The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism is to be struck off the medical register.
I think that means he’ll lose his license to practice in England.
Also, if you think this is just some blather, see the graph at the bottom of the article to see skyrocketing Measles rates due directly to the scaremongering done by this doctor.
Via Respectful Insolence.
From what I read, he did only lose his license to practice in England (Great Britain?), but he had already moved to the U. S. and was now working here. I assume as a doctor, but the article did not say.
Dr Andrew Wakefield thought that a potential link between MMR and autism should be investigated; which I think is fair enough – many parents thought there was a link. But then he didn’t investigate to an appropriate standard – something we forgive the pharmaceutical companies for every day.
I think we should be mindful of William McBride and the parallels between him and Dr Wakefield; McBride was struck off in similar circumstances, yet we know that he was right in his assertions about Thalidomide.
Pharmaceutical companies don’t appreciate losing money and can behave in a less than ideal way in these circumstances.
In respect to the Measles graph – the government itself is as responsible for the rise in Measles; given the questions around MMR the government could have chosen to allow parents the non-combined jabs; many, possibly most, would have taken that option. Instead, the government banned them.
The last time I asked a paediatrician whether his son received an MMR jab he said ‘yes, but later on – 6 months before he went to school’. I still think that’s a sensible approach.
PS Your brother’s car/design looks superb!
Umm, no.
Wakefield decided to slime the MMR vaccine to help out some plaintiffs’ attorneys, got caught, and did a lot of damage to faith in vaccines, which have saved more people than all the docs in the history of time, and, did it in violation of good faith and good science.
He’ll not be vindicated, and the ‘pharma’ boogeyman here is rubbish.
Good riddance.