I’m pleased to say that - after I complained several times - the Observer has now corrected one of the many glaring errors in its MMR coverage: last Sunday, it ran this correction
In our interview with Dr Andrew Wakefield (News, 8 July) we referred to a US court case brought by 4,800 families claiming that their children had been made seriously ill by routine vaccinations. The article pointed out that the case centred on the use of the preservative thimerosal, which contains 50 per cent mercury. We said: ‘Crucially, it has never been an element of the MMR vaccine here’, which could suggest that it formed an element in US MMR. We are happy to clarify that it does not.
I’m very happy that (after rather a lot of discussion, and my pointing out that the Guardian appears to have been mislead by its sister papers claims re. thimerosal), the Observer finally made clear that it does not believe that MMR contains thimerosal. (MMR doesn’t, and never has, contained thimerosal - it’s a live vaccine, and a preservative like thimerosal would stop it from working)
However, I’m less happy that the Observer has not published a clear correction to their erroneous - and obviously wrong - claim that the US Autism Omnibus trial did not discuss MMR. This is despite me spending a good while on the phone explaining this issue to them, and e-mailing the Observer material that makes very, very clear that this Omnibus has discussed MMR at length. I’m also annoyed that the Observer has still not issued a proper apology or retraction for its awful Wakefield/MMR coverage last month, despite the fact that misinformation from the Observer has now infected Channel 4 as well.
I’ve e-mailed the Observer’s Readers’ Editor to say thanks for the correction, and make clear why I’m still not satisfied. It will be interesting to see if they run a clearer and more detailed correction this Sunday. I’m sure that the Observer would appreciate additional opinions on the quality of their science coverage.
2 responses so far ↓
stever // August 19, 2007 at 2:44 pm
good work
keep pressing them. It seems to work. A shame that public humiliation is required but there you go. They can end this disgrace whenever they want.
jonhw // August 19, 2007 at 3:44 pm
thanks Stever - hm, no further correction this week, but hopefully continued pressure will be useful. It would be great if people keep writing to and telephoning the Observer about this, to impress on them that this won’t be forgotten until they properly correct their errors.
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