An MMR doctor has recently been struck off the medical board for what has been called “multiple separate instances of serious professional misconduct”. Among these instances of misconduct on the part of the then Britain-based doctor included the paying of £5 to children for blood samples at his son’s birthday party.
Andrew Wakefield, the doctor in question, released a study in 1998 that suggested a link between MMR vaccinations (a vaccination for measles, the mumps, and rubella) and autism. At the time this had caused a large drop in vaccinations, and likewise a large rise in measles cases. Later, Wakefield’s results were discredited. However, a recent case against Wakefield did not attack the doctor’s results, but rather his research methods. Furthermore, it has also been rumored that Wakefield concealed the fact that he was paid to advise solicitors on behalf of parents concerned over their children and the MMRs.
All in all, Wakefield was found guilty of more than 30 charges related to professional misconduct. According to a representative of the panel in charge of the sanctioning, “The panel concluded that it is the only sanction that is appropriate to protect patients and is in the wider public interest, including the maintenance of public trust and confidence in the profession, and is proportionate to the serious and wide-ranging findings made against him.”
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