Fall of dishonest doctor who started MMR/autism scare

From the Food & Health Skeptic:

Note that the crap was published in "Lancet" -- another reason not to trust that once-fine journal

The doctor who sparked a worldwide panic over the MMR vaccine could be struck off after being found guilty yesterday of a series of misconduct charges related to his “unethical” research. Andrew Wakefield, who in 1998 claimed an unfounded link between the vaccination and autism, “showed a callous disregard” for the suffering of children, subjecting them to unnecessary, invasive tests, a hearing found.

The General Medical Council (GMC) ruled that he abused his position of trust as he researched a possible link between the MMR vaccine, bowel disease and autism in children. It found that Wakefield and two colleagues acted dishonestly and irresponsibly in carrying out research on children against their best interests and without official permission.

Full article here

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Vaccinated British teenager killed by tumour NOT the vaccine

THE teenage girl who died shortly after being immunised against cervical cancer was killed by a malignant chest tumour and not by a reaction to the vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, an inquest has heard. Natalie Morton, 14, fell ill on Monday after being vaccinated at her school under a national immunisation programme against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV). She died a few hours later after being admitted to hospital.

"The pathologist has confirmed today at the opening of the inquest into the death of Natalie Morton that she died from a large malignant tumour of unknown origin in the heart and lungs," said Dr Caron Grainger, joint director of public health for the Coventry area where Natalie died. "There is no indication that the HPV vaccine, which she had received shortly before her death, was a contributing factor to the death, which could have arisen at any point," Dr Grainger said.

SOURCE

Dr John Ray of the Food & Health Skeptic blog comments:

Temporal conjunction is not causation. Danger in a therapeutic product should be judged by the number who do NOT suffer ill effects. Drugs such as Vioxx that were taken safely by hundreds of thousands get taken off the market because of apparent adverse effects of the drug in a handful of cases. But it is just superstitious and implausible guesswork to assume that the rare ill-effects were due to the drug. The case [above] is instructive because the initial accusations against the vaccine could clearly be shown to be wrong.

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EU casts doubt on health claims of "super foods"

And not before time I'd add.

EU inquiry pours doubt on benefit of health foods

More than 50 food products and supplements have been exposed by a Europe-wide investigation for making unproven claims about their health benefits.

 

Ocean Spray cranberry juice, Lipton black tea and some probiotic supplements are among the items whose claimed health benefits are scientifically unproven, according to an investigation by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

 

Fish oil supplements which purport to improve brain growth in babies and children have come under particular scrutiny, with the agency rejecting most of the benefits claimed by manufacturers.

 

The initial results of the inquiry suggest that consumers could be wasting millions of pounds each year on products they think will improve their diet and lifestyle.

 

As anyone prepared to look at the evidence has already known for some time, the claims made about this or that food or supplement have all too often rested on dodgy poor quality studies of dubious scientific validity.

 

To give an egregious example, several years ago there appeared reports in newspapers etc about how a study had proven the benefits of fish oil.

 

These reports were the result of media outlets regurgitating a manufacturer's press release without question.

 

However, had they bothered to look a little more closely and ask some questions, they would have discovered that this "study" involved the maker of fish-oil capsules simply handing them out to people and then asking them later how they felt!

 

No independent measuring of the test subjects before, during and after the period they were taking the capsules, a total reliance on self-reporting (known to be highly unreliable) and no control group against which to compare outcomes.

 

In short, completely pseudo-scientific rubbish.

 

Bare that in mind the next time you hear the promoter of one of these quack remedies say that their product's health benefits have been proven by studies.

 

Bullshit.

 

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When a randomised, controlled clinical trial isn't one at all

The study used questionnaires filled in by people from a previously conducted clinical trial, but then subjected them to the usual meaningless epidemiological data dredging to look for correlations.

 

And then presumed, after falsely claiming to be a controlled clinical trial itself, to reach a finding about the management of blood sugars and type 2 diabetes that was the opposite of what the properly conducted earlier study had found!

 

Junkfood Science

 

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Probiotics and post-pregnancy obesity

This is another in Sandy's occasional "bird cage" series.

 

These cover "studies" that are so badly conducted and which have such rubbishy findings that all they are good for is to line the bottom of a bird cage.

 

Not that it stopped the press release issued by the authors getting covered by almost 250,000 news stories around the world.

 

And once in the hands of the media there was the usual claim inflation - probiotics went from "may help ward off" post partem obesity to "can reduce," then do "cut belly fat" before finally getting to "could spell end to need for obesity treatment."

 

Wow.

 

But it's all bullshit.

 

You can read Sandy's detailed deconstruction of the study and its claims at Junkfood Science: Science says isn’t always what science found, but in a nutshell, the group of women given probiotics weighed less than the other women to begin with and there was no difference in weight gained or lost between any of the groups one year after delivery.

 

She does note that the authors and the university concerned had already taken out a patent for their bogus treatment that claims to cure all manner of things, so their press release was all about marketing a product, not science.

 

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Why "wellness" is a crock of sh*t

 

It's the new buzz word around town. No company or government department today is now complete without a "wellness program".

 

Some of it is harmless, you know, those stupid signs telling you to wash your hands in the toilet or to take the stairs near the lifts.

 

But much of it is actually based upon highly dubious pseudo-science or very poor quality studies with weak findings that are only a step or two up from pseudo-science.

 

As a general resource on this and other health and diet matters, check out Junkfood Science.

 

But recently it's been noted that the left-wing blog The Huffington Post has taken a strange and disturbing direction in promoting all kinds of crackpot medical and health ideas that have no actual scientific evidence to support them, such as conspiracy theories about vaccines.

 

Now we know why.

 

It has a "wellness editor".

 

Here are her "qualifications":

Patricia Fitzgerald is a licensed acupuncturist, certified clinical nutritionist, and a homeopath. She has a Master's Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine and a Doctorate in Homeopathic Medicine. She is the founder and Medical Director of the Santa Monica Wellness Center and the author of the best-selling, award-winning The Detox Solution: The Missing Link to Radiant Health, Abundant Energy, Ideal Weight, and Peace of Mind. You can learn more at TheDetoxSolution.com.

 

Her mission is to inspire others to live their passion, while creating and enjoying optimal physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Oh dear, so much stupidity and snakeoil compressed into so few words.

 

And for fuck's sake, isn't having a "mission" so friggen last century?

 

In response to the question "what is a docorate in homoepathic medicine," a comment left on the Pharyngula blog gave the perfect definition:

...a doctorate in homeopathic medicine would be a blank piece of paper soaked in a 1:10,000,000 tincture made from the ink of an actual doctor's diploma.

As Mike the Mad Biologist says, it's "...like having a creationist as the science editor. And it explains quite a bit about The Huffington Post's War on Medicine."

 

 

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