Friday 7 January 2011

John Stone admits Wakefield is a liar and a fraud


Anti-vaccine wingnut John Stone


John "Cock" Stone has tacitly agreed that Wakefield is a liar and a fraud.

If you're a reader of vaccine / anti-vaccine blogs, you'll no doubt be aware that the British Medical Journal has published an excellent piece by Brian Deer about how Andrew Wakefield faked his results, pre-decided his results, didn't declare massive financial conflicts of interests, etc etc. It's a long read, but you can read it here: http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5347.full, and it's well worth it.

It's a fascinating read, explaining how Wakefield endangered the health of the nation's (and the world's) children in pursuit of hard cash, from taxpayers (via the legal aid fund) and via private enterprise (through his applications for alternative patents on vaccines).

As you might expect, the anti-vax loons have been all over this, screaming that all Wakefield (or to give him his full medical title, "Wakefield") did was "care for the children"…

Infamous anti-vaxer and internationally regarded halfwit John "Cock" Stone, writing on the anti-vax blog "Age Of Autism" has dribbled a green ink screed, foaming at the mouth, and trying to dismiss Mr Deer's story. Except…

Stone's entire piece is based on his belief that Mr Deer shouldn't have the data, the information about the children involved in the study that he has.

OK, I don't pretend to know how Brian Deer got the information on all the children involved in Wakefield's fraud, and whether it's all entirely legit - although he's spoken to the parents,and I don't see them making complaints about his access - but isn't this a little strange? Let's have a little think…

Stone has written a great long piece rubbishing Brian Deer's article (which demonstrates, with references, the evil that Wakefield did), and - and this is the important bit - doesn't try and refute a single point of fact that Mr Deer made in his article.

John Stone is trying to smear Brian Deer - which we expect, he's tried the same tactic many times over. However, he no longer tries to argue that anything Mr Deer writes is inaccurate.

Conclusion?

John Stone is tacitly agreeing that Wakefield is a liar and a fraud. That's the headline.



Edit: Fixed the link to Age of Stupidity Autism. Thanks to CVB for pointing that out!

14 comments:

sharon Morris said...

Just found your site today while crusing sites re. this Wakefield debarcle. I love it. It's like finding my people. Brilliant! And very funny.

Becky said...

Many thanks Sharon - please stick around. :-)

Kind regards,

Becky

Anonymous said...

John Stone never deals with evidence and always resorts to a)a consipracy laden rant or b)a long adhominem
or c)both

The guy is in so deep he could never admit he's wrong; every extra bit of wrongdoing about wakefield results in even more eccentric denialist behaviour from JS...with hillarious consequences!

Anonymous said...

Certainly will Becky, you are on my blogroll.

Unknown said...

Your tiny url leads to this http://www.mahalo.com/where-the-wild-things-are-movie?noprivs

Am I missing something?

Anonymous said...

http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.full/reply

Latest Rabid Response seems to indicate that J'C'S didn't bother to read the article?

David N. Andrews M. Ed., C. P. S. E. said...

Just to say that I
Only want to make it clear that
He is
Not the

Sharpest
Tool in the box and,
Of course, he'd say that I was
Not right; but I don't care... he's just
Egregiously stupid.

I can't imagine what he
Sees in Andy Wakefield's work...

Aaaaaaanyway....

To hell with him
Out of the house with him
Totally unable to read anything properly
And absolutely useless as an editor; and
Lazy, to boot...

Tell me, man
What
Art
Thou?

Becky said...

Bravo!

Amanti Howard said...

brackiAnd what do you make of the evidence that shows Brian Deer was lying, and that the BMJ never even bothered to look into his facts?

Julia Ahier, one of the parents of one of the children in the Lancet report:

"I am absolutely convinced that the MMR triggered my Son's condition, as the first problems with pain occurred on the first evening after the vaccination and the loss of skills happened after also he had been gaining weight at a good rate and after the MMR he only gained 1lb 7ozs in 9 months.

I think that Dr Wakefield has only tried to help these children he has not done anything which we as parents did not want him to do. The allegations were unjust because they did not arise from anyone who had medical investigations carried out on them or their parents.

Doctor Wakefield did not recruit anyone into the study group. In our case our Son was given the original referral to Professor Walker-Smith by another hospital and I sought a referral with Dr Wakefield our local paediatrician requested the referral.

Dr Wakefield was the kindest most compassionate doctor who had ever taken an interest in our child's case. He did not perform any procedures on our child, these were done with our consent and agreement by other doctors. None of the tests which were performed on our child were against our wishes. There was no display of callous behaviour.

I have never had any communication with Brian Deer nor do I ever intend to."

STATEMENT FROM DR. ANDREW WAKEFIELD
I am accused of altering the clinical histories and test results in autistic children in order to manufacture a disease – a disease described in The Lancet in 1998 that Brian Deer says does not exist.
I have documents that confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that I did not falsify the data, that the findings are real, and that these findings were accurately reported in the Lancet.

NEW DOCUMENTS REVEALED
New documents have come to light confirming our report of intestinal disease and autistic regression following MMR vaccine published in the medical journal THE LANCET in 1998, The documents prove that there was no fraud. They describe 7 of The Lancet children, and were written by Professor John Walker-Smith in December 1996, 14 months before our team’s paper was published.
Professor John Walker-Smith prepared the documents as a report for a scientific meeting based upon his own assessment of the children’s disorder, supported by the study’s senior pathologist Dr. Dhillon. I was not involved in these assessments (see Level 4, Walker-Smith’s sworn testimony). I am accused of altering the findings to report disease where none existed and deceiving my colleagues in the process.
It has also been revealed that Dr. Godlee, the responsible editor at the British Medical Journal that published the allegations, did not adequately check these facts – facts that were referred to in both my book, Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines – The Truth Behind a Tragedy, published by Skyhorse Publishing in May 2010, and my complaint about Brian Deer to the UK’s Press Complaints Commission.

Amanti Howard said...

THE PROOF
I present evidence that completely negates the allegations that I committed scientific fraud. Brian Deer and Dr. Godlee of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) knew or should have known about the facts set out below before publishing their false allegations1.
On December 20th 1996 a meeting was held at the Wellcome Trust in London. This meeting was an annual gathering of doctors and scientists either collaborating with or guests of my group, The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, based at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School. For the purpose of this meeting Professor Walker-Smith prepared a presentation on our initial experience of children with developmental disorder and gastrointestinal symptoms – children who were to become part of THE LANCET 1998 paper. Professor Walker-Smith did so on the basis of his own detailed review of the endoscopic and microscopic findings2 in the intestinal biopsies. The title of his presentation was: Entero-colitis and Disintegrative Disorder Following MMR A Review of the First Seven Cases
His notes of the presentation3 continued:
“I wish today, to present some preliminary details concerning seven children, all boys, who appear to have entero-colitis and disintegrative disorder, probably autism, following MMR. I shall now briefly present their case history [sic].”
Professor Walker-Smith then set out, for each child, the details from the clinical history obtained by him and his medical team (of which I was not part) and the results of his own review of the tissue findings supplemented by those of Dr. Amar Dhillon, the senior pathologist involved in the investigation of this syndrome. The relevant behavioral and intestinal pathology findings were documented by him and match exactly what was reported in the Lancet report 14 months later.

TO BECKY:
So, Becky, please before launching a four-letter word diatribe that any 14 year old is capable of, read the evidence presented and respond in kind.

Afterwards perhaps you can address why you think 2-polyoxyethelene is a safe ingredient in vaccines, when it's main use is in insect repellant and car anti-freeze. After that please let me know of any study that shows formaldehyde to be non-carcinogenic in the doses used in vaccines. Vaccines are usually tested for around 21 days to keep track of immediate reactions, if there are none it's quickly approved by the FDA and thanks to Reagan's 1986 Vaccine Act no manufacturer can be held responsible in court, nor tha administering doctor, for ANY adverse reactions.

Becky said...

Hey, Bill Laswell's commenting on my blog! Bill - what was your experience of working with Lemmy on the Orgasmatron album? Or are you another made-up-name anti-vax troll?

Whatever.

Wakefield's new "evidence" was presented to the GMC, and didn't save him then.

And have you never heard of "The dose makes the poison"?

No? Cretin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison

Amanti Howard said...

A quick check of Facebook lists at least 9 Bill Laswell's and you automatically assume I'm the producer? Misdirection and deflection appear to be your strong suits.

The GMC hearings had nothing to do with falsifying evidence, but rather that there was som misappropriation of funds for non-personal gain and that some of the children who underwent programmes of investigations (re: Lancet report) for research purposes had not received Ethics Committee
approval.

I'm sure you knew that before you posted it without extrapolation as it would show the very obvious misdirection tactics in use.

From the GMC's own report:

"The Panel wish to make it clear that this case is not concerned with whether there is
or might be any link between the MMR vaccination and autism."

You're yet to address the questions directed to you - can you can address why you think 2-polyoxyethelene is a safe ingredient in vaccines, when it's main use is in insect repellant and car anti-freeze. After that please let me know of any study that shows formaldehyde to be non-carcinogenic in the doses used in vaccines. Vaccines are usually tested for around 21 days to keep track of immediate reactions, if there are none it's quickly approved by the FDA and thanks to Reagan's 1986 Vaccine Act no manufacturer can be held responsible in court, nor tha administering doctor, for ANY adverse reactions.

Aren't these questions you'd like to know the answers to before you get your child vaccinated?

I'm not anti-vax, but I do want answers and have opted out of several vaccinations that I deem totally unnecessary. For example, the seasonal flu vaccine. Even all the articles on PubMed show that seasonal vaccine is an utterly useless vaccine for adults, infants and seniors yet we waste a billion dollars a year in North America on it.

Explain that to me. Is there really nothing better you think we could be spending a BILLION a year on, like education, better roads, etc?

Anonymous said...

Bill Laswell, If you believe that vaccines should have no toxic ingredients, then really the only vaccines avaliable is the live virus. The purpose of these ingredients is obviously to kill

You are so pro-Wakefield you haven't critically analysed the toxins used in the single vaccines!

If you're not antivaccine, then name the non-toxic vaccines you claim to support!

Letmeguess, the vaccines that you can use on your foreign holidays that contain such toxins like
Chloroquine?

Didn't give you autism either?

Amanti Howard said...

Kevin

"You are so pro-Wakefield you haven't critically analysed the toxins used in the single vaccines!
"

Um, those ingredients ARE the ones used in the single dose vaccines! Clearly one of us has analyzed them, and it doesn't appear to be you. Feel free to check any of the monographs on the manufacturer's websites and find one mandatory vaccine or seasonal flu vaccine without those ingredients in them.

"If you're not antivaccine, then name the non-toxic vaccines you claim to support!"

Where did I claim to support non-toxic vaccines? When there are such things, I will support them. As it stands despite living in a cold climate in Canada I haven't had the flu since 2004 and haven't had so much as a cold since 2006 when I started taking Vitamin D3 4,000IU/day.