The British Medical Journal has published an editorial calling for a Parliamentary investigation realted to Andrew Wakefield’s dishonesty:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is now more than 18 months since the UK’s General Medical Council found Andrew Wakefield guilty of dishonesty and other serious professional misconduct; and it is nearly a year since the BMJ concluded that his now retracted Lancet paper linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism and bowel disease was an “elaborate fraud.” At that time, January 2011, we called on Wakefield’s former employer, University College London (UCL), to establish an inquiry into the scandal. Ten months on, no inquiry has been announced.<\/p>\n
Our coverage in January showed how Wakefield manufactured the appearance of a link between the vaccine and regressive autism while employed by lawyers trying to build a case against the MMR vaccine, and while negotiating extraordinary commercial schemes that would succeed only if confidence in the vaccine was damaged. … [and] …. that the conflicts of interest were not confined to Wakefield. They drew in his then employer, the Royal Free hospital and medical school. …<\/p>\n
Now we can report that it is not only Wakefield and UCL’s administrators who have a case to answer. This week we publish new information that puts the spotlight on Wakefield’s coauthors. Previously unpublished histopathology grading sheets apparently completed by Amar Dhillon, the senior pathologist on the paper, remove any remaining credibility from the claim that the Royal Free doctors had discovered a new inflammatory bowel disease associated with MMR. Along with UCL’s failings during and after Wakefield’s tenure, this evidence also raises wider concerns about the prevailing culture of Britain’s academic institutions….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n