Brian
Deer: Solved
- the riddle of MMR
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In the
third part of a Sunday
Times investigation, Brian
Deer
cracks the secrets
of the most controversial
medical research in a
generation, and reveals
why nobody
could repeat findings by Andrew
Wakefield linking
a vaccine with autism |
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| Click here
for a summary:
In February 1998, the Lancet medical
journal triggered a global alarm with
research proposing a link between the
measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism.
The researchers' leader, Andrew
Wakefield called for the vaccine
to be "suspended".
Brian Deer investigated for The Sunday
Times of London and exposed one of
medicine's darkest scandals |
. Behind
the Lancet pages
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| For more
than a decade, scientists
were baffled as to why
nobody could repeat
the findings of British
former gut surgeon Andrew
Wakefield, who in the Lancet
of 28 February 1998
launched a global health
crisis by linking the MMR
vaccine with autism.
Eleven years later, in
February 2009, Deer solved
the riddle, with
access to the original
records
of anonymised children
reported in the journal.
He revealed that the
Wakefield paper was thick
with changed
and misreported
diagnoses, histories and
descriptions |
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| ."MMR
doctor fixed data on autism";
investigation by Brian Deer; The Sunday
Times, pages 1, 6-7; 8 February 2009 |
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"The
first cracks in the vaccine theories of
autism appeared in early 2004. An
investigation by British journalist Brian
Deer in The Sunday Times of London
revealed that the children Wakefield
described in the Lancet study had not
simply arrived on the doorstep... The
investigation has since expanded,
with new charges by journalist Deer that
Wakefield or his coauthors misrepresented
the children's medical records"
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"The
charge is explosive: a British doctor who
led the first scientific study suggesting
a link between autism and the MMR vaccine
misrepresented data in
a prestigious medical journal. The
allegation appears in an investigation
published Sunday in the Times of London
and has raced around the world since...
Deer is in the US this week to deliver a
lecture on his work"
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"Dr
Andrew Wakefield, the British physician
who jump-started the scare about a link
between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR)
vaccine and autism, manipulated and
changed data to make his case in the 1998
Lancet paper, according to an
investigation by the Sunday Times of
London... by studying confidential and
public records,
investigative reporter Brian Deer...
found a different story"
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"Last
week a federal court confirmed what has
been the mainstream view of the
scientific community from the
beginning...Backing that up was an
article in the London Sunday
Times that detailed how doctors
in England had distorted data to create
the vaccine panic...Worse, as
investigative reporter Brian Deer
revealed... many of the children had
shown symptoms of autism before they
received the vaccine"
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"An
English doctor who linked childhood
vaccines to autism, 'changed and
misreported results in his research,'
reports the London Times... All
of the researchers involved in the study deny
misconduct, says the Times.
'Through his lawyers, Wakefield this
weekend denied the issues raised by our
investigation, but declined to comment
further'" |
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| Press
Gazette interview:
In the week after the new
revelations about Wakefield's
research, while Brian Deer was in
Michigan (left), the UK's
magazine for the newspaper
industry profiled the Sunday
Times investigation, in a report
(far left) by Owen Amos.
"I've had enough of
vaccines," Deer is quoted as
saying in the report. "But
I'm not sure they've had enough
of me." |
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| Michigan
debut: For the
first time ever, a journalist has been
able to get behind the face of research
in a medical journal, and expose the
secret patient information. Deer's
findings were first presented in February
2009 at the University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor. Events
included a seminar for fellows, as
well as the prestigious Grand Rounds in the department
of pediatrics, and the Susan B Meister
lecture (above), where he was
joined by Dr Catherine DeAngelis, editor
of the Journal of the American Medical
Association |
| United
States court reaches the same conclusions
as Brian Deer and highlights concerns
over Wakefield |
In federal
court: On 12
February 2009, just four days after Brian
Deer's Sunday Times investigation was
published, special masters in US courts
handed down judgments in three landmark
test cases on whether vaccines can cause
autism. In lengthy decisions, all three
made no such finding. They offered
scathing opinions of Andrew Wakefield
[who was not called to give evidence and
whose research was dumped by the
petitioners] and his network of
supporters, including doctors Arthur Krigsman and Jeffrey Bradstreet
Wakefield
accused of scientific fraud: Handing down the
first of the three judgments in US
federal court, special master George L
Hastings highlighted allegations of fraud
and deception made against
Wakefield, even though the former gut
surgeon did not take part in the
proceedings. He had originally been planned as
the star petitioner witness in trials of
his MMR-autism allegations, but was never
called in the wake of Deer's first Sunday Times
revelations and TV findings, which were in
the background throughout the
trial
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Family
"misled by
physicians"
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Master George L Hastings
in Cedillo v HHS:
"The petitioners in
this case have advanced a
causation theory that has
several parts, including
contentions (1) that
thimerosal-containing
vaccines can cause immune
dysfunction, (2) that the
MMR vaccine can cause
autism, and (3) that the
MMR vaccine can cause
chronic gastrointestinal
dysfunction. However, as
to each of those issues,
I concluded that the
evidence was
overwhelmingly contrary
to the petitioners...
They have visited at
least one physician, Dr
Krigsman, who has
explicitly opined that
Michelle's own chronic
gastrointestinal symptoms
are MMR-caused. And they
have even been told that
a medical laboratory has
positively identified the
presence of the
persisting vaccine-strain
measles virus in
Michelle's body, years
after her vaccination.
After studying the
extensive evidence in
this case for many
months, I am convinced
that the reports and
advice given to the
Cedillos by Dr Krigsman
and some other
physicians, advising the
Cedillos that there is a
causal connection between
Michelle's MMR
vaccination and her
chronic conditions, have
been very wrong.
Unfortunately, the
Cedillos have been misled
by physicians who are
guilty, in my view, of
gross medical
misjudgment... the
evidence strongly
indicates that Michelle
was already showing
evidence of brain
abnormality and of autism
prior to her MMR
vaccination." [extracts] |
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Wakefield
"did not
disclose"
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Special
Master Patricia E
Campbell-Smith in
Hazlehurst v HHS:
"To the extent that
the claim precipitated by
the work of Dr Andrew
Wakefield viewed
regressive autism as a
relatively new phenotype
of the disorder, that
claim is undercut by
evidence of an
epidemiologic study
conducted in 1966, more
than 40 years ago, that
documents a loss of
skills in about 30
percent of the studied
children... Dr MacDonald
asserted that Dr
Wakefield 'invented new
pathological
abnormalities which were
not recognized by anyone
in the world'... 10 of Dr
Wakefield's 12 coauthors
on the 1998 Wakefield
article retracted the
earlier offered
interpretation of the
conducted study,
retracting, in
particular, the
conclusion that a
potential causal link
existed between the MMR
vaccine and autism. At
the time that Dr
Wakefield authored the
1998 Wakefield article,
he did not disclose in
the article that he had
been contacted by lawyers
for the Legal Services
Commission to participate
in the United Kingdom
autism litigation against
three MMR vaccine
manufacturers. Dr
Wakefield was one of the
three top recipients of
payment in the claimants
action in the United
Kingdom." [extracts]
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"'Abundant
evidence'" of fraud
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Special
Master Denise K Vowell,
in Snyder v HHS:
"Doctor Rust used
the term 'scientific
fraud' in describing the
information upon which
the MMR theory of
causation is based. While
noting that scientists
are very careful about
using that term, he
testified that there was
'abundant evidence' of
scientific fraud in the
body of evidence
developed to support the
MMR-autism hypothesis.
Sadly, the petitioners in
this litigation have been
the victims of bad
science, conducted to
support litigation rather
than to advance medical
and scientific
understanding of ASD...
To conclude that Colten's
condition was the result
of his MMR vaccine, an
objective observer would
have to emulate Lewis
Carroll's White Queen and
be able to believe six
impossible (or, at least,
highly improbable) things
before breakfast." [extracts]
Appeal
denied:
In August 2010, the US
court of appeals for the
federal circuit upheld
rulings by federal
special masters and
judges rejecting claims
that MMR caused autism. |
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Pathology
changed: In a
special BMJ report in April 2010, Deer
spelt out how findings from the guts of
children included in the Lancet paper to
justify claims that the doctor had
discovered a "new syndrome",
were subjected to wholesale, unreported, changes.
These changes, never revealed before the
investigation, were uniformly from normal
to abnormal, or from healthy to diseased
Liar for
hire: As
Andrew Wakefield has appeared before a
fitness to practise panel of the General
Medical Council [see below], he has
worked with a character publishing false
accounts of the proceedings.
After running a two-year smear campaign
against Deer, this individual let slip
that he was being funded by American
interests, and had sponged money from
families struggling with disability. This
character's activities were co-ordinated
with those of Carol Stott, and others
involved in spreading abuse and
misinformation
Contact
Brian at this link: Visitors
often offer vital information for this
and other investigations. Please feel
free to email Brian Deer
with your suggestions, comments and
ideas. If you plan to quote from this
site, please acknowledge, and check the copyright notice. Links to this
site are appreciated, and may further an
issue of great public importance: the
safety of children by vaccination
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| World
Conference of Science Journalists hears
Brian Deer on investigation of MMR and
Andrew Wakefield |
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| Brian
Deer was among the speakers at
the 6th World Conference
of Science Journalists,
which brought more than 1,000
reporters and editors from
throughout the world to London in
June and July 2009. His topic was
the future of investigative
journalism. Since beginning his
MMR-autism inquiries, he has also
spoken at Falmouth, City, Durham
and Michigan universities, as
well as University College London
and Westminster Skeptics. During
2010 he is scheduled to speak at
Baltimore, Boston and other
locations. Contact
Brian if you would like
him to speak at your event |
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| Wakefield
response:
After a letter was sent to Wakefield, his
lawyers denied the
findings of Deer's investigation.
Throughout the affair, in a series of
statements following Deer's reports,
Wakefield denied that be was paid by
lawyers for research, that he planned his
own vaccine, or that he fixed the Lancet
findings. He denied everything, and made
up a bizarre conspiracy
theory, caught on video |
| Andrew
Wakefield erased after
medical tribunal rules
him
"dishonest",
"unethical" and
"callous" |
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GMC
prosecution:
After the longest-ever hearing
by a UK General Medical
Council panel - a
statutory tribunal - on
28 January 2010 Wakefield
was branded
"dishonest",
"unethical" and
"callous". On 2
February, his 1998 Lancet
paper
was retracted,
and on 17 February he was
ousted from his job in
Austin, Texas. Brian
Deer's investigation was
thus vindicated.
Judged
against a criminal
standard of proof,
Wakefield was found
guilty on four counts of
dishonesty and 12 counts
involving the abuse of
developmentally-challenged
children. Nine of these
counts involved causing
invasive "high
risk" research tests
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be
performed without
clinical reason, and
three of causing kids to
undergo lumbar punctures
which were not warranted.
Further proven charges
related to Wakefield's
Lancet MMR paper, which
was found to be both
dishonest and unethical.
The GMC's
case was brought in
response to Deer's Sunday
Times
and Channel
4
stories. The five-member
panel sat for 217 days,
after which, on 24 May
2010, Wakefield was ordered
to be erased from the
medical register. Another
doctor, John Walker-Smith
was also ordered
erased, while a third,
Simon Murch, was found
not guilty. Read
the full GMC findings of
fact |
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Wakefield
found to be
"dishonest,
unethical"
On
28 January 2010, a
five-member panel of the
doctors' regulator for
the United Kingdom, the
General Medical Council,
handed down rulings
vindicating Brian Deer's
investigation, and
dubbing Andrew Wakefield
"dishonest",
"unethical" and
"callous".
Some three dozen charges
were found proven,
including four counts of
dishonesty and 12
involving the abuse of
developmentally-challenged
children. Eleven counts
concerned "high
risk" research
performed without ethical
approval; nine of causing
such research to be
carried out contrary to
the children's clinical
interests; three of
causing children to
undergo lumbar puncture
which was not warranted;
and three of him ordering
medical tests without the
necessary qualifications
and in breach of his
non-clinical employment
contract.
Among the most serious
charges found proven
related to Wakefield's research,
published in The Lancet
medical journal in
February 1998, which
triggered epidemics of
fear, guilt and
infectious disease by
baselessly proposing a
link between the MMR
children's vaccine,
autism and bowel disease.
After 197 days of
evidence, submission and
deliberation, between
July 2007 and January
2010, the GMC panel
concluded that the
research published in the
journal contained a
"dishonest"
description of the
reported study's purpose
and admissions criteria -
which is scientific fraud
- and a false statement
that it had been approved
by the Royal Free
hospital's ethics
committee (an
institutional review
board).
"In reaching its
decision, the panel notes
that the project reported
in the Lancet paper was
established with the
purpose to investigate a
postulated new syndrome
and yet the Lancet paper
did not describe this
fact at all. Because you
drafted and wrote the
final version of the
paper, and omitted
correct information about
the purpose of the study
or the patient
population, the panel is
satisfied that your
conduct was irresponsible
and dishonest."
The panel ruled that
Wakefield's failure to
notify the editor of the
Lancet of his involvement
in MMR litigation, his
receipt of legal aid
funding for the study,
and his filing of a
patent for a single
measles vaccine,
"constituted a
disclosable interest
which included matters
which could legitimately
give rise to a perception
of a conflict of
interest."
With regard to the
funding of his research
from the UK legal aid
fund, the panel found
Wakefield to have failed
to notify the Legal Aid
Board that clinical
investigations on the
children would be paid
for under the National
Health Service, and hence
not all of the money
requested and received
was needed for the
purposes specified. The
panel found this conduct
both
"misleading"
and
"dishonest".
With regard to instances
in 1998, after the Lancet
paper's publication, when
Wakefield was challenged
by other doctors over his
possible involvement in
litigation and the source
of children enrolled in
his research, the GMC
found his responses to
have been
"dishonest".
These incidents included
dishonesty during a
special meeting called by
the UK Medical Research
Council to consider his
research claims.
Wakefield was also found
to have shown a
"callous disregard
for the distress and
pain" of children
during an incident when
he paid kids, said to
have been as young as
four year old, £5 each
for blood samples taken
at a birthday party.
Charges were also found
proven against two other
doctors - professors John
Walker-Smith and Simon
Murch - although neither
were found to have acted
dishonestly. Walker-Smith
was the final and senior
clinical author of the
1998 Lancet paper, into
whose care most of the
children were admitted.
Murch was the second
author, and gave
colonoscopies to most of
the kids.
On 24 May 2010, the proceedings
concluded, after 217
days, with Wakefield
and Walker-Smith
found guilty of serious
professional misconduct
and ordered erased from
the medical register. Murch
was found not guilty. The
panel ruled that
Wakefield's actions
"not only
collectively amounts to
serious professional
misconduct", but
"multiple separate
instances of serious
professional
misconduct".
Andrew
Wakefield is
ousted from US job
Following the devastating
findings
from the General Medical
Council panel on January
28 2010, the vaccine
issue underwent a wave of
corrections, as Brian
Deer's investigation
worked through. Five days
later, the Lancet fully retracted
the 1998 Wakefield paper
which had linked MMR with
autism, and on 3 February
the editor of a
specialist journal,
Neurotoxocology, decided
to withdraw another
Wakefield paper, already
published online, which
also sought to implicate
vaccines in autism.
Then, on 17 February,
Thoughtful House, a
research and clinical
centre established in
2005 for Wakefield in
Austin, Texas, announced
in a terse statement that
"we fully support
his decision to
leave" its
employment. The statement
was signed by Jane
Johnson, director of the
Defeat Autism Now network
of alternative
practitioners. At 10am
the following morning,
his name was erased from
the front of the
Thoughtful House website,
and a previous statement,
criticising the GMC, was
taken down.
Wakefield's disgrace
continued to percolate
through medicine when, in
May 2010, yet another
of his papers was
retracted
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