SchaferAutismReport: CDC-sponsored MMR Study Supports Wakefield's Findings

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Vol. 12 No. 137p

In This Issue:

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RESEARCH

CDC-sponsored MMR Study Supports Wakefield’s Findings

•

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PUBLIC HEALTH

Humanity At Risk: Are The Males Going First?

Students Without Vaccinations Could Get Suspended

Book Supports Parents Who Want to Opt Out of Vaccinations

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PEOPLE

Neighbors Try To Help Family After Autistic Girl, 5, Found Drowned

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A-CHAMP Advocates Nationally for Autism Issues

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RESEARCH

CDC-sponsored MMR Study

upports Wakefield’s Findings

The CDC tried again and …failed again but this time, it validated

Wakefield’s findings.

By F. Yazbak MD, FAAP. From www.jabs.org.uk

A study sponsored by the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC) and funded by the American Academy of

Pediatrics (AAP) was published on PLoS ONE on September 4, 2008.

PLoS ONE, an international, peer-reviewed,

open-access, online publication by the Public Library of Science features

reports of original science and medicine research.

The recent CDC-sponsored publication was

titled “Lack of Association between Measles Virus Vaccine and Autism with

Enteropathy: A Case-Control Study "

It described research conducted at Columbia

and Harvard Universities and findings from three renowned laboratories.

The authors reported “strong evidence

against association of autism with persistent MV RNA in the GI tract or MMR

exposure”. They also confirmed that the “Results were consistent across the

three laboratory sites.” (1) This critique should cast a cloud on the

authors’ selection of cases, investigations, results, conclusions and

statements to the media.

At the end, the only thing left standing

will be the now-undeniable fact that biopsy findings from Dr. O’Leary’s

laboratory are just as reliable as those from two of the best laboratories

in the United States.

Keeping that in mind, one must wonder how

Dr. Ian Lipkin, apparently speaking for all the authors, could proclaim:

" We are convinced there is no link between MMR vaccination and

autism. "

Is Dr. Lipkin truly “convinced” that just

because this study of only five cases with post- MMR autistic and

gastro-intestinal symptoms could not detect an association of autism with

“persistent measles virus RNA in the GI tract or MMR exposure”, a link

between MMR vaccination and autism simply does not exist? Does he really

want us to believe that? On a personal note: It has not been easy for me to

criticize a publication whose lead author I respect as a person and a

pioneering researcher. As it will become evident, Dr. Hornig was not

responsible for the part of the study I found most problematic.

*****

Dr. Marie McCormick of the Harvard School of

Public Health, the chairman of the Institute of Medicine Immunization

Safety Review Committee and the scientist who was supposed to “uncover the

truth” about vaccines and autism described the new CDC-sponsored study

results as “definitive and significant” adding: " This is the nail in

the coffin, the final bit of research we were looking for to finally

discredit this link between the measles vaccine and autism. " (2) By

her statement, Dr. McCormick disqualified herself as a scientific referee,

compromised the Institute of Medicine and confirmed two facts we all very

much suspected: 1. That when she convened all the meetings, she was not

really trying to find the scientific truth but only interested in

discrediting any possible MMR-Autism connection 2. That she was not yet

convinced that the MMR vaccine did not precipitate regression in a small

percentage of children when she was preaching that message and telling the

world that autism research needed to be focused elsewhere Not to be outdone

by a northerner, Schaffner, MD, chairman of the department of preventive

medicine at Vanderbilt University echoed: “It's a " fabulous and

terrific study… It is convincing because it takes the original concept of

the profoundly flawed [earlier] study and does it the way it should have

been done the first time… This really closes the scientific inquiry into

whether measles or MMR vaccination causes autism… " (3) May be Drs.

McCormick and Schaffner should read the whole paper a second time.

*****

Internet publication I frequently publish on

the Internet, not because my articles are not good enough to be published

in peer-reviewed journals but because I just don’t have the patience, at my

age, to deal with the antics of certain editors. (4) But this “definitive

and significant study”, this CDC-sponsored research from two of the best

U.S. universities and three of the best laboratories in the world, why was

it published online? Why was it not in the September issue of PEDIATRICS,

the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the organization

that funded the project? Why was it not in the New England Journal of

Medicine (NEJM) where even Danish research is published and protected or

…the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that is always so

willing to help “friends in need”? The answer to these questions is: I

don’t know.

I certainly tried but I was unable to find

out why reputable medical journals, not only here but also in the United

Kingdom, where MMR is a national obsession, refused to publish this

CDC-sponsored publication by some of the best names in the business.

Why did all these fearless friendly editors

suddenly get cold feet? I was personally taken back when I read the

statement describing the role of the sponsors in the new study. Were the

editors of those major publications also concerned enough with the

following to refuse to publish the manuscript? “Members of the funding

organization (AAP) and its sponsor (CDC) participated along with experts in

virology and neurovirology, autism pathogenesis, and vaccine design and safety;

representatives of the autism advocacy community; and study collaborators

in an Oversight Committee that reviewed and agreed to all aspects of study

design prior to data collection.

The final decision to submit for publication

was the responsibility of all study collaborators. "

In any case, the manuscript was submitted to

the Public Library of Science PLoS ONE, a prestigious Internet site on June

29, accepted on August 8 and as previously mentioned, published September

4, 2008.

In spite of the heated presidential campaign

and a very busy hurricane season, its fallout is guaranteed: The CDC has

had a lot of experience circulating and spinning such studies! It would be

interesting to know whether the PLoS ONE reviewer wondered like I did about

those experts on “vaccine design and safety” who served on the study

Oversight Committee, why they were needed and what did they do exactly?

*****

Transparency When one is examining the

findings of a CDC-sponsored study based on biopsies from specific sites in

a very particular cohort, findings that could prove that the MMR vaccine

does NOT cause autism in a small percentage of children, a priority at the

CDC, one must be fully assured that the sponsor’s role is most transparent.

In this important study, the role of the CDC

at every level and every stage should have been clearly stated beforehand

and clearly adhered to.

The statement about the role of the sponsors

(above) is strange to say the least. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

would have never accepted such a statement from the sponsor of a study

investigating an arthritis medication, an antihistamine or a vaccine.

One of the best articulations of “Study

Transparency” I have ever heard was by Professor Walter O. Spitzer M.D.,

M.P.H., F.R.C.P.C, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology at McGill University

in sworn testimony at the December 10, 2002 Hearing of the Government

Reform Committee of the House of Representatives. The scientific world lost

Dr. Spitzer before he could start working on one of his dreams: An

international study of autism rates in developing countries. I can only

imagine how interested he would have been in the exploding prevalence of

autism among Somalis in Michigan… and its causes.

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