Vaccines, Autism, and Andrew Wakefield
By: Liz Gonzalez
ABOUT ANDREW WAKEFIELD
Andrew Wakefield was a British Surgeon who specialized in children gastroenterology. His medical license was retracted due to unethical medical practice. He also publish a very controversial medical article about a possible correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Project 1
In the early 2000’s, vaccination rates fell, and the world was on a verge of a measles epidemic (Cosenza). British surgeon Andrew Wakefield published his so-called research on the correlation between autism and vaccines on The Lancet, a famous British news article. This study shook the entire world as superstitious mothers would soon riot required vaccinations in fear that their child might “get” autism. Wakefield’s study would cause an uproar on the anti-vax movement, suggesting that vaccines are dangerous. Others claim that leaders in the anti-vax movement are only interested in publicity or profitable gain. Let us interpret the data given to the public to decide whether Wakefield conspiracy claim that vaccines are harmful is true, or he was paid to say that vaccines are harmful.
Project 2
Andrew Wakefield is a British gastroenterologist who was “a senior lecturer in the departments of medicine... at the Royal Free Hospital” (“Fitness to Practise Panel Hearing”). Well-respected in his department of medicine, Wakefield conducted suspicious research on how autism could be linked to the MMR vaccine, the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. Posted in an elite medical journal, The Lancet, his research would originally have twelve co-authors and would four years later have ten co-authors withdraw from his article (Boseley). Andrew Wakefield has proven himself to be irresponsible, collecting data without permission, yet persuasive enough to publish a controversial article with twelve colleagues.
Dr. Wakefield has proven to be smart as becoming a gastroenterologist is not easy. Andrew Wakefield studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital and was a fellow at the Royal College of Surgeons (“Andrew Wakefield”). He even received a Welcome Trust traveling fellowship for his praised research (“Andrew Wakefield”). Wakefield displayed that he is intelligent enough to not only become a doctor but also study at an academically rigorous institution. This would lead common people to believe his statements in The Lancet and how he possibly “Became the doctor who fooled the world” (Omer).
Wakefield decided to do an interesting study, which involved 12 co-authors, all being doctors. After the study was published and received a lot of controversy from other experts, ten of the co-authors published a retraction statement. The retraction statement from the ten co-authors states “We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between the vaccine and autism, as the data were insufficient” (“Andrew Wakefield”). This shows how even though 12 doctors read the study, it was after the fact that it was published that they disagreed with it. The co-authors had lots of trust in Andrew Wakefield to publish an article so controversial.
Unethical is a word GMC, the General Medical Council, used to describe Andrew Wakefield in his trial on what he posted in The Lancet. GMC sued Wakefield and the two other doctors for misleading data and sued Wakefield alone for unethical medical practice. When Wakefield was conducting his study, he performed medical procedures that the patients did not need such as colonoscopies and lumbar punctures, which were not approved by the Ethics Committee of the hospital (Boseley). GMC states “... Dr. Wakefield breached fundamental principles... was guilty of irresponsible and misleading reporting of research” (“Fitness to Practise Panel Hearing”). Not only did Wakefield take samples without approval from the committee but he used them in his research knowing that his medical license could be revoked, or he could be jailed. Confidently, Wakefield posted his research to deceive the world.
Irresponsible yet persuasive and smart, Wakefield “fooled the world” with his controversial research study on autism and the MMR vaccine (Omer). Andrew Wakefield not only mislead his colleagues who seem to confide in him but also the audience who trust his medical advice. To this day Wakefield continues to defend his research and continues to be the face of the anti-vaccination audience. In this decade, the anti-vax movement suggests not to get vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine and tells the public, that Wakefield set the standard to not vaccinate 20 years ago.
Project 3
The vaccination controversy involves twelve doctors initially, but as the conspiracy develops that Andrew Wakefield might be getting paid to be the face of anti-vaccination ten doctors drop the article. Who is paying Andrew Wakefield to produce such data, and why against the MMR vaccine? Why did the ten doctors back out of the article and why did two of them stick with it? To this day Andrew Wakefield has stood by his controversial research, is it pride or money talking?
Richard Barr is a Norfolk Solicitor who wanted to sue the vaccine manufacturers, in place of anti-vaccination groups. Barr approached Wakefield with funding for Crohn's diseases research from the Legal Aid Board and asked him to conduct research against the use of vaccination (Deer). From here Barr would advertise Wakefield's research to parents whose children might have Crohn’s diseases symptoms. Barr advertised that the symptoms could be due to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, known as the MMR vaccine (Deer). Barr advertised “If your child has suffered from all or any of these symptoms could you please contact us, and it may be appropriate to put you in touch with Dr. Wakefield” (Deer). Brian Deers investigation states “Wakefield was paid around 435,000 euros, plus other expenses” (Deer). Wakefield was paid by the solicitor to conduct and represent his research to successfully sue vaccine manufacturers. This clearly shows that Wakefield was being paid to do controversial research for his own profitable gain. His research would later be deemed unethical by the General Medical Council, and his license and article of MMR would be revoked (“Fitness to Practise Panel Hearing”).
Initially twelve doctors were said to have participated in the Wakefield research, but their names were just signed on to the article. In Deer’s investigation he found that the ten doctors who dropped out of the MMR article also split the money that Barr had been provided to recommend the perfect clients (Deer). Deer states “This startup funding was a part of a staggering 26.2 million euros, eventually shared among a small group of doctors and lawyers, working under Barr and Wakefield’s direction..." (The Sunday Times). After the article received major backlash from experts around the world ten of the twelve doctors dropped out of the article and therefore were not sued by the General Medical Council since they did not participate in the research (Deer). The ten doctors would release a statement stating that “no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient” (Bionity). This shows that the doctors stood with Wakefield for financial gain but as soon as backlash was received, they dropped out. One undiscovered theory remains about whether the doctors who dropped out of the article were able to keep the money Barr provided.
Even though Wakefield has been proven to be unethical, he continues to be the face of anti-vaccination. After having his medical license revoked in the UK, Wakefield moved to the United States. In Texas, Wakefield owns an autism clinic Thoughtful House where he continues to produce the same research with a bigger sample of 29 kids (Russo). Wakefield wrote a second article as a rebuttal to the GMC decision but, the article ended up also being retracted from The Sun, a scientific newspaper, for wrongful information (Deer). “Wakefield moved to Austin in 2004 … led to found Thoughtful House center, a treatment and research center for kids with autism … but after GMC found Wakefield guilty of unethical conduct … Wakefield resigned from Thoughtful House” (Dominus). Till this day Wakefield has stood by his medical research, and repeatedly his idea of Autism and the vaccination correlation has been shut down. He has become the face of anti-vaccination and feels like it is his pride in life to represent such ideas. Since 2010 he has advocated all kinds of anti-vaccination idea in social media, and officially retired in research.
The conspiracy theory that Wakefield was paid to do perform faulty research is true, but his motivations behind continuing to perform and advocate his research is mysterious. Some could argue that Wakefield could have not been motivated through money due to his continuous battle with proving that autism and MMR vaccine could be correlated, after many failed articles. I would argue that Wakefield was financially motivated, and his pride did not let him move on past the embarrassment of being wrong.
Bionity (Ed.). (n.d.). Andrew Wakefield. Andrew Wakefield. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.bionity.com/en/encyclopedia/Andrew_Wakefield.html
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Boseley, Sarah. "Andrew Wakefield was struck off the register by the General Medical Council." The Guardian 25 (2010).
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Cosenza, Giovanna, and Leonardo Sanna. "The Origins of the Alleged Correlation between Vaccines and Autism. A Semiotic Approach." Social Epistemology (2021): 1-14. The Origins of the Alleged Correlation between Vaccines and Autism. A Semiotic Approach
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Deer, Brian. “How the Vaccine Crisis Was Meant to Make Money.” The BMJ, British Medical Journal Publishing Group, 11 Jan. 2011,
https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.C5258.full
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Dominus, S. (2011, April 20). The Crash and Burn of an Autism Guru. The New York Times. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://people.forestry.oregonstate.edu/steve-strauss/sites/people.forestry.oregonstate.edu.steve-strauss/files/The%20Crash%20and%20Burn%20of%20an%20Autism%20Guru%20-%20NYTimes.com.pdf
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Omer, S. B. (2020, October 27). The discredited doctor hailed by the anti-vaccine movement. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02989-9
Russo, A. J., et al. "Decreased serum hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in autistic children with severe gastrointestinal disease." 27 Nov. 2009. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.4137/BMI.S3656
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The Sunday Times (Ed.). (n.d.). Andrew Wakefield: the Fraud Investigation. Brian Deer investigations. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-summary.htm
United Kingdom, General Medical Council. Fitness to Practice Panel Hearing. 28 January 2010. https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/gmc-charge-sheet.pdf
Work Cited
Project 4
Andrew Wakefield fooled the world with his unethical research, letting vaccination rates fall when his research was published. The conspiracy theory that he was paid thousands of dollars is deemed true by investigator Brian Deer, and Wakefield produced faulty data to his own profitable gain. Putting in danger the lives of unvaccinated kids, to this day Andrew Wakefield stands firm on his beliefs that autism is caused by vaccination.