The doctor who "proved" a link between MMR vaccine and autism . . .

[velvetpage]

. . . received about a million dollars from lawyers who were, of course, trying to prove the MMR vaccine was unsafe.

All together now, boys and girls: THAT'S A BIG CONFLICT OF INTEREST.

Conflict of interest

Thanks thebitterguy for the link.

Comments

[girlydoll.livejournal.com]

This suggestion, followed by a campaign led by Wakefield, caused immunisation rates to slump from 92% to 78.9%, although they have since partly recovered. In March this year the first British child in 14 years died from measles.



Yea, that just says it all does it not?

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

I was just reading an article about how they're trying to improve immunisation rates in developing countries. There was a lot of hand-wringing about the devastating impact of lack of access to vaccination, and it made me so angry to think of all the people who have access to vaccines for their children, and are convinced to squander the opportunity by pseudoscientific conspiracy theories.

Having said that - a lot of good science is also funded by people with vested interests, for obvious reasons, and a lot of bad science is funded by supposedly neutral parties like government agencies. Wakefield's work was rotten science in every way, starting with his sample group, and the funding source is only a motivating factor, it's not the problem in itself. Don't remind me of this when I'm ranting about how the BMI is the product of "science" funded by Weight Watchers, OK? :)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. :) FWIW, my opinion of the BMI is that it's a useful measure along with others, but like anything else, it shouldn't be taken too seriously.