This is the paper that ruined millions of lives and continues to ruin more today even 12 years after it was fully retracted. Published by Andrew Wakefield and Team back in 1998, this is where the vaccines cause autism myth sprung forth, carefully crafted to further the fame and fortune of a few men. We've laid the foundation, now let's get into the ferns. First we'll go over Wakefield's version of how it was conceived, funded, conducted, and concluded. You got to understand the claims so you can properly appreciate when we tear it all apart. But now the Wakefield version. My mother called me and said my child was developing perfectly normally. They had an MMR vaccine and they regressed into autism. Mother reached out to Wakefield with a story. Her perfectly healthy son had received the MMR vaccine and then quickly developed bowel problems and autism symptoms. Then 12 more children were consecutively referred to his department by the standard route with similar developmental issues and GI problems. With funding from the National Health Service and a protocol approved by the Ethical Committee, set to work. In 11 out of 12 children, he found severe gut problems, dubbed chronic enterocolitis, and most had autism or similar developmental behavioral issues. He concluded that in 8 out of 12 patients who started off completely healthy and developmentally normal, they received the MMR vaccine and then started showing behavioral problems within 1 to 14 days, dubbed regressive autism. He published the results and called a press conference, calling for a boycott of the triple MMR vaccine. It's a moral issue for me. me, he said. Such a morally upstanding character, that Wakefield. Now let's get into what actually happened with this paper. What came out in subsequent court trials and led to the paper being retracted and Wakefield's medical license being revoked. We'll cover his multiple get-rich schemes, biased patient recruitment, abuse of children, misreporting symptoms, budging of data, and bizarre diagnoses. Buckle in.
Additional notes
Replying to @Avisha - 🧬Science Made Simple ⚠️ NOTE: If you are someone who wants to debate any part of this, you are allowed to do so in the comments so long as you speak respectfully and cite sources. I first recorded this 7-part series back in 2022, but never ended up finishing editing the landscape-oriented YT video. It’s sad that this has once again become extremely relevant, as certain individuals featuring very prominently in today’s new cycle are some of the most prominent propagators of this myth. They often couch their statements in qualifiers like “oh i’m not ANTI vaccinations, I just think that they all need more testing to show that they don’t cause autism.” But the ENTIRE REASON why those two concepts are even linked has no foundation in legitimate science, so any statements that give the link any level of credence by someone in a clear position to know better should be taken as an IMMEDIATE RED FLAG 🚩 I’ll be uploading this entire series today, and hopefully get the longer YT vid up this week. Much of the original legwork for this series was done by Brian Deer for his book "The Doctor Who Fooled the World,” but I went back and read each of his cited sources, all of the research papers, more from my own research, and even the court proceedings where Wakefield’s medical license was revoked. #vaccines #autism #science #learnontiktok #whofides #edutok
References
- Source named in caption: Brian Deer, The Doctor Who Fooled the World. No direct DOI, PMID, or source URL was listed in the workbook row.
- Source category named in caption: court proceedings where Andrew Wakefield's medical license was revoked. No direct source URL was listed in the workbook row.
- Source named in transcript: Andrew Wakefield et al. 1998 Lancet paper; no DOI/source URL was listed in the workbook row.