Fiona Godlee: Editor with an Agenda?
As I pointed out in BMJ Rapid Responses last year (HERE) Dr Godlee was appointed to her present post shortly after a presentation to British National Formulary ‘The Next MMR – could we do better?’ (HERE) in 2004. Although only the power point slide show survives online the bureaucratic conviction that there was nothing wrong with the children is manifest. She returned to the theme in a Warwick University presentation three year later, emphasising the importance of not allowing parents to have their say in media (HERE).
What Godlee has never recognised is that such deep seated hostility to a hypothesis constitutes bias. She complains about the pharmaceutical companies suppressing data, but she does not address this issue with an open mind. By now huge amounts evidence exist about environmental damage to autistic children, gut pathology, vaccine court awards in significant cases. Whatever the specifics of the Lancet 1998 paper the tide of evidence is that it was properly addressing issues which it never pretended to resolve. Despite all the trumpeting these leftovers from Deer’s February 2009 article, desperately heated up for the third time, make an unattractive meal.
And what happens, particularly in the UK, where the both the doctors and the media are intimidated? Who will listen to parents if their children become ill or regress developmentally after vaccine? There are people who want to make absolutely certain it is nobody, and they are succeeding. This is not a good system, and it elevates the dogma of vaccine infallibility above open science and due medical caution.
John Stone is UK Editor for Age of Autism.
Why doesn't Godlee acknowledge the following Journal article published in her own magazine. It not only gives proof to vaccine caused damage but shows quite clearly that the so called 'scare' campaign was actually good doctors doing good work before Wakefield.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1679309/
Over 80% of cases and controls were traced. Case children were significantly more likely than controls to have died or to have some form of educational, behavioural, neurological, or physical dysfunction a decade after their illness.
CONCLUSIONS--Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine may on rare occasions be associated with the development of severe acute neurological illnesses that can have serious sequelae.
------------------------------
The underlying question is how did the new vaccine differ in any substantial way from the new one ?
Posted by: John | January 09, 2011 at 08:47 PM
http://www.politicolnews.com/british-medical-journals-credibility-questioned/
Who paid for Brian Deer’s BMJ Articles?
Posted by: Jenny Allan | January 08, 2011 at 03:30 AM
Here's the link to the actual BMJ Article, Brian Deer January 2011
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347.full
Footnote below the article:-
"Funding: Brian Deer’s investigation was funded by the Sunday Times of London and the Channel 4 television network. Reports by Deer in the BMJ were commissioned and paid for by the journal. No other funding was received, apart from legal costs paid to Deer by the Medical Protection Society on behalf of Andrew Wakefield."
So it seems that the BMJ via Godlee & Co actually COMMISSIONED Brian Deer to write this false malicious diatribe against Dr Wakefield. Brian Deer has no medical qualifications whatsoever and should not be pontificating about the medical conditions of the Lancet 12 children, in what purports to be a professional medical journal. Mr Deer appears to have obtained these childrens' medical casenotes illegally.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | January 07, 2011 at 02:19 PM
Grant
I didn't see any earlier comment from you. I have now checked all three links which continue to work for me. The first is to BMJ Rapid Responses (Replies to Godlee 'MMR and other controversies'):
http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c706/reply#bmj_el_230943
The only other links on my post were to two powerpoint presentations by Godlee, but they were not "blogs". In the case of the first access to it is only through the web archive, so you have to click on one of the links on the page that you open as a result of clicking my link - not all of them work but some of them do. The one for Oct 12, 2004 is good:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http:/bnf.org/bnf/extra/current/popup/Godlee.ppt
And here again is the link for Godlee's 2007 presentation:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/hsri/emergencycare/research/sdo/csi2/resources/berwick/csi_launch_-_godlee_berwick_seminar_jan081.pdf
I hope this helps.
Posted by: John Stone | January 07, 2011 at 05:28 AM
John Stone,
It seems my comment pointing out weblogs linked to this article are not being listed has not made it past moderation. For clarity: I was just pointing it out - it may be an innocent technical issue, after all.
I asked because I would like to read reaction to your articles and this is what these links are usually for. They help those that are trying to follow events. With that in mind, it's a pity the weblogs linking to your posts are not listed.
Posted by: Grant | January 06, 2011 at 06:28 PM
Tatyana
I read the BMJ regularly too, but there obvious excesses here. In fact, they are probably in contempt of court which may by why most of the British media have left it alone.
There are numerous phoney arguments about Wakefield's alleged fabrication of data that was processed by other people. An editorial by Deer in praise of his own findings. Another editorial with co-signatory Harvey Marcovitch head of GMC disciplinary panels.
Frankly it's nonsense, shot through with distasteful Schaden Freude.
Or, to put politely "It stinks".
Posted by: John Stone | January 06, 2011 at 02:51 PM
I read the BMJ on a regular basis, and they typically have at least two or three articles, if not studies, on some unscrupulous aspect of the pharmaceutical industry.
Go to the BMJ site and search under 'pharmaceutical company' and see what you come up with yourself.
Stop blaming the messenger and actually listen to the message.
Posted by: Tatyana | January 06, 2011 at 01:31 PM
She is paid off by the drug companies,they are trying hard to rebuild the lost trust in the vaccines. It is not working.
Posted by: Anonym | January 06, 2011 at 10:02 AM
Here is the contact information for the editor of the British Medical Journal that continues to publish "medical studies" by a "journalist." (What's up with that anyway?) Give her an earful:
Editor in chief
Fiona Godlee
[email protected]
T: + 44(0)20 7383 6102
Posted by: lisa | January 06, 2011 at 01:38 AM
"It's always hard to explain fraud and where it affects lies and science." Yes it is isn't it, Ms. Godlee, or should I say Godless?
Posted by: Jen | January 05, 2011 at 08:22 PM
oh goody, another enemy on my enemy list. Guess what chikee...you are so full of wholes and lies, you are on ours~! Watch your back. Or should I say, your countless millions off the backs of our children's suffering? Another person to hold up to the light of day, gee I wonder if her hair can get any greyer? Or whiter? Oh, I am not angry, vengeance is the Lord's, all I have to do is sit back and see the dismanteling. The truth is, our truth is making them shit their pants more than usual. Time to invest in some depends chikee.
Posted by: kathy blanco | January 05, 2011 at 08:02 PM