I would like to express profound disappointment at the publication of the article “MMR vaccine and autism – the movie ‘they don’t want you to see’’, by Kathryn Borg.
The fraudulent Wakefield article which allegedly linked autism with the MMR vaccine has been thoroughly discredited by numerous representative, population-based studies over the past two decades, and it has been proven beyond any doubt that Andrew Wakefield falsified data for personal gain.
The study was retracted by the Lancet, his co-authors withdrew their support for the article’s interpretation of the false data and he was struck off the UK medical register.
However, the damage that has been caused by this fraudulent article and subsequent anti-vaccine campaigners has led to a resurgence of measles in Europe and elsewhere, leading to the avoidable death of numerous infants and children.
I cannot sufficiently emphasise how strongly I – as do all my fellow medical and health professionals – object to the publication of an article promoting dangerous myths that are entirely unsupported by scientific evidence.