Thirty leading paediatricians have made a stand about MMR vaccine, warning that more children are likely to die from measles. They argue that parents have been “confused and dangerously misled†about the risk attached to MMR vaccine and its discredited link with autism. Their letter is targeted at the media, politicians and health professionals, and there are examples in all of those groups of ill-informed comment, ignorance, and sometimes profiteering, which endangers lives.
The Times points to the trigger for this letter.
The letter was prompted by recent reports of a conference presentation in which scientists in the US purported to have found measles virus in the guts of children with autism. Though the scientist behind the work explicitly said that this did not show the MMR vaccine had caused the condition, and the study had no control group, it was widely claimed to be fresh evidence of a link.
This conference presentation was reported on by The Sunday Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday, The Sunday Express, The Daily Mail and The Daily Express. One of the arguments about the media coverage of the MMR controversy has been that a desire to look for balance in the story, has led to extreme minority view of MMR’s safety being treated as just another viewpoint, in the same way as a political story might be reported. This is demonstrated by the BBC’s report of the letter, which differs from The Times’ piece by giving space to Jackie Fletcher from the anti-MMR, and generally vaccine skeptical, JABS group. The BBC also provide a link to JABS website. So, the story becomes another opportunity for JABS to spread their pernicious propaganda.
However, a misplaced sense of fairness does not appear to be what drives the Daily Express, Daily Mail, and Ian Hislop’s Private Eye (I wonder if being in such company he enjoys). Their coverage of the MMR vaccine is deliberately partisan in nature, Melanie Phillips’ emotive and anti-scientific diatribes in The Daily Mail being perfect examples for the general thrust of these papers over the past seven years.
The Times, and Ben Goldacre in more detail, have both pointed out some of the flaws in the unpublished study by Walker et al. that The Daily Mail and Daily Express chose to focus on. Goldacre points out that Afzal’s paper, which refuted the link between measles virus in the gut and autism (noted on this blog way back in March) did not get widespread media coverage.
However, there is a better example of the selectivity of the media. At the very same conference that Walker’s paper was presented at, another paper was published. It’s on page 101 of a 239 page abstract booklet [large PDF] from the International Meeting for Autism Research. Here is the abstract in full.
PS3.26
NO EVIDENCE OF PERSISTING MEASLES VIRUS IN PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS FROM CHILDREN WITH AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER
Yasmin L D’Souza, Eric Fombonne, Brian J Ward, Division of Infectious Diseases, McGill University Health Center (MUHC)BACKGROUND: Claims of an association between measles, mumps and rubella vaccination (MMR) and the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are based primarily on the identification of measles virus (MV) nucleic acids in tissues and body fluids by PCR.
These data come almost exclusively from a single group of investigators, Uhlmann and colleagues (Mol Pathol 2002; 55: 84-90).
OBJECTIVES: We sought to replicate the PCR assays used by Uhlmann et al. to determine whether or not MV nucleic acids persist in children with ASD compared with non-ASD children.
METHODS: We recruited 54 children with ASD and 34 developmentally normal controls referred to the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were isolated and up to three real-time reversetranscriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assays were performed.
These assays targeted the N, F and H genes of MV using the primer pairs published by Uhlmann et al., with detection by SYBR Green I. Amplicons from positive reactions were sequenced.
RESULTS: The Uhlmann primer-based assays gave rise to a large number of positive reactions in both groups. For example, a positive signal was observed in 93% of ASD samples and 100% of the control samples using the F gene assay. Almost all of the positive reactions in the assays were eliminated by melting curve analysis and amplicon band-size on agarose gels. The amplicons for the remaining positive reactions were cloned and sequenced. No sample from either ASD or control groups was found to contain nucleic acids from any MV gene.
CONCLUSION: There is no evidence of MV persistence in the PBMC of children with ASD.
Things to note about this study.
1. It has a control group, unlike the Walker study.
2. Measles virus was detected in both the Autism cases and the control cases, when using the tests used by other groups.
3. They then attempted to remove the cross-reactivity in the test, all cases came up negative.
4. The media did not report it.
One might wonder why a less robust study with no controls was picked up on by the media, while D’Souza’s research refuting the idea of a measles presistence in the gut was not. While it is clearly a marker of a free society to have a free press, there is also an onus on editors to take responsibility for their publications. For the past few years they have been playing with the lives of children by peddling this partisan representation of MMR vaccine, and it is time they stopped.
4 Comments
In order to (sort of) defend Private Eye, it should be said that their anti-MMR stance, and the separate publication that followed, was entirely promulgated by Paul Foot and his “In The Back” section. I can only ever remember one mention of the subject outside that part of the magazine or the letters page.
Saying all that, I remain convinced that welcoming back Paul Foot, fresh from emerging out of Maxwell’s arse with his tongue a deep brown colour, was a big mistake by the Eye and probably done by forces outside Hislop’s control. Since his death, the Eye has suffered a schism, noticeable in its regular articles, as the SWP/Respect faction slowly seeps out of Footie’s legacy.
As with the Lockerbie Bombers and Hanratty, although Foot and In The Back constantly ranted and generated additional material under the Eye name, neither those campaigns or the anti-MMR were considered the “line” that the Eye took.
Seeing as even the Libyans have admitted guilt over Lockerbie and DNA testing has proved Hanratty did it, but still In The Back refuses to budge, I don’t see them adopting a pro-MMR line any time soon.
“In order to (sort of) defend Private Eye, it should be said that their anti-MMR stance, and the separate publication that followed, was entirely promulgated by Paul Foot and his “In The Back†section.”
Interesting. The deputy editor of Private Eye is Francis Wheen, whose book “How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World†is a fine attack on all manner of pseudoscience and sloppy thinking – in fact, exactly the sort of nonsense exemplified by the MMR fiasco. So what has Wheen been doing all this time?
Shome mishtake surely?
Could someone please explain why a significant number of children with ASD test positive for myelin basic protein antibodies and have elevated measles antibody titers? I find this extremely disturbing.
Jill,
What is the evidence for your claim?
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[...] D’Souza et al have published the full paper on their attempts to find the mythical persistant measles virus: No Evidence of Persisting Measles Virus in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells From Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. The abstract was previously discussed on this blog – see that post for why this study undermines the claims for a link with autism. This work is yet another nail in the coffin for the claims Andrew Wakefield, and scientifically illiterate journalists like Melanie Phillips, have propagated to the detriment of childrens’ health. [...]