Measles, Rubella, Vaccine, Vaccines, And Vaccines

Andrew Wakefield’s research and the movie “Vaxxed” has provoked skepticism about vaccines’ safety and generated a lack of vaccinated children. Wakefield has tried to spread false

Andrew Wakefield was the lead researcher on a study that linked autism to certain vaccines given to children. The study was later retracted and Wakefield lost his medical license. From a strictly ethical standpoint, if Wakefield did the things he was accused of, there are several issues with how the research was reported. Scientific misconduct occurs when a researcher purposely fabricates data or alters a study in some way that is not reported (Schweigert, 2012). Wakefield is accused of falsifying medical histories of children in the study and framing the data to confirm the information he wanted to portray (Cohen & Falco, 2011). If Wakefield did change or alter medical histories used in the study, this would be scientific misconduct on his

Andrew Wakefield is a former gastroenterologist and medical researcher who was discharged from his medical register in the UK, because of his dishonest research paper he released back in 1998, that analysed a possible link between measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and the presence of autism and bowel disease (Godlee, F., et al, 2011). Wakefield's research generated a substantial scare for the MMR vaccine and MMR vaccination rates began to drop because parents were concerned about the risk of autism after vaccination (DeStefano, F., Chen, R.T., 1999). After the paper was published by the Lancet medical newspaper, other reviews were trying to repeat Wakefield's conclusions,

People have discovered a massive amount of reliable evidence to believe that Andrew Wakefield was a villain. Andrew made a lot of people believe that the vaccinations would bring children autism. He

Wakefield had lied about the medical histories of the children and the duration between symptoms and vaccination (Deer, 2011). Child number two had shown symptoms six months after being vaccinated, but Wakefield’s paper claimed that child number two showed symptoms two weeks after being vaccinated. The child’s medical history stated that symptoms had been shown six months after vaccination. Actually, only child number two had “regressive autism.” Furthermore “regressive autism” is where the child seems to normally develop, but they start to lose skills like speech. The paper stated that all of the children had autism, but three out of the twelve did not have autism at all (Deer, 2011). To strengthen his claim, Wakefield lied about the amount of children with autism. Two of the three children, who did not have autism, were siblings (Deer, 2011). Both of these siblings had bowel problems before getting vaccinated. Wakefield stated that the bowel problems were linked to the autism. The siblings did not even have autism and their bowel problems started before even getting vaccinated. The effects of this are quite dangerous. In the UK, vaccination rates dropped below 85%, and in some areas below 75% (Kolodziejski, 2014, p.165). In Londen England, vaccination rates were as low as 58% (Burgess, Burgess, & Leask, 2006, p.3921). Parents felt that they would rather have their child get mumps, measles, or

Andrew Wakefield and other 12 co-authors published a study in the Lancet in 1998 that suggested a relationship between measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and autism. In other words, Wakefield and associates suggested that the vaccine for MMR could predispose children to autism. The paper received massive publicity despite the researchers having used a sample size that was not representative (n=12), the research design was uncontrolled as well as conclusions being speculative (Sathyanarayana Rao & Andrade, 2011). Consequently, the vaccines for MMR plummeted since parents feared that vaccinating their children against MMR could predispose their children to autism.

The controversy over the MMR vaccine started in the late 1990’s when Andrew Wakefield suggested that there was a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism in a scientific paper which he had published with several other co-authors. Although there has not been a proven fact that the MMR vaccine is the causation to autism it has brought concerns to parents and has caused a major drop in immunization rates. For example, Dannetun et al., 2005 states that, “Fear of side effects and beliefs

In recent years more and more parents have become misled by fallacious claims towards vaccinations which have caused for a decrease in childhood vaccinations for preventable diseases cause side effects such as autism and sudden infant death syndrome. The study that influenced many parents to not vaccinate their children was done by Andrew Wakefield, and his study claimed that vaccines such as Measles, Mumps, and

In order to investigate more about Wakefield’s study, Brian Deer, a journalist of British Medical Journal, carefully talked to the parents of all children who were participated in the study. Interestingly enough, he revealed the fraud behind Wakefield’s research. The Lancet, the journal that reported Wakefield’s study, retracted the paper soon afterwards (Deer). However, the real trouble still exists. Though it has been proved by many researchers that the MRR doesn’t cause autism, many people perceive the vaccine as a threat. Dr.Nemeroff once said “it is quite difficult to get the cognitive sewage out of the water even after the real sewage is gone” (Greene).

What Dr Wakefield did is really disastrous and I can't blame you for calling him a monster. Furthermore, I do agree with you that his colleagues could have stand against it. I am still hoping for the best with regards to the implications that this unethical research caused.

Although there is no scientific proof that vaccines cause autism, proponents still believe that they do. The theory that vaccines cause autism were based on unproven facts and falsified information (DeStefano 81). In an article called CNS Drugs, the author writes about how a man named AJ Wakefield stun the public with a theory that the MMR vaccine may cause autism and how enterocolitis (bowel dysfunction) and MMR vaccine may be linked to autism (DeStefano 831). Even though Wakefield falsified information and his theories were proven to be discredited many people still

the question posed by gastroenterologist and medical researcher Andrew Wakefield and is now used as a counter-argument by those who oppose vaccination. Autism is, “A developmental brain disorder known to impair social interactions and communication,” [28]. Andrew Wakefield originally proposed a link between the measles vaccine and autism in a study he conducted and published in 1997 in the Lancet, and as a result many were led to believe the so. Actress Jenny McCarthy believed strongly that vaccines were responsible for her son's autism, “the soul left his eyes” [11]. and many have pointed out that after the wide spread of vaccines the number of autism diagnoses has

Do vaccines cause autism is a question that has been bouncing around for over twenty years. The increase in the number of diagnosed cases of Autism Spectrum Disorder has increased significantly and due to the impact this has in people’s lives several studies have been done in an effort to determine the cause. More specifically the MMR, Measles, Mumps, and Rubella, vaccination has been accused of being the cause of autism. This accusation then contributed to families not vaccinating their children. Even though science disproves the link between vaccines and autism in several studies done in the United Kingdom, California, and Canada, many people cling to the vaccination-autism connection (Gerber, 2009).

The current issue I have selected to discuss is vaccinations. In particular, I will be addressing the anti-vaccination movement that has gained popularity in recent years and the contributing biases that influenced its emergence. One event stands out at as a major contributing factor to the growth of the anti-vaccination movement, the 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield that was published by the English medical journal, Lancet. This study claimed to show a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. Even though it was just one small study, the media picked it up and it became hugely publicized.

One such factor helping to manifest these large-scale epidemics is a study from 1998 by Andrew Wakefield, which claimed that there was a direct link between autism and the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine (Smith 1). As a result, many parents refused to vaccinate their children out of fear, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles began reappearing more in both America and Britain, the place where Wakefield conducted his study (Cohen 2). Although a later investigation by the British Medical Journal discovered that Wakefield had distorted or altered the medical records of all twelve of the study’s participants and that he had been paid $674,000 USD by lawyers attempting to sue vaccine manufacturers, the atmosphere of apprehension surrounding vaccines is still strong among many individuals, and especially parents (Cohen 1-2). But despite all the controversy and the scientifically unsupported arguments of anti-vaccine sympathizers,