[Nemesis6]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704113504575263994195318772.html

A U.K. medical regulator revoked the license of the doctor who first suggested a link between vaccines and autism and spurred a long-running, heated debate over the safety of vaccines.Ending a nearly three-year hearing, Britain's General Medical Council found Andrew Wakefield guilty of "serious professional misconduct" in the way he carried out his research in the late 1990s. The council struck his name from the U.K.'s medical register.The same body in January concluded that Dr. Wakefield's research was flawed, saying that he had presented his work in an "irresponsible and dishonest" way and shown "callous disregard" for the children in his study.

Shortly after that January ruling, the British medical journal that first published Dr. Wakefield's study, the Lancet, retracted it. His central claim—that there could be a link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine—has largely been discredited.
Dr. Wakefield couldn't immediately be reached to comment Monday. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. on Monday, he said he would appeal the GMC's decision. "Efforts to discredit and silence me through the GMC process have provided a screen to shield the government from exposure on the MMR vaccine scandal," Dr. Wakefield said, according to the BBC.
Dr. Wakefield's 1998 study of 12 children triggered worry among parents world-wide that the MMR vaccine caused autism. Many decided not to immunize their children, leading to outbreaks of measles in some Western countries. As many as 2.1% of children in the U.S. weren't immunized with the MMR vaccine in 2000, up from 0.77% in 1995, according to a 2008 study published in Pediatrics.
A 2004 statistical review of existing epidemiological studies by the Institute of Medicine, a respected nonprofit organization in the U.S., concluded that there was no causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Some autism activist groups, however, continue to advocate against vaccinations for children, despite the lack of scientific evidence for such a link.
In an eight-page decision released Monday, the GMC found Dr. Wakefield guilty of numerous cases of misconduct in his research, including: taking blood samples from children during a birthday party without approval from the necessary ethics committee and paying them £5 ($7.24) as a reward; improperly managing and accounting for funds he received to carry out his research; treating the children in his research unethically by causing them to undergo procedures such as lumbar punctures that weren't clinically necessary; and failing to disclose conflicts of interest to the Lancet, including that he received research funding from a lawyer representing parents who believed the MMR shot had harmed their children.
In the 1998 paper, Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues described 12 "previously normal" children who had developed gastrointestinal problems and developmental disorders including autism. The paper concluded that "in most cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunization. Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine."

Sorry, a bit of an old article, but nonetheless important when you consider how persistent conspiracy theories are. There are still people who are duped by this pseudo-science quackery. Anti-vaccination hysteria, global warming denialism, 9/11 trutherism, Creationism, all that nonsense - Science discards it, and it instantly rebounds on the internet, and suddenly, we have Republican senators raising this crap in congress and so on. Of course it's not just politicians who fall for this. Jenny McCarthy and her husband Fire Marshall Bill (Jim Carrey) have also fallen for this, and are actively propagating the anti-vaccination hysteria. Same with Bill Maher; otherwise rational and skeptical on a lot of issues, all logic goes out the window when it's time to tell people that germs don't cause diseases, diseases cause germs.

Also, taking blood samples from children at a birthday party... Christ! You'd think that this would be beneath someone who's supposed to be a scientist. On the other hand, he's personally responsible for hundreds of deaths that occurred after the anti-vax hysteria spread through Britain and America. I haven't seen any excuse, or him recanting. Instead, he continues to spread the idea that the MMR vaccine causes autism, and the natural-science(quack) people applaud him, as they continue to "treat" their kids' autism by making them eat cucumbers or wearing magnetic bracelets. This would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that people have died, suffered, and continue to do both, because of this train of thought -- the one that science is a lie and the bible proves it, and the people on the interwebs are right. Debating these people shows truly and utterly deranged they have become - If you take them on, citing for example the findings of the countless reviews of Wakefield's research, how they've all reached the same conclusion, you will either be called a shill for "big pharma", or you will just be presented with copypasta from this slew of pseudo-science blogs and sites that feeds into some paranoid delusion that science is out to get us. Debunking it doesn't work, because it's like playing whack a mole, and when people realize this, they just stop debunking and refuting this crap, and unfortunately, that allows it to continue. You know... "see? They can't disprove what we're saying, therefore it must be true!". Ugh.

On the bright side, I found a comic that describes Andrew Wakefield's folly... in the form of cartoons!
http://tallguywrites.livejournal.com/148012.html

[Bobboau]

"germs don't cause diseases, diseases cause germs."

wait, what?

[Nemesis6]

"germs don't cause diseases, diseases cause germs."

wait, what?

It's a minor talking point of the anti-vaccination lobby, parroted by Bill Maher -- If I understand it correctly, there were two competing theories on germs -- That of Louis Pasteur, which said that germs cause diseases. And, on the flip side, that of Antoine Bechamp, which supposed that germs were a symptom of the disease. Maher buys into the second one, as does a lot of other silly willies. Somehow, it all ties into how "if you eat right and don't accept medicinal science, you won't get sick".

[Mongoose]

So in other words, the High Max Plan?

[karajorma]

I saw this when it happened. I did the happy dance.

[Galemp]

Thank the gods. This man is dangerous.

[IronBeer]

Hooray!

[Mongoose]

Unfortunately, we're still stuck with the major damage his crap-spewing caused.