Vaccines Cause Autism; A lie That Risked Millions of Lives

In 1998 a study made by Dr. Andrew Wakefield revealed the fact that there was a connection between the vaccines which the babies have to take against measles, mumps and rubella and autism.

As you can imagine, the parents were scared by the news and many of them decided that the best thing which they could do would be not to take the babies to vaccination. Because of that the millions of babies that did not receive the vaccinations were in the risk of dying. The British Medical Journal has made a research about the situation and it discovered that the news was false, and that the news spread was an elaborate fraud. This is not the first time when the scientific community has stated that there isn’t any connection between the vaccines and the terrible disease. 14 different studies have been made regarding the subject and all of them have proven the fact that the connection is inexistent. The British medical authorities stated that Dr. Wakefield spread this false news on purpose, and that as a result he should not be able to practice medicine again.

His medical license has been revoked and he is in the risk of being sentenced to jail. The British Medical Journal has discovered the fact that besides spreading the false news he also fabricated lots of data, as he wanted to prove that the children who received vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella developed autism soon afterwards. The British Medical Journal stated that many of these children did not have autism at all, as they did not show any symptoms, and the ones who had the disease, and who showed symptoms of the disease were not influenced by the vaccines which they received. Dr. Fiona Godlee, who is the editor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal stated that the new discoveries made should eliminate the scare regarding the dangers of the vaccines once and for all. The new discoveries were published on January 5^th in the magazine.

Everything began in 1998, when Dr. Andrew Wakefield published an article in the medical magazine called The Lancet, in which he stated that there is a connection between the MMR vaccines and autism.  He said that there were 12 children who were affected by the vaccines, and besides suffering from autism, they also suffered from very intense stomach pains. The Lancet has retracted the article since then, and they have even issued an apology for the fact that they published it in the first place. When the article appeared, the scientific community quickly started to criticize it, as it said that the doctor failed to present exact clues regarding the connection. The parents on the other hand reacted in a different manner, as they became scared and they avoided taking their children to the doctor in order to vaccinate them against those diseases. The rates of the infections with those diseases started to climb, the most common of them being measles. The interesting thing is that Dr. Wakefield was a gastroenterologist, so he had no connection with the pediatric or with the neurological fields. Many blamed the magazine for publishing his article, as it was clear that he had no idea what he was talking about.

It was later discovered that he made those claims prior to even analyzing the situation, so his intentions were to spread false news in the first place. It seems that he wanted his 15 minutes of fame, and he was willing to do anything in order to obtain them. It was also been discovered that he received more than $675,000 from a lawyer in order to testify in court against the vaccines. It is only after he received the money that he started to create these theories about the dangers of the vaccines. The report conducted by the British Media Journal stated that only one of the children who were included in the study suffered from autism, and that the rest of them were all right. On top of that it was also discovered that the selection of the children was not done in a random manner, and that Dr. Wakefield chose them himself. He chose the children who had the symptoms of autism, and he intended to prove that the children got these symptoms after they received the shots when in reality it was discovered that they had these symptoms prior to the vaccination.

When the children did not display the symptoms, the doctor simply changed the timeline, and he fabricated things. He said that these children developed the symptoms soon after the vaccine even if they did not have the symptoms or even if they had them prior to the vaccination. He did the same thing with the gastrointestinal problems, as he wanted to prove that the problem was much more serious than it actually was. There was a girl who had symptoms similar to the autism, but it was discovered that they were triggered by a coarctation of the aorta. Once that problem was solved, the symptoms went away, and she was fine. The interesting thing is that he kept on claiming that the girl was suffering from autism, and that the reason for that were the vaccines. He did a really sloppy job, as he did not pay attention to too many details. Dr. Max Wiznitzer, who is a child neurologist with Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, in Cleveland, stated that what Dr. Wakefield did was one of the most unethical things one could have done.

He said that the doctor put the lives of millions of children on jeopardy, and he believes that he should be punished for what he did. He also stated that the magazine which published the article is to blame as well, as they did not care about the fact that it could be false, and that the information from it could influence so many people. The article proved to be false, and millions of parents were influenced by what it was written in it. The fact that he lied on purpose about the article makes it even worse, as he purposely put the lives of other human beings in danger. The experts have stated that numerous children got sick because they did not receive those vaccines. Another problem is the fact that the research done on autism was put to a halt, as the money invested in the research of the disease were used to prove that the connection between the disease and the vaccines is not existent. The problem is that the parents were willing to listen to a single doctor than to listen to the advices of hundreds or even thousands of researchers from all over the world. It seems that he even lied to the parents of the children who participated to the study, as he told the parents one thing, and then he wrote in his journal a different thing.

Brian Deer, the man who wrote the most recent article in the British Medical Journal, stated that the reason why Dr. Wakefield did what he did was because of greed, as he wanted to make money in a very fast manner. However, Dr. Wiznitzer believes that Dr. Wakefield might have actually believed what he wrote, and he believes that the doctor might be delusional. At the current moment the doctor lives in Texas, and he has even written a book about the subject. The doctor has stated that he will continue to try and prove that there actually is a connection between autism and the vaccines. It is fascinating if you thing about it; the power one single person can have on the whole world. He wrote a piece of paper, lying about the subject, and soon afterwards the entire world took his word for it. There were even certain groups founded which fought against these vaccines. Some of the most important members of these groups were Jim Carrey, and Jenny McCarthy, both of them being actors. It seems that we as humans have a hatred towards the institutions of the state, and we would rather believe in one single person than in numerous persons who work for the government.