Wakefield Gives Proof: No Fraud. Brian Deer Lied.

by Heidi Stevenson

26 January 2011

The flummery of Brian Deer and the British Medical Journal in their smear of Dr. Andrew Wakefield's research and character has been demonstrated today to have been without basis—in fact, to be genuine fraud. Dr. Wakefield has released a document⁽¹⁾ with the following statements:

I have documents that confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that I did not falsify the data, that the findings are real, and that these findings were accurately reported in the Lancet.

—and—

I present evidence that completely negates the allegations that I committed scientific fraud. Brian Deer and Dr. Godlee of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) knew or should have known about the facts set out below before publishing their false allegations.

In 1998, The Lancet published Dr. Wakefield's study, "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children". It documented an association of an MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine with chronic enterocolitis and regressive developmental disorder.

The documents relate to Brian Deer's BMJ-published claim that the children had not been diagnosed with the conditions claimed in Dr. Wakefield's Lancet report. Dr. Wakefield provides evidence that Professor Walker-Smith presented at a 20 December 1996 meeting, held at the Wellcome Trust. He stated that it was "an annual gathering of doctors and scientists either collaborating with or guests of my group, The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, based at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School". This meeting took place at least two months before the Lancet paper was written.

Deer claims that Wakefield falsified the diagnoses of the children in the study. However, Walker-Smith presented the diagnoses of seven of the children at that meeting and the diagnoses match those given in the Lancet paper.

The BMJ's Part

Dr. Wakefield then goes into the BMJ's apparent lack of due diligence in publishing claims of fraud against him. This is particularly interesting reading, because he includes the correspondence between himself and Dr. Fiona Godlee, who is the editor responsible for Deer's claims. What's revealed is that Dr. Godlee's own words demonstrate that she did not verify the substance of Wakefield's complaint to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) or even make any attempts to verify the accuracy of Deer's accusations by examining the relevant sections of his book.

The BMJ published strong editorial statements condemning Dr. Wakefield and his research. Statements from the editorial⁽²⁾ include:

Wakefield’s article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent [The Title]

Clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare

Deer unearthed clear evidence of falsification. He found that not one of the 12 cases reported in the 1998 Lancet paper was free of misrepresentation or undisclosed alteration, and that in no single case could the medical records be fully reconciled with the descriptions, diagnoses, or histories published in the journal.

Who perpetrated this fraud? There is no doubt that it was Wakefield.

It's clear from reading the words of Dr. Godlee that the BMJ did not perform due diligence before making these scurrilous claims against Dr. Wakefield and his research.

Dr. Wakefield points out one more stunt by Brian Deer. He misrepresented himself to at least one of the parents he interviewed:

Mr. Deer "entered her home under a false name" and "claimed to be a health correspondent of THE SUNDAY TIMES." Mr. Deer was not on the staff of THE SUNDAY TIMES.

Dr. Wakefield's entire statement can be read here.

I'm looking forward to the lawsuit that Dr. Wakefield will most assuredly be bringing against Brian Deer, Dr. Godlee, and the British Medical Journal.

Before ending this, I would like to point out that close examination of Brian Deer's claims demonstrates that they are not valid. You can read how deeply flawed they are in Brian Deer's 'Wakefield Fraud' Report Is Full of Misrepresentations.

The question that the mainstream news media needs to answer is: Why didn't any of them examine Deer's claims before publishing the fraudulent claims against Dr. Wakefield and his research? No, I don't expect that we'll get a response—but the question does need to be asked.

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