DOCTORS IN
MMR SCARE FACE PUBLIC INQUIRY
The
Sunday Times (London) December 12 2004
THE General Medical Council (GMC) is to hold a public
inquiry into the conduct of Andrew Wakefield and two
other doctors who triggered a scare over the safety
of the MMR vaccine by claiming to have found a
possible link with autism, writes Brian Deer.
After
a year-long investigation by The Sunday Times, the
doctors’ disciplinary body has ruled that
allegations facing Wakefield and the others, if
proved, would raise issues about their registration
and fitness to continue to practise medicine.
Facing
charges with Wakefield are Professor John
Walker-Smith, former head of paediatric
gastroenterology at the Royal Free hospital, and
Professor Simon Murch, who left the hospital this
month. The inquiry will focus on events at the Royal
Free in Hampstead, north London, between mid-1996 and
the end of 2001, when Wakefield left its medical
school’s employment. During this period research
on hundreds of autistic children was carried out,
trying to find any link between their problems and
MMR.
In
February this newspaper’s revelation that the
research began with an undisclosed £55,000 deal
between Wakefield and a firm of solicitors attempting
to sue MMR manufacturers led to public uproar and the
retraction of research, published in The Lancet in
1998, purporting possibly to implicate the vaccine.
None
of the accused doctors could be contacted this
weekend, but all are believed to have made
submissions strenuously denying any professional
misconduct.
Copyright,
Brian Deer. All rights reserved. No portion of this
article on MMR, Andrew Wakefield and the General
Medical Council may be copied, retransmitted,
reposted, duplicated or otherwise used without the
express written approval of the author. Responses,
information and other feedback are appreciated - via
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homepage.
