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Published: 02/7/11

Universal Flu Vaccine Coming Soon? Researchers Are Getting Close

By  Torie Bosch - AOL News
Universal Flu Vaccine Coming Soon? Researchers Are Getting Close

Every year, the flu shot is something of a gamble. Scientists have to figure out what the most active strains are, then create a vaccine around them. Sometimes, there are shortages and delays in shipping and manufacturing, which can keep people from getting vaccinated. But a new study gives us hope that those headaches may soon go the way of smallpox. Scientists from the U.K.'s Oxford University tested a new universal vaccine on 11 healthy patients, then exposed those 11 and another 11, who did not receive the shot, to the flu. "Fewer of the people who were vaccinated got flu than the ...

Published: 01/9/11

Opinion: Autism Fraud Just the Tip of the Iceberg

By  Michael Fumento - AOL News
Opinion: Autism Fraud Just the Tip of the Iceberg

"A deliberate fraud." That's what the British Medical Journal, one of the world's most prestigious periodicals, has written of the study that kicked off the current anti-vaccine movement. It's "clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare," it said in a heavily documented editorial. The lead author of that anti-vaccine study, which also appeared in one most respected medical journals, The Lancet, was British physician Andrew Wakefield. And its consequences include millions of terrified and confused parents, large drops in vaccination rates ...

Published: 01/6/11

Autism Activists Defend Embattled Dr. Wakefield

By  Dana Kennedy - AOL News
Autism Activists Defend Embattled Dr. Wakefield

Despite a new report that a 1998 study linking childhood vaccines to autism was based on "bogus data," many autism activists are standing by their man -- the disgraced doctor who led the research. Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor, and his colleagues scared parents worldwide and spurred an anti-vaccine backlash in a study that was an "elaborate fraud," a British medical journal reported Wednesday. Wakefield misrepresented or altered key findings about the 12 children who formed the basis of the case series, according to a piece written by a British investigative journalist in the ...

Published: 01/5/11

Journal: Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Was Fraud

By  not in system - AOL News
Journal: Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Was Fraud

LONDON -- The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research. The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered. A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses ...

Published: 01/5/11

Dr. Andrew Wakefield Falsified Study Linking Vaccines to Autism, Journal Says

By  David Knowles - AOL News
Dr. Andrew Wakefield Falsified Study Linking Vaccines to Autism, Journal Says

An editorial in the British Medical Journal puts forth evidence that a now-discredited study linking autism and common childhood vaccines relied on falsified evidence to make its central claim. "Clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare," the editors of the journal wrote. Why would Dr. Andrew Wakefield make up findings to prove that getting vaccines to help prevent diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella can cause higher rates of autism? According to the journal's editors, the reason was simple: money. Wakefield is alleged to have ...

Published: 11/17/10

Opinion: Let's Lift the Roadblocks to Vaccinations

By  not in system - AOL News
Opinion: Let's Lift the Roadblocks to Vaccinations

(Nov. 17) -- With the flu season just getting under way, it's a good time to ask this question: In an age of readily available vaccines, why are so many Americans dying of preventable diseases? About 200,000 will be hospitalized and 36,000 will die of the flu between now and when the flu season ends in May. In California, pertussis -- more commonly known as whooping cough -- has re-emerged with a vengeance. This year, nearly 6,000 pertussis cases have erupted -- health officials call this the biggest whooping cough outbreak since 1950. Tragically, pertussis has killed 10 California infants ...

Published: 09/22/10

Does Poverty Fend Off Autism?

By  Katie Drummond - AOL News
Does Poverty Fend Off Autism?

(Sept. 22) -- That children born to well-off homes are more vulnerable to autism has been a topic of curiosity and research among experts for decades. But a new study of around half a million American children, published this week in PLoS One, adds some startling concrete numbers to that aspect of the ongoing investigation into autism's roots. By comparing relevant census information (including education levels and income) to the CDC's database of kids identified as suffering from autism or related health and behavioral problems, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison concluded ...

Published: 09/13/10

New Report Debunks Link Between Vaccines, Autism

By  Katie Drummond - AOL News
New Report Debunks Link Between Vaccines, Autism

(Sept. 13) -- The mercury-based preservative that was a mainstay ingredient in several key vaccines does not contribute to the development of autism among children, according to a report released today. A government-funded study on thimerosal is the latest in a series of research efforts to debunk the idea that childhood vaccinations caused autism. "This study should reassure parents about following the recommended immunization schedule," the Centers for Disease Control's Dr. Frank Destefano, the study's lead author, told Reuters. Debate over the safety of childhood vaccines surged more ...

Published: 07/7/10

The Anti-Vaccine Movement: Blinding Us With Pseudoscience

By  Donna Trussell - Politics Daily
The Anti-Vaccine Movement: Blinding Us With Pseudoscience

Despite the American infatuation with gambling, in other areas of life we shy away from random chance. We like cause and effect. We like the story of one thing leading to another in a nice, straight line. And if such a story does not declare itself, we'll invent one. Our need for a clear, predictable pattern leads us down the wayward path of conspiracy theories. In the absence of a cause that makes sense to us, we'll spend hours, days, years looking for one. Why? Peter Jennings alluded to a possible reason in his thorough 2003 documentary "Peter Jennings Reporting: The Kennedy Assassination ...

Published: 03/13/10

Court Rules Vaccination Doesn't Cause Autism

By  Ria Misra - Politics Daily
Court Rules Vaccination Doesn't Cause Autism

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has ruled that vaccinations -- or, more specifically, thimerosal, an additive in some vaccinations -- does not cause autism. The court considered three separate claims for damages, but ruled Friday in each of them that the vaccinations the children received were unconnected to their eventual diagnoses of autism. Autism diagnosis rates have risen. This winter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that one in 110 children had autism -- up from their previous estimate of one in 150. But why the rates are rising -- or whether the increase in ...

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