A Letter From Dr. Andy Wakefield…
THOUGHTFUL HOUSE NEWSLETTER
Letter from Dr. Wakefield:
I am pleased to be back in Texas, and back to a full research agenda; the first fruits were presented by Dr. Laura Hewitson at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in London this spring.
And the General Medical Council? The hearing was ostensibly concerned with events from 1995 to 1998 that involved the identification, investigation, treatment, and reporting of twelve children with developmental regression and GI symptoms which, in the opinion of eight of the families, followed MMR vaccination.
The subtext for this inquiry was an intention to deal with the threat that parental claims and their subsequent investigation represented to Department of Health policy as well as to pharmaceutical company profit; the interests of the individual patient who may have been injured by an inadequately tested vaccine were not a consideration.
Facts emerged at the GMC that will have a huge impact on the public’s view of scientific propriety, the ethics of utilitarian ‘medicine,’ and the value of a big PR budget. The story will be told, but too much time has already been spent in events of the past.
For those who are interested, the day-to-day ‘action’ has been captured by Martin Walker, an accomplished medical writer and tireless attendee at the GMC hearing, on www.cryshame.org. The immediate concern of the Thoughtful House team is to move forward in helping stem the tragic tide of children affected with autism spectrum disorders, as well as to attend to the needs of those already diag-
nosed.
It is ironic that the sad, sad case of Hannah Poling came to international attention immediately before my defense, as part of our alleged misdemeanor in 1996 was the conduct of lumbar punctures in the clinical search for mitochondrial abnormalities in similarly affected children. Paraphrasing the French King Louis XIV, aprés Hannah, le deluge – after Hannah, the flood.
And now I find myself back in my beloved adoptive country, where prominent members of the medical community, notably Dr. Bernadine Healy, former Director of the National Institutes of Health and current member of the prestigious Institute of Medicine, publicly express their belief that in our search for the cause
of autism, nothing should be above question: “One never should shy away from science, one should never shy away from getting causality information in a setting in which you can test it. Populations do not test causality, they test associations. You have to go into the laboratory.” She went on to say, “I don’t think you should ever turn your back on any scientific hypothesis because you’re afraid of what it might show.” (CBS News, 5/12/08)
My family and I could not have survived the GMC ordeal without the extraordinary support from all of you. There are insufficient bytes on my computer either to name you, or to record the extent of our gratitude. But you know who you are, so thank you.
–Andy Wakefield