Bad Science (30 page)

12. The Media’s MMR Hoax

In 1957, a baby: Brynner, R., and Stephens, T. D.,
Dark Remedy: The Impact of Thalidomide and Its Revival as a Vital Medicine
(New York: Perseus Books, 2001).

Many years later: Thalidomide hero found guilty of scientific fraud.
New Scientist
(February 27, 1993).

“12 children”: Wakefield, A. J.; Murch, S. H.; Anthony, A., et al. Ileallymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, nonspecific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children.
Lancet
351, no. 9103 (1998): 637–41.

one of the few: e.g., Chess, S. Autism in children with congenital rubella.
J Autism Child Schizophr
, no. 1 (January–March 1971): 33–47.

a tenacious investigative journalist: briandeer.com/wakefield/vaccinepatent.htm 299. “including the BBC”: No jabs, no school says labour MP, news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7392510.stm.

one survey: Schmidt, K.; Ernst, E.; Andrews, D. N. Survey shows that some homoeopaths and chiropractors advise against MMR.
British Medical Journal
325, no. 7364 (September 14, 2002): 597.

32 percent: Hargreaves, I.; Lewis, J.; Speers, T. Towards a better map: science, the public and the media, Economic and Social Research Council (2003),
www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/Mapdocfinal_tcm6–5505.pdf
.

peak of the media: Boyce, T.,
Health, Risk and News: The MMR Vaccine and the Media
. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc, 2007), p. 307.

published a paper: Ibid.

not a single one
: Durant, J., and Lindsey, N. GM foods and the media. Select Committee on Science and Technology, Third Report, Appendix 5,
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldselect/ldsctech/38/3810.htm
.

a systematic review: Smeeth, L.; Cook, C.; Fombonne, E.; Heavey, L.; Rodrigues, L. C.; Smith, P. G., et al. MMR vaccination and pervasive developmental disorders: a case-control study.
Lancet
364, no. 9438 (2004): 963–69.

This study was big: Madsen, K. M.; Hviid, A.; Vestergaard, M.; Schendel, D.; Wohlfahrt, J.; Thorsen, P., et al. A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism.
N Eng J Med
347, no. 19 (2002): 1477–82.

“Scientists in America”:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/06/23/nmmr23.xml
.

a very similar study: Afzal, M. A.; Ozoemena, L. C.; O’Hare, A., et al. Absence of detectable measles virus genome sequence in blood of autistic children who have had their MMR vaccination during the routine childhood immunization schedule of UK.
J Med Virology
78, no. 5 (2006): 623–30.

Another major paper: D’Souza, Y., et al. No evidence of persisting measles virus in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from children with autism spectrum disorder.
Pediatrics
118 (October 4, 2006): 1664–75.

In some parts:
www.westminsterpct.nhs.uk/news/mmr0405.htm
; Pearce, A., et al. Factors associated with uptake of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) and use of single antigen vaccines in a contemporary UK cohort: prospective cohort study.
BMJ
336, no. 7647 (2008): 754.

a systematic review: Chapman, S., et al.
Med J Aust
. 183, no. 5 (September 5, 2005): 247–50. Grilli, R., et al. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 4 (2001): CD000389.

A mischievous paper: Phillips, D. P., et al.
N Engl J Med
325 (1991): 1180–83.

systematic quantitative surveys: Schwitzer,
G. PLoS Med
5, no. 5 (2008): e95.

Meanwhile, the incidence: HPA. Confirmed measles mumps and rubella cases in 2007: England and Wales. Health Protection Report 2, no. 8 (2008); accessed April 9, 2008,
www.hpa.org.uk/hpr/archives/2008/hpr0808.pdf
.

Congenital rubella syndrome: Fitzpatrick, M. MMR: risk, choice, chance.
Brit Med Bulletin
69 (2004): 143–53.

epidemic in 2005: Gupta, R. K.; Best, J.; MacMahon, E. Mumps and the UK epidemic.
BMJ
330 (May 14, 2005): 1132–35.

And Another Thing

“The true cost”:
www.economist.com/research/Economics/alphabetic.cfm?letter=O
.

I have done my absolute best to keep these references to a minimum, as this is supposed to be an entertaining book, not a scholarly text. More useful than references, I would hope, are the many extra materials available on www.badscience.net, including recommended reading, videos, a rolling ticker of interesting news stories, updated references, activities for schoolchildren, a discussion forum, everything I’ve ever written (except this book, of course), advice on activism, links to science communication guidelines for journalists and academics, and much more. I will always try to add to it as time passes.

There are some books that really stand out as genuinely excellent, and I am going to use my last ink to send you their way. Your time will not be wasted on them.

Testing Treatments
by Imogen Evans, Hazel Thornton, and Iain Chalmers is a book on evidence-based medicine specifically written for a lay audience by two academics and a patient. It is also free to download online from www.jameslindlibrary.org.
How to Read a Paper
by Professor Trisha Greenhalgh is the standard medical textbook on critically appraising academic journal articles. It’s readable and short, and it would be a bestseller if it weren’t unnecessarily overpriced.

Irrationality
by Stuart Sutherland makes a great partner with
How We Know What Isn’t So
by Thomas Gilovich, as both cover different aspects of social science and psychology research into irrational behavior, while
Reckoning with Risk
by Gerd Gigerenzer comes at the same problems from a more mathematical perspective.

Meaning, Medicine and the “Placebo Effect”
by Daniel Moerman is excellent, and you should not be put off by the fact that it is published under an academic imprint.

There are now endless blogs by like-minded people that have sprung from nowhere over the past few years, to my enormous delight, onto my computer screen. They often cover science news better than the mainstream media, and the feeds of some of the most entertaining fellow travelers are aggregated at the website badscienceblogs.net. I enjoy disagreeing with many of them—viciously—on a great many things.

And last, the most important references of all are to the people by whom I have been taught, nudged, reared, influenced, challenged, supervised, contradicted, supported, and, most important, entertained. They are (missing too many, and in very little order): Emily Wilson, Ian Sample, James Randerson, Alok Jha, Mary Byrne, Mike Burke, Ian Katz, Mitzi Angel, Robert Lacey, Chris Elliott, Rachel Buchanan, Alan Rusbridger, Pat Kavanagh, the inspirational badscience bloggers, everyone who has ever sent me a tip about a story on [email protected], Iain Chalmers, Lorne Denny, Simon Wessely, Caroline Richmond, John Stein, Jim Hopkins, David Colquhoun, Zoe Pagnamenta, Chantal Clarke, Sarah Ballard, Shalinee Singh, Catherine Collins, Matthew Hotopf, John Moriarty, Alex Lomas, Andy Lewis, Trisha Greenhalgh, Gimpy, shpalman, Holfordwatch, Positive Internet, Jon, Liz Parratt, Patrick Matthews, Ian Brown, Mike Jay, Louise Burton, John King, Cicely Marston, Steve Rolles, Hettie, Mark Pilkington, Ginge Tulloch, Matthew Tait, Cathy Flower, my mum, my dad, Reg, Josh, Raph, Allie, and the fabulous Amanda Palmer.

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

abdominal pain

abortions

abstinence

Achmat, Zackie

acidic creams

acupuncture

ADHD

advertising

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

affluence

African potatoes

Afzal paper

Agent Orange

aging

AIDS; colonialism and; Durban Declaration on; Mbeki’s views on; polio vaccine and; Rath’s views on; South African spending on antiretroviral drugs for; Tshabalala-Msimang’s proposed treatment for;
see also
HIV

Alameda Times-Star

alcohol

alcoholism

alertness

alpha hydroxy acids

alternative therapies; “authoritative” explanations and; cherry-picking in; flawed studies in favor of;
Independent
article in favor of; lasers used in; placebo effects and; prior belief bias and; “symptoms vs. causes” and; vaccines and;
see also
homeopathy; nutritionism, nutritionists

Alzheimer’s disease

American Association of Nutritional Consultants

American College of Nutrition

amino acids

amputations

anasthetics

ANC

Andersen, Bjorn

anecdotal evidence

anemia

anesthesia

angina

angioplasty

Angola

animal experiments

anorgasmia

antiarrhythmic drugs

antibiotic resistance

antibiotics

anticonvulsants

antidepressants

antioxidants; trials of

antiretroviral drugs; deaths blamed on

apartheid

Apotex

Aqua Detox

arnica molecules

arthritis

artificial intelligence

ARV drugs

asbestos

Asch, Solomon

Asher, Richard

Asperger’s syndrome

atoms

ATP Stimuline

attributional bias

Australasian College of Health Sciences

Australia

autism; MMR vaccine and

availability bias

Avogadro, Amedeo

AZT

babies, sleeping habits of

Baby and Child Care
(Spock)

back pain

Bacon, Francis

bacteria

badscience website

Baha’i faith

Banana Stem

Barbie Detox

Barbie Liberation Organization

BBC

BBC America

BBC Panorama

Beecher, Henry

beetroot

beta-carotene

biases, xii; attributional; cognitive illusions; toward positive evidence; prior belief; publication; randomness and; regression to the mean and; selection; social influences

big pharma,
see
pharmaceutical industry

Bingham, Sheila

BioCare

biochemistry

bioenergetic field

biotech

birth control

Blackwell paper

Blair, Cherie

Blair, Leo

Blair, Tony

blindings

bloating

blobbogram

bloodletting

blood pressure

blood sugar

blood tests

Boiron

Boston Globe, The

Botswana

bowel cancer

bowel problems

Boycott, Rosie

“Brain Buttons,”

Brain Gym

Brain Gym Teacher’s Manual

brands

Branthwaite paper

breast cancer

breathing exercises

Brink, Anthony

Bristol, University of

British Medical Journal

Bronx

Buddhism

Bustin, Stephen

calcium

Cambridge, University of

Canada

cancer; bowel; breast; lung; prevention of, xii; Rath’s views on

cannabis

Cape High Court

capital punishment

Caplin, Carole

Caplin, Sylvia

carbon dioxide

cardiac deaths

Card Sharks

cargo cults

carotene

Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET)

carotid arteries

Carrey, Jim

carrots

case-controlled studies

case series

causality; correlation and

CD4 cell count

cells

cellulose

CERN podcast

Chadwick, Nick

Chagas’ disease

Chalmers, Iain

Charles, Prince of Wales

chemotherapy

China

chlordiazepoxide

chlorine gas

chlorophyll

chloroplasts

chocolate

cholera

cholesterol

Christianity

chromium

Cimetidine

cinchona bark

circumcision

Clark, Sally

Clayton College of Natural Health

cleaning

Clinical Examination
(Epstein and de Bono)

Clinton, Bill

clitoris

cloning

clustering

cocaine

Cochrane, Archie

Cochrane Collaboration

CocoaVia

cofounding variables

cognitive illusions

cognitive system

cohort studies

colds

colonoscopies

communal reinforcement

complemetary and alternative medicine (CAM)

condoms

confirmatory information

conformity

congenital rubella syndrome

contamination

control group

Cooper paper

cornflake

“correction for multiple comparisons,”

correlation, causality and

cosmetics

Covabeads

crack

cramps

creatinine

creationism

Creative Living
(McKeith)

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

curcumin

curry

cyclosporine A

Daily Express
(UK)

Daily Mail
(UK)

Daily Mirror, The
(UK)

Daily News
(New York)

Daily Telegraph, The
(UK)

Daniel

Darwin, Charles

data mining

deafness

de Berk, Lucia

de Bono, David P.

Declaration of Helsinki

Deer, Brian

deferiprone

delayed-onset muscle soreness

Delicious
(McKeith)

DeLuz, Roni

Denmark

Department of Health

detox; by ear candles; through feet; as meaningless;
see also
toxins

detox foot patch

diagnoses

dialysis

diarrhea

diclofenac

diet, healthy

digestion

dilution

Dispatches

DNA

Dominican University

dopamine

doubt

Dowden, Angela

dowsing

drug-resistant bacteria

drug trials

D’Souza paper

Duesberg, Peter

duplicate publication

Durban, South Africa

Durban Declaration

dyslexia

ear candles

Earthletter

earwax

ECG interpretation

eclampsia

ecological fallacy

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Economist, The

Elder Pharmaceuticals

electrolysis

Emerald detox

emotional immediacy

employment

“End of Homeopathy?, The,”

endorphins

enemas

“Energizer” exercise

energy

enzymes

epidemiology

Epstein, Owen

Ernst, Edzard

ethics

eugenics

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

European Union

Evans, Imogen

evidence-based medicine; cornerstones of; percentage of treatments as; placebo-controlled trials and

evolutionary psychology

exercise

experiments, controlled; on ear candles; on footbaths

exposure, outcome and

extroversion

ezetimibe

face creams

faith healing

false beliefs

false positives

fat

fatigue

FDA MedWatch

feedback mechanisms

feline AIDS

fentanyl

fertility

Feynman, Richard P.

Finland

“first in man” studies

Fisher, Ronald

Fitzpatrick, Mike

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S.

food intolerance

food supplement industry, ix

food supplement pills

footbaths

Forbes, John

Forensic Science Service

Foster, Peter

frame problem

France

Frankfurt, Harry

Fraser, Lorraine

Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome
(Jackson)

free radicals

Fruitella Plus

Fruit Flush Diet

fruit juice

fruits

funnel plot

gallbladder

garlic

Garrow, John

gastric ulcers

gem therapy

General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12)

General Medical Council (GMC)

genetically modified (GM) food

Germany

germ theory

Gigerenzer, Gerd

G.I. Joe dolls

Gilovich, Thomas

Global Forum for Health Research

Global Fund

Goemaere, Eric

goji berries

Gould, Stephen Jay

GP Research Database

GQ

Gracely paper

Graham, Sylvester

graham crackers

granola bars

Gray, Muir

Great Ormond Street Hospital

Greenhalgh, Trisha

Grünenthal

Gryll paper

Guardian, The
(UK)

Hadacol

“Hadacol Boogie,”

Hague

Hahnemann, Samuel

Hall, Jerry

Harvard School of Public Health

Harvard University

hassle barrier

headaches

Healer, The
(Hall)

healing rituals

Health Store News

Healthy Eating
(McKeith)

heart attack drugs

heart attacks

heart disease

heart surgery

hemophilia

hepatitis B vaccine

Herald Tribune

herbalism

herbal potions

Herceptin

herd immunity

heroin

Hershey’s

Hildebrandt paper

Hill, Austin Bradford

Hinduism

HIV; antiretroviral drugs in prevention of; Durban Declaration on; needle exchange programs and; Rath’s views on;
see also
AIDS

HIV tests

“holism,”

homeopathy; AIDS treated by; benefits of; ethics of; first principles of; history of; meta-analysis of; money and; placebos vs.; regression to the mean and; trials of; value of ceremony in

Horny Goat Weed

How to Read a Paper
(Greenhalgh)

hunger

hydrogen peroxide

hydrolysis

hydrolyzed carbohydrates

hydrolyzed X-microprotein nutricomplexes

hypertension

ibuprofen

“imbalances,”

immune system

immunology

Independent, The
(UK)

infections

inoculations

Institute of Medicine

insulin

intensive care

International AIDS Conference

International Criminal Court

intervention trials

introversion

intuition, statistics vs.

ipecac

Iraq War

Ireland

iron

irrationality;
see also
biases

ischemic heart disease

Islam

Italy

ITV

Jackson, Luke

Jadad score

Jainism

JAMA

jameslindlibrary.org

Jenner, Edward

Johns Hopkins Hospital

Johnson, Alan

Journal of American College of Nutrition

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Journal of Medical Virology

Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, The

Judaism

Justice Department, U.S.

Kano, Nigeria

Katahn paper

Kawashima paper

Kellogg, John Harvey

ketamine

ketchup

keyhole surgery

Khayelitsha, South Africa

kidneys

Kirsch paper

knee pain

Knipschild, Paul

Kocher, Theodor

Krigsman, Arthur

Laboratory of the Government Chemist

Lancet, The

Laryngoscope

Latin America

Lawson, Nigella

lead

LeBlanc, Dudley J.

Lee-Potter, Lynda

lemons

Lévi-Strauss, Claude

life expectancy

Linus Pauling Institute

liver

Living Food for Health
(McKeith)