but just like the financial markets people want the drug markets deregulated more as well.

Can we now SEE why regulation can be a good thing?

What makes me wonder is how accurate are the studies that promote vaccines for children? Are these finally going to be questioned? Probably not.

The overwhelming majority of these studies are out to prove something. If they don't prove what the backers want, they never see th light of day.

Yeah, he "deeply regrets that this happened."

He deeply regrets he got caught!

Still no reply fix I see.

@N.RobertMoses: This is exactly right. There is always a desired result in these things, which immediately removes them from the realm of legitimate science. What Reuben did was despicable, but easily predictable given the atmosphere in which these kinds of studies are performed.

The government is also highly involved in manipulation like this. For example, any studies attempting to define the medicinal benefits of marijuana are denied funding and, in effect, not allowed by the government. That is why all of the scientific research indicating legitimate medical uses for the drug is done abroad.

@Rhayader: That is why I am conducting my own research...

@Gokuhouse: What does that have anything to do with this? Or are you one of the ones that immediately jumps on the vaccines -> autism or other disability bandwagon?

This doctor didn't work for YELP did he?

@Gokuhouse

The studies on vaccine for children have been a lot more rigorous and are more replicable than the studies that have been cited as proving that vaccination causes autism.

Speaking of faking studies: [www.timesonline.co.uk]

@Gokuhouse: why ask for studies when you don't believe the huge list of ones already completed that found vaccines to be safe.(assuming you actually researched the issue and didn't just take MTV VJ Jenny McCarthy's word for it)

If you don't trust the scientific community the court system in three different federal cases agreed that there wasn't a shred of evidence that vaccines pose a danger.

[www.tampabay.com]

Also you should educate yourself and check this out this NPR audio story/article:

[www.npr.org]

It has Paul Offit, the chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia explaining why vaccines are important and how there has been "More than a dozen large scientific studies, however, have found no connection between vaccines and autism."

I hope that you will drop this, otherwise your just refusing to accept any answer other than what you want, which is bad science and the reason all this bunk got started.

I'll just say that if I become evil dictator of the world, I will title myself Chief of Acute Pain.

The fact is that drug studies are done pretty much the same way that financial instruments are rated. The company pays for a few different studies (or ratings) and cherry picks the ones that come out favorably, and quashes the others with NDAs.

Of course, this turned out REALLY WELL for those mortgage backed securities and didn't end up harming ANYONE.

What happened with the financial instrument rating system was that the rating agencies were given incentive to provide positive ratings, because it meant more business in the future. That's obviously the case with these drug studies and their associated doctors. I mean, who can blame the guy for nudging the results a little if it meant a lifetime of comfortable living with the assurance he'll be called back many times to do studies by these drug companies?

@Gokuhouse

If you're referring to that "vaccines cause Autism" BS, the "research" that originally suggest that has been shown to be flawed, possibly even faked.

I suggest you read this:

[www.timesonline.co.uk]

Also, anyone who thinks that should know that signs of Autism tend to manifest around the same age that children typically get vaccines. There is no causation relationship there.

It's actually pretty sad that parents aren't getting their kids vaccinated against these diseases because of a bogus study.

@Gokuhouse: There might be a slight chance vaccines cause disabilities, but smallpox, polio etc. DEFINITELY cause them. I'll take my chances

@Oranges w/ Cheese: @Tmoney02:

LOL You are blind ignorant fools if you take everything you hear to be true. This story just stated that a doctor faked 21 drug studies, and he probably did this for money or gifts. Tell me honestly what makes you both trust every other study out there? Are you saying that these 21 studies are the only ones to ever be faked? You trust the scientific community and this doctor was the only one of them faking studies. He was trusted by many people to not lie about those drugs. What did he do though? He lied to many people about their safety. He is putting people at risk for his own benefit.

I have educated myself on these matters probably more than you have. Unlike you though I'm not blind to people's own greed and I don't take everything I hear or read to be true. I question what people say and I do this for just about everything.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: Well, there's the HPV vaccine, which was studied for about 3 years and approved for girls over a certain age, but it's being given to girls as young as 8,9 years old. It was never tested on girls that young.

Along with the ma$$ive lobbying that the producers of the vaccine are doing to have the vaccine mandated as a prerequisite to registering for school. Parents can opt-out, but the producer still gets a big fat pay day thanks to the other 99.9% of families who get the vaccine.

On top of all that, the vaccine only treats a couple of specific strains of HPV, strains which in the developed world are routinely caught and treated long before any risk of cancer developes. A surprising number of my friends say their gynos told them not to bother getting the vaccine, since the yearly pelvic will catch it anyway.

And then there is the occasional story about some woman dying because of some sort of bad reaction to it...

also ... you're not one of those who jumps on the "they must be talking about autism" bandwagon evertime you hear a criticism of vaccines are you?

If you look at the drugs in question all are fairly new expensive drugs that all had some scary side effects once they showed up on the market. Vioxx and Celebrex were found to be causing heart issues and killed some people. Lyrica has a laundry list of side effect that are worse than what it claims to be curing. Lyrica also had an increased risk of sending people into suicidal tail spins. Effexor has some crazy side effects too. Supposedly if you quit taking it, not only do people start having horrible withdrawl symptoms many end up hospitalized.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The FDA has been populated with drug company insiders for far too long. I quit taking anything that isn't old enough to be generic after a long list of new and improved (and expensive) drugs either damn near killed me or had intolerable side effects. All were either asthma or arthritis drugs, not where you expect to find high risks.

@Gokuhouse: Just as I suspected, you refuse to accept any answer or evidence other than those that support your "theory". Do you also belong to the Tin foil Hat society and World is flat association out of curiosity.

Yes 1 man faked many drug studies.

Vaccines were studied by at least 12 different people (most likely teams of people since we are only talking large studies) at 12 different institutions and all came up with the same answer. There is no link and Vaccines are perfectly safe.

If you can't see the difference (which I doubt you will) then there is no point in you ever bringing it up again or for anyone to engage you further.

I really hope any gyno who says that HPV will be caught and treated with a yearly pelvic exam isn't so flip about condom use. I know plenty of women who don;t make it in yearly for an exam. HPV is a serious problem and very, common. While it may be treated before it becomes cancer there are other issues it can cause, like infertility

@Gokuhouse: Also it is interesting that you accuse so many of fraud and yet the only person in the vaccine "debate" that has faked a study regarding vaccinations and Autism is the doctor that started the Autism scare about vaccinations.

THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism"

Please see Hank Scorpio's comment made at 10:23AM for the link.

This is why I don't take any presciption drugs. I'll only take something that has an established set of side effects and efficacy, like aspirin or guafenesin (sp). That's it.

Yes, but are they taking it seriously?!

They need an independent panel to do the testing and certifications, rather then a panel to just review their "published results" that the company wants them to see.

Not that this is an autism debate, but people are much more likely (a doc giving a talk about it said almost 100x) to die of the diseases vaccines will prevent then get autism. Add into that that non vaccinated kids can infect kids pretty rapidly that are too young to get it.

@bohemian: I was on Effexor XR for a few years. Once I had to come off for financial reasons (switching jobs and insuranced increased cost 10x, not lying). The withdrawal side effects were HORRIBLE to say the least, but once I got past it (Took a few weeks), I was a better man.

The med did a good job though because I could tell if I missed a dosage that I would slip back hard into depression. The withdrawal was just insane.

@pollyannacowgirl: That's great, but it doesn't work for everyone. I take natural remedies whenever I can but sometimes I need perscriptions

@Tmoney02: Give up, these people will never listen. Somehow people can believe this tripe that vaccines are more harm than good, but still go to the dr or "alternative medicine" specialist every time they have a sniffle and can't see the contradiction.

The studies of both vaccine use and non-vaccine use are well know. Thanks to this vaccine scare mongering the US now has outbreaks of diseases that were though to be eradicated such as measles and polio in Nigeria where they distrust "western medicine" and thousands have been paralyzed and many more have become ill because of bad information spread by people who do not understand.

Nobody will claim that vaccines can not and have not harmed individuals over the years, but only that their good for society dwarfs, by many order of magnitude, any harm they have on an individual. Getting you kids vaccinated is many times safer than the car ride to the pediatricians office to get the shots. Oh, and they don't cause autism.

@edwardso: Yeah me too. Unfortunately I don't think my findings will be published or approved by the FDA. Doesn't mean I'll stop any time soon though.

(Was referring to the medicinal marijuana, not the scrips).

In other news, DAMN THIS REPLY CRAP!

"natural remedies" have been studdied about as well as this 1 doctor studied. There are no checks and balances for "natural remdidies" -- someone says they work, and you take their word for it. No clinical studies, nothing.

"remedies" -- I promise I can spell.

One of the tricks by drug manufacturers that I find extremely distasteful is the shotgun study approach. They commission 20 studies and then cherry pick the ones that have the best results ( for their bottom line ).

This is why I fully support "registered" studies for FDA use. Drug manufacturers would be required to pre-register any studies for a product or compound so that the FDA can review all findings before making a decision.

While this can not stop outright fraud as in the above, it would make known any other contradictory studies that the manufacturer buried and did not use for FDA certification because it didn't have the right outcome.

lol Gokuhouse owned.

@nakedscience: If you are referring to marijuana when you say "natural remedies", that is not exactly true. In the US, legitimate research has been prohibited by the government, so yeah nothing noteworthy is done here.

However, in other countries there is truly scientific research being done. For example, there are a large number of studies being done in Israel with controlled dosages, double-blinds, and other common scientific techniques.

You can pry my Celebrex out of my cold, arthritic hands. Dare ya.

@Jonbo298: You were lucky. My husband went through the brain buzzes and sweats for 2 months. I've read some people have the brain buzzes for years after coming off of it.

I'm really surprised that drug is still on the market.

I'm sorry, all these vaccinations do is serve to weaken children today. My parents didn't need tons of vaccinations. I didn't receive tons of vaccinations. My kids will not receive a ton of vaccinations either. To each his own, but I'm not going to handicap my child with a weakened immune system...

"Eye-popping" news? Is that a new drug side effect?

@stacye: What really scared the hell out of me was someone who was in on the Lyrica trials dropped out because it was giving her suicidal urges. Another trial participant hung themselves in an exam room while she was there.

I had a CNP insist repeatedly that I start taking Lyrica. She did this to the point of refusing to fill my other prescriptions (all old generic drugs). One doctor misdiagnosed a degenerative problem in my back as Fibro and this CNP made it her mission to get me to take that crap (Lyrica). Never mind that about a month later another specialist found what was causing the pain and properly addressed the actual physical problem. This CNP was heavily invested in what the drug reps were offering. I am assuming she would get a significant kickback for prescribing certain drugs.

NPR had a bit on the news this morning regarding the FDA. The Obama admin is considering a few people for the head of this agency. All have extensive knowledge of pharmaceuticals but are extremely outspoken and skeptical about the corruption in the pharma industry.

Rhayader, I was actually not refering to Marijuana, which is a wonderful plant that I believe should be 100% legalized, but especially for medical reasons! A friend of mine has severe pain and the only thing that really helps him is marijuana -- anything else makes it impossible for him to live, but marijuana takes care of the pain, or at least takes the edge off, AND he can still live a normal life without being drugged up constantly.

I was talking about those natural remedies that are sold on tv and in the drug store that you piss out about 4 hours after you take them.

@xay: What makes you believe vaccines for children are more rigorously tested? Where is your proof of this? And don't show me a study by a doctor please.

No....I would never have imagined somebody would do this. Screw pharmies!!

@snowmoon: The worst part is, this moron puts our children at risk with his blind paranoia.

@Gokuhouse: Who would you like to see a study by? God? Your mind's made up. It's exceptionally wrong, but clearly nothing in the scientific community exists to change your view.

Oh haha ok cool. Yeah there is a lot of "herbal remedy" crap out there that does nothing but encourage false hope.

Marijuana, on the other hand, has a long history of successful medicinal use which our government refuses to acknowledge.

OT! I have a consumerist complaint about Consumerist.com's reply comment function. Should I launch an EECB?

JK, but seriously this is annoying.

@Gokuhouse: Why not? The nature of the study and the rigor of its review should be what matters. If somebody simply refuses to believe material because of the profession of the researcher, that's an indication of a prejudice that overwhelms judgment.

@edwardso: It can also affect areas that don't get examined by an OB/GYN, and some of us actually would rather we not get bits of our innards removed if we can avoid it with a simple vaccine series.

I'm outside the official recommended age for the vaccine but I decided that the benefits still outweighed the risks for me.

@SteelersAreGo: Not just children but also adults who never received one of the vaccines for whatever reason and adults with severely depressed immune systems such as cancer patients going through chemo and AIDS patients.