Andrew Wakefield

In 1998 he was the lead author of a fraudulent research paper claiming that there was a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism and bowel disease.

An investigation by journalist Brian Deer found that Andrew Wakefield, the author of the original research paper linking the vaccine to autism, had multiple undeclared conflicts of interest, had manipulated evidence, and had broken other ethical codes.

A 2004 investigation by Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer identified undisclosed financial conflicts of interest on Wakefield's part, and most of his co-authors then withdrew their support for the study's interpretations.

Autistic enterocolitis is the name of a nonexistent medical condition proposed by discredited British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield when he suggested a link between a number of common clinical symptoms and signs which he contended were distinctive to autism.

Andrew Jeremy Wakefield (born 1957) is a discredited former British doctor who became an anti-vaccine activist.

Later 20th-century events included the 1982 broadcast of DPT: Vaccine Roulette, which sparked debate over the DPT vaccine, and the 1998 publication of a fraudulent academic article by Andrew Wakefield which sparked the MMR vaccine controversy.

A 2004 investigation by Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer identified undisclosed financial conflicts of interest on Wakefield's part, and most of his co-authors then withdrew their support for the study's interpretations. 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".

In a series of reports between 2004 and 2010, Deer investigated concerns over the MMR vaccine that arose with the publication in 1998 of a research paper in the medical journal The Lancet written by Andrew Wakefield, and his colleagues.

Wakefield subsequently helped establish and served as the executive director of Thoughtful House Center for Children, which studies autism in Austin, Texas, where, according to The Times, he "continued to promote the theory of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, despite admitting it was 'not proved'."

It was founded in 2005 by a group including discredited researcher Andrew Wakefield.

The Lancet fully retracted the 1998 publication on the basis of the GMC's findings, noting that elements of the manuscript had been falsified.

The editor-in-chief, Richard Horton, went on the record to say the paper had "fatal conflicts of interest" because the study's lead author, Andrew Wakefield, had a serious conflict of interest that he had not declared to The Lancet.

The British General Medical Council (GMC) conducted an inquiry into allegations of misconduct against Wakefield and two former colleagues.

Andrew Wakefield, who claimed links between the MMR vaccine, autism and inflammatory bowel disease.

In 1998 he was the lead author of a fraudulent research paper claiming that there was a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism and bowel disease.

In 1998 Andrew Wakefield et al. published a fraudulent paper about twelve children, reportedly with bowel symptoms and autism or other disorders acquired soon after administration of MMR vaccine, while supporting a competing vaccine.

On 28 February 1998, Wakefield was the lead author of a study of twelve children with autism that was published in The Lancet.

In 1998 Andrew Wakefield lead a a fraudulent study that suggested that the MMR vaccine may cause autism.

Back in the UK, he worked on the liver transplant programme at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

In February 1998, the Royal Free held a press conference to coincide with the publication in The Lancet of a paper by Andrew Wakefield who claimed to have found a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism.

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".

Broadcast on 18 November 2004, MMR: What they didn't tell you, featured an investigation by Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer into the campaign against the MMR vaccine by British surgeon Andrew Wakefield.

This was later criticized as 'science by press conference'.

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield held a press conference to claim that the MMR vaccine caused autism. In January 2011, an article by Brian Deer and its accompanying editorial in BMJ identified Wakefield's work as an "elaborate fraud".

Wakefield is barred from practising as a physician in the UK, and is not licensed in the US. He lives in the US where he has a following, including prominent celebrity anti-vaccinationist Jenny McCarthy, who wrote the foreword for Wakefield's autobiography, Callous Disregard.

McCarthy's claims that vaccines cause autism are not supported by any medical evidence, and the original paper by Andrew Wakefield that formed the basis for the claims (and for whose book McCarthy wrote a foreword) was based on manipulated data and fraudulent research.

Wakefield's study and his claim that the MMR vaccine might cause autism led to a decline in vaccination rates in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland and a corresponding rise in measles and mumps, resulting in serious illness and deaths, and 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.

Claims have been made that the MMR vaccine is linked to autism and inflammatory bowel disease, including one study by Andrew Wakefield.

After leaving the independent King Edward's School, Bath, Wakefield studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School (now Imperial College School of Medicine), fully qualifying in 1981.

Andrew Wakefield – instigator of the MMR vaccine controversy

After leaving the independent King Edward's School, Bath, Wakefield studied medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School (now Imperial College School of Medicine), fully qualifying in 1981.

Andrew Wakefield – Former surgeon and medical researcher famous for the MMR vaccine controversy

J. B. Handley of the autism and anti-vaccine advocacy group Generation Rescue noted, "To our community, Andrew Wakefield is Nelson Mandela and Jesus Christ rolled up into one."

These conferences have also been criticized because Andrew Wakefield has spoken at them.

In February 2015, Wakefield denied that he bore any responsibility for the measles epidemic which started at Disneyland.

Around this time, Andrew Wakefield visited Minneapolis, teaming up with vaccine-skeptical groups to raise concerns about the MMR vaccine.

* List of scientific misconduct incidents

Andrew Wakefield (UK), a former practicing physician and senior lecturer at the Royal Free Hospital in London, was found guilty of dishonesty in his research and banned from medicine by the UK General Medical Council following an investigation by Brian Deer of the London Sunday Times. Wakefield's claims of a link between the MMR vaccine, autism and inflammatory bowel disease have been reported in the British Medical Journal as "based not on bad science but on a deliberate fraud," and the 1998 paper originally presenting his theory was retracted in 2010 by The Lancet. Wakefield was unsuccessful in an attempt to sue detractors/critics for libel and defamation. Wakefield has had two papers retracted and one corrected.

On 1 April 2011, the James Randi Educational Foundation awarded Wakefield the Pigasus Award for "refusal to face reality".

2010 — Andrew Wakefield, the researcher who launched the modern anti-vaccine panic with unfounded statements linking the MMR vaccine with autism that were not borne out by any research.

Paul Offit did not agree, saying that the outbreak was "directly related to Dr. Wakefield's theory".

... [Offit] became outraged by Dr. Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study in the Lancet that blamed the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine for causing autism.

The British General Medical Council (GMC) conducted an inquiry into allegations of misconduct against Wakefield and two former colleagues. He was a gastroenterologist until he was struck off the UK medical register for unethical behaviour, misconduct and dishonesty.

In 1998 he was the lead author of a fraudulent research paper claiming that there was a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism and bowel disease.

After the publication of the paper, other researchers were unable to reproduce Wakefield's findings or confirm his hypothesis of an association between the MMR vaccine and autism, or autism and gastrointestinal disease.

A 2004 investigation by Sunday Times reporter Brian Deer identified undisclosed financial conflicts of interest on Wakefield's part, and most of his co-authors then withdrew their support for the study's interpretations.