Establishment 'closed ranks' to help MMR scare colleague

THE medical establishment closed ranks to protect disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield after he sparked a nationwide scare about the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, it has been claimed.

A failure to investigate allegations of misconduct over his research that linked the triple inoculation with autism meant the public was misled for six years, according to an article in the British Medical Journal.

Journalist Brian Deer alleges documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show there was a "scramble to discredit my claims" after he raised concerns about Wakefield with the Lancet.

Deer writes: "Were it not for the General Medical Council case . . . the fraud by which Wakefield concocted fear of MMR would forever have been denied and covered up."

Wakefield triggered fears the vaccine was connected to autism after his research was published by the Lancet in 1998.