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

[Guest guest]

<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

http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/02/wakefield-moving-into-new-leadership-role-in-\

autism-community-leaving-thoughtful-house.html

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

<http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/09/blockbuster-primate-study-shows-significant-\

harm-from-one-birth-dose-of-a-mercurycontaining-vaccine.html>)

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

<http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/02/mark-blaxills-opposing-view-in-usa-today-on-\

vaccine-fear-mongering.html>).

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.”

/

..