Following the longest medical misconduct inquiry ever held in the U.K., Andrew Wakefield has been struck off by the GMC, the General Medical Council. The GMC, an independant charitable organisation, is responsible in the UK for the registration of medical doctors and for the supervision of their conduct. The GMC enjoys a global high reputation for its ethics and integrity.
Brian Deer has exposed much wrongdoing by Wakefield and has been the subject of a (withdrawn) libel suit by him. He reports in the UK's Sunday Times, 31st Jan 2010:
The panel’s findings were astounding, both in their number and substance. More than 30 charges were found proven against Wakefield. For him alone they ran across 52 pages. Embracing four counts of dishonesty — including money, research and public statements — they painted a picture of a man not to be trusted.
Wakefield's self-aggrandising pseudoscience caused a global health scare.
That is not Wakefield’s fault, he insists. Instead it is the government that is to blame for not dancing to his tune.
The panel of 5 at the GMC found that Wakefield had shown a callous
disregard for distress and pain; that he was unethical and dishonest.
“Any journal to which a researcher shown to be dishonest submitted a paper would reject it,” said Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal, this weekend. “They would say, ‘This man can’t be trusted’. His career as a researcher is effectively over.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
Related articles here at scientificblogging:
Festival of Idiots #3 - Andrew Wakefield, Vaccines And Autism
Again, Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism
Vaccine/autism link gets double shot in the arm
Lewis Carroll on Mercury and Autism
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