Andrew Wakefield, whose fraudulent work caused the MMR-Autism scare, will likely be struck off this evening Australian time. Wakefield was found guilty of multiple counts of misconduct in January, and now it’s sentencing time. The Times Online has a good article by Brian Deer, who has been investigating Wakefield for years and uncovered his misdeeds. The article provides a good overview of the history of the case.
Some extracts:
Groups campaigning against the MMR vaccine were referring parents of autistic children to him in order to prepare a lawsuit — and Wakefield had already earned £400,000, plus expenses, for his work on their cases. Furthermore, he had also patented a single vaccine, just months before he had called for the triple vaccine to be suspended, that would have raked in many thousands more.
and
Ironically, it was one of the parents of a child in the research paper who really triggered the surgeon’s fall. In September 2003 I interviewed a mother whose autistic son had appeared in the Lancet article as Child 2. What she told me about the onset of her son’s symptoms was notably different from Wakefield’s account in The Lancet.
and
His research on the children was found to be “dishonest” and “unethical”. In pursuit of his patented theory that the vaccine caused bowel disease, for instance, he had had tubes inserted into their guts and needles into their spines — both risky medical procedures that they did not need.
Wakefield will continue to be feted by the anti-vaccination loonies, and will continue to make good money from his misdeeds. It is, however, some justice that he will be struck off the medical register.
getting my credit card details, things seem to be sorting themselves out. It appears that someone got my credit card details somehow, used them to set up an account on an online gambling site, then went in and played against the fraudulent account and, unsurprisingly, winning $US500 from the fictitious “me”. I then found the charge on my credit card, and started complaining to PKRSER.com and my bank, the NAB.
