Andrew Wakefield

Andrew Jeremy Wakefield was born on September 3, 1956, in England and trained in medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1981. He pursued a surgical career and became a senior lecturer and honorary consultant in experimental gastroenterology at the Royal Free Hospital in London, where he developed an interest in bowel disease and its possible connection to developmental disorders.

In February 1998, Wakefield and twelve co-authors published a study in The Lancet involving just 12 children, suggesting a new syndrome linking MMR vaccination, intestinal inflammation, and autism. The paper triggered immediate and lasting global panic about childhood vaccines. Vaccination rates plummeted in the UK, Ireland, and the United States. Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer subsequently investigated and discovered that Wakefield had received approximately $674,000 from lawyers planning to sue vaccine manufacturers before the study was published—a conflict of interest he never disclosed. Deer also found that Wakefield had subjected autistic children to invasive and unnecessary medical procedures, including colonoscopies and lumbar punctures, without proper ethical approval.

The Lancet fully retracted the paper in February 2010. The following month, the UK General Medical Council found Wakefield guilty of serious professional misconduct, including dishonesty and abuse of developmentally challenged children, and struck him from the medical register. The British Medical Journal later published a detailed analysis by Deer concluding the study was not merely flawed but a deliberate fraud: every single case had been misrepresented.

Wakefield relocated to Austin, Texas, where he co-founded a center for autism research and became a celebrity in the American anti-vaccine movement. In 2016, he directed 'Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,' a pseudoscience propaganda film that alleged a CDC cover-up, which was pulled from the Tribeca Film Festival amid scientific outcry. A sequel followed in 2019. Despite being stripped of his medical credentials, he continues to be treated as an expert by anti-vaccine communities worldwide.

The public health consequences of Wakefield's fraud have been severe. Measles was eliminated in the UK in 2016, only to return in subsequent years as vaccination rates remained suppressed. In Samoa, Wakefield's activism contributed to vaccine hesitancy before a 2019 measles outbreak killed 83 people, mostly young children. His fraudulent study has been called one of the most damaging pieces of medical research ever published.

“The MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine causes autism”

Wakefield's 1998 Lancet paper was retracted after investigation revealed it was an 'elaborate fraud.' Data were manipulated, patient histories were misrepresented, and Wakefield had undisclosed financial ties to lawyers suing vaccine manufacturers. Dozens of large-scale studies involving millions of children have found no link between any vaccine and autism.

“Public health authorities and the CDC are covering up vaccine harms”

Wakefield's documentary 'Vaxxed' alleges a CDC cover-up of a vaccine-autism link, based on selective misrepresentation of a CDC scientist's emails. Independent review found no cover-up; the scientist's concerns related to statistical methodology, not proof of a vaccine-autism link.