Vaccine-autism link doctor faces misconduct inquiry

Barry Hunt · medicine forum beginner Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 7

No doubt the anti-vaccination child murderers classify this as
victimisation and conspiracy by big pharma companies.

Barry

The doctor who sparked a major scare over the safety of the MMR
vaccine is to be charged with serious professional misconduct by the
General Medical Council (GMC) in a final bid by the medical
establishment to lay the controversy to rest.

Andrew Wakefield, who published a paper in 1998 purporting to show a
link between MMR vaccine and autism, is accused of publishing
"inadequately founded" research, failing to obtain ethical committee
approval, obtaining cash "improperly" and subjecting children to
"unnecessary investigations".

The research, which ran in 'The Lancet', is said to have done more
damage than anything published in a scientific journal in memory. It
caused alarm about MMR vaccine, immunisation rates slumped and cases
of measles, mumps and rubella soared.

The GMC will present charges in autumn and a public hearing is
expected next year. Dr Wakefield, (50), could be struck off the
medical register if found guilty. Unusually, the GMC has brought the
case itself in the public interest. There is no complainant.

The investigation has taken two years and lawyers for Dr Wakefield
complain he and his family are suffering distress caused by the delay
in bringing charges.

The research was carried out at the Royal Free Hospital, north London
by Dr Wakefield and 12 other doctors and published in 'The Lancet' in
February 1998.

The warning about MMR was amplified by Dr Wakefield at a press
conference - to the disquiet of his colleagues - and the subsequent
scare led tens of thousands of parents to boycott the vaccine.
Immunisation rates fell over the next five years from well over 90pc
nationally to a low of 78.9pc in early 2003.

There was a resurgence in cases of measles, mumps and rubella (German
measles), according to the Health Protection Agency.

The number of cases of mumps soared from 4,204 cases in 2003 to 16,436
in 2004 and to 56,390 cases last year. Since 2003, the MMR vaccination
rate has increased slightly and in mid-2005 stood at 83pc. In 2004 it
emerged that at the time he was preparing his paper for 'The Lancet',
Dr Wakefield was being paid by lawyers for parents of children
allegedly damaged by the vaccine to look for evidence that could be
used to help sue the manufacturers of the vaccine.

He received stg£55,000 (€80,000) from the Legal Aid Board which was
paid into his research fund, but which he did not disclose to his
co-researchers. He was accused by 'The Lancet' of failing to declare a
conflict of interest that could have influenced his findings. Editor
Richard Horton said if he had known in 1998 about the conflict of
interest he would never have published the paper, and he partially
withdrew it in 2004. John Reid, Health Secretary at the time, called
on the GMC to hold an inquiry.

Dr Wakefield, a consultant gastroenterologist, left the Royal Free
hospital in 2001 "by mutual agreement". He has since worked mainly in
America where he has business interests and continues to research
autistic children.

His claims about the link between MMR and autism have been repudiated
by a series of scientific studies.

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