MMR scare doctor 'paid children £5 for blood samples'
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
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Nine years after he triggered one of the biggest health scares of recent times, Andrew Wakefield appeared before a disciplinary panel of the General Medical Council accused of paying children £5 to take their blood samples at his son's birthday party.
The doctor who suggested the MMR vaccine might cause autism, leading to a collapse in immunisation levels nationwide, was accused of showing "callous disregard for the distress and pain" he knew or ought to have known the children might suffer as a result. It was one of a litany of charges against Dr Wakefield and his two former colleagues, Professors Simon Murch and John Walker Smith, who are fighting to defend their professional reputations. If found guilty of serious professional misconduct in the case, which is scheduled to last 15 weeks, they could be struck off the medical register.
Outside yesterday's hearing at the GMC's office in London, parents of autistic children and campaigners waved placards and cheered as Dr Wakefield and his wife, Carmel, arrived - an unusual reversal when accused doctors are usually jeered or even attacked.
A 10ft banner read: "We're with Wakefield - crucified for helping sick kids." Others proclaimed: "For the sake of the children - leave these doctors alone." Carnations sent by supporters in the US - one for every child with autism - were lined up on the pavement.
David Thrower, from Warrington, who said his 20-year-old son became autistic after having MMR at the age of four, claimed: "This case will be medicine's Watergate. The truth will come out in the end."
A group of Royal Colleges and other medical bodies issued a statement yesterday saying that the vaccine "protects children" and that a "large body of scientific evidence" showed no link with autism.
Inside the building, the disciplinary panel was told that the charges focused on ethical aspects of the research and not on whether there is a link between MMR and autism. It heard that Dr Wakefield took blood from his son's friends without ethics committee approval, in an inappropriate social setting and while offering financial inducement. He was accused of abusing his position of trust and bringing the medical profession into disrepute.
The blood was used in research, ultimately published in The Lancet in March 1998, that suggested there could be a link between inflammatory bowel disease and autism. At a press conference to launch the study at London's Royal Free Hospital, where the three doctors then worked, Dr Wakefield claimed the triple MMR vaccine might be the cause of both conditions and advised parents to give the vaccines separately.
He is alleged to have given one child a drug that was being tested as a measles vaccine when he did not have the qualifications to do so and had not gained ethical approval. The child was the son of a colleague with whom Dr Wakefield planned to set up a firm called Immunospecifics Biotechnologies to manufacture the vaccine.
It was also alleged that 11 children involved in the research were subjected to a series of invasive tests, including colonoscopies and lumbar punctures. This was contrary to their best clinical interests and Dr Wakefield did not have the "requisite paediatric qualifications" nor had sought the right approval for the tests.
All three doctors deny the charges. The hearing continues.
How the story grew
1988: The MMR vaccine is introduced across the United Kingdom.
1998: Andrew Wakefield suggests the MMR and autism link at a press briefing to launch research published in The Lancet. .
1999-2001: Several large studies suggest no link between MMR and autism.
2001: Andrew Wakefield resigns from the Royal Free and University College Medical School. He now works in Texas.
2004: Ten co-authors on the 1998 Wakefield Lancet paper issue a retraction and the editor of The Lancet says, with hindsight, they should not have published the paper.
Uptake of MMR vaccine falls to 79 per cent.
2005-2006: Uptake of the MMR vaccine rises to 84 per cent.
2006, April: A 13-year-old boy becomes the first person in the UK to die from measles in 14 years.
2006, June: The GMC confirms that Andrew Wakefield is to face charges of professional misconduct.
