Correspondence to Wakefield and colleagues case report 1 of 2
- Vaccine Affect
- Mar 14
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 4
Correspondence to Lancet in response to Andrew Wakefield and colleagues' case report:
Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children
Over 20 letters were published in 1998 and it ranges from veiled threats to The Lancet to others pointing out serious flaws in the study.
Beale addressed The Lancet “If my predictions are correct, then I think you will bear a heavy responsibility for acting against the public health interest which you usually aim to promote.”
Autism, inflammatory bowel disease, and MMR vaccine. Beale, AJ
The Lancet, Volume 351, Issue 9106, 906
Sinclair argued “I note significant inaccuracies in table 1 of the paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues, a table that records “abnormal laboratory tests” and “normal ranges”.”
Autism, inflammatory bowel disease, and MMR vaccine. Sinclair, Leonard
The Lancet, Volume 351, Issue 9112, 1355
Some were concerned about damaging effects on public and professional confidence in vaccines and renewed speculation surrounding the link between MMR and autism.
Autism, inflammatory bowel disease, and MMR vaccine. Bedford, Helen et al.
The Lancet, Volume 351, Issue 9106, 907
Rouse expressed disappointment that “Wakefield et al. do not identify the manner in which the 12 children investigated were referred (eg, from local general practitioners, self-referral via parents, or secondary/tertiary or international referral).”
Autism, inflammatory bowel disease, and MMR vaccine. Rouse, A
The Lancet, Volume 351, Issue 9112, 1356
Study’s senior clinician Walker-Smith wrote a reply correcting some of the points raised by correspondents such as incorrect observations regarding Crohn’s disease. He goes on to say that some of them had completely ignored and dismissed the gastrointestinal findings in their study; like former Chief Medical Officer Sir Kenneth Calman. He stated that Calman had presented misleading information in his reply when referencing back to 1983 Walker-Smith own study stating that ileal lymphoid nodular hyperplasia “has been termed benign” leaving out that they went on to describe the disease’s “ symptoms could be so severe that steroids may be used and even that surgery might be contemplated”. He mentions another study that Calman references in his reply and researchers of that study had referenced another Walker-Smith study from 1987.
He further addressed the issue of why they published this preliminary study.
Their observation had been presented at the First International Symposium on Pediatric Neurogastroenterology (1997) and an expanded series of 30 children, with two scientific studies of the mucosal lesion, was presented to the British Society of Gastroenterology in March, 1998.
“We would not have published this preliminary report without knowledge of all these further studies.”
Walker-Smith expressed concern that the current Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson outright dismissed “gastrointestinal findings that have been published after peer review in The Lancet and selected for presentation, also by peer review, at an international and a national meeting.”
Walker-Smith, JA
The Lancet, Volume 351, Issue 9112, 1356 - 1357
