That smarmy, rubber faced goon Andrew Wakefield is at it again, moving goalposts quickly enough to stop a Christiano Ronaldo freekick from going in. This time he's released a YouTube video (because, as we all know, heavily rehearsed and edited videos are the way scientific debate is conducted - and in this example, Wakefield still comes across as less sincere than a Tory politician apologising for being caught shagging his secretary) banging on about the dangers of anaphylaxis from measles containing vaccines.
Hold on - I thought Wakefield's schtick (since shown to be utter rubbish, and much of it simply made up for money) was that vaccine strain measles virus found in the gut somehow magically caused autism. I don't remember him publishing anything on anaphylaxis in the Lancet...
Yes, Wakefield's just showing his true colours - that of anti-vaccine wingnut (remember, whatever the problem, it's the vaccines, it's always the vaccines) - in order to leech a few tears (and hopefully dollars) from his credulous flunkies.
Still, let's run with it in order to show what a twat he is.
Wakefield cites a single 1992 study of (I think, without watching his shiny faced lying again) 15,000 vaccinations showing a possible anaphylaxis rate of 1 in 500. A quick search has failed to find this study, but it did turn up this:
"Risk of anaphylaxis after vaccination of children and adolescents"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14523172
This study appears to be somewhat larger; in fact they state:
"We identified 5 cases of potentially vaccine-associated anaphylaxis after administration of 7 644 049 vaccine doses, for a risk of 0.65 cases/million doses (95% confidence interval: 0.21-1.53). None of the episodes resulted in death."
So, a larger study found an anaphylaxis rate of 1 in approx 1.3 million. Hmm…
Anyway, let's carry on…
Wakefield claims his favoured study found a rate of 1 in 500 of specifically measles containing vaccines. He doesn't say MMR.
He than goes on to discuss a mass revaccination initiative in 1994, instigated by Professor David Salisbury (Director of Immunisation at the Department of Health) of 8 million children in the UK. The initial programme was carried out in schools, which Wakefield claims is inherently unsafe, as, using his seemingly rectally sourced figure of 1 in 500 for anaphylaxis it would put around 15,000 children at risk of death (to avoid a predicted 50 deaths should a major measles epidemic strike the UK).
Now, given that Wakefield doesn't produce a figure for actual anaphylaxis events during this program (so I'm guessing there weren't any), schools are pretty well geared up for awareness and treatment of anaphylaxis, and that vaccines administered at school aren't given by the cleaner or the dinner lady, they're given by a medical professional - usually a nurse, Wakefield's challenge to Prof. Salisbury (why were the "risks" of anaphylaxis not taken into account, why was no provision made for anaphylaxis?) looks somewhat hollow. (Wakefield even has the gall to refer to their "forthcoming debate" - as if Professor David Salisbury is in the business of debating struck-off doctors, liars and fraudsters. Fuck off, Fraudytrousers.)
Anyway, this all comes to Wakefield's final point, where he refers to the measles outbreak in Wales (which, let's not forget, is all his fucking fault in the first place) and urges Professor Salisbury to make the option of the single measles jab available on the grounds that it'll be safer - less risk of anaphylaxis.
He appears to have forgotten that, according to his own bullshit, anaphylaxis is associated with measles containing vaccines. All of them. So how is offering a single jab a better option?
You mendacious, money grubbing, disingenuous, goalpost moving bag of shit, Wakefield.
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