- MEMO
WARNED MMR DOCTOR
OF RESEARCH FLAW
The
Sunday Times (London) July 15 2007
Brian
Deer
THE doctor at the centre of the row over the MMR
vaccine was warned a year before he published his
research that it may have been compromised, a
confidential document has shown.
The
memo was sent to Dr Andrew Wakefield, a researcher at
the Royal Free hospital, London. It warned him that
the parents of most of the children in his study,
investigating alleged links between the vaccine and
autism, were litigants seeking compensation from drug
companies. The memo said this gave the parents
“a vested interest” in finding a link
between MMR and their children’s autism.
The
document is regarded by lawyers as central to a
hearing beginning tomorrow into the conduct of
Wakefield and two of his former colleagues at the
Royal Free – Professors John Walker-Smith and
Simon Murch.
The
doctors are facing a string of charges at the General
Medical Council, which they deny, alleging serious
misconduct over their research on MMR.
The
three were the main authors of a study published in
The Lancet in February 1998 which led to a worldwide
scare over the safety of the vaccine.
Drawing
on findings from just 12 autistic children, aged
between 3 and 10, seen in 1996-97, the study reported
that the parents of eight blamed MMR, saying their
children’s “behavioural symptoms”
started within two weeks of vaccination.
Despite
the small size of the study, these allegations were
represented by the doctors as highly significant. It
was claimed the children were merely routine
referrals by GPs and paediatricians to a bowel clinic
at the hospital.
But
the document, a memo dated February 20, 1997, from
Walker-Smith to Wakefield and marked as copied to
Murch, warned: “It is clear that the legal
involvement by nearly all the parents will have an
effect on the study as they have a vested
interest.”
A
copy of the memo only recently came to light among
hospital records. Walker-Smith said in it: “I
would be less concerned by legal involvement if our
work was complete and we had a firm view.
“Never
before in my career have I been confronted by
litigant parents of research work in progress.
“I
think this makes our work difficult, especially
publication and presentation.”
The
three doctors did not disclose the status of their
research subjects’ parents.
For
the full story of the MMR scandal see http://briandeer.com
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