Three Wakefield attacks that hit UK parents’ confidence in MMR
April 1995: The Lancet publishes a paper by Andrew Wakefield and others, based on statistical data misleadingly culled from two unrelated studies, claiming to find a possible link between bowel diseases and measles vaccination. The Royal Free hospital and medical school hold a televised press conference at which MMR is criticised. [Crohn’s paper] The authors, including Wakefield, later quietly abandon their claim that Crohn’s is related to vaccination.
February 1998: The Lancet publishes a paper by Andrew Wakefield and others claiming to have found a possible link between bowel diseases, autism and MMR. The Royal Free hospital and medical school hold a televised press conference at which Wakefield advises parents to boycott MMR in favour of single vaccines. [Autism paper] Analysis of the raw data – the children’s medical records, exposed in The Sunday Times – shows that the paper is false or misleading in all critical respects. The British Medical Journal later said of Deer’s investigation: “It has taken the diligent scepticism of one man, standing outside medicine and science, to show that the paper was in fact an elaborate fraud.”
January 2001: Adverse Drug Reactions and Toxicological Reviews publishes a review article by Andrew Wakefield and Scott Montgomery making a generalized attack on MMR. The journal has a circulation of 350 and negligible professional impact, but Wakefield’s company Visceral ensures the article gets bigtime support from some journalists. [Media reportage] Deer’s checking of the paper against the claimed source material shows it false or misleading on all consequential points. Montgomery later told Deer that, although Montgomery’s name was on the paper, he wasn’t responsible for its content.
MORE: View the impact of Brian Deer’s Sunday Times investigation
RELATED:
Vexatious Wakefield lawsuits fail