*For most of the Wakefield "conflict of interest" articles posted on the site, click here (check periodically for updates)

►February 29, 2004 - Twisted conflicts - (letters) The Observer via The Guardian, UK - "It seems a scientist, such as Dr Andrew Wakefield (News and Leader, last week), who uncovers genuine concerns about the safety of a vaccine has to be 'squeaky clean'...In contrast, scientists who are vocal in support of the vaccine, and are responsible for checking its safety, are allowed to receive research funding from the company that produces it and to hold shares in the company, or act as consultants." (sent by Dr Milton Wainwright, Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield)

►February 29, 2004 - Doctor demands apology for MMR claims in Lancet - Telegraph, UK - "Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who first raised fears of a link between autism and the MMR vaccine, has hired a libel lawyer to demand an apology from The Lancet after claiming that the medical journal has cast doubt on his honesty...Dr Wakefield's decision to enlist the support of Carter-Ruck, the London law firm that specialises in defamation suits, follows the denunciation of his work last week by The Lancet."

►February 29, 2004 - Dirty tricks drug firms use to get publicity - The Scotsman - "SHOCKING tactics including bribery, fabrication and plagiarism are being used by unscrupulous drug companies to get their research published in influential medical journals, according to a damning new report...Only a week after controversial research on the MMR vaccine was discredited by the journal which published it following a 'fatal conflict of interest', an influential committee has revealed the widespread use of underhand tactics by researchers."

►March 8, 2002 - Serial letter writer, Dr. Elphinstone exposed - Private Eye via www.whale.to

*For most of the Wakefield "conflict of interest" articles posted on the site, click here (check periodically for updates)

►January 19, 2004 - Methylmercury Toxicology Probed - Seafood contaminant moves through the body, often posturing as benign molecule - Chemical and Engineering News via National Institute of Environmental Health Science

►February 22, 2004 - Research is needed, not propaganda. - letter- journal article (BMJ)

►February 29, 2004 - The Mercury Threat: Too Dangerous to Wait (requires registration or subscription) - letter - The New York Times - "Mercury's harm to fetal and child development is well documented."

Comment:  Indeed.

►February 28, 2004 - Wakefield investigations on MMR children "were not approved" by ethics committee - www.briandeer.com

►February 28, 2004 - Editor in the eye of a storm - journal article (BMJ) - "Instead of Andrew Wakefield himself in the media firing line, it is the Lancet that has found itself under scrutiny. Perhaps it was in a bid to forestall this that the Lancet went public over the whole affair last week in advance of the Sunday Times story, thus angering Brian Deer. ^"

►February 23, 2004 - MMR: Investigating the interests - Dr Andrew Wakefield is not the only person with questions to answer following The Sunday Times' revelations that he failed to disclose a conflict of interest in his February 1998 Lancet paper that launched the MMR-autism scare. - www.spiked-online.com - "Though I have been critical of Dr Wakefield's Lancet paper and of his campaign against MMR, I would rather that it was rejected for its scientific deficiencies rather than through the author being personally discredited. (Long before these revelations, I argued that this paper should not have been published because of its highly speculative and methodologically flawed character.) Yet Dr Wakefield and his supporters have been very quick to allege conflicts of interest (or worse) in response to anybody who criticises their position. Now they seem fated to become victims of the climate of acrimony around MMR that their activities have done much to foster."

►March 14, 2003 - MMR: the truth? - In a three-part series of articles published in the UK Daily Mail this week, Melanie Phillips provides a comprehensive endorsement of the campaign against the MMR vaccine that has been sponsored by the former Royal Free hospital gastroenterologist, Dr Andrew Wakefield. - www.spiked-online.com - "Phillips' encouragement for the increasingly irrational and irresponsible anti-MMR campaign is likely to compound the unwarranted anxieties of parents whose infants are due to be immunised and result in a further decline in vaccine uptake. It will also intensify the distress of parents of autistic children, whose burden is now increased by feelings of guilt for having them immunised."

►November 5, 2003 - Comments on Verstraeten et al, Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines from Nov 5, 2003 Pediatrics - Post-publication Peer Review - journal article (Pediatrics) 

►February 16, 2004 - Scientists theorize a new form of autism may be emerging - Scripps Howard News Service via Courierpress.com 

►February 11, 2004 - Researchers Closer To Answers About Vaccines And Autism - www.kirotv.com 

►February 16, 2004 - Tuna and autism for unborn child - link? - Medical News Today 

►February 27, 2004 - Commission urged to take aim at mercury - www.edie.net

►February 26, 2004 - Bill banning mercury dental fillings fails - Executive director of the Alabama Dental Association calls legislation 'inappropriate' (requires registration) - Mobile Register via www.al.com

►February 27, 2004 - The mercury in your mouth - Amalgam fillings may be making you sick, but many dentists don't care. And once you're sick, it's hard to find a doctor to make you better - www.portlandphoenix.com

►February 27, 2004 - Parents refused aid to fight MMR - Parents who claim their children were damaged by the MMR jab have lost their latest bid for legal aid to sue the manufacturers of the vaccine. - BBC - "Officials said that since there was no scientific proof that the children had been damaged by the vaccine, there was little chance it would succeed...The children involved in this case have a range of disabilities, including autism, bowel problems, epilepsy and other learning difficulties...Some parents are now considering taking their legal campaign to the Court of Appeal."

►February 27, 2004 - Funding Blow for MMR Battle Parents - PA News via The Scotsman

►February 28, 2004 - Vaccine parents vow to fight on - The Scotsman

►February 27, 2004 - MMR Campaigners Vow to Continue Compensation Fight - PA News via The Scotsman - "'Since this litigation will no longer be funded, and there is no sign that the Government or pharmaceutical companies are taking up the very serious questions that research in the litigation has posed, we as a law firm representing many grievously injured children will now have to consider whether we press the Government to properly investigate matters the drug companies have attempted to sweep under the carpet.'”

►February 28, 2004 - Fiona Phillips: Why Jabs Are Needling Me - www.mirror.co.uk - "MUM used to regale me with tales of how I nearly died when I was five. I had measles very badly and it damaged my eyesight...When I had mumps I screamed the house down because my throat hurt so much. Back then, in the 60s, having both illnesses was almost considered a rite of passage. My immune system did its best with both of them and consequently I have lifelong immunity to both diseases...I passed that resistance on to my children in the first and most vulnerable year of their lives. If I had been vaccinated against measles, sure my eyesight would be a lot better, but I believe my children might not have inherited a natural resistance and could have died before the age of one."

Comment:  Excellent opinion piece.  For more on the problem of immunity re: vaccines compared to measles, go to Scandals: What Is Wrong With This Picture?, Scandals: When is an oops not really an oops?  When you get to solve the problems you cause, and make money doing both!, Scandals: Playing With Fire - It's Not EASY To Fool Mother Nature, and Scandals: Don't Worry, Be Happy.

►February 26, 2004 - EPA rules on mercury responsible - guest column - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

►February 26, 2004 - Anti-MMR parents threatened with being branded child abusers - Medical News Today - "The Daily Mail (UK newspaper) says that parents who blame the MMR vaccine on their children’s autism are being accused of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy. This means they are deliberately harming their children to bring attention to themselves."

►February 26, 2004 - Bush Plan to Cut Mercury Emissions 'Dangerously Inadequate,' Environmental Activists say - Voice of America

►February 26, 2004 - Bush plan for mercury lambasted - Critics say the proposal would actually weaken control over industry (requires registration) - Charlotte Observer

►February 23, 2004 - Is it safe? - Clarksburg Exponent Telegram - "The state Department of Health and Human Resources distributed 68,000 flu vaccine doses this flu season, with 63,000 of them containing a chemical the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has suggested be removed from childhood vaccines..Joe Thornton, state Health and Human Resources spokesman, said 5,000 were pediatric doses that did not contain thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury."

►February 27, 2004 - Vaccination: Mother's anger at withdrawal of MMR jab legal aid - The mother of an autistic child today hit out at a decision to cut legal aid for families who are attempting to prove the MMR jab ruined their children's lives - The Peterborough Today, UK - "'To pull funding at a time when the evidence is quite clearly becoming extremely strong is absolutely outrageous...'It's the ultimate insult to deny that these children are ill and have got a problem and to deny them their day in court.'"

►February 26, 2004 - MMR and autism - A dose of dissent - The Economist - "A FEW years ago Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford University, came up with the idea of the “meme”. He was trying to make the slippery problem of the evolution of human culture as tractable as that of biological evolution, and he thought that if cultural information could somehow be divided into separately transmissible elements, in the way that biologically heritable information is divided into genes, the rest might follow. A successful meme, he speculated, might pass from person to person like a virus...Few recent memes have been more successful than the one which causes many people, particularly in Britain, to believe that the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine can cause autism in children. That meme has been responsible for a fall in vaccination rates in Britain from more than 90% to less than 80% over the past six years (see chart)."

Comment:  Perhaps the "meme" is that the MMR vaccine does NOT cause autism.  Given that there is a growing body of evidence that it is involved, the self-satisfied criticizers of those thought to be swept up in an allegedly incorrect idea, might better redirect their gaze to themselves. 

►March 1, 2004 - A comparative evaluation of the effects of MMR immunization and mercury doses from thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines on the population prevalence of autism - journal article (Medical Science Monitor) (abstract)

►February 27, 2004 - MP gathers support for vaccine - The Islander via www.kangarooisland.yourguide.com.au

►February 26, 2004 - Most parents will allow MMR jab - icSouthLondon - "Eight out of 10 British parents now think the triple measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination is safe and almost nine in 10 would give it to their child, according to a new poll ...Two years ago the number who thought it was safe was seven in ten."

Comment:  If I understand this poll correctly, it shows that around 1 in 10 parents thinks the MMR is not safe but would still give it to their child.  Can that be? 

►February 26, 2004 - Was the original MMR study unethical? - The Guardian, UK - "Not entirely. What has got lost in the outcry over the undisclosed conflict of interest of Andrew Wakefield, the lead researcher, is that the Lancet, which published his study in February 1998, does not regret publishing the core findings. Only one aspect of it (albeit the most contentious) - the linking of the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccination (MMR) to bowel disease and autism - does editor Richard Horton consider 'entirely flawed'...Dr Horton still considers the paper important because it identified a new syndrome suffered by children who had symptoms both of chronic bowel disease and autism. 'I do not regret for one second publishing details of this new syndrome,' he said...'"I'm disappointed that Liam Donaldson [chief medical officer] has stated this was poor science. By stating that he dismisses a very important novel observation.'"

►February 26, 2004 - Give us the choice of vaccines - Letters to the Editor - The Telegraph, UK - "Have you any idea how frustrating it is to read or listen to the reams of opinion on the MMR debate and to feel that last on the list of importance are the very children damaged, as their parents believe, by the vaccine?...But deep down there is utter desolation that something that is of paramount importance in our lives is like a toy being batted back and forth. Who was to know what a hot political potato this would turn out to be?" 

►February 27, 2004 - MMR scientist did not hide link with legal case, letter reveals - by Jeremy Laurence, Health Editor, The Independent, UK - "Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who sparked the MMR scare with a paper in The Lancet six years ago, did not cover up his links with the Legal Aid Board, it emerged yesterday...Dr Wakefield was accused at the weekend of failing to disclose the conflict of interest over his research at the Royal Free Hospital in London, suggesting a possible link between the MMR vaccination and bowel disease and autism, which has led tens of thousands of parents to boycott the triple vaccination...But he did reveal his links with the Legal Aid Board in a letter published in The Lancet on 2 May 1998, less than three months after his original research paper."

Comment:  "RFD Comment:  'The plot thickens...'" To read the rest of this comment and get the kind of insight into health issues only Nicholas Regush can provide, go to www.redflagsdaily.com (Much of the website now requires a subscription.)

►February 27, 2004 - Journalist takes MMR battle away from high court - MediaGuardian, UK - "A freelance journalist is hoping to use his upcoming legal action against medical journal the Lancet to move the debate about the controversial MMR jab from the high court to a county court in south London.,,Brian Deer said he was taking his claim for damages relating to a breach of confidentiality over his exclusive story on the man behind the claims that MMR may be linked to autism to Lambeth county court on Monday.

►February 26, 2004 - MMR and autism - A dose of dissent - Doubt has been cast on the paper that started the MMR-and-autism scare - The Economist

►February 2004 - Possible link to autism and childhood vaccines - Torrington Telegram

►February 25, 2004 - Bill killed to stop use of mercury-based fillings in children's teeth - AP via www.tuscaloosanews.com

►February 25, 2004 - EPA hears complaints about mercury emissions proposal - AP via Newsday

►February 26, 2004 - A Statement by the Editors of The Lancet (pdf) - includes statements by Murch, Walker-Smith and Wakefield, as well as Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet

Comment: " BL Fisher (of NVIC) Note: The extent to which the forced vaccination proponents have gone to smear Andrew Wakefield and the meticulous biological mechanism research he has conducted into MMR-vaccine associated autism is in direct proportion to the fear they have that his hypothesis is correct: MMR vaccine can cause a persistent vaccine strain measles virus infection in genetically vulnerable children that leads to chronic inflammatory bowel disease and autistic behaviors. It is unfortunate they are so frightened of the scientific truth Dr. Wakefield is pursuing that they find it necessary to behave like a band of thugs out to score a hit...For the past 22 years, NVIC co-founder Kathi Williams and I have watched babies die and be horribly crippled by vaccine reactions while officials in industry, public health agencies and medical organizations have refused to support the kind of biological mechanism research that Dr. Wakefield is doing so that parents and doctors can have more information about children at high risk for suffering vaccine reactions and find ways to spare their lives. Parents around the world are not fooled by the ignorant, inhumane behavior of forced vaccinaton proponents, whose zealous defense of one-size-fits-all vaccine policies injure and kill innocent children...The truth will shine bright and clear in the end."

►February 26, 2004 - Dr Wakefield is just the man to research MMR safety - opinion - The Herald, UK - "There is something just a little too neat about the officially-sanctioned vilification of Dr Andrew Wakefield...Now the Lancet, the medical journal which published Wakefield's original, peer-reviewed, research back in 1998, says he was compromised by a conflict of interest because he was receiving legal aid money at the time, for another study of children whose parents wanted to take court action against the manufacturers of the vaccine. No sooner had the Lancet editor voiced his concerns, but Blair, his health secretary, John Reid, and their chief medical officer, Dr Liam Donaldson, lined up to urge all parents to have their children protected, claiming the Wakefield study was "poor science" and even suggesting he be investigated by the General Medical Council. If the GMC applied the same rules to all academics, it could be very busy. The Lancet has printed a great many articles which are potentially compromised. It was one of 13 leading medical journals which, in 2001, accused the pharmaceutical corporations of distorting the results of published research."

►February 26, 2004 - Social workers 'right to question parents' - This is London - "The row over the MMR "witch-hunt" deepened today as social workers defended their right to interview the mothers of autistic children...They insisted some parents could be harming their children to draw attention to themselves, and admitted subjecting one mother to an eight-week investigation before accepting she had done nothing wrong...It came after the Evening Standard revealed up to 20 parents of autistic children faced accusations that they were suffering from Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy."

Comment:  It's hard to believe this could be happening given that Roy Meadows, who has now been discredited, was the champion of this apparently ill-conceived theory.  How much tragedy and suffering must the parents of autistic children endure?  (And any old excuse in an attempt to detract from the real issue, i.e., does MMR contribute to autism?)

►February 24, 2004 - Alice in Mercury-Land - commentary (requires registration) - The Orlando Sentinel

►February 24, 2004 - Mercury is toxin du jour, but don't bet on it staying that way - opinion - The News Journal via www.delawareonline.com

►February 23, 2004 - Controversy over accusation of research bias on MMR (requires subscription) - Times Online, UK

►February 23, 2004 - Fund-raisers hope to help Whitman girl - The Enterprise via www.southofboston.com - "Andie suffers from a severe seizure disorder that her doctors attribute to a reaction to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine she received when she was a year old. Despite years of treatment at Boston hospitals, doctors have been unable to control the seizures...A severe seizure in the spring left Andie with autism-like problems. She has since lost the ability to speak and now has other developmental delays."

►February 23, 2004 - Michigan targets mercury Initiative aims to cut exposure to neurotoxin (requires registration) - Bay City Times via www.mlive.com

►February 25, 2004 - CDC Vaccine Data Leads Scientists to Shocking Discovery - Yahoo! News via www.mercola.com - "The panel used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Vaccine Datalink, which concluded that children who are given three thimerosal-containing vaccines are 27 times more likely to develop autism than children who receive thimerosol-free vaccines."

Comment:  The panel did not use data from the CDC.  The Geiers presented data from the CDC's Vaccine Datalink to the panel.

►February 24, 2004 - Letters: Controversy over accusation of research bias on MMR (free for first week) - www.timesonline.co.uk -  "Sir, The hysterical reaction to the disclosure that Dr Andrew Wakefield was funded by the legal aid authorities to undertake research in relation to litigation by parents at the same time that he submitted his seminal paper on MMR to The Lancet (report, February 23) reveals a remarkable divergence between current legal and medical views of what constitutes bias."

►February 25, 2004 - Government's double standards over MMR - The Daily Mail via www.femail.co.uk - "But health chiefs were immediately accused of hypocrisy by parents and campaigners - who pointed out that many of the Government's top scientific advisers have links with drug firms that make or supply the vaccine...At least 19 experts have interests in firms involved in the measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccine, campaigners said...They sit on two key committees which declared the vaccine safe: the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation."

Comment:  Excellent article.

►February 24, 2004 - Blair will be to blame if there's a measles epidemic - opinion - The Telegraph, UK - "The Government seems to believe that it has won the argument over the MMR jab. Andrew Wakefield, the scientist who first suggested a possible link between the triple vaccine and autism, has been villified by the scientific establishment. Parents stand accused of over-reacting and of selfishly putting the health of the nation at risk. Vaccination rates have dropped below 60 per cent in some areas...But the scare over the triple vaccine is not the fault of over-anxious parents, who cannot be blamed for wanting to protect their children. Nor can all the blame lie with Dr Wakefield and his research paper published six years ago in the Lancet. Dr Wakefield has been "discredited" because he was taking money from the Legal Aid Board at the time of his report...The board was paying him to discover, on behalf of parents hoping to sue for damages, whether the jab was harmful to their children. But this does not necessarily mean his research was biased. He should have disclosed his interest; but many scientists are paid for research by drugs companies."

►February 24, 2004 - The Sleaze Behind Our Science - The Conflicts of Interest Revealed by the MMR Story are Everywhere - www.dissidentvoice.org

►February 23, 2004 - Inside the world of medical journals - One of the world's most respected medical journals says it should never have published a controversial paper on MMR. - What steps do journals take to ensure studies are robust and trustworthy? - BBC - "The Lancet maintains it should have been told that Dr Wakefield was being paid to carry out another similar study...It says Dr Wakefield should have been aware of the potential conflict of interest after reading the journal's guidelines on the issue... In 1998, these stated: 'The conflict of interest test is a simple one. Is there anything...that would embarrass you if it were to emerge after publication that you had not declared it?'"

►February 24, 2004 - Mercury plan falls short, say activists - Coalition from Ohio, other states to tell EPA proposal may do harm - Akron Beacon Journal via www.ohio.com

►February 24, 2004 - Dr. Andrew Wakefield and the MMR Controversy - Second Opinion by Nicholas Regush - www.redflagsdaily.com - "It doesn’t look very good for Dr. Andrew Wakefield, an English physician and researcher who has championed the need to investigate the potential relationship between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism...Today, the scavengers of British journalism surfaced and attacked him and his work, and attempted to destroy whatever chance he may have to rescue his scientific reputation."

Comment:  Excellent overview.

►February 24, 2004 - The corporate stooges who nobble serious science - The MMR scandal shows a business riddled with conflicts of interest - "It looks like a conflict of interest and his failure to disclose it was wrong. But the crime for which he is being punished is everywhere. The scientific establishment is rotten from top to bottom, riddled with conflicts far graver than Dr Wakefield's....In other words, the great majority of the scientists with conflicts of interest are failing to disclose them...So, given that undisclosed conflicts of interest in science are everywhere, why is it only Dr Wakefield whose bloody remains are being dragged through the streets? The obvious answer is that his alleged cooption works against the interests of the drugs companies, while almost everyone else's works in their favour."

Comment:  Very interesting article.

►February 24, 2004 - Mountain Views: Precipitous Increase in Autism Cases May Be Tied To Childhood Vaccines - "There aren't enough special-ed teachers in any state to even begin to approach the problem.  It costs states about $2 million for each child with autism for the first 18 years of life.  The Department of Education disabilities data bank shows autism cases in school-age children rose from about 5,500 nationwide to an astonishing 79,000 during the 1990s...Despite drug company studies from 70 years ago that concluded mercury-containing serum was not fit for cattle or dogs, and with all the huge, expensive federal agencies to protect us from just such a mistake -- the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Medicine -- not one had taken the time to total up how much thimerosal and mercury had been added to the average child's intake with the new increased immunization schedule." 

Comment:  Excellent article.

►February 24, 2004 - Questions About a Market System for Mercury (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times