Let's Be Accurate: The MMR Vaccine is Not Associated With Autism. But Neonatal Hep B in Males...

[McCamy Taylor]

68. Yes there is an association. Here is a WHO summary of all the lit

from a time period that included two of Ms. Gallagher/ Goodman's studies about Autism and Hep B. Note that the criticism is not that there is no association. It is that when you use National Health Interview Survey data you can not make statements about causality.

Detailed descriptions of potential biases and pitfalls that could arise from attempting to use VAERS, VSD,
NHANES, National Health Interview Surveys or other similar
databases to make causal inferences have been described by the
Institute of Medicine (U.S.) and by a report by Parker et al (2004).
Therefore the identified associations between multiple variables
including male gender and EIS cannot provide evidence of causality.

http://www.who.int/immunization/sage/meetings/2012/april/Pichichero_Update_on_safety.pdf


There is an association. We do not know if there is a causality. If you people are going to hold yourselves up as scientists, please use the scientific lingo correctly.

Both articles appeared in peer reviewed journals. That means the biostatistics were double checked. Here are the credentials of the two researchers. One is an expert in biostatics. And I will bet that she knows the difference between association and causality.

http://publichealth.wustl.edu/people/scholardatabase/Documents/GOODMAN%20M.CV%20Feb%202012%20IPH.pdf

The other is the Chief Executive Director of Ethic at MD Anderson.

http://faculty.mdanderson.org/Colleen_Gallagher/Default.asp

I know you do not like the two studies. But, numbers do not go away just because you do not like them. If they offend you so much maybe you should suggest that Merck spend some money and pay some researchers to study a huge cross section of children who received Hep B vaccine and determine who got it at birth and who didn't and who has been diagnosed with autism and who didn't. Indeed, given the stir that these two studies made, I find it hard to believe that Merck has not already commissioned these studies and I wonder what is taking them so long is getting us the (we hope and pray) negative association results that will set our minds at rest.

Do anyone here know anyone at Merck? If so, please suggest that they hurry up their research teams so that we can bury this topic.

Hey, you know what? Maybe I will start a Merck watch on my Facebook page. Just to remind Merck every so often that we are still waiting for that definitive study that will prove that we have nothing to worry about. So they won't forget.