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A comment on Benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms and gut microbiota. Parent comment

Re:Benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms... by jMyles on Friday April 12, 2019 @08:11AM (#19644065)
Not sure if you realize this, but Wakefield's original assertion (and the only way that he was able to get legitimate scientists aboard for his wild, fraudulent ride) was to claim to have found a connection between the vaccine and what he called "non-specific colitis", which in turn caused autism, he said.

So that plot twist has already occurred.

Meanwhile, the connection between gut disorders and autism has received very little study after his wacko paper was retracted. With the relatively sudden (ie, in the space of a generation) proliferation of HFCS and hydrogenated oils (one or the other of which is in - or at least was in - nearly everything that has more than 5 ingredients), it seems like a very legitimate target for research.

The fact that the vaccine connection has been debunked does not, as I understand it, also debunk the connection with gut disorders, which the other scientists had apparently independently observed and written about. People have been pointing this out for nearly 5 years now (ie, see [0]), but it seems that research is only now venturing out. People are terrified to be even vaguely associated with Wakefield, even if they don't share his conflict of interest or willingness to lie.

0: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2014/04/30/blam...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms... by pbhjpbhj on Friday April 12, 2019 @08:45AM (#19644263)
Well I'm glad the parent posted that, because I'd not heard the info from your comment before, only that Wakefield was connecting thiomersal (a mercury containing compound) with autism; the compound then being removed in USA with no downward change in autism cases.

In response to the link, blaming Wakefield seems counter-productive, we need to take a more nuanced approach to disagreement and avoid "throwing the baby [area of research] out with the bathwater [discredited hypothesis]". Seems like there's a socio-political problem that needs fixing there and blaming Wakefield for our response to his fraud seems to go too far.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms... by starvingbear on Friday April 12, 2019 @09:04AM (#19644408)
He actually made the same gut bacteria connection to autism patients that this new research found. His paper had to be personally signed off by the 13 other researchers working on it. It was retracted by the publisher due to a conflict with a sponsor but was never scientifically denounced. He then checked the safety records around the vaccine and said he cant recommend the vaccine based on the testing. There are tons of people currently associated with him and you can hear him out any time with any number of recent appearances
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms... by throwawayfjk2 on Friday April 12, 2019 @10:46AM (#19645215)
So people are glibly conflating insufficiency of result with bad intent. I always understood that from mainstream news. You have to know how to read the news :) Once you predict the bias, herd-following, yellow journalism etc. you can filter it out.
[ Parent | on HN ]