I just started in pediatrics in 1998 when Andrew Wickfield published Ticket It would chase my entire career in primary care. the condition in Lancet He claimed that the measles vaccine, mumps and measles (MMR) caused autism. The methodological defects were easily clear to the followers of medical research: Among the many issues, the study included only 12 children and was linked – the causal was not proven. In a short time, several greater and I was better performed Studies have been conclusively and Wickfield claim. However, I spent the first ten years of pediatrics in primary care discussing Wickfield’s wrong information with almost every family before the MMR vaccine was given to visit the child for 12 months. With difficulty, I reviewed the problems related to Wickfield’s work that were clear to doctors – even at the time – and made my patients with a steady accumulation of data that failed to find any relationship between MMR and autism.
Then, a historical and final thing happened. Next month, the anniversary of 15 years coincides with what should have ended Wickfield’s wrong demand: in February 2010, Lancet His paper has officially retreated In the face of evidence that the data has been manipulated. Wickfield research was found to be fraudulent and I was conducted with money from lawyers who sued vaccine manufacturers; He was stripped of his medical license. I saw the effects of this news in my practice as well. Gradually, parents’ questions about MMR and autism became less and farther between. When asked, I was quick to cite the abundant studies that profitable the relationship between MMR and autism and remind families that Wickfield and his paper had been flammable and withdrawn.
Now, it seems as if we went back to where we started – as if this devastating legend has not been stripped of any legitimacy a decade and a half ago. With nomination Robert F. Kennedy Junior As President Trump chooses to the Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services (HHS), the legend of the vaccine that causes autism roams. This time, it seems that there is no consideration of the scientific truth; The legend is advanced at the highest levels of federal government and its amplification by the Echo Chamber of Social media.
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In his confirmation session on January 30, when he pressed it again and again by the Republican and Democratic Senate, Kennedy still will not admit that studies show that vaccines do not cause autism. The Wickfield study, which completely distorted her head again. “The magazine fell to the study,” said Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan. After that, Hassan’s Kennedy vaccine record summarized: “Repeating, reformulating and continuing doubts so that we cannot move forward.”
Kennedy made a profession to ignore this scientific evidence, which had already had severe consequences in the world. Kennedy’s visit to 2019 tightened to Samoa flames for the frequency of the vaccine It is said The tragic deaths of 83 people, most of them children, contributed to the outbreak of measles. The HHS Secretary, who gives priority to myths on science – and fear of the truth – will have severe consequences for the pollen program in the United States, as they are the things of the nightmares of pediatricians.
Somehow, I understand The attractiveness of searching for a scapegoat– Even one was examined and accurately refuted. Such myths continue because we want to understand the reason for things like autism, and not anywhere is the motivation to understand it more strongly than parents. What is the best car seat, or the right age to start solid foods, or the appropriate sleep schedule? Parents, who have recently entrusted to protect human life, will do anything to protect their children.
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However, at some point in the first year of a child’s life, every father (often in the middle of the night) must face a snare awareness that they cannot protect their child from everything. This is the basic insecurity of the paternity: you can do everything properly – read every book, cook all organic foods, choose all play materials – and you still have a child with illness or condition. It is completely terrifying.
The myth of vaccines and the unification of taps in this weak population of parents who struggle with the restrictions of love protection. By claiming to explain the origin of autism, it provides parents (false) hope that they can simply prevent autism by rejecting the vaccine. In the absence of the ability of medicine to define the causes of autism categorically, legendary certainty will tempt some people. Kennedy feeds and participates in this idea: Even the wrong interpretation is better than there is no explanation. Myths occupy the void created by the unknown.
But pediatricians, like parents, will do anything to protect children. Our most effective performance to prevent serious disease is a safe and effective vaccine program. Her vaccines Total small elimination. Diseases such as polio and screws, which were once caused to childhood death and injuries, have disappeared in the United States due to vaccines. In the past fifty years, the measles vaccine alone rescued more than 90 million people all over the world: the equivalent of 3 to 4 lives per minute.
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As parents often mention, there is nothing we can do as parents or pediatricians who provide the same concrete feature as vaccination. How many times as a parent, is you given the opportunity to protect your child from a fatal disease? No diet, school, timetable, or enriching the strength or size of the benefits of vaccines. The greatest gift I can give to patients – and one of the greatest gifts that their parents can offer – is a full set of childhood vaccinations.
This does not mean that parents, pediatricians and scholars should not ask questions about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines. We must: interrogate and search for evidence is the basis of the scientific method. But after we ask questions, we must listen to the answers provided by evidence.
We do not fully understand the origin of autism. we He can Say, with certainty, the mmr vaccine is not the reason. But we were able to say this for decades. The attention of this recent legend should not be distorted from the scientific evidence that has been strengthened in the past 25 years.
The influential people again wrap the truth about the vaccines to achieve their own gains – and everyone’s loss. Pediatricians should continue to face this myth with science, evidence and facts.
