Monkey Business Indeed

The infamous monkey-hep B vaccine study, co-authored by none other than Andrew Wakefield, that was clearly part of a larger body of work has been withdrawn by the editors of Neurotoxicology after being accepted. First though, hat-tip to KWombles at Countering Age of Autism for the find. Last October, when the study was announced and e-published ahead of print, Just the Vax, Respectful Insolence and A Photon in the Darkness thoroughly debunked the methods and results but also highlighted the blatant conflicts of interest that remained undeclared in the study proof and corrected proof.

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At this juncture, it is purely speculation as to what led to the withdrawl of this study, however, it stands to reason that Andrew Wakefield's recent woes with the GMC rulings and the Lancet retraction of his 1998 study that implicated the MMR triple jab with his, entirely made-up, autistic enterocolitis diagnosis. In any event, it is safe to say that the withdrawl of this recent study by Neurotoxicology editors indicates something untoward.

There is no doubt that anti-vax sites like Age of Autism and Generation Rescue will use this opportunity to screed about 'persecution', 'suppression', 'censorship' and 'conspiracy' and keeping the 'Brave Maverick Doctors' down. But that is simply not the case. There is no doubt that that editors of reputable journals don't take such actions lightly and will have to answer for them. So whether this is a case of the science or ethics being more closely-scrutinised and/or the massive, undeclared conflicts of interest coming to light, that is more than enough to justify the withdrawl of this study.

In any event, we hope that the anti-vaxxers can at least get it straight that there were 20 monkeys used for this study. Twenty monkeys that were sacrificed (sorry Orac) to further a warped personal agenda and not to advance our scientific knowledge.