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The Times - Correction 4/2/2010Although the General Medical Council found that Professors Simon Murch and John Walker-Smith, former colleagues of Andrew Wakefield, had failed in their duties as responsible consultants such that they continue to face charges of serious professional misconduct ("Fall of 'dishonest' doctor who started MMR scare", January 29), it did not find them dishonest or, in the case of Professor Murch, irresponsible, contrary to our report. We were also wrong to say (“The men who started the scare”, same day) that they had not retracted the claim that MMR could be linked to health problems; they did so in The Lancet in 2004. We apologise for the errors. GMC FINDING ON FACT – 28 JAN 2010DR WAKEFIELD AND PROFESSORS MURCH AND WALKER-SMITHA STATEMENT FROM PARENTS OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN TREATED BY THE THREE DOCTORS The GMC was WRONG to find the doctors guilty on the findings of fact when no parent or patient was a complainant in this fitness to practice hearing. The Panel has chosen the facts it wants, and rejected those it doesn’t want, to find the doctors guilty on fact – facts that go back 16 years. The evidenceParents heard the doctors put up a robust defence. Documents and evidence produced by the doctors showed
However, the GMC chose to ignore the 1995 ethical approval and substitute a 1996 approval, allowing them to reach the findings they did – a blatant disregard for justice. They also insisted that ‘pervasive developmental disorder’ was not the same as autism spectrum disorders which of course it is; and that only children who had had the measles or measles/rubella vaccine should have been admitted onto the project, not those who had had the MMR. The hearing moved the goalposts so that the doctors had no chance of overturning the serious charges against them. The injusticeThis is the same GMC that missed Harold Shipman, the Bristol babies and Alder Hey. We believe it has made another blunder. Please voice your support for the doctors with the CryShame Facebook Group…This scandalous show trial was used to mask real concerns parents have about why their children regressed into autism following MMR. The GMC and government engaged in a callous and diversionary tactic to end speculation about MMR safety and ensure scientific research into autism and bowel disease, and the role of vaccines, ended. Parents’ requests that this research should continue fell on deaf ears. At the same time the numbers of autistic children has risen thirty-fold since the MMR was introduced in 1988 amidst the parents’ constant pleas for research into why their children were damaged. What role vaccines play in our children’s deaths (in some cases), seizures, regressive autism, bowel disease, daily pain and disability must be investigated. The effects of the GMC hearing are to warn off doctors from expressing similar concerns about one size fits all vaccination policy and to ensure that scientists won’t investigate vaccine safety. The effect is to ensure government contracts with the large drug-makers are safeguarded and that clauses compelling government to make good their loss of earnings should MMR sales drastically fall are not activated. The commercial interests of the drug-makers take priority over research into why autism has increased dramatically. The plan has been to “discredit” the doctors and ensure they are left undefended in the media. The press have been compelled to refer to their “discredited” work. But scientists claiming this have never fully replicated their work; the doctors’ research remains original and significant. Independent research into why autism has increased must be funded, without powerful drug makers influencing the research agenda to keep share prices high and protect their products. ...and, if you haven't already done it, sign the Nigel Thomas Petition. CryShameCryshame is a pressure group made up of parents who saw their children regress into autism after the MMR jab. Cryshame wholeheartedly supports the three doctors, Dr Andrew Wakefield, Professors Simon Much and John Walker-Smith, each an expert in paediatric gastroenterology – Professor Walker-Smith an expert of world class. In 1998 the three doctors published a small peer-reviewed investigation in The Lancet of 12 children with autism and painful bowel disorders – the subject of the GMC hearing. They followed this with other peer-reviewed publications of larger samples of autistic children and controls. Their findings have been replicated in published research in other parts of the world. But since GMC’s case began research in the UK was halted. In 2006 only £1m was spent on autism research in the UK. Yet the numbers of children with autism reached 1 in 66 in 2009, from one in 2000 in 1987 – a thirty-fold increase during the period since when MMR was introduced. We believe that eventually this so far unstoppable increase will force a rethink on the role of vaccination. All the US Presidential candidates in 2008 committed to funding research into vaccines and autism. This whole episode has been driven by the government and the GMC's desire to vilify the doctors and discredit their work. Despite their robust defence, the costs to the doctors and their patients have been immense:
Background Notes1. The length of time between the events on which the charges are based and the time of the GMC hearing was up to 16 years, so eroding the witnesses' memory of the original events and the availability of key documents lost or destroyed in the intervening years 2. The hearing is the longest and most expensive hearing in the GMC's history. Estimated at over £10m, this money could have been spent on autism research 3. None of the children or their parents referred to by the prosecuting counsel was a complainant in this hearing. No parent lodged a complaint against the three doctors. Indeed parents supported the doctors throughout the hearing. 4. None of the children and parents cited at the hearing was legally represented. There was no attempt to secure representation for them 5. One of the initial complainants/informants in February 2004 was a journalist who continued to publish articles on the defendants in the Sunday Times without revealing his interest in the case 6. The parents believe the hearing was a witch-hunt conducted by government, the GMC and pharmaceutical interests to discredit the doctors, to ensure they are ‘struck off' and cannot practice, and to discourage medical scientists from conducting independent research into vaccine safety 7. In 2002, Wakefield et al found measles virus in the bowel of 75 out of 91 autistic children who had had MMR but not wild measles , but rarely in the controls ( Uhlmann et al, ‘Potential viral pathogenic mechanism for new variant inflammatory bowel disease', Jnl of Clinical Pathololgy : Molecular Pathology, 55) 8. The only study to partially replicate Wakefield's 2002 study and arrive at different findings studied only five children (out of a total of 25) who had received MMR before onset of autism and bowel disease, compared with 75 such children in the 2002 ( Hornig et al (2008) ‘ Lack of Association between Measles Virus Vaccine and Autism with Enteropathy : A Case-Control Study', P losone ) 9. Wakefield’s work has not been fully replicated and therefore it has not been discredited
An open letter to Jeremy Laurance, |
