Unbelievable

I mentioned in my last post that I already had a post brewing in my mind that I was postponing. Well, this is that post.

I don't know how many of you have heard or read about this, but it turns out that the doctor who conducted the SINGLE study that supposedly showed a correlation between the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine and autism in young children actually falsified a great deal of his data. Here is the article I first read on the story, from the London Times Online. I am absolutely appalled and furious at this doctor, who, first of all, studied only 12 children, and, second of all, included symptoms in the published paper that were never recorded in the treating hospital's records, indicating that they never actually occurred. In addition, a large number of his patients were displaying signs and behaviors indicative of disorders in the autism spectrum before receiving the vaccine.

Now, please understand that I am not attacking anyone's decision regarding whether or not to vaccinate their children. While I believe that vaccines, with whatever risks accompany them, are necessary and preferable to leaving children unprotected from these horrible (and often fatal) diseases, I understand that other people have other points of view, and that there are many reasons why a parent might choose not to vaccinate his or her children. What I have a real problem with, though, is the fact that one of these "reasons" now appears to be false. Children whose parents have decided not to vaccinate them have died, and in my opinion those deaths should be on this doctor's head. Some of the blame lies with the media, who publicized and aggrandized this study, making it seem as though it proved a definitive causative correlation between vaccines and autism. I have heard of parents who have had autistic children, and, after learning of this study and the possible link, have decided not to vaccinate their subsequent children. Imagine the anguish felt by these parents in making this decision: should they leave their child open to life-threatening diseases that can easily be prevented, or should they risk subjecting that child to the disabling force of an autism spectrum disorder? The amount of pain, suffering, and damage this manipulative and amoral man has caused surely cannot be measured, and I have no doubt that it will continue to reveal itself over an immensely long period of time. While I do not consider myself to be a vindictive person, I find myself longing for responsibility to be taken, and for justice to be achieved in some way; at the very least through the revocation of this "doctor's" medical license.

I am currently getting my doctorate in psychology, and as such I have been exposed to and participated in a reasonable amount of medically-related psychological research projects. Before ever beginning our first study, we went through an extensive course on psychological and medical ethics as related to research, and the idea of someone ignoring these regulations and knowingly causing so much harm (even indirectly), is absolutely incomprehensible to me. Whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath?

First, do no harm.*

* I realize that this exact phrase is not in the Hippocratic Oath, but it accurately expresses the overall meaning and intention of many of the actual statements.