Brian Deer and The GMC, Selective Hearing. BMJ Journalist

The refusal by government to evaluate the risks of MMR properly
will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history.
There are very powerful people in positions of great authority
who have staked their reputations on the safety of MMR
and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves.
Dr peter Fletcher, former chief scientific officer department of health (responsible for vaccine safety)
Transcript: Mark Hawkings Subtitles and sync: ilporticodipinto.it/autismo
On July 16th 2007 Dr Andrew Wakefiled and Professors Simon Murch and John Walker-Smith
were summoned to London’s General Medical Council
on charges of “serious professional misconduct”
...nearly nine years after publishing their findings
in the highly respected medical journal “The Lancet”.
Wakefield, Murch and WS have never said that MMR causes all cases of autism
or that MMR is solely responsible for the rise in autism cases seen here in the UK in recent years.
It is within national broadcasting and Newspaper journalism where these claims have been made.


In their 1998 lancet paper Wakefield Murch and Walker-Smith wrote
'We have identified a chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuro-psychiatric dysfunction.
In most cases onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps and rubella immunisation.
Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine.'
Then in a press conference at the university college London February 1998
soon after the release of the Lancet paper, Wakefield recommended
that parents chooses single measles mumps and rubella vaccinations for their children
until further investigations had been undertaken.
Six months later the department of health withdrew the single measles vaccine,
in September 1998 they stopped it being available
despite the fact that their supposed concern was that parents would not be vaccination their children.
So there are parents who are genuinely concerned about the safety of MMR vaccination
and they take the option of using the single vaccine was taken away from them.
I mean its just, I would have thought is an abuse of individual rights.
As evidence at the GMC hearing has been presented the parents of the Lancet
12 children have become increasingly concerned that their voices have not been heard.
We are writing to you as parents of the children who,
because of their symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease and associated autism,
were seen at the Royal Free Hospital Paediatric Gastroenterology Unit by Professor Walker-Smith and Dr. Simon Murch
with the involvement of Dr Andrew Wakefield on the research side of their investigations.
Our children became the subjects of a paper published in The Lancet in 1998.
We know these three doctors are being investigated by the General Medical Council (GMC)
on the basis of allegations made to them by a free-lance journalist.
Among the many allegations made are the suggestions
that the doctors acted inappropriately regarding our children,
that Dr. Wakefield ‘solicited them for research purposes’
and that our children had not been referred in the usual way by their own Doctors.
It is also claimed that our children were given unnecessary and invasive investigations
for the purpose of research, and not in their interest.
We know this was not so.
All of our children were referred to Professor Walker-Smith in the proper way
in order that their severe, long-standing and distressing gastroenterological symptoms
could be fully investigated and treated by the finest paediatric gastroenterologists in the UK.
Many of us had been to several other doctors in our quest to get help for our children
but not until we saw Professor Walker-Smith and his colleagues were full investigations undertaken.
We were all treated with utmost professionalism and respect by all three of these doctors.
Throughout our children’s care at the Royal Free Hospital
we were kept fully informed about the investigations recommended
and the treatment plans which evolved.
All of the investigations were carried out without distress to our children,
many of whom made great improvements on treatment
so that for the first time in years they were finally pain free.
We have been following the GMC hearings with distress, as the parents,
have had no opportunity to refute these allegations.
For the most part we have been excluded from giving evidence
to support these doctors who we all hold in very high regard.
It is for this reason we are writing to the GMC and to all concerned
to be absolutely clear that the complaint that is being brought
against these three caring and compassionate physicians does not in any way
reflect our perception of the treatment offered to our sick children at the Royal Free.
We are appalled that these doctors have been the subject of this protracted enquiry
in the absence of any complaint from any parent regarding any of the children
who were reported in the Lancet paper.
So why is Wakefield, Murch and Walker Smith being investigated at the GMC?
You know the first we heard from the GMC was
they said that a number of charges,
a number of complaints had been made against you
and of course the whole basis of the early correspondence with them
was this complaint from Brian deer which was
almost exactly what he had written in the Sunday times
and accompanied by something like 300 pages that they had downloaded from his website.
So how credible is Brian Deer to be taken so seriously by the GMC?
Lets meet him and find out.
What about our kids Brian? what about our kids?
What about your kids?
Can you explain why they all have bowel disorders?
No i can’t, they haven’t all got bowel disorders, all what kids
70 percent
70 percent of what?
70 percent of autistic kids
Hang on, Your saying that 70 percent of autistic kids have bowel desease
Our children
Whos?
Our children, the parents are here
But no no so 70 of parent here the children have bowel disease...
So why couldn’t Wakefield find any children with bowel disease?
They didn’t have bowel disease
They didn’t have bowel disease
They didn’t have bowel disease
The fact that Brian said the children studied by Andy Wakefield
didn’t have bowel disease is unbelievable,
he hasn’t lived with these children,
he wasn’t there in the theatres which I was when my son had his investigations
he didn’t see the evidence there at the time which I did.
They do have bowel desease
physically I have seen on the screen from the colonoscopy
that he has bowel disease
I know he has got bowel disease
I know what bowel disease is
he has pain, he has the diarrhea
he has all the problems that are associated with that
Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet,
supported Wakefield’s findings on the 19th of April 2006,
when he wrote in the Lancet,
“the essential clinical findings remain unchallenged as far as their accuracy is concerned“.
More importantly he reiterated this statement in his evidence
at the GMC hearing on the 8th of august 2007.
They didn’t have bowel disease
They didn’t have bowel disease
They didn’t have bowel disease
Have you been in the hearing?
No, I’ve got a child
I’ve sat through 12 weeks.
Brian deer opinion 'holds no water' as far as i am concerned,
he has not lived with what I live with.
I have an autistic son who has no speech and is still in nappies and he is 11.
He changed after his MMR, I saw it with my own eyes.
I know what I live with my son eats his own feces,
I get faced with poo monster quite regularly and I've done in my past,
I feed him, i dress him, he cannot ask for a drink of water,
he has no idea how to function in our world.
Brian Deer is a journalist with no children.
I can't get to ASDA (supermarket) with my autistic son,
he does not know what life is like to parents
who have live every day and don’t get the privilege of forgetting
what autism can do and what the MMR can do to a child
and he can’t blow bubbles, he can’t drink out of a straw,
how is he ever going to function in life if he’s not able to do some of the very simple things.
Who is this?
John who’s that
John
So Brian is free to attend the GMC every day
is hard not ask how he can afford to do this,
especially as the Sunday times and channel 4 have both confirmed
they are not paying him to attend the hearings.
I don’t know, If want to talk to me about your case?
This Is bowel disease, this is what it looks like.
No that’s and xray.
That is an impacted bowel.
An impacted bowel is not bowel disease, that’s constipation.
The diagnosis is bowel disease.
Whos diagnosis?
The gastroenterologist
Who?
That is not bowel disease
I,ve got a diagnosis
From who?
I’m not telling you.
What at the royal free hospital
Look at that picture Brian.
That is not bowel disease,
that is diarrhea.
That is not bowel disease, that’s diarrhea.
This is a photo of Josh Edwards that was shown to Brian.
You know my son has had his large bowel removed
that can’t just be down to diarrhea,
does he think the specialist would remove his bowel for no reason.
Josh was a normal happy baby up to the age of 13 months
very happy good sleeper a perfect baby,
everybody would comment on how good looking he was, happy and contented.
He had his MMR at 13 months and he got a reaction immediately,
he had severe diarrhea the very next day.
I went in to get him up and his cot was covered.
All through his baby grow all through his bedding, bright yellow.
This lasted for 5 days.
Once the diarrhea stopped he would only open his bowel once a week
and he seemed to change, a completely different child.
Still I was being told there was no connection with the MMR,
so at 3 years 9 months I then went ahead and gave him the MMR booster
and the same thing happened again it was at this stage
at a school medical that the doctor said to me, any problems?
I said well yes, you can’t tell me opening your bowel twice a month is normal.
He said of course it’s not, look at the size of his distended stomach.
With that he faxed a report through to our local hospital
and Josh had an appointment the following day.
It was then suggested that he had manual evacuations under anestetic
and an anal stretch to stretch his anus, but it made no difference whatsoever.
He was then referred to great Ormond Street and then
later on to the royal free the MMR team research going on there.
Within 10 days of being seen at the royal free
they had him in and yes he had exactly what they were finding
in other autistic children, inflammation and ulceration.
And he had an iliostomy where they remove the whole lot,
it was in Josh’s best interest it was so badly diseased
that he would be better off without his large bowel.
So we were forced to take josh over to America.
Where the endoscopy capsule is swallowed,
it travels though his body and takes pictures and it proved we were right.
The bowel disease was in the small intestine
we know it is definitely not Crohn's disease or colitis,
it is a new form of bowel disease which does exist.
Nobody has even considered that it could possibly be MMR damage
and it could be the measles that is still in him and doing the damage.
Why can't they test for measles?
They don’t want to know. They won’t even consider it.
Why? Why on earth can’t they?
Because they are frightened that Dr Wakefield could possibly have made a connection.
In Februrary 2009 Heather Edwards wrote to Brian Deer via email, this is what she said.
This is the child that you were shown a photo of outside the GMC
in which you replied by saying that he did not have bowel disease
but nothing more than diarrhea.
How could you possibly be able to diagnose bowel disease from a photo?
If you had looked properly at it
you would have seen he has an illiostomy bag.
Do you really thing gastroenterologist and surgeons
would have removed his entire colon the grounds of nothing more than diarrhea?
And Deer responded with this:
Dear Nick and Heather Edwards, normally I don’t reply to malicious emails,
in your case I will make an exception.
I have never passed any comment about this child of any kind at any time
I have never diagnosed or sought to diagnose any illness in any child ever. Period.
What mental contortion on your own part
leads you to imagine that I ever did such a thing is beyond me.
At all times outside the GMC I have been videotaped.
None of that video tape has ever been shown.
Because it reveals me discussing and debating issues with people
who raise them with me to my undoubted credit.
Radio 4 even broadcast a section of these conversations.
If you personally cannot behave with integrity, courtesy and honesty
you really shouldn’t be surprised if others take advantage of you,
as it appears to me that they have.
We will have to assume that you don’t know any better.
So you have my best wishes.
[ Brian is shown a copy of the Hannah decision ]
you should look at what the government said.
I have read it actually.
Is what you do is spread around these stories,
which are not true and you mislead other parents and victimise them.
We have test results to prove it.
You are actually victimizing the parents of children who don’t need to be victimised.
You should try and get Americans governments actual statement on this and not spread these untruths.
You should try and get the actual American government's statement on this..
This is the US governments statement nov 9 2007:
'In sum, DVIC has concluded that the facts of this case meet the statutory criteria
for demonstrating that the vaccinations CHILD received on July 19, 2000,
significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder,
which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism,
and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder.
Therefore, respondent recommends that compensation
be awarded to petitioners in accordance with 42 U.S.C.'
In this country I think complacency where we were at before still reigns’ here.
I think people in the media and people in the government
and public health feel like this issue has been solved.
that this debate is over
that there was zero evidence to link vaccines with autism,
but they are not paying attention and it's disappointing that the media
were no interested in what I had to say,
I don’t know what role if any the government played in that,
but i will say this the British government ignores
what is happening in the United States at its own peril.
What you involved in here is a just a festival of fabrication.
Like inside (the GMC)
No perhaps if you came to the hearing and heard the evidence
you would know. But your ears are closed aren’t they.
Brian do you realise you have staked your professional
reputation on what the GMC decides. isn’t that a bit of a risk?
No I haven’t, no.
But if they Decide...
Let me ask you this question,
if the general medical council approaches a journalist,
and says you have published this material
would you supply us with any evidence you’ve got any documents you have,
does that journalist, let me ask you this,
does that journalist have a responsibility and public duty
to give them those documents or not?
Of course.
Well I did, have i done something wrong?
This is the letter that Deer wrote to the GMC on February 25th, 2004
just 3 days after his article for the Sunday Times entitled “MMR research scandal”.
“Following an extensive inquiry for the Sunday Times
into the origins of the public panic over MMR,
I write to ask your permission to lay before you
an outline of evidence that you may consider worthy of evaluation
with respect of the possibility of serious professional misconduct
on the part of the above named registered medical practitioners”
Do these words sound like an approach to the GMC or a response?
The abuse of me, what’s all this abuse. posters held up abusing me,
threats to me, so where is my duty if the General Medical Council
of the united kingdom approaches a journalist and says you have supplied...
We all have a duty to find the truth, what ever that truth...
So you are saying it was my public duty to supply my findings on request of the GMC,
so why are these groups publishing these outrageous lies about me,
saying that I am working for the drug industry. who is paying you?
There is a placard out here saying something like “who is pulling your strings”
or something and all of this kind of stuff.
There is a dribbling idiot you have with you,
a guy called Walker, an absolute dribbling idiot.
Publishing material suggesting that i am in a conspiracy,
that i am in a conspiracy with the government.
People are suggesting that I'm in a conspiracy with the government and the drug industry...
Why an award-winning journalist would want to resort to name-calling is anyone's guess...
But the investigative writing of Martin Walker does raise questions about Brian’s independence.
In the Sunday times during 1989 Deer wrote a number of articles about the failings of AZT,
the anti HIV and AIDS drug developed by the Wellcome Foundation.
At that time Wellcome was best known for its anti-virals and its vaccines.
The Wellcome foundation defended AZT and mercilessly lobbied the Sunday Times.
Consequently in 1991, Deer went to work in the USA.
In 1994 he returned to London and produced an accessible
information-packed guide to the Wellcome Empire,
that ran in two editions of the Sunday Times.
It detailed the company's history and future
and was clearly written with the involvement of Wellcome.
In the feature Deer waged a seemingly undisputed campaign
against Wellcome's anti-bacterial drug Septrin,
but he was on safe ground, the drug was already on its way out,
with the agreement of Wellcome,
having caused massive damage to thousands around the world.
In his victory over Wellcome,
Deer cultivated two community campaigns,
but when Wellcome conceded,
changing only the prescription terms for the drug,
he distanced himself from the campaigns and their demands.
No victim of Septrin received any compensation for their terrible injuries.
In 1998 Three years after his Wellcome features,
Deer produced the first of a number of pro Wellcome vaccine articles in the Sunday Times.
At this time, Wellcome was the main producer of vaccines in Britain.
The articles critisize both parents and medical experts
who had spoken out on Whooping Cough vaccine.
On the issue of vaccines at least, Deer appeared
to be firmly on the side of the pharmaceutical companies and the government;
re-enforcing the vaccination strategy and casting doubts over the evidence of claimants.
The first article for instance, was about Margaret Best who was awarded £2.75 million plus costs,
on behalf of her son Kenneth, who had suffered brain damage
after receiving the vaccine for Whooping Cough.
Despite the fact that Best was the only person to ever
win damages in a British court, against a pharmaceutical company,
Deer intimated the judge had been hoodwinked by the claimant.
Following more pro-vaccine articles involving parents and campaigners
Deer authored a front page article entitled
'MMR Research Scandal' for the Sunday Times in February 2004.
The following month in the internet newsletter of Medico-Legal-Investigations,
an article entitled 'MMR and MLI, MMR Sunday Times Investigation' says:
'The extraordinary tale of the problems found in the paper
by Dr Andrew Wakefield (as published in the Lancet) concerning MMR and autism
were shared with MLI in strict confidence
whilst Brian Deer's fine piece of investigative journalism was under way.
We were asked to advise on matters that were clearly quite alarming.
So who are MedicoLegal Investigations?
MedicoLegal Investigations is a commercial organisation
working mainly for pharmaceutical companies
who suspect fraud in their trials.
It is almost completely funded by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)
which has an agreed representation on its board.
In his MMR research Scandal report Deer makes no reference to Medico-Legal-Investigations.
For both the Sunday times report and the dispatches program for channel 4
Deer visited the homes of several parents
and was reluctant to reveal the whole truth with them.
His name was Brian Lawrance.
The man who came to interview me called me
and told me his name was Brian Lawrance and we,
it was not until a few days later after the interview
that i discovered his true identity.
The interview was very distressing and very odd
and I immediately, it was a Friday night, I immediately wrote a letter
and put in a complaint to the Sunday times.
Curiously enough the next morning he emailed me
and said 'sorry I gave you a hard time in the interview,
but I am on your side as parents really',
which was very very strange.
But the Sunday times never gave me a satisfactory reply.
One of the complaints that i had was
why did this man come to my house using a false name?
The only reply that i had was by phone.
And it was the managing editor who said dismissively:
'Brian Deer uses his middle name when he talks to drug companies
so they don’t know who he is',
but I’m not a drug company, I am a parent.
There was no response no cogent answer.
He actually, all very interesting, he used his middle name
so he didn’t really give a false name
because it was his name, he’s very good at that.
He insisted that he wanted to help her obtain financial help,
extra financial help from the government
and it would cost the government a whole lot more
if they had to look after the children in care etcetera.
He also promised us that he would do his best
to obtain help for Jodie who was constantly sick,
not sleeping had lost a tremendous amount of weight
and he felt that he could 387 00:27:33,630 --> 00:27:38,710 obtain help for her to try to stop this.
So under those circumstances we agreed for him to Visit.
He came to film for about three days
and to try and get some help for Jodie,
to get a doctor to look at her
that is what it was all about
and parents were not getting the help that they should do.
At the end of the day, he had finished his filming about Jodie
went to the New Forrest and went to Shirley and she vomited.
I wanted to attend to her take her back home,
I didn’t have any (clothes) to change her into.
She was really sick with vomit in her hair and down on the floor
and he said let her sit and play in it.
I said no, she’s coming home to get her clothes changed
you sit and play in it I said.
And I took her back to get changed.
We did show him documentation of Jodie
what happened to her, proof of what happened .
and he looked at it and said yes I have seen it, its there,
but at the end of the day he said that it wasn’t true, what happen to Jodie
and I don’t believe any of the information you have.
Jodie marchan’t was 14 and half months old when she was given
7 vaccines in one visit, 3 of them in the MMR.
The other 4 however, dtp and polio,
were given without the consent of her parents.
She's never going to have a normal life, go out and work
(and have a normal life)
She is always going to have care 24/7. so that is what happened to Jodie.
I just don’t know why it happened,
I would love to ask the doctor why she did it.
Jodie was given the extra 4 vaccinations
without the consent of her parents at the practice of doctor Alison Hill.
The Marchants’ made a complaint to the GMC in 2002
but she has never been called to the GMC and continues to practice medicine.
How is it that one complaint about a doctor who authorises four vaccinations
without the parents consent is ignored by the GMC,
But one complaint from Brian Deer results
in one doctor and two professors being called before the GMC,
even though parents have no complaints against them.
I don’t think there is a conspiracy
and i don’t think there is a cover-up.
So why are you involved in this Cryshame organisation
that publishes these outrageous lies that there is a conspiracy
and that I am being paid by drug companies to fabricate evidence
with government
then you should get on to these people and say why are you publishing this stuff.
I am more concerned with getting to the truth
as to what’s happened to the children like mine.
Then you should come to the hearings.
What about the children, the 1 in 100 Brian!
The children did not have an inflammatory bowel disease.
They did not have an inflammatory bowel disease.
The 12 (Lancet) children did not have inflammatory bowel disease.
Its actually outrageous as a parent,
and I know that other parents have come to me with the same story,
and certainly parents of children involved in the Lancet paper as well.
I, my husband and family saw our own son
desperately ill with diarrhea up to ten times a day
for many many years and it was only until we got involved
we managed to get some gut bacteria
that was actually a research trial at another hospital
and that gave him a little bit of relief
but what it didn’t do was treat the underlying problems.
When my son did go to the Royal Free hospital
when he was finally investigated with the endoscope, then the reasons behind,
not just the pain, but why he would suddenly become emaciated
and very very ill, physically very very ill.
And all became understood.
So not got any bowel disease well I...
He doesn’t know what he is talking about,
is he a gastroenterologist? is he a doctor?
What is he talking about?
It’s just an outrageous claim.
Ask Isabella Thomas, is she here?
Ask Isabella Thomas whether her two children have got regressive autism,
ask her if they have inflammatory bowel disease.
Somehow Brian obtained some medical notes
and the names of the lancet 12 children,
he published them on his website in 2006
one of the children included on his website was the son of Isabella Thomas,
she is taking legal action against Brian
and therefore did not want to provide a response in this film.
But this is what she said on the opening day of the hearing in 2007:
they keep saying autism
but what our children have is the virus inside them,
they have the vaccine strain virus,
my two (boys) have damaged tissue in their bowel,
they have got it in their blood stream,
and interestingly enough when they checked Michael's blood stream
first it was negative then Michael started to have attacks
because they keep having attacks of this virus in their system.
And he had a very bad attack, they checked his blood again
and it was in there in high levels
so they should actually be researching what is happening ,
what this virus is doing to their body, and that is not happening.
Now with the very bad attack he had,
he had memory loss and hallucinations
the most severe headaches,
where we were travelling along in a car
and tried to open the door to get out to escape, escape the pain.
he Collapsed at school.
The school that he attended before this school.
they wrote a letter to who it may concern in the medical profession
to say this is outrageous, this child is sick.
And he is getting no medical treatment.
I has spoken to doctors and they have said to me
we believe your children are damaged as well as others.
But we have either a mortgage to pay or we cannot do it
we will be prosecuted like Andrew Wakefield.
It was the parents who said there is a connection between the vaccine,
we saw it, we were there, grandparents, uncles, aunts, nieces,
nephews we were all there we saw what happened.
all Andrew Wakefield did was be a doctor.
this is what the parents are saying, its extremely concerning
and it needs to be investigated and to bring back the single vaccines
and start doing the research, and guess what? , nothing.
So if he hadn’t mentioned the MMR vaccine i can guarantee you,
there is no way that man would be in there.
And again i would say that the children would have treatment
but because they are Vaccine damaged they are blacklisted.
I’ve gone into a doctors surgery with my son extremely ill,
he looked at me not my son and said
'I don’t want politics in this surgery',
another time where my son has collapsed and nearly died
his body went into shock.
I phoned the doctors office and they said
“oh yes, one of Andrew Wakefield’s children”.
He's not: he’s my son, and they didn’t come out, they ignored him.
Give him calpol.
I phoned the hospital: give him calpol,
and the child then started to become unconscious,
called an ambulance, rushed into hospital
and literally they had to save his life
and you know what, when I went in there,
all around my son were doctors and nurses,
and I looked at them and I thought my god,
I was so angry, he’s nearly dying and you want to do something,
and I was angry with them and I said to them this is ridiculous,
and he was going jaundice in colour at this time.
And the doctor said: Mrs. Thomas we are treating the emergency only.
So he was not interested in having any follow-ups
or finding out why my son nearly died.
Ask her, I am not going to get involved in ten years of...
I think you are focusing on the wrong issue; you focus on the 1998 paper.
I gave the GMC the findings I had at the time.
But we are focused on the kids, what about the evidence that has emerged since?
Well that’s a different issue.
The evidence since 1998 has resulted in a general acceptance
that children with autism are at a higher risk
for gastro intestinal problems than non autistic children.
It has been written into the NHS framework for child health
that children with autism are likely to require gastro intestinal evaluation.
It was the three at the GMC and the team
at the Royal Free hospital that first drew attention to this.
I am not here to, find something that I have published
that says MMR does or doesn’t cause autism,
have you found anything that i published that says
wether MMR does or doesn’t cause autism?
Find something I've published, that says MMR does or does not cause autism...
Perhaps a more appropriate question is
Can Brian or anyone find anything published by Wakefield,
Walker-Smith or Murch that says MMR does or MMR Doesn’t cause autism?
I understand that you are a journalist.
I do my job on that particular subject, i did it.
You are a good journalist, presumably want to report the "Hannah" case.
What about the Hannah case?
Mitochondrial injury, mitochondrial inherited disease,
autistic like symptoms, with 9 vaccines leading to fever.
How do you know?
That’s not an admission,
the American government has made it absolutely explicitly...
I am not going to argue with the American government,
they have stated absolutely explicitly
though god knows how many agencies!
But how do you know my son is not like Hannah ?
I do not.
But that’s why I am here, to try and draw attention to.
Are you one of those people who think that
the American centers for disease control, the nation institute of health,
the institute medicine and all the pediatritians in the world
are all involved in a conspiracy to cover up
alleged horrific injuries to children, is that what you think?
That’s all they do peddle conspiracy, that’s all they do.
I think what has happened is that nobody has funded
the research to uncover what has happen to our children.
Are you saying that the department of health,
that there are doctors there who are knowingly concealing
that MMR causes horrific injuries to children?
Yes... yes, we have children to prove it
Why would they do that?
Are you saying that the department of health, the doctors there, who knowingly are concealing that MMR causes horrific injuries to children? Why would they do that?
Dr Peter Fletcher worked for the department of health
for around 10 years in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
He played a senior role at the heart of the British government’s public health policy.
As chief medical assessor and later chief scientific officer
he was responsible for vaccine safety.
Dr Fletcher has stated publicly that
'the refusal by governments to evaluate the risks of MMR properly
will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history”
'There are very powerful people in positions of great authority
who have staked their reputations on the safety of MMR
and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves.'
Do you worry about the 1 in 100 children?
They might do that and they might argue that
the hidden majority herd immunity argument justifies
The British government published the evidence
that the urabe vaccine the mumps component
in the vaccine was causing Mumps Meningitis.
They published it.
It was government scientist that did the work, in Nottingham.
But they knew that before it was introduced,
because of problems in Canada, and they didn’t investigate.
But, well, lets not go into that whole thing.
But you brought it up
You can do urabe if you want
but its a historical matter got nothing to do with Wakefield.
(Urabe is) a historical matter and nothing to do with Wakefield.
The comment was made by Brian Deer that urabe problems
with the two early brands of MMR was a historical matter
is fatuous really because in that case some of the children’s damage is a historical matter.
What we are dealing with here is two things here are
(a) the history of MMR and (b) the specifics of the urabe problem.
The interesting thing about the urabe problem
was that the warning signs had already been noticed in Canada
and there were already concerns about the urabe strain of the vaccine,
but the department of health pressed ahead regardless anyway
and then had to withdraw them at apparently 24 hours notice,
4 years after they were introduced because of the link with meningitis.
Now what does this tell us?
Now first of all Its tells us that sometimes vaccines are wrong and faulty,
but the department of health doesn’t like to talk about the urabe episode
but it’s an example where they did find there was a problem
and they are very proud of how they acted on it,
but it does demonstrate that they licensed a dangerous vaccine
which damaged some children and had to be withdrawn in a panic,
so that tells us something.
The second thing it tells us is about Brian Deer.
Brian Deer doesn’t want to hear about it, why not?
Why on earth not?
Some of the children who were damaged
were damaged by those particular vaccines.
What is he saying? is he saying that anything to do with the urabe strain
isn’t anything to do with the wider MMR problem?
That’s ridiculous. its an arbitrary decision,
who is he to make up the rules.
Despite speculation, the UK government secretly indemnified the company
that produce the urabe to protect against damaged costs.
Responsibility for possible MMR vaccine damage has been evaded.
Should it be discovered that the urabe containing MMR vaccine
did cause damage to children
including those cited in the lancet paper,
then if the government did underwrite any of the vaccine
it would be the British government and the joint committee
for vaccines and immunisations, JVCI, that will be held responsible.
It could be in the interest of the JVCI and the British government
that Dr Wakefiled and professors Murch and Walker Smith are found guilty.
It shows they made a mistake and they were later prepared to acknowledge it
Yes, good point
So what we are trying to do here is to get sufficient momentum
behind us to properly investigate what happen to our children.
Haven’t they been investigated, there were 1600 children.
Not clinically.
What do you think they were doing here?
They did Illio colonoscopys, lumba punctures, MRI scans
not all 1600
But they dismissed most of them without proper explanation,
when you actually read the detail.
Autistic children as you must know as you must know, better than almost anyone,
autistic children are amongst the most investigated patients.
If you think of clinical research being rather like a police investigation using DNA,
where as if you think of epidemiological research rather like the old Mr police man
type of Identity parade, ten men wearing a hat, it is very different.
The two types of science are different.
Unfortunately the department of health and its followers
and Brian Deer seemingly one of its follower,
seem to prefer the old fashion method of 10 men
all standing up all wearing the same hat as a form of investigation,
its not very scientific and unfortunately they are not looking at the individual children
and they are not looking at the details of the damage
and they are not on the trail in terms of investigation.
What we need here is a Sherlock Holmes,
with a magnifying glass or maybe something better still.
What we have is more of a Public relations machine which seems simply determined
to try and smother the parents and brush aside their concerns
and to protect above all else protect the reputation of the immunization program.
How many specialists has he seen?
How many specialists has he seen?
3 or 4 they didn’t know what they were talking about
How many GP’s (family doctors)
They thought he was fragile X
You’re saying he was investigated
Not properly
The problem is that we can’t get people in this country to do clinical investigatation
That’s what these doctors were doing
...that's what clinical means that's what these (the 3 at the GMC) were doing...
Brian Deer when he was arguing with me on the street
in Euston road in may 2008 was perhaps misunderstanding me,
I was saying we can’t get doctors to do clinical investigations.
Brian was saying that’s what these doctors were doing,
referring to the three doctors before the GMC.
But he again still seems to be stuck in 1998,
what i was saying is in 2008 you cannot get doctors
to do clinical investigations into regressive autism,
because doctors are clearly frightened as where it’s going to lead too.
Part of the purpose of dragging the three doctors before the GMC
is to send out a clear message to the medical profession,
that if you question the safely of vaccinations
this is where you will end up, in front of the GMC.
What I think your saying is that you want the children investigated
until a result is reached that suits your opinion.
What I think your saying is that you want the children investigated until a result is reached that suits your opinion.
I think that any claim that I am looking for
the answers that suit me I can immediately repudiate.
I don’t actually care what has caused my sons damage per se.
If my sons damage has been caused by walking on the cracks
in the paving stones or listening to the beatles
or eating corn flakes, I am quite prepared to accept that is the cause of it,
I just want to go where the clues lead me, where the science leads me,
I have no predisposed agenda for or against vaccination,
for or against the pharmaceuticals industry,
for or against the department of health or the committee of safety in medicines.
I don’t have an agenda.
I simply want to go where the facts take me
and as far as I am concerned the facts have taken me
towards there being a link between my sons vaccination and his autism.
It's completely and wholly unjustified for someone to tell me
I’m just looking for the answers that suits my prejudices,
I think its just plain wrong.
What’s autistic enterocolitis?
We don’t know, do we?
We know what Wakefield says it is, what does Wakefield say it is?
We would be here all day if I.
What does he say it is?
He believes there is a link between the regression and...
What’s enterocolitis?
Enterocolitis
Bowel disease, this is what it looks like
This is the problem: you don’t even understand the basics,
even David Thrower who has published massive,
huge documents that are republished everywhere,
doesn’t even know what enterocolitis is.
I wish i was a journalist!
I’ve never set myself up as a medical expert
You have
No I haven’t
Publishing letters in the Lancet
I’ve never ever pretended to be anything more than a parent,
you have never met my child and you know nothing about his medical history.
When you do home, get onto google,
look up the meaning of the word enterocolitis.
You have used this expression again and again and again.
put your self forwards to parents who are desperate,
parents who are desperate.
Look at the way you are pointing your finger at me.
I am surrounded by people being abusive about me.
But you are being verbally abusive to me.
I asked you
Look at the way you are pointing.
You are holding a plackard, whats on the other side?
(Crowd) its a witchhunt
What is autistic enterocolitis?
Neither of us are experts in it, what can one say?
I have an understanding in so far as what I have red about it.
My background as a professional is a public transport planner,
I’m not a medic and don’t profess to be one.
I’ve never set myself up as an authority in it,
all I have done is compress what I have read into briefings
which I have then made available to people.
Autistic enterocolitis is a potentially new form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
This particular bowel disease has been confirmed
in children by several other authors but there is some debate
about whether other children have this form of bowel disease
or whether it is specific to children with autism.
Richard Mills, the guy who is the head of Research Autism
was on radio 4 recently; he said he aknowledges
that children with autism have got bowel disorders.
So what.. what, I don’t know who he is, I have never heard of him.
He’s the head of Research Autism in the UK.
Whats research autism, I've never heard of them.
You don’t know much about the topic do you?
I don't know whe he (Richard Mills) is... I've never heard of him... what's Research Autism?
Richard Millis is director of research at the National Autistic Society
and has been honorary secretary and director of research autism since 2004.
Research autism is a major charity
focusing on research for interventions in autism.
They are supported by the university of Cambridge Autism Research Centre
and the National Autistic Society.
You can never evaluate anything that wakefield has done, if you don’t know what entercoltis is.
I didn’t understand Brian's final comment against the noise of the Euston road traffic,
saying you should evaluate what Wakefield has done.
My view of doctor Wakefield is that he has done
some very original and very valuable pioneering research
which has taken him into some very controversial areas,
but he has never the less always put the health of the children first.
I have a very high regard for that,
I think that he is a person to look up to as a model to us
all in terms of, being logical and searching for facts
and searching for answers, and keeping on looking
no matter how dangerous the waters become.
His views as expressed at the press conference
which based on a very very detailed analyses
he'd done of the safety of vaccine
measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and that had led him
to be really concerned that it was in a small proportion.
Let's be quite clear on that: no one has ever said
(a) no ones ever said don’t vaccinate and
(b) no one has ever said that MMR vaccination causes all autism.
People should be presented with the facts
and then they can to make an informed judgment
if they think that the benefits outweigh the risks
as individual parents they can choose for their children.
They need advice to make that decision,
but they need completely unbiased advice
they need independent advice.
Now the unfortunate thing about the MMR controversy
is the advice they get is from the very people
who have messed this whole thing up.
They get their advice from the department of health
who get their advice from the joint committee vaccination and immunisation
who are running the vaccination program,
its hardly a non partisan view point,
or from the committee of safety in medicine
who are the very people who licence the vaccine in the first place
and didn’t properly ensure that it was adequately safety tested.
So both of those sources of advice are,
as far as I am concerned, biased
and have a vested interest in,
not in concealing the truth,
but perhaps shall we say not turning over any stones
not actually searching out for any problems,
there hasn’t been a cover-up,
what there has been is a conspiracy
not to uncover which is subtlety different,
but has the same end effect which is basically smother the parents stories
and try and walk on and ignore what the parents have said
as to what happen to their children.
What do i say to a member of the public who’s asked me what is going on?
I would say I was puzzled as they are because
all my husband as ever tried to do
is investigate the possibility that combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccination
might in a small proportion children lead to those children
losing skills, regressing into autism and having associated bowel problems
I don't see how, I simply don't see the problem with that
and nor do the parents of those children
who were investigated at the Royal Free
and there were many, many, many of them not just the Lancet 12.
On the morning of January 19th Brian Deer physically intimidated professor Simon Murch during a recess at the GMC.
The defence layers have requested the CCTV footage.
In February 2009 james Murdock, senior executive of News international
which owns The Sunday times (Brian Deers employer)
accepted a place as a non-executive director on the board of GlaxoSmithKline,
a manufacturer of MMR vaccines.
Brian deer has consistently attended Dr Wakefield’s fitness to practice hearing despite being the primary complainant and often mentioned as evidence.
He continues to attack Dr Wakefield in the Sunday times and has written to the GMC offering tips to the prosecution.
For Deer and the GMC the Selective hearing continues...
The GMC deliver their verdict on August 9th, 2009
The question they should be askings themselves is
What happened to these children?
What exactly happen to these children?
Transcript: Mark Hawkings Translation: Google! synchronization: ilporticodipinto.it / autismo