Who is Andrew Wakefield?

Answer 1

Andrew Wakefield is a Canadian trained former surgeon and the lead author of a controversial 1998 research study, published in (and subsequently retracted by) The Lancet, which reported bowel symptoms in a selected sample of twelve children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities, and alleged a possible connection with MMR vaccination.

After the publication of Wakefield's paper in The Lancet- the prestigious British medical journal, other researchers were unable to reproduce Wakefield's findings or confirm his hypothesis of an association between the MMR vaccine and autism, or autism and gastrointestinal disease. After a British Journalist uncovered and published undisclosed financial conflict of interest information (Wakefield was getting money from people suing the vaccine company claiming the vaccine caused autism in their children), the British Governing Medical Council (GMC) - the governing body for physicians in Britain - opened an investigation against Wakefield and two former colleagues. Most of his co-authors withdrew their support for the study's interpretations

On 28 January 2010, a five-member statutory tribunal of the GMC found three dozen charges proved, including four counts of dishonesty and 12 counts involving the abuse of developmentally challenged children. The panel ruled that Wakefield had "failed in his duties as a responsible consultant", acted both against the interests of his patients, and "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in his published research.

Wakefield's study that was used to link MMR to autism was retracted by The Lancet and was subsequently labeled an "elaborate fraud" in an investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ. The investigation concluded the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.

Three months following The Lancet's retraction, Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register, with a statement identifying deliberate falsification in the research published in The Lancet and was barred from practicing medicine in the UK.

Wakefield's utter failure to conduct valid research does not disprove any possible links between vaccines and autism, but it is pretty obvious his "study" suggesting a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism was worthless for that purpose.