Imagine that childhood game were you whisper a story into one kid’s ear. He whispers it into another kid’s ear. She whispers it into another kid’s ear…

By the time the story gets back to you, it has completely changed.

Now imagine that people aren’t whispering, but instead commenting in the press or blogs. Imagine that instead of some nonsense story it’s about public health.

That’s basically what is happening right now. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, of MMR/autism “fame”, is apparantly repeating what he thinks he heard from people who think they understood what others have said and done.

Sound confusing?

Well, let’s start with Dr. Wakefield’s comment. It’s the end of the chain and the message has been very garbled.

Dr. Wakefield is quoted by the UK paper, the Sun . In this case, he has misquoted Dr. Healy and, I believe, mixed in some misquotes of Dr. Gerberding (head of the CDC) as well. Dr. Wakefield is quoted as in the recent news article saying:

Bernadine Healy, the former head of the US National Institute for Health, admitted they had altered evidence on the epidemiological studies conducted by the US Government to suit the official line. She admitted the evidence both the US and UK relies on is useless.

Where did that come from? Is there an interview with Dr. Healy, or statements by her that I haven’t seen?

I’ve commented a few times about how I felt Dr. Bernadine Healy’s assertions on autism research needed to be supported before published. First, I commented that Dr. Healy’s comments were basically unsupported assertions, and that they were not supported by statements from the Institute of Medicine. I tried to contact Dr. Healy, with no response. But, in reading her statements, I’ve never read anything that supports Dr. Wakefield’s version of what Dr. Healy supposedly said.

First off, even Dr. Healy has not said that the NIH or anyone altered evidence. If someone can point me to a statement by Dr. Healy that could even be misinterpreted to support Dr. Wakefield’s comment, I’d like to see it.

As an aside, consider what Dr. Wakefield is doing by invoking Dr. Healy’s former position as director of the NIH, then claiming that she “admits” they altered evidence. Dr. Wakefield is implying an official statement by an insider. This is why Dr. Healy had a deep responsibility to make sure her statements were clear and well supported, two things she did not do in her interview. That is why I believe she should step forward and make it clear that Dr. Wakefield’s comments do not reflect what she said.

Back to Dr. Wakefield’s comment–Dr. Healy did not state that the evidence is useless. She made comments that more studies should be done, concentrating on the “people who got sick” (or something close to that). Dr. Healy neglected to note that many studies already have looked at people with autism and, for example, whether they have persistent measles infections. And, that was before the Hornig study came in.

I believe that Dr. Wakefield here is mixing up Dr. Healy’s comments with a misinterpreted version of comments by Dr. Julie Gerberding. This isn’t to say that Dr. Gerberding claimed the evidence is “useless” either. However, Mr. David Kirby has tried (somewhat succesfully, I note with regret) to propagate that myth.

For the details, read Epiwonks analysis of the David Kirby’s first first and posts on this. (it’s worth taking the time to read through those on their own–not just as support of this discussion!)

David Kirby propagated a mistaken impression that Dr. Gerberding thinks the VSD studies (including that of Dr. Verstraeten) were flawed (read Epiwonk one and two)

We have Dr. Bernadine Healy who commented that she considers that the correct studies haven’t been done (but, they have, and more have been done since her statements.)

Somehow, these stories got repeated, mixed up and told to Dr. Wakefield who is now repeating a completely messed up version for the U.K. press.

After many generations of repeating the stories, they are hopelessly separated from reality. Assuming this is correct and Dr. Wakefield didn’t create this story himself, who is at fault? Dr. Wakefield for not checking the quotes from Dr. Healy? The reporter for not checking the validity of what Dr. Wakefield said? Dr. Healy for making unsupported assertions? David Kirby for making what are fatally flawed and misleading blog posts?

Assigning blame is actually secondary–how do we keep this sort of misinformation from propagating?