A Statement from Dr. Andrew Wakefield
August 31, 2009
After watching NBC-TV’s Dateline special “A Dose of Controversy,†Dr. Andrew
Wakefield took issue with several critical points in the report. Although the program was
the first of its kind to actively engage the mainstream on the question of vaccine safety,
there were many failures in the information presented and important information was
edited out. Below is a list of these items from Dr. Wakefield. Our goal is to make
certain as many people as possible understand and receive the full story regarding
MMR, vaccine safety, Dr. Wakefield, and Thoughtful House, and NBC failed to provide
this to an audience of millions.
A. There has been extensive replication of the finding of bowel disease in children
with autism (ASD) from five different countries. These findings have been
published in peer-reviewed journals or presented at scientific meetings. It is
therefore incorrect and misleading of Matt Lauer to have stated that every aspect
of my original hypothesis has been disproved. On the contrary, the main findings
of the original Lancet paper, that is, bowel disease in autistic children, has been
repeatedly confirmed. This obvious inaccuracy requires clarification by NBC.
B. The shortcomings and the flaws of the studies quoted by Dr. Offit, claiming to
disprove an association between vaccines and autism, were not discussed in the
program. In my interview with Mr. Lauer I took as an example a paper from Dr.
DeStefano from the CDC claiming to exonerate MMR that actually showed that a
younger age of vaccination with MMR is associated with a greater risk of autism.
This study confirms the association and has been falsely portrayed as vindicating
the vaccine. This should have been included in order to provide balance to the
program.
C. Reference was made to an autistic child in the vaccine court whose claim for
MMR damage was overturned by the judge. No reference was made to the
successful vaccine court case on behalf of the child Bailey Banks, coming just
one week after the unsuccessful claim described by Mr. Lauer, in which the judge
ruled that MMR vaccine can cause autism. Therefore, in the view of vaccine
court, it is not a question of whether or not MMR can cause autism, but rather
how many children are affected.
D. There was a complete absence of comment on the lack of any adequate safety
studies of childhood vaccines and the vaccine schedule in particular. There was
no mention of the admission by vaccine regulators that there is no data on the
long-term safety of vaccines, the chronic disease burden caused by vaccines,
and the likely potentially harmful interactions between various vaccines in the
routine schedule.
E. Undue credibility was given to Brian Deer, a discredited freelance
journalist, whose false reporting has caused so much misunderstanding and
damage to children through the misrepresentation of the doctors and parents
who were seeking answers to the vaccine-autism question. Deer has repeatedly
misled the public and the medical profession and has been unable to respond to
clear evidence of his false reporting in the Sunday Times through the UK’s Press
Complaints Commission.
F. It was not disclosed that I have repeatedly invited Dr. Offit to take part in public
debate on the safety of MMR vaccine and the false and misleading claims that he
has made in the media and his book. He has refused to accept this invitation and
has continued to hide from an open and honest debate.
G. NBC alluded briefly to the fact that Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, was
informed of my participation as a medical expert in the MMR litigation almost one
year before publication of the Lancet paper in 1998. NBC failed to clarify that
when Horton was challenged to respond to the fact that when he so
enthusiastically denounced me and the paper in 2004 the Lancet staff was
already fully aware of the facts and at that time did not consider them to be
relevant. Horton refused to be interviewed by NBC and the interview segment
shown was from 2004. This refusal is in sharp contrast to his willingness to
denounce me in the media in 2004. NBC also failed to mention that in the light of
these facts Horton has been reported to UK’s General Medical Council on an
allegation of perjury.
H. It was unfortunate that NBC, having stated their determination to resist external
pressure to distort the balance of the program, yielded to such pressure from the
American Academy of Pediatrics, allowing them the final word in the program
while denying representation from the National Autism Association who put
forward to NBC a rational and well reasoned call for further science to resolve
this very real issue.
I. Dr. Offit cited a large population study of autism and MMR from Denmark in
support of his claim to ‘certainty that there is no link.’ This study was so flawed
that it was rejected from consideration by the gold standard scientific review by
the highly influential Cochrane Collaboration. Dr. Offitt, who is not an
epidemiologist, was clearly at a loss to understand the study’s fatal flaws.
Read it here.