Andrew Wakefield removed from Britain's medical register

[leelaplay]

Co-Cure moderator to CO-CURE today

Moderator's note: resent for proper distribution on behalf of Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks <fluks@combidom.com>

Source: Reuters
Date: May 24, 2010
Author: Kate Kelland
URL: http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/us_autism_mmr_wakefield.html

UK doctor at heart of vaccine row banned from practice
------------------------------------------------------

LONDON (Reuters) - A doctor whose claims of links between
vaccination and autism triggered a scientific storm before being
widely discredited was struck off Britain's medical register on
Monday for professional misconduct.

Dr Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study led many parents to refuse to
have their children vaccinated with the measles, mumps and rubella
(MMR) shot and has been blamed for a big rise in measles cases in
the United States and parts of Europe in recent years.

A disciplinary panel of the General Medical Council (GMC) found
that Wakefield had acted in a "dishonest," "misleading" and
"irresponsible" way during his research. The ruling means
Wakefield, who now lives and works in the United States, can no
longer practice as a doctor in Britain, but can continue to work
in medicine outside the UK.

His paper, published in The Lancet medical journal but since widely
discredited, caused one of the biggest medical rows in a generation.
"The panel has determined that Dr Wakefield's name should be erased
from the medical register," the GMC said in a statement.

Wakefield had failed to disclose various details about the funding
of the study - a failure the GMC described as "dishonest and
misleading" -- and had acted "contrary to the clinical interests"
of the children involved in his research.

Striking Wakefield off the medical register was "the only sanction
that is appropriate to protect patients" and was in the wider public
interest. It was also "proportionate to the serious and wide-ranging
findings made against him," the statement said.

Data released last February for England and Wales showed a rise in
measles cases of more than 70 percent in 2008 from the previous year,
mostly due to a fall in the number of children being vaccinated.
Vaccination rates are now recovering. Wakefield has always defended
his work and has accused his critics of making "unfounded and unjust"
allegations.

The GMC said his refusal to accept that he had made mistakes meant
that a temporary suspension of Wakefield's license was not enough
and he should be banned altogether. "Dr Wakefield's continued lack of
insight as to his misconduct serve only to satisfy the panel that
suspension is not sufficient and that his actions are incompatible
with his continued registration as a medical practitioner," it said.

--------
(c) 2010 Reuters

 

[Frickly]

Not surprising. They were going to get him, no doubt about it. Now we can have him all to ourselves here in the U.S. There is lots of research still to be done and I feel confident that he will be a big part of it.

 

[awol]

what do you think will happen when XMRV does prove to be triggered by vaccines, and does prove to be linked to autism?

 

[Athene]

I think nobody will say sorry, nobody will admit they were wrong, they will lose their memories. In investment banking we often used the phrase "sh1t floats", meaning, a certain type of person always rises to the top and knows how to stay there, come what may.

 

[Frickly]

I do not know if xmrv will prove to be triggered by vaccines or linked to autism. However, this might certaily turn out to be the case, it makes sense, and I intend to find the answer to this question for my son and I. What I do know is that CFS and autism are linked in someway. If we can prove a link between these diseases, through xmrv research or other, we will be a very large and powerful group and things will start moving much more quickly. Just my personal opinion.

Edited to add that I agree with Athene, Memories will suddenly be erased and yes.....unfortunatly, sh1t does float.

 

[JillBohr]

I was never big on the MMR vaccination autism theory link because I did not notice a big difference btwn my son being vaccinated and him regressing aftwards. Of course, I had never even heard of Wakefield or his paper until many years later (prob. about 2004). I also did not know a thing about autism and never in a million years did I think he would get it. I had a raising toddler book that had all kinds of chapters on possible problems and diseases that may occur but autism was not one of them. This was printed in 1998 if you can believe that. However, watching this witchhunt, makes me really suspect that this could be a major contributing factor in other cases. I have never seen anything so vicious. His work has been validated in other countries as well.

 

[MEKoan]

I used to work in "International Development" on issues related to addressing the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable global citizens. Part of that work was documenting efforts to provide vaccinations at low/no cost to vulnerable children around the world. I never questioned the necessity, ever.

I have five stepkids and their mother (I was married to their dad who was divorced from their mom) did not believe in vaccinations so none of the kids were vaccinated and had to be pulled out of school whenever there was a suspected case of one of the communicable diseases covered by the vaccines reported in our region - not just their school but the entire region. I was annoyed at their mother and thought she was too rigid in her acceptance of all things "alternative".

Well, now I'm not so sure. Now I think maybe I was a bit of a know-it-all. Now I find my old certainty kinda embarrassing. Why are we so sure that something so effective cannot also have an equally potent downside?

I have a friend who is are a doctor. One of her kids, also a doctor and married to yet another doctor, has a severely autistic child. When I began to question my attitudes towards vaccines and rethink the Autism connection vis a vis XMRV, or another co-factor, & vaccines, I asked her if her kids were keeping up with this work. She said, "Oh no, they don't believe in that."

This is not an article of faith. I think we need to all get a whole lot more skeptical, critical and analytical.

 

[awol]

I think I should be clear that I do not think that vaccines CAUSE autism. There is a very very remote chance that XMRV became a human virus because of MULV contamination in vaccines but I really don't think so. No, I think it is very simply that the high activation of the immune system after vaccination triggers and spreads pre-existing viruses that can then have adverse effects on the developing brain. This is, in fact not even new science. It is already KNOWN that herpes viruses can be reactivated by vaccination. If a retro-virus is part of the picture also....

I STRONGLY suspect that vaccination triggered my own illness.

 

[natasa778]

Wakefield's book can now be preordered:

Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines: The Truth Behind a Tragedy

http://www.amazon.com/Callous-Disregard-Autism-Vaccines-Tragedy/dp/1616081694

or
http://callous-disregard.com/buythebook.htm

 

[Karin]

By the way, in his 1998 study Wakefield found that children had lymphoid nodular hyperplasia in their gut. Guess where lymphoid nodular hyperplasia is seen too: HIV infections. I wonder if anyone thought of looking for XMRV in the biopsy samples of autistic children gut lymphoid tissues. Lymphoid tissues seem to be the place XMRV likes to be.

Also, XMRV is a new human retrovirus close to murine retroviruses. I think Judy M. mentioned that XMRV must have been around for about 40 years or so. Now when did AIDS start? Also around 40 years ago. What is HIV close to? Monkey retroviruses. What is XMRV close to? Murine retroviruses. What animals are most commonly used in labs for pharmaceutical research and production? Monkeys, and mice. isn't it suspicious that two new human retroviruses emerge at the same time, both closely related to laboratory animals? Especially since both animals, mice and monkeys, have been living close to humans since the beginning of ages, yet those two retroviruses are new. So something must have been happening to facilitate the transfer of pathogens between species, that wasn't there centuries ago. What could have done so at a large scale? In my opinion, it is obvious that vaccines are THE MAJOR suspect, especially those developped and tested in the 1950's when not much was known about retroviruses and very little precautions were taken. At the time, vaccine production involved attenuating viruses in different animals and basically injecting blended tissues into humans. Many things could have gone wrong, AIDS being the first example, XMRV might be the second. And I would guess it is not going to stop there.

For anyone interested in the subject, I highly recommend reading 'The River', by E. Hooper, related his 10 year investigation into the origins of AIDS. It is so interesting, especially now the something similar is unfolding with XMRV.

 

[Frickly]

Thanks Karin, you may be right. Too bad the government is doing everything they can to protect their vaccination program, even if it means damaging children. I have not heard of this book. Sounds interesting and will check it out. Also, Welcome to the forum.

 

[Rosemary]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-vaccine-controversy-20100526,0,698067.story

Discredited autism researcher Dr. Andrew Wakefield said Wednesday at a " vaccination choice" rally in Grant Park that he planned to resume his research in the U.S.

At the rally, held in conjunction with a conference hosted by the organizations Generation Rescue and Autism One, Wakefield said national vaccine policies had failed children and their families and it was time for "science and medicine to stand up for itself."

"In the end, it's about choice," he told a small, cheering crowd. "Medicine has to choose — does it serve the patients or the pharmaceutical industry?"

Wakefield on Monday was barred from practicing medicine in his native Britain, following a ruling from the country's General Medical Council that he had "repeatedly breached fundamental principles of research medicine." The journal Lancet retracted his paper linking autism to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine earlier this year.

But the gastroenterologist still enjoys strong support from many parents of children with autism who believe vaccines cause the disorder. Until recently, he was executive director of an Austin, Texas, clinic that treated children with developmental disorders with unproven alternative therapies.

Wakefield said he plans to start a "virtual university" that will develop collaborations with researchers across the country. His role will be to design research programs and solicit grants to fund studies looking at the causes of autism and other diseases, he said.

 

[natasa778]

Message from Dr Andrew Wakefield read outside GMC building on Monday 24th May

To all of you who have been dragged into this maelstrom, those who have struggled for years with autism and, who have remained unyielding in your support for the doctors dedicated to serving your children, please do not see today as a defeat.

See it as a bump on a road - a road with many bumps, for sure, but a road to certain victory.

Today's ruling is the best the system has to offer your children - protection from doctors who refused to capitulate in the interests of your injured children - and so the system, morally bankrupt, riven with conflict, and fearing accountability, must change.

See this moment as a nation, threatened with invasion, must heed a call to arms.

Know that wherever I am, I am with you and your families, forever grateful for your inspiring words and unbending resolve; without regrets. It has been a privilege - it is a privilege to stand with you. Many, many thanks from the Wakefield family.

Finally, take to heart the words of Paolo Coelho, that the art of life is to fall down seven times and get up eight times. We are close.


http://www.treatingautism.co.uk/

 

[Frickly]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-vaccine-controversy-20100526,0,698067.story

But the gastroenterologist still enjoys strong support from many parents of children with autism who believe vaccines cause the disorder. Until recently, he was executive director of an Austin, Texas, clinic that treated children with developmental disorders with unproven alternative therapies.

They always have to throw something negative in there. These "unproven" therapies have attracted people from all over the world. Each patient that goes to this clinic and improves, "proves" that these therapies work. However, no one will listen to us. I am sad that Dr. Wakefield is no longer involved "directly" with Thoughtful House but excited that he will be involved in research here in the U.S.

 

[Adam]

Does anyone know if Dr. Wakefield is the guy who developed single vaccines, or was associated with a company that had developed single vaccines as an alternative to the MMR triple jab?

I fear my memory of events (I followed them at the time) is not so good now and I may have confused him with another doctor.

 

[Mark]

Adam, my recollection is that he had something like a stake in a group which holds a patent in a new vaccine delivery mechanism. This connection appears to have no real connection with his research as it relates to MMR.

Anyway interested in this should watch the full interview with no-longer-UK-recognised-Dr. Wakefield on Dr. Mercola's website (referenced in another thread somwhere). There is also a good account from Wakefield's point of view, somewhere.

I have been really shocked by what I have read when I first started looking into this. Whether I look at either the science, or at the historical series of events, or at the media coverage, or at the moral and legal aspects of the case against him...in every case I am shocked to read a 'underground' story so completely at odds with what I have been led to believe, and so entirely credible and consistent with the official version of events, and so well backed up by evidence, that I have a strong sense of a great injustice. The eivdence seems quite compelling in every respect. These 'ethical' charges, for example, and supposed conflicts of interest, smell far more like a smear campaign, being quite tenuous and doubtless run-of-the-mill circumstances, and being presented to us in clearly dishonest and misleading fashion through the media.

From the media, one gets the strong impression that Dr Wakefield is a vaccine-hating maverick who claimed to have found that MMR causes autism, kicked up a scare, and then turned out to be wrong, and was disproved, and then investigated and found to have behaved unethically.

So it's a shock to discover that Dr Wakefield is strongly pro-vaccine, never claimed that MMR causes autism, was not to blame for the media response to his paper or the political fallout that followed, did not commit any serious ethical offences that a reasonable person would regard as such (indeed, it appears he was not even involved at all in respect of the main charge), and is still strongly supported by patients of the children involved.

What's even more shocking is to look at the actual research in the light of the XMRV connection and in the light of the recent vaccine-industry paper that confirmed in animals transmission and infection by a retrovirus, via infected vaccine substrate, and not identified by the screening process.

Combining this proof-of-concept research, the cluster history of ME/CFS, the strong circumstantial suggestion of a link between XMRV and autism, and the understanding that Wakefield's principle findings actually concerned inflammatory bowel disease in association with autism, and have since been confirmed by (last count) 9 international studies...this all makes it highly conceivable that there have been occasions in human history when a batch of vaccines have got infected with a retrovirus or something similar, and infected a cluster of patients. However many tests one does comparing autism and MMR rates does not discount the possibility that Wakefield's patients may have been such victims, although the evidence that they were remains circumstantial.

From my look at the details, it just looks like an attempt to shut up somebody who has said something inconvenient, and using any means necessary to do so, and with no interest on the part of the authorities to uncover the real truth behind the scientific evidence. I also think that the simple minded "MMR causes autism" equation has led to closed-minded thinking about what these findings are actually telling us, and that this story appears to have a potential connection with our own - although, as I say, only a circumstantial case exists at present.

 

[Frickly]

YEH! Mark! What he said....

 

[Karin]

No, he was advovating the use of single vaccines instead of the triple one, but he was not involved with developing or producing single vaccines.

There was some confusion because he was involved with developing something (don't remember technical details) ressembling a vaccine but that was not a vaccine, to help clear chronic measle infections. This thing was not at all a vaccine though and could not have been used in place of a single vaccine.

Some have accused him to advocate the use of single vaccines while there were not available, thus in fact resulting from people not vaccinating at all. That is not true either because the single vaccines were taken off the market six months AFTER he publicly advocated their use instead of the triple vaccine. He claims he could never have advised people to use single vaccines instead of the triple one if single vaccines had not been available. By the way, I never understood why single vaccines were taken off the market...

Anyways, I guess all this will be explained in detail in his book that will be available in bookstores in the next couple weeks.

 

[lululowry]

Frickly, I'm with you! Mark, you put into very cogent words my sentiments exactly.

 

[Frickly]

"By the way, I never understood why single vaccines were taken off the market..."

Karin, I think this all comes down to money. It is cheaper to combine these vaccines. My son's doctor told me that she had given several of her patients single vacs in the past, at their request. Now that the single vac is no longer available, these patients have to be double vaccinated to keep up with the vac program.