MMR - Autism article Retracted by Lancet

[autumnbronze]

2ppaamm:

O, where did you get that wise doula from? I didn't know they exist in Singapore. Yep, that was a typo from my smart (but difficult to use) phone. It's supposed to be blur. Aiya, still blur leh.

The concept of home birth, water birth and pain free birth ie using hypnotherapy has caught on here in the last couple of years. Also thanks to the expatriates lah ...

Quite a number of doulas are now offering their services

okie lah :offtopic: liao :lol:

[3Boys]

There are levels of evidence in medicine. If for instance, you see a young man who does not smoke, but comes down with lung cancer (I know a few), can you conclude that smoking has nothing to do with lung cancer? Certainly not, it is the wrong conclusion based on anecdotal evidence.


Therefore, if a child who receives MMR then goes on to develop autism, does it mean that the MMR caused it? How about the other 99% of children who did not develop autism? How about the multitude of other environmental factors or genetic factors at play?

As to the researcher (Dr Wakefield). Do not forget he had a big VESTED interest in the result, which he DID NOT declare. If you as a concerned parent (like I), do not have the hairs at the back of my neck standing up on that, then i don’t know what will cause you to do so.

Yes, we may choose to believe in conspiracies (i.e., some politics in play, some people out to ‘get’ him, including the General Medical Council of the UK), or we may choose to believe he was an ordinary charlatan and the weight of evidence from a multitude of reknowned researchers and PDs who manage 10s of thousands of children completely debunk his resarch. He who KNEW that some children who took MMR will inevitably go on to develop autism (not due to MMR, but natural course of events or other factors), and that he had a ready-made vulnerable pool of parents waiting to lap up his ‘research’. That is the true cynicism in this whole sordid affair, and the tragedy is the pain and guilt he had caused in parents who buy his story.

[3Boys]

Make no mistake, the findings against Wakefield are not only in ethical conduct but also against his methodologies and manipulations, which render his findings untrustworthy. There is a whole plethora of research which demonstrate the lack of linkage between MMR and autism. If there were indeed a biological basis, the amount of research poured into this would have uncovered it by now.


Is there a cover up, because of cost considerations? Some 'political witch-hunt'?

Conspiracy theorising apart, consider this;

The prevalence rate of autism is estimated at 1 in 100 to 1 in 200. Lets assume that ALL of them are due to MMR. It is estimated that it costs between $20,000 to $50,000 per year for up to 20 years to give an autistic child the care and developmental needs he requires. Assume 30,000 births a year in Singapore, that's 300 cases and therefore $15,000,000 per year economic costs.

Consider the same 30,000 births, and assume that the cost of single dose injections are $100 more than MMR combined injection. That is an additional cost of $3,000,000 per year. That's $12,000,000 less than the previous scenario.

How does that add up? If there were really a link between MMR combined vaccines and autism, nobody, least of all, the health authorities, have any sort of interest in propagating a cover up. It makes absolutely no sense.

Sorry to put it in such cold hard terms. Autism is surely a difficult and personal situation to deal with, hence all the emotion around it.