Why can't the Daily Mail eat humble pie over MMR?

[Guest guest]

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/331/7525/1148?eaf

Why can't the Daily Mail eat humble pie over MMR?

The recent publication of a Cochrane systematic review concluding

that there is " no credible evidence " of a link between the measles,

mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and either inflammatory bowel

disease or autism provoked demands that the British tabloid newspaper

the Daily Mail apologise for its role in promoting the MMR-autism

scare

(http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD00

4407/frame.html). Instead, on 31 October, the paper published a

feature by leading columnist insisting that claims

that MMR was safe were " a load of old baloney "

(www.melaniephillips.com). proclaimed that, far from having

received the " all-clear, " the " MMR scandal " was " getting worse. "

The otherwise unanimous verdict of the media was that the Cochrane

review—following a series of studies coming to the same conclusion—

confirmed that the scare launched following the now notorious

Wakefield Lancet paper in 1998 was finally over ( Lancet 1998;351: 637

[CrossRef][iSI][Medline]). 's defiant article stands as a

symbol of the woe-ful role of the media in the course of the MMR

controversy.

It is true that the MMR-autism scare did not start in the press. Both

a reputable London teaching hospital and a prestigious medical

journal allowed the scare to start. Yet, once Wakefield decided to go

public with his anti-MMR campaign, the media played a major part in

promoting the scare. 's response to the Cochrane study

follows the familiar themes of numerous anti-MMR articles over the

years, including several by herself.

's article is scientifically flawed. She seems to

misunderstand the nature of a systematic review and to misinterpret

any criticism of studies of MMR safety, or any expression of

uncertainty about their conclusions, as a vindication of Wakefield's

case. She echoes the mantra of anti-MMR campaigners that

epidemiological methods are not suitable to discover an association

between MMR and autism, when this is precisely the point of such

methods. Indeed, this is why Wakefield explicitly invited

epidemiological studies in his Lancet paper—only to repudiate this

approach when one study after another failed to support his

hypothesis.

In endorsing Wakefield's claims, ignores the overwhelming

weight of scientific evidence to the contrary. She insists that his

discovery of " autistic enterocolitis " has been replicated around the

world and that " vaccine-strain " measles virus has been found in

cerebrospinal fluid samples from autistic children, though she fails

to mention that these few studies have been carried out by Wakefield

or his collaborators and are universally dismissed by reputable

authorities.

Two days after publication of her Daily Mail article, was

criticised by doctor and columnist Ben Goldacre, in a piece in the

Guardian newspaper. This week (8 November) the Guardian gave

a right of reply, in which she defended the stance of her Mail

article.

appears to be captivated by Wakefield's self professed

status as a maverick and crusader against the establishment. His

posture of martyrdom and victimhood seems to have a particular appeal

for , whose polemical style provokes much animosity. The

price of this self indulgence ( is one of Britain's best paid

journalists) is borne by the real victims of the MMR-autism fiasco.

These are parents anxiously facing decisions about immunisation and

parents of children with autism who carry an unwarranted burden of

guilt over having had their children immunised.

is one of many journalists (by no means confined to the

tabloids) who have endorsed the anti-MMR campaign. They have provided

a voice for middle class anxieties about environmental threats and

for the distrust of established sources of authority in science,

medicine, and politics that have led some parents to reject MMR. Some

journalists, writing as celebrity parents, have followed the

principles of the " journalism of attachment " popularised in recent

military conflicts. This requires a high level of emotional

engagement but no specialist knowledge of the subject (specialist

medical and scientific correspondents have generally rejected the MMR-

autism link). Although autism has become fashionable in the media, a

condition characterised by difficulties of communication remains

uniquely terrifying to those who live by the word. For a profession

renowned for its sociability, children for whom language and

friendship are problematic are a source of potent fears.

British journalists have a poor record on MMR and, indeed, on autism

With a few notable exceptions—such as Deer, whose work for the

Sunday Times and Channel Four helped to discredit Wakefield's Lancet

paper—British journalists have a poor record on MMR and, indeed, on

autism. While certain journalists have lionised Wakefield, real

scandals—such as the recent death of an autistic boy from Britain

undergoing mercury chelation therapy in the United States, or the

inadequacy of respite services revealed by the conviction of a 67

year old mother for killing her adult autistic son when she could no

longer cope with his violent behaviour—have largely been ignored

(www.spiked-online.com). If children die from measles, the MMR

scandal may indeed get worse.

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Fitzpatrick, general practitioner

London fitz@...

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Competing interest: MF is the author of MMR and Autism: What Parents

Need to Know (Routledge, 2004).

[Guest guest]

It isn't surprising that this fellow won't admit he was wrong. He's just an arrogant jerk who can't take any kind of blow to his ego. Unfortunately, there are a lot of those kinds of people in media and politics. That's why so much is screwed up in the world.

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