Andrew Wakefield: Disgraced, Unethical and An Outright Liar
January 28th, 2010
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We’ve reported before over the professional disgrace of Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield is one of the worst cases of everything a researcher and a physician should not be. With complete disregard for the safety and welfare of others and his own professional obligations Doctor Mister Wakefield has not simply cherry-picked or spun data in favor of his claims: he just plain lied. Let me make this clear again: he didn’t take improper measurements or use the data in an improper way, he simply made up facts that were not true. And if that’s not bad enough he did it in regards to a matter of extreme consequence to public health and to the state of medical research.
Sadly, he’s gotten quite a lot of support and many have even seen his disgrace by British and other national medical bodies as more proof that he’s being persecuted by a big conspiracy.
No surprise, the GMC (General Medical Council) – the British body responsible for investigating things of this nature has returned its verdict: guilty of professional misconduct, violations of ethics and other infractions against professional standards.
Doctor in disgrace
The consultant who sparked the MMR vaccine scare now faces being struck off
The descent into professional disgrace of Andrew Wakefield is now almost complete. The doctor who fanned an unwarranted panic by suggesting a link between the three-in-one measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism — prompting a fall in vaccination rates that spawned a startling rise in cases of measles — was condemned yesterday by the General Medical Council for acting “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in conducting his research. He now faces the possibility of being struck off the medical register.
Nobody can doubt the GMC’s diligence. After conducting hearings over a period of two and a half years, it ruled that Wakefield had carried out invasive and unnecessary tests on children that were against their best clinical interests: he paid children £5 for blood samples at his son’s birthday party, acting, said the GMC, “with callous disregard” for the suffering of children.
The Lancet long ago regretted having published Wakefield’s initial study 12 years ago. No respected research has ever supported the findings that led Wakefield to brand his studies a “moral issue” that made him unable to support the continued use of the MMR jab. Indeed, a landmark study in Japan found that, on using single vaccines instead of the MMR, the number of diagnosed cases of autism actually rose sharply.
Just to be clear on one thing here: this article implies that changing from the single-shot MMR vaccine to multiple vaccines, one for each of the conditions covered was associated with a rise in autism. Less someone twists that to make it sound like there’s a relationship between more vaccinations and autism, I should point out that there’s no evidence that there is any connection between vaccination and autism at all. More likely this was simply part of the general trend of more autism diagnoses which has been attributed to greater screening and more broad diagnostic criteria than may have been used in years past.
As for Wakefield himself, he no longer lives in the UK, having moved to the US. The fact that he is no longer able to practice medicine in the UK is largely moot, as he is no longer in any way acting as a true physician. Rather, he’s managed to carve out a lucrative niche for himself as a spokesperson for various lies and a public figure who makes money by promoting various quack practices and products. He’s more of a professional liar than a doctor at this point.
Sadly the verdict by the GMC is little more than symbolic. Wakefield’s credibility and respectability in the medical community evaporated years ago and the verdict does not not impose any legal penalties, like a criminal court would. Thus Wakefield remains a free man to spread his nonsense. If nothing else, this should highlight the need for greater legal accountability for those who lie on scientific papers and studies. While science thrives on openness and freedom, this should not include clear-cut cases of outright lies, presented as fact and causing direct harm to scientific research and the greater public good as a direct consequence. Such lies are very rare in professional scientific research, but when they do occur, they are appalling.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Conspiracy Theories, Not Even Wrong, Quackery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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January 29th, 2010 at 12:05 am
MMR scare doctor ‘acted unethically’, panel finds. BBC news Thursday, 28 January 2010 The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism acted unethically, the official medical regulator has found
-“The verdict, read out by panel chairman Dr Surendra Kumar, criticised Dr Wakefield for the invasive tests, such as spinal taps, that were carried out on children and which were found to be against their best clinical interests.”
-“The panel said Dr Wakefield, who was working at London’s Royal Free Hospital as a gastroenterologist at the time, did not have the ethical approval or relevant qualifications for such tests.”
-“Dr Kumar said he had acted with ‘callous disregard for the distress and pain the children might suffer’”
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January 29th, 2010 at 2:24 am
DV82XL said:
It is rare to hear a professional body use such strong language, especially being so frank about things like “callous disregard for the distress and pain the child might suffer.”
Andrew Wakefield has a long pattern of disturbing behavior. Outright lies on his research, backing up his claims with data gathered in an unprofessional manner, subjecting patients to invasive tests without even producing good reason for it or with any regard for the ethical concerns.
Any one of these issues would alone be enough that his career should have ended, but he has done many. I don’t know what else to call him but a monster. That’s an appeal to emotion, I suppose, but this man is some kind of a pathalogical sadistic sicko who thinks any behavior is justified to promote himself.
I can’t believe they can’t pin some criminal charges on him. He is cut from the same cloth as Dr. Josef Mengele
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January 29th, 2010 at 5:15 am
“They” can’t pin criminal charges because it is not their role. However, their conclusion gives the parents (or adult former victims) a very solid ground to sue him.
The good point is that he won’t be a “victim of establisment censorship” anymore, but a child molester. I can’t wait to read how he will try to explain that to his audience of distressed parents.
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January 29th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Franck said:
What I mean is I can’t believe the criminal authorities and law enforcement can’t charge him with something.
Franck said:
I doubt it. The ones who come to see him talk all believe he’s an angel and that this proves how he is being persecuted. He’ll just say something like “They keep trying to shut me up and discredit me because I found thr truth” or something. The idiots will buy it hook line and sinker
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January 29th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
One of my blogging habits is to collate pro and con posts on a particular issue.
One reason to do is that each blog has its own set of commenters and often the comments reveal aspects of the issue previously not considered elsewhere.
Today’s issue is the UK’s General Medical Council’s ruling on Andrew Wakefield.
I’ve included this post in the list.
The list can be found at
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2010/01/andrew-wakefield-dishonesty-misleading-conduct-and-serious-professional-misconduct.html
It will be interesting to see the blog responses over the next few days. Currently the “Andy Wakefield is a hero of science and will be vindicated” posts stand at 12; the “GMC findings are correct. Good science is eventually self-correcting” posts stand at 41.
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January 29th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Only partially off topic, I’m surprised you didn’t post anything about the recent Global Warming scam e-mail leak.
Hmmm, this thing seems to keep disappearing. But here are the tickers that I found it through:
http://market-ticker.org/archives/1648-Global-Warming-SCAM-HackLeak-FLASH.html
http://market-ticker.org/archives/1651-Global-Warming-SCAM-A-Further-Look.html
And I also have a copy of the zip file.
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January 29th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Unfortunately this will not even come close to stopping the BS.
As mentioned above – this makes him a martyr.
Also most of the people who believe the anti-Vax BS believe it anyway.
He just became a front image and a cause of the belief so if some do believe he is a fraud it will be to channel anger at him for causing trouble for the movement.
They will still continue to believe the BS.
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January 29th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
It is the GMC that is disgraced and guilty.
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January 30th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Mary Hirzel said:
And it took just slightly over 24 hours for the loony to come by. That’s roughly par for the course.
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January 30th, 2010 at 12:22 am
You’ve been deprived of decent education in manners and I forgive you, HerrBuzzZero
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January 30th, 2010 at 12:26 am
Mary Hirzel said:
Very true – that this fraud was allowed to stand for so long is indeed a disgrace, and the children’s lives lost due to his furtherance of antivax hysteria can be laid at least partially at their doorstep.
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January 30th, 2010 at 2:54 am
Mary Hirzel said:
When I was taught manners, it was made clear that when you were a guest in someone’s place, you didn’t presume to lecture them on how they behaved. Apparently your education in good social behavior is lacking as well.
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February 1st, 2010 at 1:55 am
Mary Hirzel said:
The only disgrace, as mentioned above, is that it took so very long to come out so strongly against him. This man’s actions include child endangerment and fraud. He should be in criminal court. At the very least, I this at least ends his career in medicine.
Do you honestly believe that the whole world is one giant conspiracy against him and the “truth”? I mean drug companies may be rich, but you honestly think they bought off the GMC and every medical organization of every major country plus 99% of doctors? Seriously get a grip on reality.
DV82XL said:
Like this is any surprise?
Skeptical website attract loony commenters like moths to a flame. In both cases they fly around a bit and annoy the hell out of you before ultimately getting burned.
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February 1st, 2010 at 6:19 am
What is it about his supporters that makes them so determined to believe in the MMR scare. The more and more this guy is discredited, the more fanatical they become in hating a medication intended to prevent their children from catching the nasty diseases of measles, mumps and rubella. What’s up with them?
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February 2nd, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Lancet retracts ‘utterly false’ MMR paper
“The Lancet today finally retracted the paper that sparked a crisis in MMR vaccination across the UK, following the General Medical Council’s decision that its lead author, Andrew Wakefield, had been dishonest.
The medical journal’s editor, Richard Horton, told the Guardian today that he realised as soon as he read the GMC findings that the paper, published in February 1998, had to be retracted. “It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false,” he said. “I feel I was deceived.”
Many in the scientific and medical community have been pressing for the paper, linking the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jab to bowel disease and autism, to be quashed. But Horton said he did not have the evidence to do so before the end of the GMC investigation last ThursdayThe Lancet today finally retracted the paper that sparked a crisis in MMR vaccination across the UK, following the General Medical Council’s decision that its lead author, Andrew Wakefield, had been dishonest.
The medical journal’s editor, Richard Horton, told the Guardian today that he realised as soon as he read the GMC findings that the paper, published in February 1998, had to be retracted. “It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false,” he said. “I feel I was deceived.”
Many in the scientific and medical community have been pressing for the paper, linking the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jab to bowel disease and autism, to be quashed. But Horton said he did not have the evidence to do so before the end of the GMC investigation last Thursday”
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February 2nd, 2010 at 4:08 pm
DV82XL said:
I have read some about this in the past couple of days. There are plenty of times when a journal published study has later been the either qualified or critical statements made. Occasionally studies are volentarily retracted by their authors, citing an honest error or something. Many peer reviewed journals do also have a section of letters to the editor that occasionally refute studies in a fairly candid manner.
So it is not unusual for a study to get some level of refutation or opposition after being published or to get amended.
However, I can’t recall too many instances where a journal published study has gotten this kind of treatment, where the publishers of it will use such direct and strong condemnation of something like this. In the professional world, these kind of statements really don’t come out much, and when they do, it’s usually reserved for the worst of the worst crimes against scientific ethics.
This is one of those rare “man bites dog” kind of freak stories that really shocks those involved in research. I think I have mentioned this before: peer review does not generally work very well at dealing with outright dishonesty and it can easily get through because there is usually a presumption that the authors have been generally honest, or at the very least, would not stoop to outright fabrication of data.
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February 2nd, 2010 at 4:19 pm
drbuzz0 said:
It’s not just dishonesty in this case, Wakefield was not just an outright liar, he is a bull****ter. Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt made this observation, which I think is applicable here:
“It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bull**** requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bull****ter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.”
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May 24th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
VICTORY!
MMR doctor struck off register
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