Updated March 13, 2012
On March 3, 2012, Mr. Justice Mitting of the UK's High Court of Justice ruled that the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) had acted improperly in Professor John Walker-Smith's hearing on charges of serious professional conduct, and therefore he quashed both the finding of serious professional misconduct and the sanction of erasure. (You can find the entire ruling at http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2012/503.html.)
It's important to be very clear about what this ruling means. Mr. Justice Mitting did not find that Professor Walker-Smith's actions were medically necessary or ethical. The ruling does not exonerate Walker-Smith. That was not what the hearing was about. Mitting was only ruling on the conduct, the decision-making, of the GMC's Fitness to Practice panel. More broadly, Mitting found aspects of the GMC's procedures to be flawed.
And Mitting's ruling has nothing to do with the retraction of the 1998 paper. It's still retracted. It does not validate Andrew Wakefield's integrity, or affect the likely outcome of Andrew Wakefield's defamation suit in Texas, (see below).
Mr. Justice Mittings wrote in his opinion:
"There is now no respectable body of opinion which supports [Wakefield's] hypothesis, that MMR vaccine and autism/enterocolitis are causally linked."
Many more details of Wakefield's fraud and perfidy came out after the GMC hearing. I wonder if Mr. Justice Mitting silently took that into account in his ruling -- that Walker-Smith was not a party to Wakefield's unscrupulous doings and in effect, was betrayed by Wakefield.
The Back Story
On October 15, 2004 charges of serious professional misconduct, brought by the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) against Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Professor John Walker-Smith, and Professor Simon Murch, were sent a to a Fitness to Practice Panel. The charges related to the medical treatment of 12 children between August 1995 and February 1997. The findings from the treatments were reported in the study "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children" published in The Lancet on February 28th 1998.
The Fitness to Practice hearings began July 16 2007 and ran for 217 non-consecutive days, the longest hearing in the GMC's history. (You can find a a partial transcript here). On May 24th, 2010, the panel ruled that Dr. Wakefield and Professor Walker-Smith were guilty of serious professional misconduct, but that Professor Murch was not. It ordered that the names of Dr. Wakefield and Professor Walker-Smith be erased from the register of medical practitioners.
Both Dr. Wakefield and Professor Walker-Smith appealed the ruling. Dr. Wakefield subsequently withdrew his appeal, but Professor Walker-Smith did not.
But there's more.
The Fitness to Practice hearings came about because of the published investigations of a UK reporter, Brian Deer. Although he had previously published on vaccine issues and scandals, Mr. Deer paid scant attention to Dr. Wakefield's activities from 1998 to September 2003, when he was approached by an editor at the Sunday Times to investigate the MMR scare. On Sunday, February 24, 2004, the Sunday Times published two articles by Deer: “Revealed: MMR Research Scandal and “MMR: The Truth Behind the Crisis.” An interview with The Lancet's editor, aired before February 24, caused the government’s Health Secretary to announce that he believed that the General Medical Council, which licenses all UK doctors, should investigate the matter. Mr. Deer cooperated with the GMC, supplying details that were not included in the articles.
A few days after Deer's articles were published, 10 of the original authors of The Lancet article (including Professor Walker-Smith) published a partial retraction:
"We wish to make it clear that in [the 1998] paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient. However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications for public health. In view of this, we consider now is the appropriate time that we should together formally retract the interpretation placed upon [the] findings in the (1998) paper, according to precedent."
After the February London Times article, Deer also made a documentary-exposé on Wakefield's activities, which was aired in November 18, 2004. In response, on January 31, 2005, Wakefield filed two libel suits, one against Deer and the television channel; the other was against Deer and his website, which contained many background elements to Deer's published work.
Filing suit against Deer was a mistake on Wakefield's part. It both motivated and enabled Deer to dig deeper into Wakefield's conduct before and during the research on the 12 children.
As a part his defense of these two suits, Deer was granted limited access to confidential, full medical records of 11 of the 12 children in The Lancet project. Deer also used a new legal ruling granting Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, to gather information on Wakefield's manipulation of data in the Lancet report and on his business interests. Wakefield dropped the suit on January 2, 2006, and was ordered to pay legal costs.
Deer attended every day of the GMC hearings, and became aware of even more inconsistencies in the histories and pathology findings of the 12 children whose cases were reported in the Lancet. As a consequence, The British Medical Journal commissioned a series of articles from Deer, which ran between January 5, 2011 and February 7, 2011.
In January 2012, Wakefield filed a defamation suit against Deer, Godlee, and The British Medical Journal in Travis County, Texas. http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/04/BritMedJ.pdf. In the US, some states have Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) laws. Texas has just enacted an aggressive anti-SLAPP law.
Anti-SLAPP laws, for those not familiar with them, are statutes allowing defendants who have been sued based on their speech to force the plaintiffs to establish they have a valid basis for their suit before going forward, and to collect attorney fees if the plaintiff fails.
I will be updating these lists silently as time goes on.
Reactions to Walker-Smith suit by those who regard Wakefield as a disgrace to medicine:
- February 14, 2012 Sullivan at LeftBrain/RightBrain Attorney for Prof. Walker-Smith: alleged link between MMR and autism utterly disproved
- March 7, 2012 Sullivan at Left-Brain/RightBrain Walker-Smith Wins Appeal
- March 8, 2012 Orac at Respectful Insolence Andy Wakefield exonerated because John Walker-Smith won his appeal? Not so fast there, pardner...
- March 11, 2012 at Autism Jungle John Walker-Smith Verdict and Sentence overturned
Reactions to Walker-Smith suit by those who regard Wakefield as a medical hero
- February 10, 2012 Editors at Age of Autism The Appeal of Prof John Walker-Smith Against the United Kingdom General Medical Council (Wakefield Case)
- February 22, 2012 John Stone at Age of Autism The Walker-Smith Appeal, the British Media and the Boseley Problem
- March 7, 2012 Editors at Age of Autism JABS: Professor John Walker Smith Exonerated in Autism MMR Case
- March 7, 2012 Anne Dachel at AnneDachel.com, John Walker Smith Cleared
- March 7, 2012 Anne Dachel at AnneDachel.com Big News! Walker-Smith Exonerated by High Court in UK
- March 7, 2012 John Stone at Age of Autism Prof Walker-Smith Cleared and the Beginning of the End for Allegations Against Andrew Wakefield
- March 7, 2012 CryShame Parents at Age of Autism Quashing of GMC Findings Against Prof Walker-Smith
- March 7, 2012 Ginger Taylor: Press Release from Canary Party Senior Author of MMR Paper, John Walker-Smith, Wins Appeal
- March 7, 2012 Meryl Dorey at No Compulsory Vaccination John Walker-Smith wins case against the GMC-Wakefield next!
- March 7, 2012 Matthew's Puzzle Walker-Smith Wins!
- March 9, 2012 Leonard Henderson at AFR High Court Exonerates Senior Author of Controversial MMR Paper of Professional Misconduct
- March 10, 2012 Editorial by Jenny McCarthy at Age of Autism MMR Doctor Exonerated—Who’s Guilty Now?
- March 10, 2012 Dean Esmay at Dean's World Does Walker-Smith’s Exoneration Exonerate Wakefield?
- March 10, 2012 Dan Olmsted at Age of Autism “Something New Was Coming”: Walker-Smith, Wakefield and the Real Narrative Behind the Lancet Paper
- March 11, 2012 Catherine J. Frompovich at VacTruth Dr. Wakefield Comments After the GMC Recants; Will Dr. Andrew Wakefield Be Next?
- March 12, 2012 Autism Action Network (A-CHAMP) British Court Throws Out Conviction of Autism/Vaccine MD Andrew Wakefield's Co-Author Completely Exonerated
Reactions to Wakefield's defamation suit and the anti-SLAPP response by those who regard Wakefield as a disgrace to medicine:
- January 4 2012 Ken at Popehat Andrew Wakefield Sues BMJ and Brian Deer: Time To Test Out the New Texas Anti-SLAPP Statute
- March 11, 2012 Ken at Popehat Brian Deer and the British Medical Journal File An Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Andrew Wakefield
- March 11, 2012 Sullivan at LeftBrain/RightBrain BMJ, Brian Deer file anti-SLAPP motion against Andrew Wakefield
- March 11, 2012 Michael Hawkins at For The Sake of Science Anti-SLAPP suit against Andrew Wakefield
- March 11, 2012 Sharon Hill at Skeptic.com Wakefield tries to sue BMJ and Deer, gets SLAPPed
- March 12, 2012 Orac at Respectful Insolence Now Andy Wakefield will prevail in his libel suit against Brian Deer because John Walker-Smith won his appeal? Not so fast there, pardner...
- March 12, 2012 Julian at Autism Jungle Brian Deer Files anti-SLAPP motion in response to Wakefield's suit
- March 12, 2012 David Gorski at Science-Based Medicine A Tale of Two Legal Actions
- March 13, 2012 Sullivan at LeftBrain/RightBrain A few details from Brian Deer's declaration
- March 14, 2012 Sullivan at LeftBrain/RightBrain What Letter, Mr. Olmsted? Why This One Of Course
- March 14, 2012 Sullivan at LeftBrain/RightBrain Financials for Andrew Wakefield's Strategic Autism Initiative
Reactions to Wakefield's defamation suit and the anti-SLAPP response by those who regard Wakefield as a medical hero:
- March 13, 2012 Dan Olmsted at Age of Autism What Letter?
- March 16, 2012 Jake Crosby at Age of Autism Brian Deer's BMJ Series Not Peer Reviewed
News reports
- February 16, 2012 MSN UK News MMR Row Doctor Decision 'Fair'
- February 17, 2012 UK Press Association Court Defers Judgment on MMR Appeal
- March 7, 2012 Press Release from the General Medical Council General Medical Council response to the successful appeal of Professor John Walker-Smith
- March 7, 2012 BBC News MMR doctor wins High Court appeal
- March 7, 2021 John Ashton at The Indepedendent MMR doctor John Walker-Smith wins High Court appeal
- March 8 2012 Lachlan MacKinnon at Mirror Online MMR controversy doctor wins High Court battle against being struck off
- March 9, 2012 Todd Neale at MedPage Today Vaccine-Autism Study Co-Author Cleared
- March 13, 2012 Mary Ann Roser at The Autism Statesman Medical journal, reporter challenge Austin autism researcher's libel suit
A version of this was posted on Monday, March 12, at The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism
Saturday March 17 2012 Message from Brian Deer:
So as to give members of the scientific and autism commmunities a better sense of how SLAPP suits can be used to harrass and intimidate journalists and media organisations, I have posted a photograph of the response from us necessary to deal with Andrew Wakefield's latest vexatious litigation.
He will get his day in court, but you can imagine the burden it puts on us in terms of time, energy and, of course, the extraordinary cost.
Andrew Wakefield's defamation petition:
Response from Brian Deer, Fiona Goodlee, and the British Medical Journal:
Comments