RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE

"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine, quackery, science, and pseudoscience (and anything else that interests him).

Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Humor Quackery

The Spoof on Andrew Wakefield

Post author By Orac
Post date June 13, 2006
1 Comment on The Spoof on Andrew Wakefield

Well, it didn’t take The Spoof long to comment on the Andrew Wakefield affair. Choice bits:

While on holiday in the US in 1997 he was introduced to a creationist nutter called Professor Hugh Fudenberg who claimed to cure autistic children by giving them samples of his own bone marrow.

And, my favorite:

Wakefield was recruited for a sum not less than the publicly reported thrity peices of silver and began being tutored in Fudenberg’s “transfer factor technology” – the secret key to mastering miracle cures for childhood autism syndrome.

This theory was based on a curious supposition that special substances can be harvested from white blood cells. Fudenberg’s recipe – as stated before the US Supreme Court in 2001 – advised “injecting mice with measles, extracting and processing white cells, injecting the result into pregnant goats, milking them after kid-birth and turning the product into capsules for kids”.

Wakefield immediately tried to patent the recipie and headed back to the UK where he soon found a captive audience of desperate but gullible parents whose children had been diagnosed with autistic symptoms.

Heh.

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By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

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