Andrew Wakefield, Scientific Censorship, and Fourteen Monkeys

[Sheri Nakken]

I was trying to put something together for all of you to succinctly
update you on this farce of a trial before the General Medical
Council in the UK, but this came out today which is a good
summary. I will share more soon.

more info from links on the main Age of Autism webpage
http://www.ageofautism.com

Please know that he is innocent and only guilty of wanting to help
children and families.

Any questions, let me know...............

share this far and wide
please read carefully

Sheri

http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/02/a-st ... monke.html

Andrew Wakefield, Scientific Censorship, and Fourteen Monkeys
A statement from Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey

Los Angeles, February 5, 2010

Dr. Andrew Wakefield is being discredited to prevent an historic
study from being published that for the first time looks at
vaccinated versus unvaccinated primates and compares health outcomes,
with potentially devastating consequences for vaccine makers and
public health officials.

It is our most sincere belief that Dr. Wakefield and parents of
children with autism around the world are being subjected to a
remarkable media campaign engineered by vaccine manufacturers
reporting on the retraction of a paper published in The Lancet in
1998 by Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues.

The retraction from The Lancet was a response to a ruling from
England's General Medical Council, a kangaroo court where public
health officials in the pocket of vaccine makers served as judge and
jury. Dr. Wakefield strenuously denies all the findings of the GMC
and plans a vigorous appeal.

Despite rampant misreporting, Dr. Wakefield's original paper
regarding 12 children with severe bowel disease and autism never
rendered any judgment whatsoever on whether or not vaccines cause
autism, and The Lancet's retraction gets us no closer to
understanding this complex issue.

Dr. Wakefield is one of the world's most respected and well-published
gastroenterologists. He has published dozens of papers since 1998 in
well-regarded peer-reviewed journals all over the world. His work
documenting the bowel disease of children with autism and his
exploration of novel ways to treat bowel disease has helped relieve
the pain and suffering of thousands of children with autism.

For the past decade, parents in our community have been clamoring for
a relatively simple scientific study that could settle the debate
over the possible role of vaccines in the autism epidemic once and
for all: compare children who have been vaccinated with children who
have never received any vaccines and see if the rate of autism is
different or the same.

Few people are aware that this extremely important work has not only
begun, but that a study using an animal model has already been
completed exploring this topic in great detail.

Dr. Wakefield is the co-author, along with eight other distinguished
scientists from institutions like the University of Pittsburgh, the
University of Kentucky, and the University of Washington, of a set of
studies that explore the topic of vaccinated versus unvaccinated
neurological outcomes using monkeys.

The first phase of this monkey study was published three months ago
in the prestigious medical journal Neurotoxicology, and focused on
the first two weeks of life when the vaccinated monkeys received a
single vaccine for Hepatitis B, mimicking the U.S. vaccine schedule.
The results, which you can read for yourself HERE, were disturbing.
Vaccinated monkeys, unlike their unvaccinated peers, suffered the
loss of many reflexes that are critical for survival.

Dr. Wakefield and his scientific colleagues are on the brink of
publishing their entire study, which followed the monkeys through the
U.S. childhood vaccine schedule over a multi-year period. It is our
understanding that the difference in outcome for the vaccinated
monkeys versus the unvaccinated controls is both stark and devastating.

There is no question that the publication of the monkey study will
lend substantial credibility to the theory that over-vaccination of
young children is leading to neurological damage, including autism.
The fallout from the study for vaccine makers and public health
officials could be severe. Having denied the possibility of the
vaccine-autism connection for so long while profiting immensely from
a recent boom in vaccine sales around the world, it's no surprise
that they would seek to repress this important work.

Behind the scenes, the pressure to keep the work of Dr. Wakefield and
his colleagues from being published is immense, and growing every
day. Medical journals take extreme risk of backlash in publishing any
studies that question the safety of the vaccination program, no
matter how well-designed and thorough the research might be.
Neurotoxicology, a highly-respected medical journal, deserves great
credit for courageously publishing the first phase of this vaccinated
monkey study.

The press has been deeply misled in the way The Lancet retraction,
and Dr. Wakefield's mock trial, have been characterized. Led by the
pharmaceutical companies and their well-compensated spokespeople, Dr.
Wakefield is being vilified through a well-orchestrated smear
campaign designed to prevent this important new work from seeing the
light of day.

What medical journal would want to step in front of this freight
train? Moreover, why now, after 12 years of inaction, did The Lancet
and GMC suddenly act? Is it coincidence that the monkey study is
currently being submitted to medical journals for review and publication?

We urge the media to take a close look at the first phase of the
monkey study discussed above and to start asking a very simple
question: What was the final outcome of the 14 primates that were
vaccinated using the U.S. vaccine schedule and how did that compare
to the unvaccinated controls?

The U.S. vaccine schedule has grown from 10 vaccines given to our
children in the 1980s to 36 today, perfectly matching the dramatic
rise in autism. The work of Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues deserves
to be shared with the world to further, rather than censor,
scientific progress.
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA
Vaccines - http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/
Vaccine Dangers, Childhood Disease Classes & Homeopathy Online/email
courses - next classes start February 24 & 25
http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccineclass.htm or
http://www.wellwithin1.com/homeo.htm