Question

1. What was wrong with Wakefield's study? Discuss at least 1 variable or approach that should have been controlled or assessed.
   • Consider the source of some of his data (parental memory, for example), the small sample size, and whether he considered other variables (genetics, diet, and so on) that could have resulted in symptoms in these children.
2. Discuss the importance of a control group when using the scientific method.
3. Did Wakefield deserve to be barred from medical practice?
4. What were the consequences of his inflated conclusions?

Answer 1

• For any controlled scientific study, a scientist starts with an observation and does some research to develop a hypothesis, then they design an experiment that relate some baseline group with a test group. Data are then collected to confirm or refute the hypothesis.

Andrew Wakefield, along with a research team, set out to find if bowel disease caused by vaccines led to autism. for this, He compiled a group of 12 children who had loss of acquired skills, developmental delays in language, diarrhea, and abdominal pain-essentially, those with both bowel disease and autism. He questioned each parent about the behavior and personality of the child before the child was vaccinated with the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine. He then testsed the children.

His reported data states that children experienced either gastrointestinal or autism-like symptoms, sometimes within a short period after being vaccinated. From these data, the researchers concluded that there was no link between autism and the MMR vaccine. Wakefield though, contradicted this conclusion and stated that the vaccine caused changes in the gastrointestinal tract of the children, which then led to autism.

Many researchers tried to duplicate this study and could not replicate Wakefield's results. In fact, they found no link between the vaccines, bowel disease, and autism. But, Wakefield doesn’t give any value to the other researcher’s conclusion. He has believed in his opinion that, viral vaccines are causing Autism. Being a researcher he should not believe on Parents talking because if they don’t have any lab reports revealing similarity between Bowel disease and Autism.

• He had no normal (control) person so that he could finish his experiment.
• Concerning the source of his data, He could have taken other variables also into consideration.

Example: Genetic factors.

Here, Children’s parents might be a carrier for the Autism.

Diet: Bowel disease of might have happened through their imbalanced diet)

• According to Tian LH. “Scientific research aims at contributing to the development of human knowledge in all areas, being systematically planned and executed according to rigorous criteria of information processing.” The control group contains of elements that present exactly the same characteristics of the experimental group, except for the variable applied to the latter. This group of scientific control enables the experimental study of one variable at a time, and it is an essential part of the scientific method.
• Surely, Wakefield deserves to be barred from medical practice, because due to his wrong interpretation of the result people got panic from life saver vaccines.
• The consequences of his inflated conclusion was

             i) Measel epidemic in UK, as public got scared from viral vaccines.

             ii) His medical license was therefore revoked because he gave false information in public, which was so dangerous for human’s health.