Wakefield has followers that say he was not entirely wrong; as if they could magically determine which parts of his research were factual and which were fabrication.

The dialogue will not end there is too much money at stake.

Which is exactly the problem. As long as people think ‘modern medicine’ = ‘mainstream’, people won’t just look elsewhere, but risk overlooking what else is in the mainstream. Services for autism already struggle to stay open without the people who need them thinking they don’t exist at all.

Unfortunetly for the autism community, many people involved in propagating the vax controversy have a massive amount of money and time invested. They won’t let go because to do so is to admit a string of errors.

Rather sad really.

For this to happen, eyes have to be taken off of the pro-vax, anti-vax controversy and concentrated on the medical aspects of autism. To dwell on Wakefield is to dwell on the vax controversy. This makes the blood flow, but does nothing for the autistic community. Yet it seems to be the preferred topic.

“You are proving my point. There is medically useful information out there that is getting drowned in the animosity between the pro-vax and the anti-vax controversy.”

No, I am not proving your point, I am not engaging in a pro-vax/anti-vax controversy. My comments are about integrity or lack of it, and misleading people by fabricating findings in a report.

I will however take exception to your statement that “The reason for going for chelation, hyperbaric oxygen, B12 and other therapies is that there is nothing from the medical community to take its place.” Do you actually feel that since the medical community has not found a “cure?” for autism, you are therefore required to pursue chelation? I certainly hope not.

Personally, I prefer the non-medical therapies from the non-medical community, but then I would as it’s my area of study and my area of employment. Although that’s not to say medicine should never be given to people with autism – insulin for an autistic diabetic is fine by me.

If my son had caught any of the diseases that he has been vaccinated against—measles, for instance—it would have been tremendously difficult for him.

You are proving my point. There is medically useful information out there that is getting drowned in the animosity between the pro-vax and the anti-vax controversy. Leakage of the blood-gut barrier and the blood-brain barrier is an example of such information. Instead of asking how such information could be exploited for the benefit of our autistic children, we dwell on what to do about people like Wakefield. The best we can do to people like him is to leave him to the authorities and let him fall into obscurity. Otherwise he continues to be a destructive distraction.

Ed, Wakefield has never been pilloried, for that matter he has never even had his wrist slapped. The medical community in England is just now, 10 years after the fact, getting around to determining if he should be reprimanded.

The medical establishment wants very, very badly to find him guilty of something, but is having a difficult time doing so. This is why a trial took years to put together and will be ongoing for another year, at least. If his crimes were so clear cut, this should be a simple matter. That ought to tell you something.

- pD