Ignore the man behind the curtain
Applause, please! Some bad science has been debunked, and with a bit of time and proper coverage in the media, we may save a few lives.
Back in 1998, the Lancet (an important medical journal, that I have never perused) released a study that pointed to strong statistical links between vaccination against the childhood disease trio of measles, mumps and rubella and the onset of autism. That’s an oversimplification, but IANAD (I am not a doctor).
This counted as Important News in the medical world; if only it had been true. Because, dear reader, not everything that gets published is exactly free from error.
You see, once news becomes news, the genie doesn’t always want to get back in the bottle. Ditto for worms and tin cans. Even though ten of the original researchers who had signed their names to the study withdrew their names some six years ago, the study lived on thanks to the Internet and concerned groups of parents who wanted to know why Johnny was the way he was. The number of abstentions from vaccination campaigns grew, as did the numbers of people contracting infectious diseases. Not so for the rates of autism; there was no correlation. In science, observation leads to hypothesis, etc.
This week, the Lancet did the right thing. The journal has retracted the original study, completely. Turns out that not all of the original researchers were free from bias. There are rumours of patent competition (my vaccine is better than your vaccine), clinical studies that had little in terms of rigour and other irregularities in the background.
As recently as last month, while our local H1N1 vaccination program was underway, people were still quoting the original study as a reason to avoid “getting their needles”. Here’s a fervent wish that the next time our public health system tries to avoid pandemic, this faulty study won’t serve as a mental shield.
