What Hath Andy Wakefield Wrought? (2011)
www.texmed.org

... In nearly 14 years as publisher of this fine magazine, I've avoided the temptation to use it as a soapbox for my personal opinions. After all, Texas Medicine belongs to the physicians of Texas. As they say here in the TMA building, we're just the ranch hands.

But the Andrew Wakefield controversy lies at the intersection of my personal and professional lives. The latest chapter finally pulled me over the edge.

As the leader of TMA's Communication Division, my responsibilities include promoting the fact that physicians rely on science " good, hard, peer-reviewed science " to make medical decisions. As well, my group is responsible for the Be Wise-ImmunizeSM program. We endorse immunizations as safe and effective public health tools that save lives. We publicize the repeated scientific findings that find no relationship between immunizations and autism. ...

Stated differently again ...

Lancet MMR autism fraud
en.wikipedia.org

... On 28th February 1998, a fraudulent research paper by physician Andrew Wakefield and twelve coauthors, titled "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children", was published in the British medical journal The Lancet.[1] The paper falsely claimed causative links between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and colitis and between colitis and autism.

The fraud involved data selection, data manipulation, and two undisclosed conflicts of interest.

It was exposed in a lengthy Sunday Times investigation[2][3][4][5] by reporter Brian Deer,[6][7][8] resulting in the paper's retraction in February 2010[9] and Wakefield being discredited and struck off the UK medical register three months later. Wakefield reportedly stood to earn up to US$43 million per year selling diagnostic kits for a non-existent syndrome he claimed to have discovered.[10]

He also held a patent to a rival vaccine at the time, and he had been employed by a lawyer representing parents in lawsuits against vaccine producers. ...