Journalist Michael Fumento’s opinion piece in today’s LA Times touches on the ramifications of the 1998 Wakefield study, which was retracted this week by the original publisher, The Lancet. Fumento writes, “Never mind that by 2008, more than 20 articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals found no connection between MMR vaccine and autism…There’s also a mountain of reassuring evidence regarding thimerosal-preserved vaccines.” Wakefield’s study, for which he has been reprimanded by the General Medical Council, “set us back a decade, and we’re just recovering from that” according to Mark Sawyer, San Diego-based pediatrician and infectious disease specialist interviewed for the article.
Fumento highlights the fact that some anti-vaccine groups, such as the National Vaccine Information Center, who oppose mandatory vaccines disregard the importance of ensuring herd immunity to protect the unvaccinated. Fumento interviewed ECBT Spokesperson Danielle Romaguera, whose baby died of whooping cough. Romaguera asks the public to be aware that their decisions affect other people’s children and diseases do still exist, and can kill.
I encourage everyone to check out the msnbc.com article by Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, “How a zealot’s word led us astray on autism.”
Excerpt: ‘The [Lancet] language was probably not strong enough. The Wakefield paper killed children and left others deaf and disabled from preventable diseases as their parents, in an effort to avoid autism, left them unvaccinated.”
Dr. Caplan, I applaud you, because I completely concur that the Lancet has not done nearly enough to rectify the damage that has been done to the credibility of vaccines worldwide in major part due to their irresponsible decision to print the “research” conducted by Andrew Wakefield. It doesn’t take a degree in metaphysics to recognize that the outcome of a study consisting of a handful of subjects perhaps does not represent the larger population. And that was only one in the many, many faults of the Wakefield study, which has never been replicated, try as several researchers might.
Don’t miss this piece, it may be my favorite of the decade!
Alison Singer, co-founder and president of the Autism Science Foundation, has written an opinion piece for CNN describing how the Wakefield study, and later the disrepute of the study, has impacted her life as a mother of a child with autism and as an advocate for autistic children. Singer explains that when her daughter Jodie was diagnosed with autism, she, like many other scared parents at the time, decided to break up her second daughter’s vaccinations. After reading the study carefully and realizing Dr. Wakefield’s many conflicts of interest, Singer re-evaluated her stance. She realized that not only did her decision leave her daughter vulnerable to disease, but also that the discredited vaccine issue was taking much needed research funding and attention away from finding the true causes of autism. Singer now runs the Autism Science Foundation, a group whose mission it is to support legitimate autism research by providing funding and other assistance to scientists and organizations conducting, facilitating, publicizing and disseminating scientifically sound autism research. As you can imagine, Singer is glad that Wakefield’s research has been formally discredited. However, the consequences of this ordeal have yielded devastating results. Singer wrote on CNN.com, “Once you put a scary idea in someone’s head, it is very hard to reassure them, even in the presence of compelling science. Anti-vaccine autism activists continue to view Wakefield as a hero willing to take on the establishment and fight for their children. In the meantime, his research has had a lasting negative effect on children’s health in that some people are still afraid of immunizations. In some cases, the younger siblings of children with autism are being denied lifesaving vaccines, despite mountains of scientific evidence indicating no link between vaccines and autism. This is the Wakefield legacy.” Please click here to read Alison’s full piece on CNN.com, which also includes very promising findings in the field of autism research.
[Ed. note: this just ran in the New York Times Motherlode Blog. An amazing piece on the recent decision by the GMC on Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the infamous doctor who published a 1998 study in the Lancet suggesting that the MMR vaccine caused autism. His study, which was later discredited, has led many parents to falsely believe the MMR vaccine may be dangerous and refuse it for their kids.]
When Dr. Andrew Wakefield — the British doctor who linked vaccines to autism — was found to be “dishonest,” “irresponsible” and acting “contrary to the clinical interests” of a child by a medical misconduct panel last week, it was the latest controversial moment in the medical mystery that is autism.
Tonight my small town in Eastern Connecticut will yet again host an immunization clinic at a local high school to provide H1N1 vaccine to the public. Special efforts have been made by our health district to reach out to young children who have not yet received their second dose of vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children nine and under need two doses in order to be fully protected against the virus. I am somewhat mortified to admit that I have been remiss in getting my nine and a half year old that second dose. My son’s story has been told by me on numerous occasions, he was hospitalized as an infant for complications from influenza, an experience I do not wish on my worst enemy.
I am a consummate supporter of timely vaccination of children. What is my excuse then? It seems that work travel and after school activities took priority again and again as clinics were scheduled. During a recent clinic, I traveled to D.C. to accompany Luke Duvall, Arkansas H1N1 survivor, as he spoke to the press and his Senator about his harrowing experience. I’ve reiterated his story countless times in an effort to urge friends and neighbors to get vaccinated. It’s nearly unconscionable that I would then allow this lapse in my own family. My embarrassing point is that if I am remiss, how many others who do not live and breathe vaccines daily are simply blowing off the CDC’s and Health and Human Services pleas to the public? I must assume that this number is in the millions based on the number of doses still available. So tonight I am volunteering at the clinic and my husband and son will be vaccine recipients, come hell or high water!
[Ed. Note: I just wanted to follow up on my recent post on Haiti relief, Small Change Can Make a Big Difference in Haiti, and bring attention to some of the great work that CDC is doing in Haiti right now. Below is some info that I received from them and thought was worth sharing. It's important that we continue to raise awareness and do what we can in light of this crisis.]
As CDC continues its public health mission in Haiti, we take a look at its role, the priorities of the mission and the public health dangers through an interview with CDC’s incident manager for Haiti, Scott Dowell, M.P.H., M.D. (CAPT, USPHS), medical officer with the Global Disease Detection and Emergency Response Branch, Office of Global Health.
What is CDC’s role in the Haiti relief effort?
CDC in Atlanta is gearing up to become a fairly large part of the Haiti relief effort in the upcoming weeks and months. CDC’s public health role was small and back-seat in the initial three or four days of search and recovery after the earthquake, but has become much more prominent as attention turned toward potential public health disasters that are looming in the weeks and months ahead. Our role is to help prevent tropical diseases, airborne and waterborne, from spreading through the population.
The key point is that this earthquake struck what was the most precarious public health system in the entire hemisphere. So even before the earthquake hit, Haiti had the lowest rate of immunization of infants, had the highest rate of mortality during childbirth, and had other serious public health problems. When you add the earthquake disaster to that, you have the potential for outbreaks of disease and other public health problems in the coming weeks. So one of the first priorities that we’re focusing on is public health information because it’s the quality of that information that’s going to guide the response and sort of avert these more predictable mortality risks.
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help people all over the world lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, they focus on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.
The Gates Foundation has once again proven that their words are more than simple rhetoric with the recent announcement of a pledge of over $10 billion over the next ten years aimed at helping research, develop and deliver vaccines for the world’s poorest countries. The Gates have already committed $4.5 billion for vaccines through the Foundation. “We must make this the decade of vaccines,” said Bill Gates. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”
The Gates anticipate that their donation, combined with commitments from U.S. and foreign governments can prevent the deaths of nearly 7.6 million children under age five from 2010-2019. Bill Gates made it clear that they also need the increased generosity of rich-world governments, increased commitments by the developing nations who need to improve the quality of delivery systems as well as prioritize vaccines within their budgets, and support from other public-private partnerships including the drug companies. “They need to put their best people on the projects and we need their expertise in order to be successful”.
“Vaccines are a miracle-with just a few doses, they can prevent deadly diseases for a lifetime,” stated Melinda Gates during the official announcement made during the World Economic Forum in Switzerland January 29th. The Gates’ also stressed the need for rapid introduction of malaria vaccine beginning in 2014 and the need for tuberculosis vaccines which could save millions more lives in the future. “We’ve made vaccines our number-one priority at the Gates Foundation because we’ve seen firsthand their incredible impact on children’s lives” said Melinda Gates.
Learn more about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and view video coverage of this unprecedented commitment to vaccines by following the link the Gates website here.
[Ed note: Dr. Carol Baker has blogged for Shot of Prevention on the importance of flu vaccination before. We thought her piece in the Houston Chronicle was worth re-posting here as well.]
Ever since the new H1N1 virus started making people ill last spring, it has become harder for parents in my practice to shrug off influenza as “not much more than a cold.” We’ve seen what flu can do: close schools and camps; send sales of surgical masks and anti-bacterial gels through the roof; overburden hospital emergency rooms; cause death — not among the elderly but in children and pregnant women.
It troubles me to learn from a recent report that more than 80 percent of Texas children under age 10 who received their first H1N1 influenza dose have not yet received their second, and so are not fully protected.
A recent survey by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases found that the heightened attention on H1N1 influenza has indeed caused a spike in parents’ interest in influenza vaccination for their children. Sixty-two percent of mothers surveyed said they intended to have their children vaccinated this year for seasonal influenza, H1N1 or both; only 35 percent said their children had previously received annual influenza vaccination. This is certainly a meaningful increase, but one that still leaves a significant sector of parents not yet sure about the merits of influenza vaccination.
As a pediatrician, I believe the time has come for parents to make their vaccination decisions based on fact — rather than misperceptions fueled by “magical” or wishful thinking. NFID’s study revealed just how widespread these misperceptions are among mothers. Nearly two-thirds of respondents who had chosen not to annually vaccinate their children for influenza believe a healthy child doesn’t need a flu vaccine. Approximately 100 pediatric influenza deaths have occurred each year. Already more than 1,100 children, many previously healthy and some from Texas, have died of H1N1 influenza.
Nearly six in 10 mothers surveyed think other ways to skirt influenza are just as effective as vaccination, swearing by strategies like staying away from crowds, eating healthier, sleeping longer. The fact is, secondary prevention measures like hand and cough hygiene have their place, but the only sure way to prevent flu is through vaccination.
We also learned mothers sometimes forgo influenza vaccination for their kids because their pediatricians let them decide — a sense of autonomy they don’t get with required childhood vaccines. But this freedom of choice can be a double-edged sword if mothers lack the facts needed to make the proper choice to help keep their child healthy. Mothers aren’t aware that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend influenza vaccination annually for all children 6 months through 18 years of age.
Historically, influenza vaccination rates begin to drop after November — not even halfway into what is generally recognized as the annual influenza season. And that may be why children in Texas have not received their second dose. Second doses should be administered within four weeks of the first dose, but even getting the second dose a few weeks late ensures protection.
In this pandemic year, seven months of uninterrupted media coverage has placed influenza front and center in our consciousness. Fortunately, recent news from the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services relays that flu activity has decreased during the past few weeks, but it is possible another wave of H1N1 influenza can appear, so it is best to be protected.
If you have children, understand that in this pandemic year— and every year — vaccination is the most effective way to prevent a disease that annually hospitalizes approximately 20,000 kids. Realize that it’s impossible to predict which healthy child — or adult — could become influenza’s next victim. You have the choice. Choose wisely and protect your entire family’s health.
Dr. Baker is past president, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases; chair of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices; professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine; and executive director of the Center for Vaccine Awareness at Texas Children’s Hospital.
This week, the British General Medical Council (GMC) ruled that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who first proposed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” when he published his research and showed a ‘callous disregard’ for the suffering of children.
The GMC decision came after the longest and most expensive hearing in its 148-year history. The hearing focused on a small study of a dozen children by Dr. Wakefield and 12 doctors which linked the MMR vaccine with autism and bowel problems. It was published in the highly respected medical journal The Lancet, the, in 1998. At a press conference following the publication, Wakefield said there were “sufficient anxieties for a case to be made” to give the three vaccines separately. Numerous other studies, including one involving three million children, failed to replicate his findings. But that didn’t prevent MMR vaccination rates from plummeting by 12% in Great Britain after Wakefield’s report. And in 2006 a 13-year-old boy died from measles. More deaths followed.
Eventually Wakefield’s collaborators withdrew their names from the Lancet paper and the paper itself was eventually retracted. Later it was revealed that Wakefield had received funds from lawyers representing the children enrolled in his study. And now the GMC has spoken in clear and convincing terms. And let’s not forget that the hearing itself was not even about the science; it was about Wakefield’s methods. The science has been in for some time now. No study has shown a link between autism and MMR. To read the studies visit www.autismsciencefoundation.org/autismandvaccines.html
But will this be the end of the controversy? I doubt it.
Once you put an idea in people’s head, even in the presence of clear and convincing science, it is very hard to unscare them. Anti vaccine autism advocates continue to see Wakefield as a hero who remains willing to take on the establishment and fight for their children. In the meantime, Wakefield’s actions have had a lasting negative effect on children’s health in that some people are still afraid of immunizations. In some cases, the younger siblings of children with autism are being denied life saving vaccines. This population of baby siblings, already at higher risk for developing autism, is now also being placed at risk for life threatening, vaccine preventable disease, despite mountains of scientific evidence indicating no link between vaccines and autism. This is the Wakefield legacy.
Speaking with reporters from college newspapers across the country, ECBT spokesperson and H1N1 survivor Luke Duvall, continued his advocacy work by spreading the word about the importance of college students attaining the H1N1 vaccine in the coming month. Luke was joined on the call by Jason Rzepka Vice President, MTV Public Affairs, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Dr. Stephen Redd from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MTV and their partner, College News Media partnered with HHS to host this important media call.
Secretary Sebelius, who met with Luke and his family during their advocacy tour in Washington, DC during National Influenza Vaccination Week reiterated the dangers and unpredictable nature of H1N1. She stated that children between the ages of 18 to 24 have been six times more likely to be hospitalized due to H1N1 compared to all other age groups. Teens and young adults are particularly vulnerable to the virus because they often live, work, and study in close proximity with other people and unlike older persons have not been exposed to influenza viruses similar to this one before. The Secretary reminded reporters that several years ago physicians became lax in recommending the vaccine following the holidays and the country was hit with a surge of hospitalizations in February and March (the typical peak period of seasonal flu activity). By vaccinating the larger population more people will be protected she stated.
Luke told reporters that he has become a spokesperson for Every Child By Two to ensure that what happened to him does not happen to any other family. At the time that Luke became ill, the vaccine was only available to people at high risk, which he wasn’t at the time. He recalls, “I almost lost my life from not getting vaccinated. The vaccine can save your life and I don’t want anyone else to go through what I went through. My whole family, my county – the entire nation was devastated thanks to 60 Minutes (who aired Luke’s story in great detail)”. “My teammates didn’t think I’d be alive for Christmas.”
Next, Luke talked about the experience of waking up from his coma. “I can remember the first time I woke up and saw myself in the mirror in rehab. I was devastated. I thought something was wrong with the mirror. I lost so much weight and muscle mass that I had worked so hard to gain. I was angry because I knew there was a virus that I could have gotten vaccinated against but couldn’t get. It really made me angry. I wish I’d had the opportunity to get the vaccine.”
It is amazing to meet a young person with so much compassion for others. “My whole family is pro vaccine… it’s not just for yourself…it’s for everyone else. It’s for the people that you don’t know – it’s for the pregnant women and other children that you don’t know but you could affect their life by not getting the vaccine and not even know it.” Luke and his family suffered greatly, they witnessed the death of several children from the virus during Luke’s hospitalization and are committed to assuring that others do not suffer needlessly.
Check out this video to see Luke speak about his advocacy efforts during National Influenza Vaccination Week which took place January 10-16.
