The Wakefield Rehabilitation?
No responsible historian quotes Unabomber Ted Kaczynski for a proper understanding of the Industrial Revolution and the struggles of a technological age.
So why is uber-scientist Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University quoting with approval the work of Dr. Andrew Wakefield? Isn't Wakefield supposed to the author of our common mass delusion that vaccines are linked to autism?
And wasn't it Dr. W. Ian Lipkin who wrote Lack of Association Between Measles Virus Vaccine and Enteropathy: A Case Control Study in September 2008 which was widely seen as the final "nail in the coffin" of the MMR vaccine/autism theory? (Author's note - Lipkin's study also showed that the lab work of Dr. John O'Leary, relied upon by Dr. Wakefield, was accurate. And little reported was the fact that the measles virus was detected in the gut tissue of 1 of the 25 children with autism and 1 control. Perhaps the most serious critcism, and difference from the Wakefield study was that only 5 of the 25 children with autism had received their MMR shot prior to the start of gastrointestinal problems, according to parent reports. The parents of all Wakefield's patients in the original Lancet study claimed that the development of GI symptoms came after the MMR shot. That's why he was investigating the shots as a possible cause of the development of GI symptoms AND as a consequence, autism.)
Or to put it a little more clearly, even Dr. W. Ian Lipkin found 20% of the children whose parents claimed that the MMR shot preceeded the development of GI symptoms in their children with autism were positive for the measles virus in their gut.
You can no doubt imagine my surprise when I picked up Dr. W. Ian Lipkin's latest publication, Impaired Carbohydrate Digestion and Transport and Mucosal Dysbiosis in the Intestines of Children with Autism and Gastrointestinal Dysbiosis (HERE) and read the following sentence:
"Macroscopic and histological observations in ASD include findings of ileo-colonic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia, entercolitis, gastritis, and esophagitis." This sentence was supported by footnotes 2-7. Footnotes 3 and 4 referred to works by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, specifically his works, Entercolitis in Children with Developmental Disoders (2000) and The Significance of Ileo-Colonic Lymphoid Nodular Hyperplasia in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (2005).
Can somebody please explain all of this to me?
Isn't Dr. Wakefield supposed to be some super-villain, leading all of us gullible parents to believe that vaccines aren't quite as safe as sugar water? Didn't he make up fake diseases? So, after being stripped of his license to practice medicine in the U. K., it turns out there really is something called autistic entercolitis and ileo-colonic lymphoid nodular hyperplasia in children with autism. At least Dr. W. Ian Lipkin seems to think so.
Has anybody told Trine Tsouderous of the Chicago Tribune about this? I'm sure she'll want to get right to work getting Dr. W. Ian Lipkin fired from Columbia University.
I was almost as surprised to read a later sentence, "Furthermore, a recent study found a strong correlation between GI symptoms and autism severity." (Okay, so the more impacted the GI system, the worse the autism. Has anybody ever noticed this before?)
The next sentence almost read like something from a gluten/casein diet support group. "The intestinal mucoepithelial layer must maximize nutritional uptake of dietary components while maintaining a barrier to toxins and infectious agents." (I've got it, maybe we'll call it . . . wait for it . . ."leaky gut!" Just as a warning, I've already submitted my copyright application to the United States government, since, well, you know, I invented the idea! Before you read it in this article, nobody, and I mean nobody in the entire world, had ever put the words "leaky gut" together!)
Although this study used a relatively small sample of gut biopsies from children with autism (Hey, isn't that what Wakefield got in trouble for? Or is my memory failing me?), Dr. W. Ian Lipkin wrote, "Our data show that at least some children with autism have a distinct intestinal profile that is linked to deficient expression of disaccharides, and hexose transporters, potentially promoting maldigestion, malabsorption, and multicomponent, compositional dysbiosis. Although the underlying cause of these changes and the extra-intestinal effects these changes may elicit remain speculative, the identification of specific molecular and microbial signatures that define GI pathophysiology in AUT-GI children sets the stage for further research aimed at defining the epidemiology, diagnosis, and informed treatment of GI symptoms in autism."
Translation for those of you who are not Columbia University Professors - There's a lot that's wrong in the digestive system of kids with autism! Maybe it's affecting their brain and behavior! Let's investigate!
After more than ten years of loose stools from my daughter, I don't need to be a Columbia University professor to know that.
But if a big shot scientist like Dr. W. Ian Lipkin is quoting Dr. Andrew Wakefield as a reliable source, maybe the rest of the world will soon be doing the same thing.
And that would be righting one of our new century's greatest injustices.
Kent Heckenlively is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism
Independent researchers need to continue and find the answers.Dr.Wakefield came very close to the answers,the
immune system arises from the bowels,our children digestive system,GI.tracts became damaged.Research must continue, answers need to be found and the truth need to be told.
Dr.Wakefield's research will stand.
Posted by: oneVoice | October 30, 2011 at 03:02 PM
Kent, Maybe this is off topic, but since you have brought up the name of the Unabomber, I would like to add that his history suggests that he too was one more medical victim, possibly not so different from what has happened to our autistic kids. As I recall reading, he was put in the hospital at about age one and in those days parents were not allowed to visit. After ten days his mom took him home and found him to be just "lifeless", a very changed child. She , no doubt thought that this was the psychological trauma of being away from the mother, and that could be correct, but I would like to suggest that he may have been given some treatment, such as gamma globulin injections, which contained a high level of mercury- or perhaps vaccines with mercury- This would account for his lack of social success, and desire to be alone.
And here we are, so many decades later, still battling to get mercury removed from vaccines and battling a medical system that thinks every protocol and product they have is state of the art.
Posted by: Cherry Sperlin Misra | October 16, 2011 at 09:48 AM
Microbiology
Gut Bacteria Lend a Molecular Hand to Viruses
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6053/168.summary
On page 245 of this week's issue of Science, researchers describe a virus that covers itself with molecules from natural gut bacteria, and those molecules interact with TLR4, a mouse immune system receptor, to make viral infection possible.
Nor is this pathogen, the mouse mammary tumor virus, the only virus that co-opts components of the microflora.
At least two others, including poliovirus, rely on those same molecules from gut bacteria to invade their host, another team reports in a study, on page 249, that echoes the first finding.
-------------------------------------------------------
Real scientists as compared to journalists and medical editors without a research background are actually finding more and more complexity to the bodies immune system.
Couple this with the finding on gene expression and viral pathology then indeed the questions surrounding neurodevelopmental disorders , disease and other illnesses is a puzzle that has just begun.
Perhaps those with that evidenced based linear thinking need to step aside and let more imaginative science be undertaken and investigated.
Posted by: Effect | October 14, 2011 at 12:43 AM
It's all in the lingo.... The loophole is this... Autism is an incurble genetic neurological disorder. MMR does not cause Autism. MMR causes vaccine injury. And parents need to sue any doctor that diagnoses their child with autism without properly checking out their body for medical issues causing neurological symptoms that mimic autism. The A word is preventing treatment, recovery, and insurance companies are loving it since it prevents coverage. Sue your doctor if you have an A dx without proper medical diagnosis. Just do it.
Posted by: wondering why | October 12, 2011 at 03:06 PM
John- I need some help on this one. The PLOS paper you cite is offered as proof against an association between MMR and MV in the gut of ASD kids.
Yet you are saying that if you pull the paper apart, it contradicts the exact point the authors are alleging they have proven- no association.
Could you please explain this in different terms. I read the paragraph about the greater association of MV in gut of ASD kids- how does this support the conclusions of the paper, it seems exactly opposite.
Many thanks-
O/S
Posted by: Ottoschnaut | October 12, 2011 at 11:00 AM
well I think EVERYONE was listening to/taking seriously Andy's work...and knew he was right all along!!! why else would he have been such a target?? he would have been dismissed otherwise. "methinks they doth protest too much"...
Posted by: Janet | October 12, 2011 at 01:19 AM
Well i think MMR does give kids Autism not all but still quite a large number, they can cover up all you like nothing will change my belief.
Posted by: Liz | October 11, 2011 at 07:01 PM
Thanks for providing me a one sentence come back to people invoking the "fraud" of Wakefield:
"Then why do they keep citing his research?"
Posted by: Cynthia Cournoyer | October 11, 2011 at 05:23 PM
Quote from John
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we are going to win."
I am afraid to breathe.
Posted by: StephM | October 11, 2011 at 03:41 PM
Interesting, Natasa, and demonstrative of the chilling effect that the very public pillorying of Wakefield has had. Scientists shouldn't have to worry about losing their jobs for telling the truth. Suppressed science, fear of even engaging in science when it comes to vaccine injury, is like a clogged pore that has now built up into an obscenely large zit on the face of public health. They can slap some coverup on it for a while, but everyone still knows its there and sooner or later it's going to come to a head and blow.
Posted by: Garbo | October 11, 2011 at 02:19 PM
Thanks Kent
Just to recap the Hornig/Lipkin measles paper stated:
"Our results differ with reports noting MV RNA in ileal biopsies of 75% of ASD vs. 6% of control children...Discrepancies are unlikely to represent differences in experimental technique because similar primer and probe sequences, cycling conditions and instruments were employed in this and earlier reports; furthermore, one of the three laboratories participating in this study performed the assays described in earlier reports. Other factors to consider include differences in patient age, sex, origin (Europe vs. North America), GI disease, recency of MMR vaccine administration at time of biopsy, and methods for confirming neuropsychiatric status in cases and controls."
So, quite on what basis the authors decided to rule the topic out for further investigation both for autistic and non-autistic cases is beyond understanding - except of course to protect the interests of the pharmaceutical companies and health officials. Obviously it was completely against the interests of the patients, and on the face of it completely unethical.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0003140
What are these people about? Of course, we have seen an opposite tendency amongst UK officialdom, the GMC, the JCVI etc to deny any connection between autism and bowel disease at all.
http://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/jcviexpertnondisclosure/
The Hornig/Lipkin gang obviously realise this line is completely unntenable and it sets them a different and irresolvable problem.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we are going to win.
John
Posted by: John Stone | October 11, 2011 at 02:07 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l67fWVrw8xU
A great clip of Dr. Wakefield providing the full MMR story.
....February 1988 Trivirix withdrawn in Quebec
(due to Urabe mumps strain causing Meningitis )
June 1988 Trivirix relabeled as Pluserix
July 1988 Trivirix withdrawn in Ontario
July 1988 Pluserix licensed in the UK
1989 Trivirix license revoked in Canada, Malaysia, Philipines, Singapore, Austrailia Worldwide withdrawal of Pluserix by SKB. No product recall.
September 1992 Pluserix by SKB Suspended in the UK
Because of Dr. Wakefield, Autistic children, who often lose their ability to speak for themselves, do not spend their days bent over in pain from their GI issues.
They are treated (rather than ignored) for their medical issues.
Posted by: cmo | October 11, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Yes, Trine and her editor have an interesting taste in research studies, haven' they!?
I am still waiting for this study to hit the headlines.... and waiting...
Joking aside, I bet there is a seedy little pea-size-brain journalist waiting in the shadows, ready to jump on Lipkin should he start japping about this line of research. He presented at a very mainstream conference a few months ago, and got noticably hot under the collar when mentioning this research and what they found. He also quickly added that they "don't know what to make of these findings, and where to take this research next". As if securing the quiet back door exit...
Posted by: Natasa | October 11, 2011 at 10:17 AM
Fever- I cannot fully answer your question on a comment thread such as this one. I recommend reading Dr Wakefield's book 'Callous Disregard*', in particular, the chapter about the Lancet children; there were 12, not 25 in this 1998 study.
The paper 'Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, nonspecific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children,' was retracted by the Lancet in response to the MMR furore. The paper states:- 'We identified associated gastrointestinal disease and developmental regression in a group of previously normal children, which was GENERALLY associated in time with POSSIBLE environmental triggers', (emphasis mine).
All of these children were referred to Professor Walker Smith's department at the Royal Free Hospital for investigation and treatment for their gastrointestinal problems. Prof Walker Smith took medical histories from the parents and also used referral letters from their GPs and individual developmental child records.
Eight of the parents reported behavioural changes in their children following the MMR vaccine, at that time administered at around 12 months. I could not find any parental reports in the Lancet paper about apparent previous gastrointestinal problems in what were then, very young babies, but most parents felt their infants had been making normal progress prior to the vaccine. Five had early adverse reactions to the vaccine. Two of the children, child 8 and child 4 had previous conditions, unrelated to gastric problems. One had successful corrective surgery, the other was recorded as developmentally normal at 12 months.
The paper states:- 'Parents were less clear about the timing of onset of abdominal symptoms because children were not toilet trained.'
You appear to be misinformed about the substance of the Wakefield et al 1998 Lancet paper, a small 5 page clinical study which reported parental concerns and clinical findings. It DID NOT claim a proven link between MMR and autism.
* Wakefield's book, 'Callous Disregard' is available from Amazon or the Facebook page of the same name.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | October 11, 2011 at 08:36 AM
Interesting to note that some of the study's co-authors are:
- Margaret L. Bauman, who along with Karin Nelson authored the infamous rebuttal to Bernard's Autism-Thimerosal paper.
- Mady Horning, co-author of the Measles-virus research mentioned in Kent's article, and author of the rats-go-crazy-on-thimerosal study
These are key figures in the field.
Posted by: vaccine.explorer | October 11, 2011 at 07:36 AM
The above video with Dr Andrew Wakefield was taken at the 68th Annual Meeting of AAPS ( Asociation of American Physicians and Surgeons) Friday, Sept. 30, 2011 .
I do not fully understand "Perhaps the most serious critcism, and difference from the Wakefield study was that only 5 of the 25 children with autism had received their MMR shot prior to the start of gastrointestinal problems, according to parent reports. The parents of all Wakefield's patients in the original Lancet study claimed that the development of GI symptoms came after the MMR shot. " would someone clarify this point ? Thanks from over the ocean .
Posted by: Fever | October 11, 2011 at 07:17 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l67fWVrw8xU&feature=related
Dr Wakefield does not need rehabilitation. He is, as always, strong confident and a brilliant speaker. This is him talking in depth about the UK MMR Urabe scandal. The very receptive audience, surprisingly, is a group of US physicians.
Ken Heckenlively has beautifully illustrated what looks like the beginning of a medical establishment damage limitation exercise.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | October 11, 2011 at 06:45 AM