Andrew Wakefield

Andrew Jeremy Wakefield ( born 1957 ) is a retired British physician who with a publication in the medical journal The Lancet in 1998 aroused a great sensation both in the professional world as well as in public. His - now retracted by the magazine - impfkritischer contribution meant that fewer people were vaccinated.

Publication and criticism

The article entitled " Ileal - lymphoid - nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children" provided a link between the MMR vaccination with the combination vaccine ( mumps, measles, rubella) vaccine and autism ago. As a result, vaccination rates fell in particular in the UK significantly.

In 2004 it was revealed that Wakefield had received £ 55,000 in external funds before the release of lawyers, the parents of children affected by autism - represented. These compounds studied between autism and vaccination to sue the manufacturer of the vaccine. The funds had been neither known nor the co-authors of the journal. Then, ten of the thirteen authors of the article back from this. In January 2010, the British Medical Association ( General Medical Council ) ruled that Wakefield had applied " unethical research methods " and its results were presented in " dishonest " and " irresponsible " manner. The Lancet pulled thereupon Wakefield's publication in full. As a consequence, a prohibition in the United Kingdom was pronounced against him in May 2010. He, however, announced it would appeal.

Wakefield gave in 2001 to his job at the Royal Free Hospital in London and immigrated to the United States. There he opened a private clinic in 2005, which he in February 2010, shortly after his study was retracted, left.

Wakefield is married and has four children.