Wakefield Moving into New Leadership Role in Autism Community, Leaving Thoughtful House.

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http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/02/wakefield-moving-into-new-leadership-role-in-autism-community-leaving-thoughtful-house.html

Wakefield Moving into New Leadership Role in Autism Community,

Leaving Thoughtful House.

By Dan Olmsted

Dr. Wakefield announced today his intention to move on to a new

phase of leadership in the autism community as he also prepares a more

aggressive defense of his scientific accomplishments in the wake of a

ruling from the U.K.’s General Medical Council (GMC). That ruling, which

charged Wakefield and two pediatric gastroenterologists with misconduct,

was followed shortly by the retraction of a 1998 case series report by

Wakefield and his colleagues from London’s Royal Free Hospital in The

Lancet. “There has been an extraordinary outpouring of support

from the autism community in response to the events of the last two

weeks”, Wakefield told Age of Autism in an exclusive

interview. “The most exciting part of it has been the opening up of an

entirely new sort of opportunity that will allow me to continue my work

on behalf of autism families.” Wakefield said he would provide more

specifics on the nature of that opportunity soon. “In addition, I will

now speak publicly to refute the findings that have been made against me.

I know my necessary silence on these issues has troubled many parents in

both the U.K. and the U.S. But I’m ready now to get back on the front

foot and publicly contest the false accusations that have been made

against me, my colleagues, and indirectly The Lancet children. It’s been

long overdue.”

Wakefield, previously the Executive Director of Thoughtful House, had

been a senior scientist in charge of an ambitious primate research

program on vaccine safety. The first paper from this project was

published online on October 2, 2009 by Neurotoxicology (see

HERE) who then decided unexpectedly on February 12 not to proceed

with publication in the print edition (like The Lancet, the

journal Neurotoxicology is owned by Elsevier, a division of

Elsevier PLC). Many autism advocates have expressed the concern that the

attack on Wakefield has been part of a broader campaign for the

suppression of science, including the primate project (see

HERE). Earlier this week, Jane of Thoughtful House released

the following statement. “We fully support [Dr. Wakefield’s] decision

to leave Thoughtful House in order to make sure that the controversy

surrounding the recent findings of the General Medical Council does not

interfere with the important work that our dedicated team of clinicians

and researchers is doing on behalf of children with autism and their

families.”

Wakefield expressed optimism that by working with the support of a

larger set of autism organizations he would be able to focus attention

back on the exploding population of affected children and their families,

“which is where it belongs”, he emphasized. “I have always

followed the principle that good medicine, and ultimately good science,

begins and ends with the patient. We need to remember that the purpose of

medical science is not to serve the medical industry but rather the

interests of the patients the industry serves.”

Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of

Autism.

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

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