Autism's Dr. Andrew Wakefield Banned

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright May 24, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

              British medical authorities finished their hatchet job on Dr. Andrew Wakefield who published his 1998 peer-reviewed groundbreaking study linking vaccines to autism in the prestigious medical journal Lancet.  Wakefield helped account for an alarming increase in autism, now estimated in about one-in-a-hundred live births.  Some former National Institutes of Health researchers, like Dr. Mark Geier, believes the incidence is actually more like one-in-fifty.  Banning Wakefield from practicing medicine in the U.K, the General Medical Council cited Wakefield’s egregious ethical lapses in conducting his study.  Stripping Wakefield of his medical license May 24 followed a Jan. 28 ruling by Britain’s GMC that charged the 53-year-old doctor with 36 counts of dishonesty, including abuse of underage minors.  Wakefield was accused of extracting blood and tissue samples from disabled children.

            Wakefield paid families for blood and tissue samples of disabled children at his son’s birthday party.  Assessing the stomach contents, Wakefield found measles virus in the intestinal tract of autistic children after receiving the Measles, Mumps and Rubella [MMR] vaccine years earlier.  Medical authorities—including vaccine makers—tout the safety and efficacy of vaccines, despite the presence of federally mandated Vaccine Court called the U.S. Court of Special Claims, created in 1986 by an act of Congress to handle vaccine injury claims.  Back then the Diptheria, Pertussis and Tetanus [DTP] vaccines caused such adverse effects that Congress mandated vaccine makers to indemnify a federal court to pay claims.  Despite the avalanche of product liability suits back then, vaccine makers routinely deny injuries, blaming greedy plaintiffs and trial lawyers for pernicious litigation.

            British authorities charged Wakefield with egregious ethical breaches conducting his research, citing him Jan. 28, 2010, stating he “failed in his duties as a responsible consultant,” insisting he acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly,” primarily for not getting approval by an ethics board to conduct his research.  A five-member tribunal of the GMC also accused Wakefield of fixing his results due to conflicts of interest, accepting money from plaintiffs’ attorneys representing autism cases.  Wakefield denies the charges, insisting, whether his research was ethically compromised or not, the triple-dose MMR vaccines, can, under unfavorable conditions, contribute to autism.  British authorities blamed Wakefield for an increase in incidence of childhood diseases caused by parents’ refusal to follow standard medical advice and vaccinate their children in infancy and early childhood.

             When the British medical journal Lancet retracted Wakefield’s 1998 article Feb. 29, 2010, it anticipated his eventual expulsion from the British medical society.  Ejecting Wakefield culminated the vaccine makers wish to have him and his research erased from the medical community.  Whatever Wakefield’s ethical lapses, his research constituted a clarion call to families of autistic children, forever stricken with the crushing burden of raising children with severe communication problems.  Britain’s General Medical Council blames Wakefield, without any real proof, of causing a rise in childhood diseases in Britain since publishing his study.  Parents of autistic children would trade, any day, measles, mumps, rubella or any other childhood disease for autism.  British authorities offer as proof of Wakefield’s fraud the fact that his findings have not been replicated by other reputable researchers.

            Wakefield’s case represents the extremes to which medical authorities and drug makers will go to discredit anyone who interferes with their business model.  Calling last January’s charges an attempt to “discredit and silence” his research, Wakefield insisted he wasn’t going away.  “These parents are not going a way; the children are not going away and I most certainly am not going away,” said Wakefield, vowing to continue his research linking childhood vaccines to autism.  Childhood vaccines represent one of the most lucrative profit-centers to the drug industry.  Wakefield dared to question the safety of childhood vaccines and paid the price.  “It is our most sincere belief that Dr. Wakefield and parents of children with autism around the world are being subjected to a remarkable media campaign engineered by vaccine makers,” said Autism author and activist Jenny McCarthy last February.

            Ejecting Wakefield from the British Medical Society turns back the clock on a prudent approach safely administering childhood vaccines.  Creating federal Vaccine Court in 1986 directly related to the growing incidence of verifiable injuries from DPT vaccines.  Vaccine makers denied any such injuries.  Medical authorities on both sides of the Atlantic should review the copious reports of drug makers influencing the outcome of medical research.  “The verdict is not about (the measles) vaccine,” said Adam Finn, professor of pediatrics at the University of Bristol Medical School.  “We all know that the vaccine is remarkably safe and enormously effective . . . we badly need to put this right for the sake of our own children and children worldwide,” ignoring the thousands, possibly millions, of families afflicted with autism.  Before accepting such gospel, more independent research is needed.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.