Two and a Half Years on and still no Verdict
It is time for the GMC to prove that they are not a kangaroo court. That they are not just out to cover up the fact that Wakefield has not done anything wrong nor has Murch or Walker-Smith. The GMC's biggest problem appears to be - if they come out and tell the truth, the witch hunting of these three doctors will have to stop and the blame for the years of stress suffered by these men, their families and the families of autistic children everywhere will have to be laid right where it belongs - with the Ministry of Health, the UK Government, the Times and their 'front man', journalist Brian Deer who started the ball rolling but has not accepted any responsibility for the harm he has caused. After all, the more than 1 million pounds which has been spent so far trying to crucify these caring doctors could go a long way towards researching why children are becoming autistic. The GMC needs to justify that expense and the time they have wasted. But instead, we get articles like this which appear to be yet one more ignorant 'trial by media' piece. It says, “Since the Lancet printed Dr Wakefield’s paper in February 1998, a series of epidemiological studies has failed to find any evidence of a link between MMR and autism”. The average layperson reading this may not be used to scientific terminology and may not understand the difference between epidemiology (the study of disease at the population level) and clinical science (actual studies in individuals across a spectrum of the population). This difference is critical to understanding that a lack of epidemiological evidence means nothing since epidemiology could be useless at picking up this sort of information. A lack of epidemiological evidence does not mean a lack of evidence and the fact that the journalist in this piece made that distinction indicates that they could have and should have known this. There is a great deal of clinical evidence showing that vaccines can be implicated in the development of regressive autism - the form that is growing in epidemic proportions. And while it may be true that epidemiological studies have not shown this connection, there are literally dozens of good, peer-reviewed clinical studies (and Wakefield's initial study was a clinical trial - much more science involved there) that have come out since the 1998 study by Wakefield that have not only verified his initial hypothesis - they have expanded on it. Two and a half years on and still no verdict on MMR scare - Health News, Health & Families - The Independent
The GMC's case against Andrew Wakefield has cost over £1m – so far. Jeremy Laurance, health editor, reports
Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who sparked the biggest health scare of the decade over the safety of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, has broken a second record.
The hearing into the disciplinary case against him brought by the General Medical Council has become the longest and most complex in the organisation's 148-year history with costs well in excess of £1m.
Preliminary verdicts on the "facts" of the case are expected this month, more than two-and-a-half years after the case began in July 2007. Hearings were initially scheduled for 64 days and the case was expected to conclude by November 2007.
Instead, it has run for 166 days so far (up to 19 November). The panel sat for an undisclosed number of days in December and a further 19 days of hearings have been scheduled during January. Extra dates have been set aside from April to June 2010, if required.
