Faking data doesn't help the cause. I don't like bad science, let alone fraud. I think Andrew Wakefield should do jail time.
I really don't want to start a hot debate on this topic, but since it's already going....
I respectfully go with the science on the topic of autism.
Correlation doesn't mean causation. A child can begin having problems after an event (like a vaccine, head bump, etc.) and that still may not be
why they've developed a disease. A well designed, scientific experiment takes out the anecdotal evidence where individual parents feel the source of their child's disease is one certain thing, simply because it happened one after another. A scientific study demands that a statistically significant number of the participants have autism after vaccines. (Statistically significant means enough difference between a control group with no vaccines and an experimental group with vaccines. It couldn't possibly be due to random variation or individual anecdotal reasons.)
All of the legitimate studies so far say that vaccines do not cause autism. The studies have confirmed, though, a higher incidence of autism in relation to the age of the father. Since men's mean age when they have children has increased, this is a possible explanation of why the incidence of autism has increased. But again, correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation.
So, there may be a few isolated cases ( compared to the whole population) where maybe a vaccine did trigger autism. But we certainly can't say that for the general population. That also doesn't mean it never happens. A child may have a pre-existing autoimmune disorder or other problem that my cause problems with vaccines
in their case. That doesn't mean people shouldn't vaccinate their children.
The odds of dying from a disease that can be prevented by vaccines is much higher than the chance of autism. And remember, we compare the death rates with third world countries where the diseases have not been mostly eradicated because of population-wide vaccines, like we have here in the U.S. If people stopped vaccinating their children we would have a massive return of preventable diseases. And it would bring progress to a dead stop on the ones we are trying to eradicate, like meales. In the United states, 1 person in 500 dies from measles. In West Africa, the figure is 1 in 20. Global death rates are decreasing fast, though. Death from measles in some countries has dropped by over 90% due to global vaccination programs provided by the United Nations and non-profit organizations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles#Epidemiology
With effective childhood immunization programs, measles cases in the United States, Canada and other countries have dropped by 99 percent. However, there was a marked increase in measles cases in the United States during 1989-1991. The majority of these cases occurred in non-immunized children, including almost 25 percent of cases in babies younger than 15 months of age. Non-immunized inner-city preschool children were a major contributing factor in this epidemic....
In the United States, death from measles has occurred at a rate of about two to three per 1,000 cases in recent years. These deaths occur mainly in children younger than 5 years of age, primarily from pneumonia and occasionally from encephalitis. Other complications include... brain damage.
http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hb/hbmeasles.htm
No vaccinations? Diptheria, anyone? Up for a rousing case of polio?
I go with the odds. My stepkids were definitely vaccinated.