Blog #9 - Alissa Carlson - Who the hell is Andrew Wakefield?

       Okay, I really don't like to argue. I'm not someone that will fight over a political topic simply because I don't care and you can have your own opinion and I can have mine. But can we just talk a little about Andrew Wakefield for a second?
       Andrew Wakefield is a medical researcher and a gastroenterologist born in 1957. He was known for his work in the United Kingdom. Seems like a smart guy. If you don't know him by name, then you will definitely know him by his work. Wakefield is that guy - the guy who published work in 1998 claiming that there was a link between the administration of the polyvalent measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and the appearance of autism and bowel disease. At first, I bet people were thinking like maybe there is a possibility here but maybe there isn't. And in some, it just exploded their minds and they took a completely different view towards vaccinations.
       First things first, lets talk about Measles, Mumps and Rubella diseases. Measles is a highly contagious virus that causes fever, rash, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. There are some complications that come from this virus that could lead to death. Most definitely not something that most* parents would want to put their kids through. Mumps on the other hand, is also a contagious virus that causes headaches, fever, muscle aches, tiredness, loss of appetite and swollen salivary glands. This infection could also lead to death which is definitely something undesirable. Rubella is a similar infection that can also cause birth defects in women. If a woman is pregnant and she gets the infection, she could have a miscarriage or the baby could be born with serious birth defects. The actual vaccine itself is very safe, and the CDC claims that is is very effective in preventing measles, mumps and rubella. There are some side effects that some could experience at the time of injection which include a sore arm, a fever, and a mild rash but I think its fair to say I'd rather not be able to move my arm so well for a couple hours instead of dying from the infection soo..
       Okay, secondly lets talk about how this research came to be. Wakefield along with 12 other authors collaboratively published a paper about how twelve children with autism in The Lancet. In this, the authors claimed to have identified a new syndrome that they called "autistic enterocolitis" which connected autism with a bowel disease and specifically, the MMR vaccine. Of the twelve children, eight of them reported to have an onset of undefined "behavioral symptoms" with the vaccine, and they began within two weeks of vaccination.
       This is interesting. I think I would be more willing to read this information if the time lapse between the vaccination and the onset of symptoms wasn't such a long period of time. So it takes 2 weeks after a vaccination to show behavioral symptoms? Typically, there are 2 shots given to children. The first one is between 12-15 months of age and then again between years 4-6. Also, fun fact, you can get it as an adult if you are not sure if you have had it during those times. Anyways, this report stated that there were "behavioral symptoms" at the second stage. Like are you trying to say that a child between the ages 4-6 doesn't have "behavioral symptoms" as it is? Has he ever heard of a child having a meltdown? Those are pretty common and dangerous to ear drums of those around.
       To make this even better, there were many studies conducted around the world that debunk the information that Wakefield exclaimed. There was a study done in Japan in 2005 that found that there was no causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism groups in children given the triple MMR vaccine and children who received individual measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations. In addition, the methods in which Wakefield used to collect his data was also questionable. In courts, people who worked with Wakefield testified that Wakefield ignored laboratory data that would have conflicted with his hypothesis. AKA, this guy just wanted to start a fire.
       Turns out, he lost his license to practice, he can't publish anything anymore, and he looks great to some anti-vacciners but others think he has just lost his marbles. Has anyone ever seen that State Farm commercial with that girl who gets all of her information from the internet and the guy says "Where did you get that from?" she replies, "The internet." There's a link below for a laugh.  Hope you enjoyed my unplanned and discombobulated rant - what it is in person is what it is on paper (in this case blog post).

Sources: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/mmr-vaccine.html

Super important video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DZbSlkFoSU