A U.K. medical regulator revoked the license of the doctor who first suggested a link between vaccines and autism and spurred a long-running, heated debate over the safety of vaccines.
Ending a nearly three-year hearing, Britain’s General Medical Council found Andrew Wakefield guilty of “serious professional misconduct” in the way he carried out his research in the late 1990s. The council struck his name from the U.K.’s medical register.
The same body in January concluded that Dr. Wakefield’s research was flawed, saying that he had presented his work in an “irresponsible and dishonest” way and shown “callous disregard” for the children in his study.
Shortly after that January ruling, the British medical journal that first published Dr. Wakefield’s study, the Lancet, retracted it. His central claim—that there could be a link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine—has largely been discredited.
Dr. Wakefield couldn’t immediately be reached to comment Monday. In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. on Monday, he said he would appeal the GMC’s decision. “Efforts to discredit and silence me through the GMC process have provided a screen to shield the government from exposure on the MMR vaccine scandal,” Dr. Wakefield said, according to the BBC.
Dr. Wakefield’s 1998 study of 12 children triggered worry among parents world-wide that the MMR vaccine caused autism. Many decided not to immunize their children, leading to outbreaks of measles in some Western countries. As many as 2.1% of children in the U.S. weren’t immunized with the MMR vaccine in 2000, up from 0.77% in 1995, according to a 2008 study published in Pediatrics.
A 2004 statistical review of existing epidemiological studies by the Institute of Medicine, a respected nonprofit organization in the U.S., concluded that there was no causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Some autism activist groups, however, continue to advocate against vaccinations for children, despite the lack of scientific evidence for such a link.
In an eight-page decision released Monday, the GMC found Dr. Wakefield guilty of numerous cases of misconduct in his research, including: taking blood samples from children during a birthday party without approval from the necessary ethics committee and paying them £5 ($7.24) as a reward; improperly managing and accounting for funds he received to carry out his research; treating the children in his research unethically by causing them to undergo procedures such as lumbar punctures that weren’t clinically necessary; and failing to disclose conflicts of interest to the Lancet, including that he received research funding from a lawyer representing parents who believed the MMR shot had harmed their children.
In the 1998 paper, Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues described 12 “previously normal” children who had developed gastrointestinal problems and developmental disorders including autism. The paper concluded that “in most cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunization. Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine.”
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
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8 Responses
In America we sue doctors for malpractice – in most other countries doctor worst concern is losing their license if they mess up.
My 11 month old baby caught measles, and a cousin of mine – mother of 9 just went through a very difficult bout of mumps.
if these parents would only know how miserable both these people were, and how week my cousin still is – 3 weeks after the virus has left her – she can’t even hang a load of laundry… they might take more responsibility when vaccinating their kids.
This is no private matter – it’s something that hits all other countries too – measles and mumps flooded israel from england!
kol yisroel avrievim…
#1 In the US there are two separate legal actions – one is for the license and is brought by the state; second – malpractice is brought by the victim seeking compensation
you see like i told member chance on the blog on health and fitness by the yeshiva world moderator there is no link between autism and vaccines.
Wakefield is the sound made by a certain kosher bird.
This guy sounds like not a doctor but instead he sounds like a Duck-tor…IE; A Quack.
Andrew Wakefield has done so much to help children with autism–and their parents. He is subject to a massive witch hunt; this demonstrates the lengths to which the medical establishment will go to silence those who raise questions about the safety of vaccinations.
Traces of the measles virus have been found in the guts of kids with autism. Not everyone’s immunse system works the same way. Not every child’s system can mount the defense against the viruses that are injected via vaccinations.
While the establishment claims that the link between autism and vaccines has not been conclusively proven, neither has it been conclusively disproven. Unless the same people who have an interest in disproving it will stop at nothing to cover up evidence of a link.
Those who are interested in a respected New YOrk Times journalist’s exposition of the vaccination industry, the science and medicine behind it, the stories of the children and parents affected, as well as the workings of the vaccine injury courts may want to read “Evidence of Harm” by David Kirby.
raisy,
What “massive witch hunt”? This isn’t about giving kids spinal taps without consulting the IRB (which Wakefield also did), this is about falsifying data. Wakefield claimed that 12 children suffered gut problems as a result of the MMR vaccine. But the records on which his research was supposedly based show that 11 of the 12 children were experiencing symptoms before they were vaccinated. And the same records show that most of the children did not have inflammatory bowel disease at all. That’s why Wakefield retracted the paper.