MMR and Dr Andrew Wakefield Singapore Autism Help and Advice

Struck Off By GMC

Dr Andrew Wakefield is the doctor and lead author who is behind the suggestion and the controversial study that there is a link between MMR and autism. It has been one of the biggest health controversies of recent years which suggested there may be a link between MMR and autism and bowel disease.

Dr Andrew Wakefield’s research and statements linking autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella had caused widespread alarm. Many parents abandoned the vaccine which resulting to a resurgence of measles in Western countries where it had been mostly stamped out. There are also outbreaks across Europe every year and sporadic outbreaks in the United States.

Britan’s General Medical Council (GMC) on May 2010 had applied its most severe sanction against the 53-years old doctor for ethical lapses. According to BBC, "The panel concluded that it is the only sanction that is appropriate to protect patients and is in the wider public interest, including the maintenance of public trust and confidence in the profession, and is proportionate to the serious and wide-ranging findings made against him.”

Which Would you Choose?

If there is a slight chance that the MMR vaccines could be linked to autism, would you choose not to use it given that many children will then not be protected against preventable diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella? Or would you take the risk?

For me, I would choose to have the vaccine as the hospitalization and deaths of children from measles could have easily be avoided and his research is questionable. As the GMC added: ‘It made findings of dishonesty in regard to his writing of a scientific paper that had major implications for public health, and with regard to his subsequent representations to a scientific body and to colleagues.”

For one thing, courts have ruled over and again that there is no evidence to link vaccines and autism. Dr Andrew Wakefield is not the real victim in this case, the real victims are people who get measles, people who get rubella, people who get mumps. There’s no doubt that the drama around Wakefield, his theories, his supporters and his detractors will continue and the controversy will still be there whether or not Dr Andrew Wakefield had been barred. So are you a supporter or detractor?

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