In its January 2011 editions, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a series of 3 articles^24-26 and 3 editorials^27-29 accusing the D^r Andrew Wakefield outright fraud.

The D^r Wakefield is the principal author of a study published in 1998, by the prestigious scientific journal The Lancet, which paved the way for a possible link between the measles-rubella-mumps (MMR) vaccine andautism¹ (see below: A 13 year saga).

Deregistration from the medical association in Great Britain

In May 2010, the D^r Andrew Wakefield, who is a gastroenterologist, was struck off the British medical register for life by the General Medical Council (GMC), the British equivalent of the Collège des médecins du Québec. After 217 days of hearing, he was found guilty of numerous serious faults, including dishonesty in carrying out this study and non-disclosure of his conflicts of interest.³⁰.

The GMC has also written off the Professor Walker-Smith, one of the co-authors of this study. He was found guilty of ordering invasive medical procedures on children without clinical reason and without ethical approval³¹.

Le Lancet protected himself

On February 2, 2010, the review The Lancet, after learning of the damning report of the GMC, chose to remove the study from its archives²³, a radical and very rare gesture in the world of scientific publishing. But that came very late, according to journalist Brian Deer.

In the last of the articles published by the BMJ, Brian Deer explains that in 2004, he had already informed the Lancet Andrew Wakefield’s multiple ethical breaches²⁶. Instead of carrying out an independent investigation, the Lancet conducted an internal investigation. This was shipped in 2 days and made by the authors of the trial. The journalist claims that the scientific publication has knowingly chosen to preserve its reputation. the Lancet only admitted that the researcher had not disclosed his conflicts of interest and a partial retraction of the interpretation of the results was published by 10 of the co-authors of the trial, in March 2004⁴.

Serious professional misconduct, according to the BMJ

Brian Deer, supported by the BMJ and Sunday Times, led a long investigation for the BMJ. He followed the hearings of the GMC. He claims that not only did Andrew Wakefield commit serious professional misconduct, but that he committed them knowingly and to profit from them. On the one hand, explains the journalist, Andrew Wakefield was the consultant in a class action lawsuit led by an anti-vaccine group, and, on the other hand, he had created a company with the aim of developing a vaccine against measles, as an alternative to MMR vaccine. Brian Deer also reveals that the medical records of the 12 children participating in the 1998 study were tampered with because they did not match the data presented at the GMC hearings.^24-26 .

Andrew Wakefield points to pharmaceutical companies

On January 6, 2011, Andrew Wakefield agreed to a one-to-one Skype interview with reporter Anderson Cooper who hosts the 360º program on CNN. The researcher defended himself tooth and nail by questioning the credibility and funding of Brian Deer³².

Andrew Wakefield has claimed his work has been confirmed in 5 different countries. Backed to the wall by Anderson Cooper, the ex-doctor has denied all accusations. He claimed Brian Deer was paid by drug companies to discredit him for questioning vaccine safety³². He reiterated similar comments in a statement issued by marketing and communications firm PRNewswire.³³.

January 17, 2011, in an in-person interview with an ABC News reporter³⁴Andrew Wakefield accused Brian Deer of manipulating medical record data to discredit him. He claimed that he never claimed that the MMR vaccine caused autism and that he did not seek to cause panic among the public to serve his interests. “Is autism caused by vaccination? I do not know. […]. I am not anti-vaccine, I am for security. The vaccination policies of this country are not safe and there has never been any proof that they are safe, ”he said, in response to the journalist’s questions.³⁴.

The publication of Brian Deer’s articles has fueled the fire of this controversy. Parents loyal to Andrew Wakefield’s theories espouse his version of the conspiracy, especially in emailed responses to BMJ¹⁸ and medical authorities hope these items will be the final nail in the anti-vaccine coffin. In Canada and the United States, several anti-vaccine organizations continue to support Andrew Wakefield’s work and claim that he is unfairly the victim of a smear campaign^36,37.

From the outset, the D^r Andrew Wakefield, sparked a controversial inflamed. On the one hand, desperate parents who could finally hold a culprit behind theautism of their child, on the other, a medical community desperate by the consequence of the publication of this study: a notable decrease in the rate of vaccination against measles in Great Britain.

His study was conducted on 12 autistic children¹. Nine of them had regressive autism, and all of them had inflammatory bowel disorders, according to the authors. This research was carried out by a team of British researchers led by the D^r Andrew Wakefield.

Without establishing a direct link between the measles-rubella-mumps (MMR) vaccine and autism, the authors hypothesized that the measles vaccine could act as a trigger on the immune system. Several parents of study participants had in fact associated the time of their child’s regression to the period when he had received the MMR vaccine. At a press conference, D^r Wakefield recommended that parents ask for separate vaccines for these three childhood illnesses, until the data are clearer². In 1998, the D^r Wakefield was employed by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. He resigned in 2001.

Public and public health panic

Almost immediate consequence of the media coverage and interpretation of these results: panic among British parents and marked drop in MMR vaccination.

Another consequence of this study: public health agencies and epidemiologists set to work to verify if there was indeed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, a disease in progress. Studies have been carried out in Denmark, UK, Finland, Sweden, USA, Japan and Canada. They all came to the same conclusion: there is no causal link between the MMR vaccine and the increase in cases of autism^2,3.

“In addition, the hypothesis of a persistence of the measles virus in vaccinated autistic children has also been contradicted by rigorous studies,” explains Dr.^r Éric Fombonne, director of the Department of Psychiatry at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. In 2004, 10 of the co-authors of the study conducted by Dr.^r Wakefield issued a retraction to disassociate themselves from their interpretation of the results⁴ », Continues this world-renowned expert in the field of autism.⁵.

Wakefield persists and signs

One would think that such data would have ended the debate. It is not so. According to the D^r Andrew Wakefield, epidemiological studies cannot establish a link because they do not have enough statistical power. He says many children with developmental problems also have inflammatory bowel disease.

“Several studies show that in these patients, the measles virus can cause an abnormal immune reaction. MMR vaccine can trigger an immune reaction that damages the central nervous system. The safety of this combination vaccine has not been adequately tested before and after its marketing. We must continue to explore ”, can we read in The seat of the soul, a text accessible on the Internet⁶.

The D^r Wakefield was executive director of Thoughtful House Center for Children. This non-profit organization, located in Austin, Texas, is dedicated to the treatment and research of children with developmental disabilities (autism and related disorders). Despite our insistence and our desire to give him the floor, his assistant did not respond to our interview requests in 2008.

As of May 2010, Andrew Wakefield is no longer on the staff of Thoughtful House Center for Children. There is no longer any trace of his passage on the website of this institution. As a result, when our dossier was published in 2008, Andrew Wakefield’s text was accessible on the Thoughtful House site. At the time of this update in January 2011, this link no longer existed. In 2008, however, there was a long text entitled The Seat of the Soul; The Origins of the Autism Epidemic⁶, as well as several documents defending itself against the numerous accusations brought by the GMC^14,22.

Irreconcilable positions

Supporters of D^r Wakefield argue that the results of his work hold together and are knowingly ignored because they call into question vaccination, a sacred cow of medicine.

A few studies have come to conclusions that support the clinical hypothesis of D^r Wakefield, on a link between the measles virus, inflammatory bowel disorders and autism^7,8. Others, more numerous and more recent, have refuted it.^9-12 . The most recent research reversing the work of Dr.^r Wakefield was released in September 2008¹³.

“This study does not prove that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism,” replied Dr.^r Wakefield, by press release¹⁴. She looked at a very small part of a complex problem. It excludes only one possibility: that the virus must remain in the intestine for a long time to cause neurological damage. However, perhaps the MMR vaccine causes immediate damage, but does not leave a trace of the virus in the gut. We have to consider this assumption. ”

“I have met the D^r Wakefield when I was practicing in Britain. Every time I questioned his work, he changed his assumptions, argues D^r Eric Fombonne. Prior to this 1998 study of children with autism, Wakefield had spent 10 years trying to document a link between an outbreak of Crohn’s disease and measles vaccination. This hypothesis was subsequently completely invalidated. This gastroenterologist then turned to autism because he saw an opportunity, while he knew nothing about this disease. ”

We hear more and more about pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs), of which autism and Asperger’s syndrome are a part. The number of diagnosed cases has jumped dramatically in the last 20 years or so. “Twenty years ago, these children were diagnosed with mental retardation or language disorder, for example. Numerous recent studies performed in most states in the United States have concluded that an increase in autism is associated with an equivalent decrease in diagnoses in the category of mental retardation. “According to D^r Fombonne, changes in diagnostic criteria and better awareness largely explain the increase in the number of children with autism.

The D^r Andrew Wakefield replies that public health authorities are trying to hide the reality and claims that there is currently an epidemic of PDD. “Data indicates that there is no link between the progression of autism cases and the replacement of diagnoses of mental retardation with diagnoses of autism”, one can read in The seat of the soul⁶.

Yet some parents are convinced that the vaccination caused their child’s autismbecause he was developing normally before being immune. “The coincidence between the two events is fortuitous,” says Dr.^r Fombonne. From 20% to 40% of autism cases are said to be regressive, that is, around 18 months, a child who is apparently developing normally begins to regress in terms of language and social interactions. However, when we go back with the parents, we very often realize that in fact, the development of their child was not as perfect as they thought. This phenomenon is not new and was described as early as 1966, contrary to what Dr.^r Wakefield. »

According to the D^r Wakefield, data indicate possible susceptibility to vaccination in regressive autism. He concedes the link to the MMR vaccine may be a coincidence, but argues that this conclusion cannot be reached without having conducted studies that completely exempt the vaccine. “However, this was not done”, he writes in The seat of the soul⁶.