A Strongly Worded Letter to the Editor

Published by Adam on March 6th, 2009

I mentioned in a previous post that my friend sent a strongly worded letter to the editor of the BSU Daily News regarding their recent article on the anti-vaccination movement. As promised, here is the text of that letter as sent by my friend Carrie on behalf of the BSU Freethought Alliance. I thought it was a well-written letter, but I'm more than a bit concerned that their response will be "tl;dr". Oh well, I guess we'll see.

To the Editor of the Ball State Daily News,

I am the President of the Ball State University Freethought Alliance,
and I am writing you to express our group's severe disappointment over
the lack of journalistic integrity regarding your recent article on the
new “Truth Movement” at Ball State. Our group promotes critical thinking
and scientific inquiry, and we feel that the Daily News has failed to
accurately represent the potentially dangerous and scientifically
unfounded claims made by the anti-vaccination movement these students
are promoting.

Naturally, we are not at all opposed to the newspaper running articles
about new student groups, and we understand the significance of student
groups leading campus protests. However, we believe that the way in
which your article credulously repeated this group's claims without
expending any effort to investigate the evidence supporting them is
entirely out of line.

I am primarily concerned with the controversial claims about thimerosol
made by the Truth Movement. These were printed in your paper without any
supporting evidence aside from a vague reference to alleged studies
which are never cited. The following statement is one example from the
article in question:

“Farmer, president of the Ball State Truth movement, knew exactly what
he was doing. His question was about thimerosal; a potentially dangerous
ingredient in some flu vaccines that studies have shown could lead to
Alzheimer's disease or autism, that Kennedy was vividly opposed to.”

There have been no peer reviewed studies published by any reputable
journal that have shown any correlation between the thimerosal
preservative and any neurological disorder. The seminal study published
in The Lancet that touched off the current controversy surrounding
thimerosol was retracted by the Lancet's editors in March 2004 due to
“serious allegations of research misconduct”
(http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(04)15699-7/fulltext).
Add to that the details of a recent investigation published only a month
ago which revealed that the author of the discredited Lancet article
manipulated and falsified some of the data he used to justify the claims
made in that study
(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5683671.ece).
The retraction of this original article -- coupled with evidence of
falsified data -- are only two components in the body of evidence which
completely discredits the claims made by the anti-vaccination movement.

Other studies have attempted to validate the link between thimerosol and
autism. All of them have shown that no such connection exists. These
studies should be considered when reviewing the Truth Movement's claims
of danger associated with vaccines that contain this preservative.

Key Studies:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/114/3/793
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/65/1/19
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/13/1281
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003140
**The last study linked attempted to reproduce the results of the study
by Andrew Wakefield mentioned above, with negative results

I understand that your article was simply repeating the claims made by
Mr. Farmer, but the wording used in the article implies at least a tacit
acceptance on the part of the author. The least that you could have done
in this case would have been to ask Mr. Farmer to provide you with
citations for the studies that he claims show any causal connection
between thimerosol and autism or Alzheimer's, and printed references to
them alongside the claims in the article. I feel that in this case, the
author failed to uphold the basic standard of evidence that should be
applied to all claims.

I am concerned that publishing the claims of the Truth Movement without
any investigation of their validity may mislead Ball State students
about the efficacy and safety of MMR and other vaccines. Many current
Ball State students will likely become new parents in the next few
years. It is my worry that the unfounded fears surrounding vaccines they
received from claims made by the Truth Movement, and your paper's
credulous reporting of them, will lead these new parents to deprive
their children of proper vaccinations. This fear has tangible
consequences. Measles outbreaks in Great Britain and California fueled
by the fear-mongering of anti-vaccination groups like the Truth Movement
have caused a great deal of pain and suffering for unvaccinated children
and teenagers.

I urge you to investigate the information I have provided in this
letter. This is a controversial and hotly debated issue, but much of the
controversy rests upon a weak scaffolding of scientific evidence
bolstered by a great deal of misinformation, paranoia and fear. It is my
hope that upon a review of the information provided your paper can
present a more balanced and evidence-based view of the issue. If you
would like to contact the BSU Freethought Alliance you can reach us at
freethoughtbsu@gmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

Carrie Arnold
President, BSU Freethought Alliance

P.S.
Below are links to some blogs which regularly post information relevant
to this discussion:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/

Also, an article detailing this controversy is available from Skeptical
Inquirer magazine:
http://www.csicop.org/si/2007-06/novella.html

Bookmark/Search this post with: