In 1998, Andrew Wakefield and a couple of his colleagues had the BALLS to publish a case study in the Lancet INCORRECTLY stating that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism. All hell broke loose when parents found this out! MMR vaccination rates began to drop drastically after this news. Now, I don’t know what type of logic he and his colleagues we were using when conducting this study. Apparently, they thought there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism because both events usually occur around the same age. Even though, DR. Andrew Wakefield has DOCTOR in his credentials, I know that correlation DOES NOT EQUAL causation.
For this particular study, he “cherry-picked” 12 children who were referred to the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine who were already diagnosed with regressive developmental disorder and enterocolitis. This falsifies his claim that his sample was consecutive, when it was actually VERY selective. Guess what? The people who funded Wakefield’s research just so happened to be funded by lawyers representing parents who were suing vaccine manufacturers.
Did he not think people were going to look into his research after making such a strong claim? No other independent scientist has been able to verify his research, so that should tell you something. After a little more investigation into Wakefield’s research, there was said to be “no causal link established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data was in sufficient” (Rao).
Wakefield and colleagues were guilty of ethical violations and scientific misrepresentation. They were also guilty of deliberate fraud. It appears that their motive for publishing the false paper was that they were money-hungry.
Who puts millions of children and families, and even the whole world at risk for making such a false claim with insufficient data? Obviously, these guys because money is power, right? NO, that’s wrong. These researchers just caused a massive outbreak that could have been almost eradicated from the planet through the MMR vaccine.
To give you a little insight about what is going on around the world, about 169 million children missed out on their first dose of the MMR vaccine between 2010 and 2017. Parents who did not vaccinate their children are the main reason why there is an outbreak of the measles in several countries in the world today. It is very important that children receive two doses of the measles vaccine to be protect from the disease. In 2017, the global coverage for the first dose of the measles vaccine was 85% and it was 67% for the second dose. According to the World Health Organization, there needs to be 95% immunization coverage to maintain herd immunity. We’re all in this together y’all!
Psst… The United States of AMERICA, a well-developed country, highly-innovative and advanced in medicine, has the HIGHEST number of children who did not receive the first dose of the MMR vaccine.
Andrew Wakefield was a con-artist and basically tried to wipe humans off the face of the earth with his research, so he could get cut a nice, thick check.
Public Service Announcement: VACCINATE YOUR CHILDREN! THERE IS NO LINK BETWEEN THE MMR VACCINE AND AUTISM! IT WAS ALL A LIE!
Kalayah's Krazy Microbes 