Andrew Wakefield - Wikipedia

British former doctor (born 1956)
Andrew Jeremy Wakefield
(born 3 September 1956
) is an English
fraudster
anti-vaccine
activist, and former
senior surgeon
. He was
struck off
the medical register for "serious professional misconduct"
due to his involvement in the fraudulent 1998
Lancet
MMR autism study
that falsely claimed a link between the
measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine
and
autism
The publicity surrounding the study caused a sharp decline in vaccination uptake, leading to a number of outbreaks of
measles
around the world and many deaths as a result. He was a surgeon on the liver transplant programme at the
Royal Free Hospital
in
London
, and became a senior lecturer and honorary consultant in experimental
gastroenterology
at the
Royal Free and University College School of Medicine
. He resigned from his positions there in 2001 "by mutual agreement", then moved to the United States. In 2004, Wakefield co-founded and began working at the Thoughtful House research centre (later renamed the Johnson Center for Child Health and Development) in
Austin, Texas
. He served as executive director of the centre until February 2010, when he resigned in the wake of findings against him by the British
General Medical Council
which had struck him off their register. He has subsequently become known for his
anti-vaccination
activism.
Wakefield published his 1998 paper on autism in the British medical journal
The Lancet
, claiming to have identified a novel form of
enterocolitis
linked to autism. However, other researchers were unable to
reproduce
his findings,
10
and a 2004 investigation by
Sunday Times
reporter
Brian Deer
identified undisclosed financial
conflicts of interest
on Wakefield's part.
11
Wakefield reportedly stood to earn up to $43 million per year selling test kits.
12
Most of Wakefield's co-authors then
withdrew their support
for the study's interpretations,
13
and the General Medical Council (GMC) conducted an inquiry into allegations of
misconduct
against Wakefield and two former colleagues,
14
focusing on Deer's findings.
15
In 2010, the GMC found that Wakefield had been dishonest in his research, had acted against patients' best interests, mistreated developmentally delayed children,
16
and had "failed in his duties as a responsible consultant".
17
18
19
The Lancet
fully retracted Wakefield's 1998 publication on the basis of the GMC's findings, noting that elements of the manuscript had been falsified and that the journal had been "deceived" by Wakefield.
20
21
Three months later, Wakefield was struck off the
UK medical register
, in part for his deliberate falsification of research published in
The Lancet
22
In a related legal decision, a British court held that "[t]here is now no respectable body of opinion which supports [Wakefield's] hypothesis, that MMR vaccine and autism/enterocolitis are causally linked".
23
In 2016, Wakefield directed the anti-vaccination film
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe
Early life and education
Wakefield was born on 3 September 1956, to Graham Wakefield, a neurologist, and Bridget d'Estouteville Matthews, a general practitioner, at the
Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital
in
Taplow
, England.
24
As a
day pupil
at the independent
King Edward's School, Bath
, he was captain of his local
rugby
team.
After leaving King Edward's School,
25
Wakefield studied medicine at
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
24
(now
Imperial College School of Medicine
), fully qualifying in 1981.
Wakefield became a
Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons
in 1985.
26
Career
At the
University of Toronto
from 1986 to 1989, he was a member of a team that studied tissue rejection problems with
small intestine
transplantation, using animal models.
27
28
He continued his studies of small intestine transplantation under a
Wellcome Trust
travelling fellowship at University of Toronto in Canada.
In the late 1980s, Wakefield returned to the UK to focus on research.
He joined the
Royal Free Hospital
in London in the 1990s and remained there until his resignation in 2001. He was part of a team at the Royal working on
inflammatory bowel disease
from 1995 to 1998.
29
Following his resignation from Royal Free, Wakefield moved to the United States, where he co-founded the Thoughtful House research centre in Austin, Texas. He served as the executive director of Thoughtful House, which studies autism, and continued to promote the theory of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, despite admitting it was "not proved."
In February 2010, Wakefield resigned as the executive director of Thoughtful House after the British
General Medical Council
(GMC) concluded that he had engaged in unethical and dishonest conduct during his research. The GMC found that he had been "dishonest and irresponsible" in conducting his earlier autism research in England.
30
31
32
The Times
reported in May 2010 that he was a medical advisor for Visceral, a UK charity that "researches bowel disease and developmental disorders".
33
Wakefield has set up the non-profit Strategic Autism Initiative to commission studies into the condition, and in 2013 was listed as a director of a company called Medical Interventions for Autism and another called the Autism Media Channel.
34
Although initially supported by
Donald Trump
, who appeared with him in inauguration photos, the emergence of a measles epidemic led Trump to reconsider his stance.
35
Subsequently, social media platforms provided Wakefield with a fresh avenue to promote his anti-vaccination campaign, resulting in global repercussions, despite the fact that he has never directly treated a patient.
35
Wakefield directed the anti-vaccination film "
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe
" in 2016 which was removed from the
Tribeca Film Festival
by one of its co-founders,
Robert De Niro
, whose son is on the autism spectrum.
36
According to a 2020 article in
The Telegraph
, Wakefield had become prominent in the anti-vaccine movement and during the
COVID-19 pandemic
, promoted his discredited claims about vaccine safety. He appeared at summits warning that vaccines "will kill us" and called for widespread protests against their use.
37
In a 2025 interview with
Democracy Now
, investigative journalist Brian Deer identified
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
, Andrew Wakefield, and
Del Bigtree
as the core leaders of the anti-vaccine movement. During the interview, Deer offered his perspective on the Senate confirmation hearings for Kennedy Jr., specifically addressing the questioning by senators
Bernie Sanders
and
Bill Cassidy
regarding Kennedy's alignment with Wakefield's discredited theory linking vaccines to autism.
38
Claims of measles virus–Crohn's disease link
Back in the UK, he worked on the liver transplant programme at the
Royal Free Hospital
in London.
In 1993, Wakefield attracted professional attention when he published reports in which he concluded that measles virus might cause
Crohn's disease
39
and two years later he published a paper in
The Lancet
proposing a link between the
measles vaccine
and Crohn's disease.
40
Subsequent research failed to confirm this hypothesis, with a group of experts in Britain reviewing a number of peer-reviewed studies in 1998 and concluding that the measles virus did not cause Crohn's disease, and neither did the MMR vaccine.
41
Later, in 1995, while conducting research into Crohn's disease, he was approached by Rosemary Kessick, the parent of a child with autism, who was seeking help with her son's bowel problems and autism; Kessick ran a group called Allergy Induced Autism.
42
In 1996, Wakefield turned his attention to researching possible connections between the MMR vaccine and autism.
At the time of his MMR research study, Wakefield was senior lecturer and honorary
consultant
in experimental
gastroenterology
at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine (from 2008,
UCL Medical School
). He resigned in 2001,
43
by "mutual agreement and was made a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists",
33
and moved to the US in 2001
44
(or 2004, by another account).
33
He was reportedly asked to leave the Royal Free Hospital after refusing a request to validate his 1998
Lancet
paper with a controlled study.
45
Wakefield is barred from practising as a physician in the UK,
22
and is not licensed in the US.
46
He lives in the US where he has a following, including the anti-vaccinationist
Jenny McCarthy
47
who wrote the foreword for Wakefield's autobiography,
Callous Disregard
. She has a son with autism-like symptoms that she believes were caused by the MMR vaccine.
48
According to Deer, as of 2011
[update]
, Wakefield lives near Austin with his family.
27
34
The Lancet
fraud
On 28 February 1998, Wakefield was the lead author of a study of twelve
children with autism
that was published in
The Lancet
. The study proposed a new
syndrome
called
autistic enterocolitis
, and raised the possibility of a link between a novel form of bowel disease, autism, and the MMR vaccine. The authors said that the parents of eight of the twelve children linked what were described as "behavioural symptoms" with MMR, and reported that the onset of these symptoms began within two weeks of MMR vaccination.
These possible triggers were reported as MMR in eight cases, and measles infection in one. The paper was instantly controversial, leading to widespread publicity in the UK and the convening of a special panel of the UK's
Medical Research Council
the following month.
49
One 2005 study in Japan found that there was no causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism in groups of children given the triple MMR vaccine and children who received individual measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations. In Japan, the MMR vaccine had been replaced with individual vaccinations in 1993.
50
Although the paper said that no causal connection had been proven, before it was published, Wakefield made statements at a press conference and in a video news release issued by the hospital, calling for suspension of the triple MMR vaccine until more research could be done.
51
This was later criticized as '
science by press conference
'.
52
According to
BBC News
, it was this press conference, rather than the paper in
The Lancet
, that fuelled the MMR vaccination scare.
53
The BBC report said he told journalists: "it was a 'moral issue' and he could no longer support the continued use of the three-in-one jab for measles, mumps and rubella. 'Urgent further research is needed to determine whether MMR may give rise to this complication in a small number of people,' Wakefield said at the time."
53
He said, "If you give three viruses together, three live viruses, then you potentially increase the risk of an adverse event occurring, particularly when one of those viruses influences the immune system in the way that measles does."
51
He suggested parents should opt for single vaccinations against measles, mumps and rubella, separated by gaps of one year.
60 Minutes
interviewed him in November 2000, and he repeated these claims to the U.S. audience, providing a new focus for the nascent anti-vaccination movement in the U.S., which had been primarily concerned about
thiomersal
in vaccines.
54
55
In November 2001, Wakefield resigned from the Royal Free Hospital,
56
saying, "I have been asked to go because my research results are unpopular."
43
The medical school said that he had left "by mutual agreement". In February 2002, Wakefield stated: "What precipitated this crisis was the removal of the single vaccine, the removal of choice, and that is what has caused the furore—because the doctors, the gurus, are treating the public as though they are some kind of moronic mass who cannot make an informed decision for themselves."
57
Aftermath of initial controversy
Wakefield continued to conduct clinical research in the United States after leaving the Royal Free Hospital in December 2001. He joined a controversial American researcher,
Jeff Bradstreet
, at the International Child Development Resource Center, to conduct further studies on the possible relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism.
58
In 2004, Wakefield began working at the Thoughtful House research centre in Austin, Texas.
59
Wakefield served as executive director of Thoughtful House until February 2010, when he resigned in the wake of findings against him by the British
General Medical Council
30
60
In February 2004, the controversy resurfaced when Wakefield was accused of a conflict of interest. In
The Sunday Times
, Brian Deer reported that some of the parents of the 12 children in the study in
The Lancet
were recruited via a UK lawyer preparing a lawsuit against MMR manufacturers, and that the Royal Free Hospital had received £55,000 from the UK's Legal Aid Board (now the
Legal Services Commission
) to pay for the research.
61
Previously, in October 2003, the board had cut off public funding for the litigation against MMR manufacturers.
62
Following an investigation of the allegations in
The Sunday Times
by the UK General Medical Council, Wakefield was charged with serious professional misconduct, including dishonesty.
63
In December 2006, Deer, writing in
The Sunday Times
, further reported that in addition to the money they donated to the Royal Free Hospital, the lawyers responsible for the MMR lawsuit had paid Wakefield personally more than £400,000, which he had not previously disclosed.
64
Twenty-four hours before the 2004
Sunday Times
report by Deer,
The Lancet
s editor
Richard Horton
responded to the investigation in a public statement, describing Wakefield's research as "fatally flawed" and said he believed the paper would have been rejected as biased if the peer reviewers had been aware of Wakefield's conflict of interest.
65
Ten of Wakefield's twelve co-authors of the paper in
The Lancet
later published a retraction of an interpretation.
66
The section of the paper retracted read as follows:
Interpretation. We identified associated gastrointestinal disease and developmental regression in a group of previously normal children, which was generally associated in time with possible environmental triggers.
The retraction stated:
66
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. However the possibility of such a link was raised, and consequent events have had major implications for public health. In view of this, we consider now is the appropriate time that we should together formally retract the interpretation placed upon these findings in the paper, according to precedent.
67
Wakefield v Channel 4 Television and Others
In November 2004,
Channel 4
broadcast a one-hour
Dispatches
investigation by reporter Brian Deer; the
Toronto Star
said Deer had "produced documentary evidence that Wakefield applied for a patent on a single-jab measles vaccine before his campaign against the MMR vaccine, raising questions about his motives".
27
68
69
In addition to Wakefield's unpublished initial patent submission,
68
Deer released a copy of the published patent application.
70
On page 1, the first paragraph of this stated:
The present invention relates to a new vaccine/immunisation for the prevention and/or prophylaxis against measles virus infection and to a pharmaceutical or therapeutic composition for the treatment of IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease); particularly Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis and regressive behavioural disease (RBD).
Before describing the research in Wakefield's 1998 paper in
The Lancet
, at the same page this patent explicitly states that the use of the MMR vaccine causes autism:
It has now also been shown that use of the MMR vaccine (which is taken to include live attenuated measles vaccine virus, measles virus, mumps vaccine virus and rubella vaccine virus, and wild strains of the aforementioned viruses) results in ileal lymphoid nodular hyperplasia, chronic colitis and pervasive developmental disorder including autism (RBD), in some infants.
According to Deer, a letter from Wakefield's lawyers to him dated 31 January 2005 said: "Dr Wakefield did not plan a rival vaccine."
68
In the
Dispatches
programme, Deer also revealed that Nicholas Chadwick, a researcher working under Wakefield's supervision in the Royal Free medical school, had failed to find measles virus in the children reported on in
The Lancet
71
In January 2005, Wakefield initiated libel proceedings against Channel 4, the independent production company
Twenty Twenty
and Brian Deer,
The Sunday Times
, and against Deer personally along with his website briandeer.com
72
in the case
Wakefield v Channel Four Television and Others
[2006] EWHC 3289 (QB); [2007] 94 BMLR 1. Within weeks of issuing his claims, however, Wakefield sought to have the action frozen until after the conclusion of General Medical Council proceedings against him. Channel 4 and Deer sought a High Court order compelling Wakefield to continue with his action, or discontinue it. After a hearing on 27 and 28 October 2005, Justice
David Eady
ruled against a
stay of proceedings
It thus appears that the Claimant wishes to use the existence of the libel proceedings for public relations purposes, and to deter other critics, while at the same time isolating himself from the "downside" of such litigation, in having to answer a substantial defence of justification ... I am quite satisfied, therefore, that the Claimant wished to extract whatever advantage he could from the existence of the proceedings while not wishing to progress them or to give the Defendants an opportunity of meeting the claims.
73
The judgment identified Channel 4's "very lengthy extracts" summarizing Deer's allegations against Wakefield:
73
(i) [Wakefield] spread fear that the MMR vaccine might lead to autism, even though he knew that his own laboratory had carried out tests whose results dramatically contradicted his claims in that the measles virus had not been found in a single one of the children concerned in his study and he knew or ought to have known that there was absolutely no basis at all for his belief that the MMR should be broken up into single vaccines.
(ii) In spreading such fear, acted dishonestly and for mercenary motives in that, although he improperly failed to disclose the fact, he planned a rival vaccine and products (such as a diagnostic kit based on his theory) that could have made his fortune
(iii) Gravely abused the children under his care by unethically carrying out extensive invasive procedures (on occasions requiring three people to hold a child down), thereby driving nurses to leave and causing his medical colleagues serious concern and unhappiness
(iv) Improperly and/or dishonestly failed to disclose to his colleagues and to the public that his research on autistic children had begun with a contract with solicitors who were trying to sue the manufacturers of the MMR vaccine
(v) Improperly or dishonestly lent his reputation to the International Child Development Resource Centre, which promoted to very vulnerable parents expensive products for whose efficacy (as he knew or should have known) there was no scientific evidence
Eady's ruling states that, "The views or conclusions of the GMC disciplinary body would not, so far as I can tell, be relevant or admissible", that Channel 4's allegations "go to undermine fundamentally the Claimant's professional integrity and honesty", and that, "It cannot seriously be suggested that priority should be given to GMC proceedings for the resolution of issues."
In December 2006, Deer released records obtained from the
Legal Services Commission
, showing that Richard Barr, a lawyer planning a class-action lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers, had paid £435,643 in undisclosed fees to Wakefield for the purpose of building a case against the MMR vaccine.
74
Those payments,
The Sunday Times
reported, had begun two years before publication of Wakefield's paper in
The Lancet
64
Within days of Deer's report, Wakefield dropped all his libel actions
75
and was ordered to pay all defendants' legal costs.
76
77
Other concerns
Wakefield's data was also questioned;
78
a former graduate student, who appeared in Deer's programme, later testified that Wakefield ignored laboratory data that conflicted with his hypothesis. An independent investigation of a collaborating laboratory questioned the accuracy of the data underpinning Wakefield's claims.
79
In June 2005, the
BBC
programme
Horizon
reported on an unnamed and unpublished study of blood samples from a group of 100 autistic children and 200 children without autism. They reported finding 99% of the samples contained no trace of the measles virus, and the samples that did contain the virus were just as likely to be from non-autistic children, i.e., only three samples contained the measles virus, one from an autistic child and two from a typically developing child. The study's authors found no evidence of any link between MMR and autism.
80
The
Institute of Medicine
(IOM) of the
United States National Academy of Sciences
81
along with the
CDC
82
and the UK
National Health Service
83
have found no link between vaccines and autism. Reviews in the medical literature have also found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism or with bowel disease, which Wakefield called "
autistic enterocolitis
".
84
85
86
General Medical Council hearings
Between July 2007 and May 2010, a 217-day "fitness to practise" hearing of the UK General Medical Council examined charges of
professional misconduct
against Wakefield and two colleagues involved in the paper in
The Lancet
87
88
The charges included that he:
"Was being paid to conduct the study by solicitors representing parents who believed their children had been harmed by MMR".
87
Ordered investigations "without the requisite paediatric qualifications" including
colonoscopies
, colon biopsies and
lumbar punctures
("spinal taps") on his research subjects without the approval of his department's
ethics board
and contrary to the children's clinical interests,
87
when these diagnostic tests were not indicated by the children's symptoms or medical history.
"Act[ed] 'dishonestly and irresponsibly' in failing to disclose ... how patients were recruited for the study"
87
as well as in his descriptions in the
Lancet
papers and in questions after the paper published, about what ailments the children had, and when those ailments were observed relative to their getting vaccinated.
89
90
: Para. 33–36, pp 45–48
"Conduct[ed] the study on a basis not approved by the hospital's ethics committee."
87
Purchased blood samples—for £5 each—from children present at his son's birthday party, which Wakefield joked about in a later presentation.
87
"[S]howed callous disregard for any distress or pain the children might suffer"
Wakefield denied the charges;
91
on 28 January 2010, the GMC ruled against Wakefield on all issues, stating that he had "failed in his duties as a responsible consultant",
17
acted against the interests of patients,
17
and "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in his controversial research.
18
On 24 May 2010, he was struck off the United Kingdom medical register. It was the harshest sanction that the GMC could impose, and effectively ended his career as a physician. In announcing the ruling, the GMC said that Wakefield had "brought the medical profession into disrepute", and no sanction short of erasing his name from the register was appropriate for the "serious and wide-ranging findings" of misconduct.
22
92
On the same day, Wakefield's autobiography,
Callous Disregard
was published, using the same words as one of the charges against him ("he showed callous disregard for any distress or pain the children might suffer").
Wakefield argued that he had been unfairly treated by the medical and scientific establishment.
93
Fraud and conflict of interest allegations
In February 2009,
The Sunday Times
reported that a further investigation by the newspaper had revealed that Wakefield "changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism",
94
citing evidence obtained by the newspaper from medical records and interviews with witnesses, and supported by evidence presented to the GMC.
In April 2010, Deer expanded on laboratory aspects of his findings in a report in the
BMJ
, recounting how normal clinical
histopathology
results (obtained from the Royal Free hospital) had been subjected to wholesale changes, from normal to abnormal, in the medical school and published in
The Lancet
95
On 2 January 2011, Deer provided two tables comparing the data on the twelve children, showing the original hospital data and the data with the wholesale changes as used in the 1998
The Lancet
article.
96
On 5 January 2011,
BMJ
published an article by Brian Deer entitled "How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed".
97
Deer said that, based on examination of the medical records of the 12 children in the original study, his research had found:
97
The paper in
The Lancet
was a case series of 12 child patients; it reported a proposed "new syndrome" of enterocolitis and regressive autism and associated this with MMR as an "apparent precipitating event." But in fact:
Three of nine children reported with regressive autism did not have autism diagnosed at all. Only one child clearly had regressive autism;
Despite the paper claiming that all 12 children were "previously normal", five had documented pre-existing developmental concerns;
Some children were reported to have experienced first behavioural symptoms within days of MMR, but the records documented these as starting some months after vaccination;
In nine cases, unremarkable colonic histopathology results—noting no or minimal fluctuations in inflammatory cell populations—were changed after a medical school "research review" to "non-specific colitis";
The parents of eight children were reported as blaming MMR, but 11 families made this allegation at the hospital. The exclusion of three allegations—all giving times to onset of problems in months—helped to create the appearance of a 14-day temporal link;
Patients were recruited through anti-MMR campaigners, and the study was commissioned and funded for planned litigation.
97
In an accompanying editorial,
BMJ
editors said:
Clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare ... Who perpetrated this fraud? There is no doubt that it was Wakefield. Is it possible that he was wrong, but not dishonest: that he was so incompetent that he was unable to fairly describe the project, or to report even one of the 12 children's cases accurately? No. A great deal of thought and effort must have gone into drafting the paper to achieve the results he wanted: the discrepancies all led in one direction; misreporting was gross. Moreover, although the scale of the GMC's 217-day hearing precluded additional charges focused directly on the fraud, the panel found him guilty of dishonesty concerning the study's admissions criteria, its funding by the Legal Aid Board, and his statements about it afterwards.
98
The
British Medical Journal
editorial concluded that Wakefield's paper was an "elaborate fraud".
98
99
In a
BMJ
follow-up article on 11 January 2011,
45
Deer stated that Wakefield had planned to capitalize on the MMR vaccination scare provoked by his paper.
100
He said that based upon documents he had obtained under
Freedom of information legislation
12
Wakefield—in partnership with the father of one of the boys in the study—had planned to launch a venture on the back of an MMR vaccination scare that would profit from new medical tests and "litigation driven testing".
68
100
The Washington Post
reported that Deer said that Wakefield predicted he "could make more than $43 million a year from diagnostic kits" for the new condition,
autistic enterocolitis
12
According to Deer's report in
BMJ
, the ventures, Immunospecifics Biotechnologies Ltd and Carmel Healthcare Ltd—named after Wakefield's wife—failed after Wakefield's superiors at University College London's medical school gave him a two-page letter that said:
We remain concerned about a possible serious conflict of interest between your academic employment by UCL, and your involvement with Carmel ... This concern arose originally because the company's business plan appears to depend on premature, scientifically unjustified publication of results, which do not conform to the rigorous academic and scientific standards that are generally expected.
45
WebMD
reported on Deer's
BMJ
report, saying that the $43 million predicted yearly profits would come from marketing kits for "diagnosing patients with autism" and that "the initial market for the diagnostic will be litigation-driven testing of patients with AE [autistic enterocolitis, an unproven condition concocted by Wakefield] from both the UK and the US".
101
According to WebMD, the
BMJ
article also claimed that Carmel Healthcare Ltd. would succeed in marketing products and developing a replacement vaccine if "public confidence in the MMR vaccine [were] damaged".
101
In October 2012, research published in PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identified Wakefield's 1998 paper as the most cited retracted scientific paper, with 758 citations, and gave the "reason for retraction" as "fraud".
102
Journal retractions
On 2 February 2010,
The Lancet
formally retracted Wakefield's 1998 paper.
103
104
105
The retraction states: "The claims in the original paper that children were 'consecutively referred' and that investigations were 'approved' by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false."
20
The following day, the editor of a specialist journal,
NeuroToxicology
, withdrew another Wakefield paper that was in press. The article, which concerned research on monkeys, had already been published online and sought to implicate vaccines in autism.
106
In May 2010,
The American Journal of Gastroenterology
retracted a paper of Wakefield's that used data from the 12 patients of the article in
The Lancet
107
On 5 January 2011,
British Medical Journal
editors recommended that Wakefield's other publications be scrutinized and retracted if need be.
47
Wakefield response
As of January 2011, Wakefield continued to maintain his innocence. In a press release, he stated,
I want to make one thing crystal clear for the record—my research and the serious medical problems found in those children were not a hoax and there was no fraud whatsoever. Nor did I seek to profit from our findings ... despite media reports to the contrary, the results of my research have been duplicated in five other countries ... I continue to fully support more independent research to determine if environmental triggers, including vaccines, are causing autism and other developmental problems ... Since the
Lancet
paper, I have lost my job, my career and my country. To claim that my motivation was profit is patently untrue. I will not be deterred—this issue is far too important.
108
109
110
In an Internet radio interview, Wakefield said the
BMJ
series "was utter nonsense" and denied "that he used the cases of the 12 children in his study to promote his business venture". Deer has filed financial disclosure forms and rejects Wakefield's claim that he is funded by the pharmaceutical industry.
100
According to
CNN
, Wakefield said the patent he held was for "an 'over-the-counter nutritional supplement' that boosts the immune system".
100
WebMD reported that Wakefield said he was the victim of "a ruthless, pragmatic attempt to crush any attempt to investigate valid vaccine safety concerns".
101
Wakefield says that Deer is a "hit man who was brought in to take [him] down" and that other scientists have simply taken Deer at his word. While on
Anderson Cooper 360°
, he said that he had not read the
BMJ
articles yet, but he denied their validity and denied that Deer had interviewed the families of the children in the study. He also urged viewers to read his book,
Callous Disregard
, which he said would explain why he was being targeted, to which
Anderson Cooper
replied: "But sir, if you're lying, then your book is also a lie. If your study is a lie, your book is a lie."
111
112
Wakefield later implied that there is a
conspiracy
by
public health
officials and
pharmaceutical companies
to discredit him, including suggesting they pay bloggers to post rumours about him on websites or that they artificially inflated reports of deaths from measles.
111
Deer counter-response
Deer responded to Wakefield's charge by challenging Wakefield to sue him:
If it is true that Andrew Wakefield is not guilty as charged, he has the remedy of bringing a libel action against myself,
The Sunday Times
of London, against the medical journal here, and he would be the richest man in America.
113
Deer mentioned that all of Wakefield's previous libel actions had been dismissed or withdrawn.
73
113
In January 2012, Wakefield filed a defamation lawsuit in Texas state court against Deer, Fiona Godlee, and the
BMJ
for false accusations of fraud, seeking a jury trial in
Travis County
. The filing identified Wakefield as a resident of Austin,
114
115
and cited the "
Texas Long-Arm Statute
" as justification for initiating the proceeding in Texas. The
BMJ
responded that it stood by its reports and would "defend the claim vigorously".
116
117
In August 2012 District Court Judge Amy Meachum dismissed Wakefield's suit for lack of jurisdiction.
118
119
Her ruling was upheld on appeal in September 2014 and Wakefield was ordered to pay all parties' costs.
120
121
On 5 April 2011, Deer was named the UK's specialist journalist of the year in the
British Press Awards
, organised by the
Society of Editors
. The judges said that Deer's investigation of Wakefield was a "tremendous righting of a wrong".
122
Epidemics, effects, and reception
Physicians, medical journals, and editors have made statements tying Wakefield's fraudulent actions to various epidemics and deaths.
123
124
125
126
127
Michael J. Smith, a professor of pediatrics at the
University of Louisville
, an "infectious diseases expert who has studied the autism controversy's effect on immunization rates", said, "Clearly, the results of this [Wakefield] study have had repercussions."
128
129
Wakefield's study and his claim that the MMR vaccine might cause autism led to a decline in vaccination rates in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, and a corresponding rise in
measles
and
mumps
infections, resulting in serious illness and deaths. His continued claims that the vaccine is harmful have contributed to a climate of distrust of all vaccines and the reemergence of other previously controlled diseases.
48
78
130
The
Associated Press
said:
Immunization rates in Britain dropped from 92 percent to 73 percent, and were as low as 50 percent in some parts of London. The effect was not nearly as dramatic in the United States, but researchers have estimated that as many as 125,000 US children born in the late 1990s did not get the MMR vaccine because of the Wakefield splash.
128
WWAY
, an
ABC
affiliate in
Wilmington, North Carolina
, said:
Since Dr. Andrew Wakefield's study was released in 1998, many parents have been convinced the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could lead to autism. But that study may have done more harm than good. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
, in the United States, more cases of measles were reported in 2008 than any year since 1997. More than 90 percent of those infected had not been vaccinated, or their vaccination status was not known.
127
Paul Hébert
, editor-in-chief of the
Canadian Medical Association Journal
(CMAJ) said:
There has been a huge impact from the Wakefield fiasco ... This spawned a whole anti-vaccine movement. Great Britain has seen measles outbreaks. It probably resulted in a lot of deaths.
27
A profile in a
New York Times Magazine
article commented:
Andrew Wakefield has become one of the most reviled doctors of his generation, blamed directly and indirectly, depending on the accuser, for irresponsibly starting a panic with tragic repercussions: vaccination rates so low that childhood diseases once all but eradicated here—whooping cough and measles, among them—have re-emerged, endangering young lives.
111
In January 2011, CNN reported:
Asked whether he thinks Wakefield should face criminal charges, Deer said, "I personally do."
113
On 1 April 2011, the
James Randi Educational Foundation
awarded Wakefield the
Pigasus Award
for "refusal to face reality".
131
A 2011 journal article described the vaccine-autism connection as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years".
132
In 2011, Wakefield was at the top of the list of the worst doctors of 2011 in
Medscape
's
list of "Physicians of the Year: Best and Worst".
133
In January 2012,
Time
magazine named Wakefield in a list of "Great Science Frauds".
134
In 2012 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Quackery award by the
Good Thinking Society
135
A writer from
The New York Times
, who was covering a 2011 event in
Tomball, Texas
where Wakefield spoke, was threatened by its organizer, Michelle Guppy: "Be nice to him, or we will hurt you." Guppy is the coordinator of the Houston Autism Disability Network.
111
In June 2012, a local court in
Rimini
, Italy, ruled that the MMR vaccination had caused autism in a 15-month-old boy. The court relied heavily on Wakefield's discredited
Lancet
paper and largely ignored the scientific evidence presented to it. The decision was appealed.
136
On 13 February 2015, the decision was overturned by a Court of Appeals in
Bologna
137
In February 2015, Wakefield denied that he bore any responsibility for the
measles epidemic
that started at
Disneyland
. He also reaffirmed his discredited belief that "MMR contributes to the current autism epidemic".
110
By that time at least 166 measles cases had been reported.
Paul Offit
did not agree, saying that the outbreak was "directly related to Dr. Wakefield's theory".
138
Filmmaker Miranda Bailey followed Wakefield and his wife Carmel and their children for five years filming a documentary about Wakefield as a person,
The Pathological Optimist
. According to Robert Ladendorf writing for
Skeptical Inquirer
magazine, Bailey attempted to remain neutral and add a "human touch", which Ladendorf says was successful. Wakefield is shown "as a soft-spoken but beleaguered family man trying to resurrect his reputation and raising money for his legal fund."
139
In 2018,
The Skeptic
awarded Wakefield the
Rusty Razor award
"for pseudoscience and bad critical thinking."
140
141
The award is decided annually by readers' votes. Editor Deborah Hyde said, "Our contributors clearly felt that anti-vaccination damage is still a current issue, despite Mr. Wakefield first having come to public attention so long ago. These childhood diseases can do real damage, so we're proud to be an organisation that gets the good news out there. The evidence is overwhelming that vaccination is safe. Protect your children and your community by using it."
142
In 2022, Wakefield's fraudulent study was included on a list of "11 of the biggest lies in history".
143
Political activism
Wakefield was scheduled to testify before the Oregon Senate Health Care Committee on 9 March 2015, in opposition to Senate Bill 442,
144
"a bill that would eliminate nonmedical exemptions from Oregon's school immunization law". The Oregon Chiropractic Association had invited him. The chairman of the committee then canceled the meeting "after it became clear that" Wakefield planned to testify. She denied that her decision had anything to do with Wakefield's plans.
145
On 24 April 2015, Wakefield received two standing ovations from the students at
Life Chiropractic College West
when he told them to oppose Senate Bill 277 (SB 277), a bill that proposes elimination of non-medical vaccine exemptions.
146
Wakefield had previously been a featured speaker at a 2014 "California Jam" gathering of chiropractors,
147
as well as a 2015 "California Jam" seminar, with
continuing education
credits, sponsored by Life Chiropractic College West.
148
On 3 July 2015, Wakefield participated in a protest held in Santa Monica, California, against SB 277,
149
a recently enacted bill which removed the personal belief exemption to school vaccine requirements in California state law.
150
Regarding his anti-vaccine advocacy, Wakefield has been described as a
conspiracy theorist
by
ThinkProgress
151
The Washington Post
152
The Guardian
153
the
Los Angeles Times
154
Wired
155
the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
156
Steven Salzberg
157
and
Paul Offit
158
Vaxxed
film
In 2016, Wakefield directed the anti-vaccination
propaganda
film
Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe.
159
160
161
162
The film purports to show "an appalling cover-up committed by the government agency charged with protecting the health of American citizens [the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)] ... an alarming deception that has contributed to the skyrocketing increase of autism and potentially the most catastrophic epidemic of our lifetime."
163
The film was withdrawn from New York's 2016
Tribeca Film Festival
after the festival's founder
Robert De Niro
(who has a child with autism) reversed his decision to include it.
164
The film was also scheduled to be screened at the Mairie de Paris but was then moved to a small private cinema.
165
Wakefield called this action censorship.
166
Ian Lipkin
, professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at the
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
, writing in
The Wall Street Journal
, said: "If
Vaxxed
had been submitted as science fiction, it would merit attention for its story line, character development and dialogue. But as a documentary it misrepresents what science knows about autism, undermines public confidence in the safety and efficacy of vaccines, and attacks the integrity of legitimate scientists and public-health officials".
167
Selected works
Books
Journal articles
Withdrawn
Hewitson L, Houser LA, Stott C, Sackett G, Tomko JL, Atwood D, Blue L, White ER, Wakefield AJ (October 2009). "WITHDRAWN: Delayed acquisition of neonatal reflexes in newborn primates receiving a thimerosal-containing Hepatitis B vaccine: Influence of gestational age and birth weight".
Neurotoxicology
doi
10.1016/j.neuro.2009.09.008
PMID
19800915
Retracted
Wakefield AJ, Anthony A, Murch SH, Thomson M, Montgomery SM, Davies S, O'Leary JJ, Berelowitz M, Walker-Smith JA (September 2000). "Enterocolitis in children with developmental disorders".
Am. J. Gastroenterol
95
(9):
2285–
2295.
doi
10.1111/j.1572-0241.2000.03248.x
PMID
11007230
S2CID
22460603
(Retracted, see
doi
10.1038/ajg.2010.149
PMID
20445528
Retracted:
Wakefield AJ, Murch SH, Anthony A, Linnell J, Casson DM, Malik M, Berelowitz M, Dhillon AP, Thomson MA, Harvey P, Valentine A, Davies SE, Walker-Smith JA (1998). "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children".
The Lancet
351
(9103):
637–
641.
Bibcode
1998Lanc..351..637W
doi
10.1016/S0140-6736(97)11096-0
PMID
9500320
S2CID
439791
(Retracted, see
doi
10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60175-4
PMID
20137807
Retraction Watch
Wakefield AJ, Ekbom A, Dhillon AP, Pittilo RM, Pounder RE (March 1995). "Crohn's disease: pathogenesis and persistent measles virus infection".
Gastroenterology
108
(3):
911–
916.
doi
10.1016/0016-5085(95)90467-0
PMID
7875495
Wakefield AJ, Pittilo RM, Sim R, Cosby SL, Stephenson JR, Dhillon AP, Pounder RE (April 1993). "Evidence of persistent measles virus infection in Crohn's disease".
J. Med. Virol
39
(4):
345–
353.
doi
10.1002/jmv.1890390415
PMID
8492105
S2CID
29899812
Wakefield, AJ; Sankey EA; Dhillon AP; et al. (May 1991).
"Granulomatous vasculitis in Crohn's disease"
Gastroenterology
100
(5 Pt 1):
1279–
1287.
doi
10.1016/0016-5085(91)90779-K
PMID
2013373
Wakefield AJ, Sawyerr AM, Dhillon AP, Pittilo RM, Rowles PM, Lewis AA, Pounder RE (November 1989). "Pathogenesis of Crohn's disease: multifocal gastrointestinal infarction".
The Lancet
(8671):
1057–
1062.
doi
10.1016/s0140-6736(89)91078-7
PMID
2572794
S2CID
23490194
Films
Wakefield has directed the following films:
168
Who Killed Alex Spourdalakis?
, 2015
Vaxxed
, 2016
1986: The Act
, 2020
Protocol 7
, 2024
See also
Notes
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