MMR scare doctor's protestations founder as Wakefield abandons third libel action

This page is research from an investigation by Brian Deer for The Sunday Times of London and the UK's Channel 4 Television into a campaign linking the MMR children's vaccine with autism. | Go to part I: The Lancet scandal | Go to part II: The Wakefield factor

In January 2005, as Brian Deer's investigation progressed, Andrew Wakefield, funded by the Medical Protection Society, initiated three meritless libel actions. Two years later, after a first and second discontinuance, concerning revelations broadcast by Channel 4's Dispatches and published at this website, he dropped a third claim, against The Sunday Times, even though proceedings were stayed until after a UK General Medical Council disciplinary hearing in 2007, at which, he forecast, he would be "vindicated"