More on the Media’s MMR Hoax

Actually there’s no point me telling you any more about the media’s MMR hoax, as the definitive account has already been written – it’s in Ben Goldacre’s book and you can read an edited extract here: badscience.net. What I am going to point you to is a new study that replicates Wakefield’s 1998 work and finds “strong evidence against association of autism with persistent MV RNA in the GI tract or MMR exposure.”

In the ‘background’ section of the study, the authors point out that: “Failure to replicate the original study design may contribute to continued public concern with respect to the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.” Now that the study has been replicated, do you think public concern will be satisfied? I’m not all that sure it will. I reckon there will be the Japanese Soldier element with some – and somehow I can’t see JABS coming down from the mountains just yet. I also wonder if this study will receive the same media coverage as the one it is replicating? I doubt it. Funnily enough, at the time of writing there is nothing in the UK media, or on the JABS forum, relating to this study. [See link at bottom for first mention]

Lack of Association between Measles Virus Vaccine and Autism with Enteropathy: A Case-Control Study can be found here: MMR Study.

Further reading:

http://www.blacktriangle.org/blog/?p=1833

http://actionforautism.co.uk/2008/09/04/mmr-and-autism-no-connection/

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/?p=1252

http://www.autismvox.com/mmr-vaccine-does-not-cause-autism-not-that-you-didnt-know-that-already/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/09/03/antivax-new-evidence-shows-again-no-link-to-autism/

http://onedadsopinion.blogspot.com/2008/09/now-is-it-over.html

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/09/yet_another_really_bad_day_for_antivacci_1.php

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/?p=1262

http://womensbioethics.blogspot.com/2008/09/reproduction-of-1998-wakefield-study.html

http://medicineandman.com/blog/2008/09/04/measles-vaccine-and-autism/

http://oneutah.org/2008/08/31/anti-vaccination-cranks-medical-woo-and-the-measles/

http://onedadsopinion.blogspot.com/2008/09/now-is-it-over.html

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/?p=1291 – on the “exoneration” of O’Leary.

Any more blogs covering this? Feel free to post a link in the comments.

Media coverage: I checked google news for “Hornig” and, as of 11.45 am on 4th September, the only coverage seemed to be North American. Where is the British media?

JABS forum: jabs-forum-mmr-study [pdf]. Also here: http://www.jabs.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2879.