Secrets of the MMR scare: How the vaccine crisis was meant to make money (New BMJ Report)

[HuckleB]

In the second part of a special BMJ series, Brian Deer reveals a secret scheme to raise huge sums from a campaign, launched at a London medical school, that claimed links between MMR, autism, and bowel disease
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c5258.full

"...

“You used to hear Wakefield’s people talking about how they would win the Nobel Prize for this,” remembers Brent Taylor, the Royal Free’s head of community child health, who frequently clashed with the pair. “The atmosphere here was extraordinary.”

But instead of honours, the two men reaped disgrace. In January and May 2010, the UK’s General Medical Council found them guilty of a raft of charges over a project involving child 2.4 Wakefield, now 54, was judged by a five member panel to be guilty of some 30 charges, including four counts of dishonesty and 12 of causing children to be subjected to invasive procedures that were clinically unjustified; Walker-Smith, 74, was deemed irresponsible and unethical.4 Both were struck off the medical register5 6 and have since filed High Court appeals.

...

Wakefield would never perform the research anywhere, or prove his measles theory. His vaccine plans—predictably—went nowhere. And when I put these matters to him, he and his lawyers acknowledged receipt but offered no further response.

Public fears over the vaccine had yet to reach their peak. My investigation would not begin for two years. But Wakefield would never again hold an academic post, and the secret scheme behind the scare was no more.

..."

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This is a very long piece that really can't be summarized, so please read the whole thing before responding. Thanks.

:toast:

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This is a piece on this long piece by Brian Deer, just in case you want to read some more...

http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2011/01/secrets-of-the-mmr-scare-how-the-vaccine-crisis-was-meant-to-make-money/

[trotsky]

1. And the anti-vaxers swallowed it - hook, line, and sinker.

To such an amazing extent that they are STILL defending this liar and fraud rather than face reality. Hilarious.

[laconicsax]

2. It can be summarized thus:

Wakefield's Lancet paper represents only a fraction of the fraud he committed.

[HuckleB]

3. True. True. -eom-