"Vaccines Cause Autism" Doctor Discredited

Dr. Andrew Wakefield (pictured), the British doctor who basically forwarded the myth that MMR (measles, mumps & rubella) vaccines can cause autism in children, has been discredited by the General Medical Council (Britain's medical regulator). They say he conducted his research in a "dishonest and irresponsible manner", and showed a "callous disregard" for children by performing tests that were not in their best medical interests.

In 1998, Wakefield published a medical article in the British medical journal Lancet. That article said his research had shown a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. It was later learned that his "research" had been based on only 12 children -- not nearly enough to reach any kind of statistically significant result. The journal said they had made a mistake by publishing the article, and that the results claimed by Wakefield have not been able to be reproduced by any other researchers.

But his faulty research scared a lot of parents into not vaccinating their children, and measles jumped from only a dozen cases a year to over 1,000 a year in Great Britain. It is only just now beginning to drop. Then Wakefield appeared on the U.S. television show 60 Minutes spreading the same lie, and helped give rise to the anti-vaccine movement in this country.

The General Medical Council said he had taken blood from children at his son's birthday party and paid them $8 each. He gave spinal taps to children at a hospital without regard to how the medical procedure might affect those children. He also took money from lawyers representing parents who thought the MMR vaccine had hurt their children. That certainly doesn't sound like the actions of a responsible medical researcher. The Council could revoke his right to practice medicine in Great Britain.

But I doubt that he cares about that, because he no longer lives and practices there. He has moved to Texas, and now practices medicine in Austin. He is still pushing his faulty research and unprovable conclusions -- only now his victims are Texas children.

Texas has enough problems dealing with the recession and Rick Perry and the state Republican leadership that doesn't want poor children to have health insurance. We certainly don't need this quack to add to our problems, by either irresponsibly doing "research" on children or convincing their parents to not have them vaccinated.