Wakefield Vaccination Flap: Running interference for Merck?

Another battle rages in the political/media arena over the MMR vaccine and autism, as the doc credited with starting the UK vaccine "scare" is convicted in the press. All, however, is not as it appears. First is an article outlining the current big media take on this. Brian Deer, investigative journalist for the Sunday times of London DID take on Merck for their Vioxx debacle. He seems to be firmly on their side now in this debate.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/02/british-doctor.html
Curious criticisms about Brian Deer abound. Below is an excerpt of a post in such a vein. I will continue to look into this issue. Any interested parties are encouraged to do the same and post their findings and views.
http://onibasu.com/archives/am/157674.html
robertbloch writes:
I can post a variety of such excerpts, but am looking for more distinct journalism along these lines. I hope to report back later. Some of you in the UK may be quite familiar with Deer. I would like to hear your views on him and his reporting.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/02/british-doctor.html
British doctor who kicked off vaccines-autism scare may have lied, newspaper says
3:39 PM, February 9, 2009
Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician who jump-started the scare about a link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, manipulated and changed data to make his case in the 1998 Lancet paper, according to an investigation by the Sunday Times of London. The purported link has subsequently been refuted by a large number of epidemiological studies.
That Lancet paper said that the families of eight of 12 autistic children attending a routine clinic at Wakefield's hospital claimed that symptoms of autism developed within days after they were given the shot -- or the "jab," as the British call it. Wakefield and his colleagues also claimed to have found the measles virus in the children's intestines and that the virus caused an inflammatory bowel disease linked to autism.
But by studying confidential and public records, investigative reporter Brian Deer, who has been following the MMR controversy since the beginning, found a different story. Hospital and other records indicated that virtually all of the children had begun developing symptoms of autism well before the shot, Deer's report said. Hospital pathologists examining the children for signs of inflammatory bowel disease were unable to find it in most of the cases, Deer discovered, but Wakefield or someone on the team changed the data to make it appear as if the condition was found, Deer reported in the Times. At least one parent of a child in whose intestines the virus was said to have been found took samples to three other labs, which were unable to find the virus, Deer's report said.
Curious criticisms about Brian Deer abound. Below is an excerpt of a post in such a vein. I will continue to look into this issue. Any interested parties are encouraged to do the same and post their findings and views.
http://onibasu.com/archives/am/157674.html
robertbloch writes:
Where is Brian Deer when the world really needs him? His special attention
to smearing Dr. Andrew Wakefield included the ah-ha! smoking gun stuff about
the MMR. It was Brian Deer who led the charge to discredit Dr. Wakefield's
work. It was Brian Deer who made the media circus forcing the Lancet to remove
Wakefield's legal aid funded investigation report based entirely on a minor
disclosure lapse, which unless I'm mistaken, Wakefield himself reported to the
Lancet once he found out about it.
It was Brian Deer who did an expose' on Royal Free Hospital and Wakefield
deriding the fact they tried to develop an safe alternative vaccine or a
replacement to the controversial MMR vaccine. I remember specifically that Deer
made the strong insinuation that Wakefield and the Royal Free Hospital were
merely poo-pooing the MMR because they had developed something on their own.
Now here's yet another stab by Mr. Offit at a rotavirus vaccine, a minutely
serious bug problem. And looky his hospital is right there with him. So
where's Mr. Brian Deer? Offit might as well go around the world sticking people
with toothpicks claiming it to be a vaccine against splinters for all the
necessity of yet another rotavirus shot attempt.
Rotashield was pulled from the vaccine market after infants' bowels started
collapsing over one another requiring surgery. Who knows how many children
died thanks to Mr. Offit's vaccine ditty. And who knows what long-term problems
these poor babies around the world who've survived the Offit vaccine now
face, and at what cost? Think of the unnecessary medical expenses Mr. Offit, the
vaccine mogul, added to everyone's medical insurance due to these poor
children's treatment and recovery.
Of course, Andrew Wakefield may have had the foresight to attempt to develop
a solution for the troublesome MMR. To anyone who knows him or of him, he's
that kind of man, thoughtful and kind. Deer drilled Wakefield because Andy
saw the whole picture. Royal Free moved to protect the general health of the
public in the event that MMR would fall from favor. Measles in the guts and
brains of fully vaccinated and fully autistic children. Gee, maybe there's a
problem? What alternatives can we come up with? All perfectly acceptable logic.
I can post a variety of such excerpts, but am looking for more distinct journalism along these lines. I hope to report back later. Some of you in the UK may be quite familiar with Deer. I would like to hear your views on him and his reporting.