Professor of Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia, Christopher Shaw, has written an eloquent and scathing response to the recent editorial published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) alleging fraud in the work that led to the 1998 publication of Dr Andrew Wakefield's paper in the Lancet. The allegations of fraud, by the way, were made entirely by Brian Deer, based on medical records for the children in the study that he claims to have in his possession. These claims of fraud have not and cannot be verified by any one else because no one, including Mr Deer himself, has legal access to those records. Professor Shaw's letter is short, and I highly suggest reading it here, but here are a few highlights:
"There are many possible factors that may have increased leading to rising ASD levels. One of these is the significantly increased vaccine schedule for children. Any a priori exclusion of possible factors based on belief rather than evidence is not scientific, but rather reflects a disturbing trend to view anything associated with vaccines and vaccine policy as sacred and beyond scientific scrutiny."
"Assertions that those who do so in respect to any aspect of vaccine safety must therefore be "anti vaccine" and hence not to be taken seriously belies a belief system that is profoundly unscientific. As most readers will know, an ad hominem attack on an opponent's character or credibility is a tacit admission that the logical argument is lost."
