By Anne Dachel, Media Editor of Age of Autism:
Several months ago, I interviewed British doctor Richard Halvorsen concerning the heated vaccine-autism controversy. Dr. Halvorsen had gained a fair amount of attention in the British press. I contacted him recently to get his views on the allegations of fraud against Dr. Andrew Wakefield. He minced no words.
“The latest allegations against Dr Andrew Wakefield are quite extraordinary. It seems that certain factions of the medical establishment are intent on hounding him to the grave.
The accusations of journalist Brian Deer make no sense at all.
They appear to centre around the fact that elements of the hospital medical records, as reported in the Lancet 1998 paper, are at odds with other aspects of the children's medical records, mainly those of the children's General Practitioners (GPs). This is hardly surprising as the hospital doctors who recorded the children's medical history (which was not, in any case, done by Dr Wakefield) would not have had access to the GPs' medical notes. Medical histories, taken at different times by different healthcare professionals will inevitably have some inconsistencies.
What is so disturbing is that the editor of the BMJ, who should have known better, appears to have fallen for Deer's spurious arguments hook, line and sinker.
We have to take a step back and wonder what is really going on here. To go to such extreme – and desperate lengths – to annihilate Dr Wakefield (the person, note, not the science) some people must be very afraid. Afraid, presumably, that parents might actually believe something that is blatantly obvious: that is that all vaccines can cause serious adverse reactions, including autism. By denying what is not only obvious but ... Read more>>
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