Hi Tony Mach,
You are believing what Brian Deer has put into your head. Wakefield did NOT make any false claims. Brian Deer wrote false claims which he falsely alleged Wakefield had made; then wrote that they were untrue; then he started calling for legal actain to bring Wakefield to account for those false claims. This is why Wakefield refused to recant the false claims, because you cannot take back something you never said in the first place.
What Wakefield was guilty of, the only thing he was found guilty of in the British courts, was using funds from the NHS for one research project and using part of them to fund a different research project, into a closely related medical problem that also involved autistic children.
The British Press invented lots of false claims, incuding ludicrous ones that Wakefield showed up at a children's party with syringes and paid parents to let him extract blood from the children. I think Wakefild has a very strong case for defamation and I hope, as he clearly hopes, that the US legal system will take a harder line against this than the UK one did at that time. Since the British press has been exposed as outrageously corrupt and unethical, leading to the closure of the News of The World, for example, the legal system in the UK has also become far tougher against violations of private citizens' reputations in the press.
Last time I spoke about Wakefield on this forum I was aggressively slated by a new member, who signed up calling himself "Scorpion Rising" (Yes, on a forum called Phoenix rising) and only made 2 or 3 posts ever, which were exclusively to insult me personally. The vitriol and aggression of these verbal attacks were so reminiscent of the self-righteous venom characteristic of Brian Deer's oputpourings in the press that I have wondered if he was indeed the identity behind Scorion Rising. And I am curious to see if this character, who has never made any claim to be a bona fide member of this forum by posting anything regarding CFS, will make a reappearance now?
My one final word it to say, good luck to you Andrew Wakefield, I hope you win this case. You only ever wanted to help austistic children and there are millions of parents all over the world who are grateful for what you have done.
