Vaccine study's author held related patent

[joeactor]

So, you know that discredited study linking Autism to Vaccines?

Yeah... seems the author was, uh... less than unbiased:

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 report in the medical journal BMJ is the second in a series sharply critical of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who reported the link in 1998. It follows the journal's declaration last week that the 1998 paper in which Wakefield first suggested a connection between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine was an "elaborate fraud."

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.

Full story on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/11/au ... ostpopular

[McQ]

Oopsie! Naughty Dr. Wakefield. Yeah, saw this and more. The study's co-authors removed themselves from the study, Wakefield falsified the data on every patient in the study. What an asshole.

[grim-reaper]

Unfortuantely, this isn't the only case of falsified medical research findings. Even some of the biggest drug companies may have done it.

[Kylyssa]

This has been speculated for some time because his patents were known.  He clearly had a predatory profit motive.  How many deaths can now be credited to this guy?

And if you even point this stuff out on a mainstream site, you'll get some serious hate mail.  My Vaccines Don't Cause Autism page on Squidoo has gotten some doozies and five people on the site removed themselves from my "fan club" over the issue after claiming I know nothing about why people refuse to vaccinate their children.  I even wrote on the page that it is only dealing with those who choose not to vaccinate based on celebrity opinions based on the faulty study.The anti-vaxxers are still screaming about mercury and still pointing to the same "study."

[Kylyssa]

I also want to mention that I put those who prey on people with sick loved ones or developmentally disabled loved ones with scams on the level with the very worst of con men and, in this case the con is costing lives.  Those alternative clinics for autism, those alternative cancer clinics- they revolt me.  They are selling desperate people on false hope and perhaps causing real medical help to not get sought.

[Recusant]

Unfortuantely, this isn't the only case of falsified medical research findings. Even some of the biggest drug companies may have done it.

I agree that big pharma is not an innocent party. That doesn't excuse Wakefield (not that I think that's what you were doing).  As Kylyssa pointed out, his fake study and the celebrity anti-vaccine noise that resulted from it have caused real harm.  By the way, you forgot to link to your Squidoo lens on this issue Kylyssa.

[Will]

This type of thing should be criminal if it's not. Shame on Dr. Wakefield.

[Ultima22689]

I hope Maher jumps on this and saves himself from being lumped in with idiots like Tom Cruise and the like. Thanks to this, as far as i'm concerned there is now no need for a scientific debate on vaccines, keep them flu shots cominig.