Research: How do you judge its value?

[SaneVax: Not all research is equally reliable – particularly when it comes to vaccines.  Health ‘authorities’ around the globe say one thing while current science often indicates quite the opposite. Anyone who tries to open up a debate on vaccine safety or efficacy quickly finds out just how taboo the subject is.  As long as the subject is forbidden more unanswered questions will arise followed by less trust in the public health system.  The only way to solve the problem is to open an honest dialogue, admit what is not known and conduct the studies necessary to answer the outstanding questions.] 

Research: From the Superb to the Questionable

By F. Edward Yazbak MD

It is safe to say that in the last few years, researchers who dared question a vaccination policy or only mention vaccination and autism in the same sentence were certain to get a public and unrelenting flagellation.

I was therefore overjoyed when the accomplishment of a distinguished researcher in that venue was recognized. It was certainly wonderful to hear that the Briloff Committee at Baruch College very recently awarded The Briloff Prize for 2012 to Dr. Gayle DeLong for her magnificent exposé titled Conflicts of Interest in Vaccine Safety Research”. In the citation, the Committee described Dr. DeLong’s publication as “an excellent exposition of ethical issues and biases in the examination of conflicts of interests related to vaccine safety research. The main thrust of this paper is the questioning of the ethics of industry sponsorship of vaccine use“

The abstract of Dr. DeLong’s article[1] on PubMed summarizes the extensive document quite clearly:

Conflicts of interest (COIs) cloud vaccine safety research. Sponsors of research have competing interests that may impede the objective study of vaccine side effects. Vaccine manufacturers, health officials, and medical journals may have financial and bureaucratic reasons for not wanting to acknowledge the risks of vaccines. Conversely, some advocacy groups may have legislative and financial reasons to sponsor research that finds risks in vaccines. Using the vaccine-autism debate as an illustration, this article details the conflicts of interest each of these groups faces, outlines the current state of vaccine safety research, and suggests remedies to address COIs. Minimizing COIs in vaccine safety research could reduce research bias and restore greater trust in the vaccine program.” 

Dr. Delong’s previous publication (2011) titled “A positive association found between autism prevalence and childhood vaccination uptake across the U.S. population [2] was, I thought, just as remarkable. Its PubMed abstract was also an informative and clear summary of the author’s extensive research:

Read the entire article here.