Andrew Wakefield. Former British Doctor. Father of the modern anti-vaccination movement.
Wakefield was a gastrointestinal surgeon until his license was revoked in 2010 after being found guilty of abuse of mentally handicapped children via invasive and unnecessary medical procedure, dishonesty, and non-ethical actions during his research.
After being approached by parents of children with autism and stomach problems who claimed their children began showing developmental issues after receiving the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination which had been recently introduced at the time, Wakefield questioned whether there was a link between the MMR vaccine and children with autism.
Wakefield, along with 12 other co-authors conducted a study in which they hypothesized a link between autism and bowel disease as a precipitating event of the MMR vaccination and their findings were published in The Lancet in 1998. As Wakefield called for the return of the single jab vaccinations instead of the MMR vaccine, news sources began backing his ideas.
Wakefield eventually became a documentary producer and avid campaigner against the vaccine, pointing out a rise in the diagnosis of autism since the vaccine was developed. Interest groups and concerned parents helped propagate the myth Wakefield had created via online platforms spreading fear of not only the MMR vaccine but concern about the ingredients that were involved in many vaccines including Mercury, and Aluminum. These concerns led to a steep decrease in vaccinations following his publication which coincided with multiple outbreaks of the measles in the decade after.
Unfortunately, trust in a medical professional with scientific reportings lit a fire within individuals skeptical of vaccines. Peer reviewers and the medical community were also trusted to stop sloppy science from being published. It was also the responsibility of news media to provide evidence-based reporting and not report with confidence findings that have been largely refuted and questioned. All of these factors helped to contribute to the modern epidemic of vaccine hesitancy.
In 2004, journalist Brian Deer from Sunday Times published an investigation into the claims of Wakefield and the financial interest behind the study, claiming he had been funded by solicitors involved in legal action against the MMR manufacturer. Following this investigation, the GMC also opened an investigation against Wakefield and two of his co-authors.
Wakefield’s paper was a case series based on 12 child patients; however, patients were recruited through biased anti-MMR campaigns and many of the children’s symptoms were edited to support his findings. Not only had Wakefield conducted an unethical study, but he was also found guilty of scientific misrepresentation in which he had reported that his sample population was consecutive when in fact it was selective which introduced major sampling bias. BUT– the climax to his fraudulence involved picking and choosing data that best suited his hypothesis, falsifying facts along the way. Not only was his sampling not random, but he was not made blind the results which also was a potential source of bias as direct oversight of results to the patient could have influenced findings.
Wakefield’s analysis of his results led to him to conclude that a “new syndrome” called “autistic enterocolitis” had a causal relationship with the MMR vaccination– not only sparking fear within the public but WAKING the antivaccination campaigners.
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