Above: Dr. Andrew Wakefield surrounded by supporters, found via Google Images.VACCINES?
FRIEND OR FOE?
My mom always calls me down from upper deck (my term for the second floor of our house) to watch television programs. Sometimes, I don't really care (e.g. America's Got Talent results shows), but when my mom mentioned the words "autism" and "Dateline" put together, I said to myself, "This 'oughta be good." Next thing, I'm flying down the stairs and next to my mom I plopped myself in front of the television. The show: "Dateline: A Dose of Controversy" on NBC.
The story was behind Dr. Andrew Wakefield, formerly a researcher in Britain, now a head of an autism intitute in the Americas called "Thoughtful House." Reporting by Matt Lauer of NBC centered around the growing trend of people stopping vaccinating their children, due to a believed link between autism (a brain developmental disorder that hinders social interactions with others) and the MMR vaccine (a combination vaccine against the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella viruses), an idea being pursued by Dr. Wakefield. It was soon encouraged that patients start taking vaccinations in separate form (one shot for measles, another for mumps, and another for rubella). In the wake of his research, published in The Lancet (a reknowned British Medical Journal, similar to our New England Journal of Medicine), a slew of controversy over motivation for the research arose as families started demanding the single vaccines (creating a shortage of supply) instead of the combination vaccine.
The program also presented the pro-vaccination side of the story, featuring Dr. Paul Offit, a renowned researcher in Pediatrics in the United States, co-credited with the creation of the Rotavirus vaccine, saying that vaccines are not associated with autism and are very safe. In his 2008 book, Autism's False Prophets, he talks about the misinformation going on in the This point of view is shared among many doctors, autism researchers, and medical journals, according to the New York Times. However, in pop culture, Jenny McCarthy, along with Jim Carrey, a Hollywood-led grass roots effort has been going strong, raising questions about the true safety of vaccines. At Autism conferences, Wakefield gathers great support from parents who believe that their kids have autism.
Since the report now over a week ago, a lot of parents and advocates on the Autism Web Newspaper The Age of Autism have spoken out for their support of Dr. Wakefield, and Dr. Wakefield has released a statement saying that Matt Lauer's report on NBC had left out critical facts, such as Dr. Paul Offit's connections and associations with vaccine makers, and crediting research that has supported Dr. Wakefield's findings (Just like other mass media, bias was definitely present in this report towards the pro-vaccination point of view).
For a medial student like me, it makes me wonder, 1) Where did the distrust in medical science begin? and 2) How can we earn the trust in these people again?
That is... especially when our empirical research shows differently from what others believe. Disagreements in empirical research and in the information being conveyed to the public could take away from the giant strides that vaccines have made in fighting diseases. Outbreaks of diseases we thought we have had a control over are coming around in areas that are not being well vaccinated. If this trend grows, these outbreaks may grow.
I wish I had the answers to the questions I proposed in this entry, but at least this debate has a lot of ethical food for thought for both us clinicians and patients in today's world.
FRIEND OR FOE?
My mom always calls me down from upper deck (my term for the second floor of our house) to watch television programs. Sometimes, I don't really care (e.g. America's Got Talent results shows), but when my mom mentioned the words "autism" and "Dateline" put together, I said to myself, "This 'oughta be good." Next thing, I'm flying down the stairs and next to my mom I plopped myself in front of the television. The show: "Dateline: A Dose of Controversy" on NBC.
The story was behind Dr. Andrew Wakefield, formerly a researcher in Britain, now a head of an autism intitute in the Americas called "Thoughtful House." Reporting by Matt Lauer of NBC centered around the growing trend of people stopping vaccinating their children, due to a believed link between autism (a brain developmental disorder that hinders social interactions with others) and the MMR vaccine (a combination vaccine against the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella viruses), an idea being pursued by Dr. Wakefield. It was soon encouraged that patients start taking vaccinations in separate form (one shot for measles, another for mumps, and another for rubella). In the wake of his research, published in The Lancet (a reknowned British Medical Journal, similar to our New England Journal of Medicine), a slew of controversy over motivation for the research arose as families started demanding the single vaccines (creating a shortage of supply) instead of the combination vaccine.
The program also presented the pro-vaccination side of the story, featuring Dr. Paul Offit, a renowned researcher in Pediatrics in the United States, co-credited with the creation of the Rotavirus vaccine, saying that vaccines are not associated with autism and are very safe. In his 2008 book, Autism's False Prophets, he talks about the misinformation going on in the This point of view is shared among many doctors, autism researchers, and medical journals, according to the New York Times. However, in pop culture, Jenny McCarthy, along with Jim Carrey, a Hollywood-led grass roots effort has been going strong, raising questions about the true safety of vaccines. At Autism conferences, Wakefield gathers great support from parents who believe that their kids have autism.
Since the report now over a week ago, a lot of parents and advocates on the Autism Web Newspaper The Age of Autism have spoken out for their support of Dr. Wakefield, and Dr. Wakefield has released a statement saying that Matt Lauer's report on NBC had left out critical facts, such as Dr. Paul Offit's connections and associations with vaccine makers, and crediting research that has supported Dr. Wakefield's findings (Just like other mass media, bias was definitely present in this report towards the pro-vaccination point of view).
For a medial student like me, it makes me wonder, 1) Where did the distrust in medical science begin? and 2) How can we earn the trust in these people again?
That is... especially when our empirical research shows differently from what others believe. Disagreements in empirical research and in the information being conveyed to the public could take away from the giant strides that vaccines have made in fighting diseases. Outbreaks of diseases we thought we have had a control over are coming around in areas that are not being well vaccinated. If this trend grows, these outbreaks may grow.
I wish I had the answers to the questions I proposed in this entry, but at least this debate has a lot of ethical food for thought for both us clinicians and patients in today's world.
Sources: Dateline NBC, Thoughtful House and The Age of Autism.
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