of what is in a child’s best interest?

It’s too bad that far too often, a parent’s desire to influence a social movement leaves them vulnerable in order to make a point or act in protest.

For example, and I know this is a touchy subject with some, but parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, claiming that it’s all part of some conspiracy theory to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies. Many parents are so busy trying to find ways that vaccinations cause more harm than good, I think they forgot why vaccines were introduced to begin with. How much evidence does one need to make the logical conclusion that your political gain may compromise the health of your child?

For example, a recent Measles outbreak in San Diego:

On Jan. 25, the 7-year-old’s parents took the youngster to the Children’s Clinic of La Jolla. The child may have coughed and sneezed in the office, thus infecting four other children.

Those four patients returned to the clinic between Feb. 5 and 8, possibly spreading the virus to 60 other children.

All of the 11 confirmed patients, from 10 months to 9 years old, were not vaccinated either because they were younger than 1 – the minimum age for measles inoculation – or because their parents objected to having them vaccinated, county officials said.

…and, although it has NEVER been proven that vaccinations cause Autism, and countless studies fail to even make a link, there are still those holdouts that don’t care what science has to offer, the political statement of pharma vitriol means more to them than what they consider to be a minuscule risk. Nevermind that the risk WIDENS and INCREASES as more and more parents decide not to vaccinate. (Oh, the irony!) Facts, in these cases, don’t seem to be a priority.
One physician tries to uncover the psychology of it all…

It seems to have taken on a life of its own and may be a good example of a socio-psychological phenomenon known as “groupthink,” a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group.

There may be many parents who will never be convinced that the benefits of immunization for their children in most cases outweigh the risks. In free countries, that is their prerogative and I, as a physician, accept that.

Society must understand that such convictions must not dictate public health policy. Failure to offer people a sound vaccination program would no doubt result in a resurgence of contagions such as polio, measles, and heaven forbid, perhaps even smallpox, should the wild virus ever be reintroduced into the world.

The human toll in lives and suffering, long forgotten by our postmodern world, would be incalculable in a jet age which rapidly spreads infectious disease to all continents.

I’m sure we all have different, conflicting examples of “group think” and some “group think” is beneficial to a child, like the disdain of child abuse, but when does group think interfere with our own sensibilities? I think the Internet, for better or worse, has propagated much of this and found validations for practices in which some critical thinking would go a long way. I can think of a bunch just off the top of my head, can’t you?

Today marks a major blow to the many parents claiming that vaccinations, namely the MMR, is linked to autism, once again confirming that you can’t base truth on lack of evidence.

One of the most outspoken opponents to the MMR, and of which his expert claims gave many parents cause for concern, is facing many accounts of professional misconduct. So many, in fact, that I’ll decline to list them all here.

I think parents who insist on a linkage between vaccines and autism without hard evidence need to take a moment of reflection and ask themselves, why is it so important to blame someone and why do those accusations happen to fall upon a multi-billion dollar industry? In other words, you can’t sue oxygen, cultural patterns or genetics, can you?

The doctor who sparked the MMR controversy paid children £5 to take their blood samples at his son’s birthday party, a disciplinary panel heard today.

Dr Andrew Wakefield is accused of showing “callous disregard for the distress and pain” he knew or ought to have known the children might suffer as a result of his actions.

He is also accused of abusing his position of trust and bringing the medical profession into disrepute.

The article goes on to say:

One of the charges he faces is failing to disclose he was paid by solicitors to do separate research for parents who said their children were harmed by the jab.

It is also alleged that he broke the hospital’s ethical rules by subjecting the children to unnecessary medical examinations and “abused his position of trust” by taking blood samples from children at a birthday party. Read the rest…

A list of MMR and Autsim evidence and Dr. Wakefields interests in chronological order:

March 1998
A panel of experts convened by the Medical Research Council on Government orders says there is “no evidence” of a link between the MMR jab and bowel disease or autism.

A total of 37 researchers reviewed the available evidence and said there was no reason to change the current MMR vaccination policy. The panel comprised experts in virology, epidemiology, gastroenterology, immunology, paediatrics, autism, and child psychiatry.

April 1998
A long-term study from Finland, published in The Lancet, finds no evidence of autism being associated with MMR.

Of three million children given the combined jab, 31 youngsters were found to have developed gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting within 15 days of the injection. But their symptoms generally lasted no more than a week.

None of the 31 children developed any signs of autism or any similar condition, the researchers said. Read the rest…

Adding more fuel to my immunization argument, I would like to continue to thank the anti-vac’rs for spreading misery through ignorance:

All Headline News reports the outcome from a CDC investigation regarding 66 people that contracted the measles in the United States last year, some were from Indiana and the findings show the following:

The hospital records show that 33 people from Indiana and one from Illinois became infected. Three people were hospitalized, but no one died.

Only two of the 34 had been vaccinated against measles.

According to the CDC report, “The outbreak occurred because measles was imported into a population of children whose parents had chosen not to vaccinate their children because of safety concerns, despite evidence that measles-containing vaccine is safe and effective.”