Live Coverage
CJF Forum: The Vaccine-Autism Link Controversy: Science Journalism Case Study
with Brian Deer, investigative journalist with The Sunday Times. Panel discussion moderated by Daily Planet host Jay Ingram, featuring Penny Park, executive director of Science Media Centre Canada; Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, UHN staff respirologist and a deputy editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal; and Dr. Miriam Shuchman, chair of the Research Ethics Board at Women's College Hospital
- Hey everyone, Dana here, live blogging the CJF Forum with host Brian Deer. chime in one twitter via #cjfforums
- Brian Deer is an investigative journalist for the UK's Sunday Times.
- Medical publication the Lancet published a story in 1998 linking childhood autism to vaccination, written by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, which Brian Deer discovered contained false information. But not before the story was spread wide.
- Yesterday Deer spoke in an online chat with Globe and Mail editorial writer Marina Jimenez (who has covered autism issues as a reporter).
www.theglobeandmail.com
The public was invited to comment. Here's a few excerpts:
Reader K asked: "Brian, what were you thinking the moment you found out the study was a scam?" Deer answers "I'm not sure I was thinking anything more than: "That figures."
Commenter Ampelos asked "Why were you 'asked to look into the MMR issue, in late 2003'? Who asked you and what were their motives?"
Deer replied: "It was just a routine assignment from an editor who had big pages to fill, and wanted something substantial. Originally, I thought I was going to write about a TV show on the subject."
And the $100 question from commenter GillianGillian:
"There still is the question of how it got published by the Lancet. Presumably they evaluate articles submitted. How did they miss the bad science? It doesn't reflect well on the publication. Have they missed other bad science?"
Deer replied "Gillian: the editor of the Lancet, in my opinion, wanted to have a bit of controversy in the journal. At the time, it's impact factor measurements were in decline. medical journals are just another kind of magazine." - Some background about the controversy: www.commondreams.org
- Deer shows slides of Dr. Wakefield with celebrities: "Here he is with a Dixie Chick. Or is that 'Chixie Dick?'"
- Today, Wakefield is a "wandering freelance charlatan", Deer says. Back then, he was a hired gun, to the tune of millions of dollars.
- British journalist Brian Deer built the case against disgraced autism researcher Andrew wakefield #cjfforumsby ShaunaRempel via twitter 2/15/2011 11:47:52 PM
Brian Deer
- Original study linking MMR vaccine to autism has never been replicated. #cjfforumsby BonDean via twitter 2/15/2011 11:49:26 PM
- Huge story in British media at time (early 2000s)-- Blair wouldn't say whether his child was vaccinated.
- Wakefield made the link at a press conference, NOT in the paper
- In the view of the lawyer, it was clear Wakefield made money from publishing the paper in the Lancet.
- Deer dismisses the comment that the link wasn't announced in the paper. It states it clearly in the paper, he says.
- #cjfforums How is it that the original flawed, questionable Wakefield study was published in the first place?by chrissasaki via twitter 2/15/2011 11:53:23 PM
- References to other studies REPLICATING Wakefields study www.bmj.com
- Wakefield's paper explicitly makes the link between the MMR vaccine and autism: the vaccine is the "apparent precipitating event."
- Deer: Some people dismiss that the study was too small (12 kids) to pay attention to, but reality is no number is too small: would parents ignore even one kid who developed autism after receiving a vaccination?
- Deer: "The first tip I got that this wasn't true was this 14 days business." 14 days proposed being a temporal link between the (UK DTP-vaccine) and autism.
- Brian Deer giving a talk on his debunking of the MMR-autism link, with amusing sarcasm. #cjfforumsby pheather via twitter 2/15/2011 11:56:16 PM
- Deer: For the first time a journalist was actually able to get around the back of annoynimized data in a medical journal. that's what I'm going to explain now.
- Faking a link 1: the kids are picked. No child from London, two from same doctor's office 280 miles away, two are brothers, two attend another hospital clinic, one from California.
- Wakefield hits phones to parents and GPs -- he's not a researcher, these calls were to individually target children.
- Deer: the children in question were individually targeted and recruited by anti-vaccine activists and by a lawyer -- the child from California was FLOWN in to participate in the study.
- Quiz: if recruited, why only 8 of 12? "You'd expect parents of all the children picked in the manner described would blame MMR"
- So, why didn't they all blame MMR? They DID. When they came to the hospital, 11 out of 12 said it was the vaccine. The one who didn't changed her mind 4 years later.
- Problems: dead give-away. Co-incidence likely. Association exposed. Some parents said symptoms occurred four months later -- not good for the case against Wakefield. Wakefield's solution? Only report 8 out of the 12 complaints. The time of first symptoms shrinks to 2 weeks.
- Deer discovered an earlier version of Wakefield's paper: the original figure was 9 out of 12. "In this version, the medium was 14 days, the range was between 1 and 56 days"
- A contrived association becomes frightening evidence. #cjfforumsby BonDean via twitter 2/16/2011 12:03:42 AM
- When Deer interviewed one of the study's children's dad, he said the paper's details about his son "was not true"
- Symptoms of children included "delirium, diarrhea, fever, cold, rash, viral chest infection." none of these are signs of autism
- None of those symptoms are associated with a developmental disorder, either.
- According to final published study, Half the kids appear to have a new sudden onset syndrome
- Content in lancet paper "sexed up" to find a link between colitis, autism and the MMR vaccine: Brian Deer #cjfforumsby ShaunaRempel via twitter 2/16/2011 12:10:39 AM
- Yet, based on the records Deer dug up, none of the kids had the syndromes the paper claimed they had
- The study includes children that weren't diagnosed with regressive autism before and after they left the hospital.
- Wakefield denies everything, Deer says. Denied conflict of interest, says he's the victim of dark forces, a great conspiracy out to destroy him...
- Deer says: Andrew' Wakefield's message is that there is a wicked conspiracy by doctors and health institutions, by journalists such as Deer, not only to deny that vaccines are causing injury to children, but to cover it up.
Yet no whistleblower or document or proof of these allegations have come up. - Wakefield thinks there's a 'wicked conspiracy' by journalists and health institutions to not only deny that the vaccine causes harm to children but to cover it up.
- Parents of autistic kids led to believe it's their own fault, for vaccinating their children against his advice. That leaves parents extremely vulnerable.
J-Source and ProjetJ are projects of The Canadian Journalism Foundation in collaboration with leading schools and organizations across Canada. Editor-in-chief, J-Source: | |||
Recent Posts
2012-05-16 12:30
2012-05-16 10:53
On Rob Ford, Daniel Dale and Fencegate: Journalists, stand together for access to information
Deux nouveaux médias québécois: Les News et Le République
Call for submissions for the 2012 Dave Greber Freelance Writers Awards