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On April 8, in response to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s presidential candidacy, the Daily Beast ran a hit piece including the obligatory reference to the 1998 Lancet study that was later retracted.
The Beast brazenly lied that the author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, claimed in the study that the mercury-based preservative in the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism.
In my rebuttal published on April 13, I pointed out that Wakefield was not the only author; he had twelve co-authors including the senior author, a renowned gastroenterologist named Dr. John Walker-Smith.
I also pointed out what an absurd lie the Beast’s claim was since the study didn’t mention the mercury-based preservative thimerosal for the simple reason that it was never used in the MMR vaccine.
The Daily Beast has since quietly updated its article to correct that false claim about the Lancet study without acknowledging its error.
Moreover, the Beast simply replaced one lie for another by insisting that “Andrew Wakefield published an article in the Lancet claiming that administration of the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism by damaging a child’s immune system.”
In fact, Wakefield et al. did not claim that the vaccine caused autism. On the contrary, they explicitly stated that their study did not demonstrate a causal relationship, and they called for further research to determine whether there is an association.
The New York Times in its own hit piece on RFK, Jr. doesn’t lie so blatantly but still deceives by similarly characterizing Wakefield as the sole author and suggesting that the study was retracted because it “suggested a link” between the vaccine and autism.
But the only “link” Wakefield et al. referred to was that parents had reported a temporal association between receipt of the MMR vaccine and their children’s developmental regression. It is uncontroversial that this association exists; “public health” officials just claim that it’s a coincidence.
Naturally, therefore, the article was not retracted for claiming a “link” between the MMR vaccine and autism. The basis for its retraction was rather the accusation of the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) that Dr. Wakefield and Dr. Walker-Smith, who was also stripped of his license, had committed “professional misconduct” by allegedly making the false statement in their paper that the children were “consecutively referred” and by failing to get approval for their research from an ethics committee.
Like the rest of the mainstream media, what the Times withholds from its readers is the fact that Dr. Walker-Smith appealed the GMC’s ruling and won. His medical license was reinstated on the grounds that the GMC’s accusations were “untenable” and unsupported by the evidence.
The reason Dr. Wakefield did not join his colleague in appealing was that his insurance provider would not cover the legal costs.
That helps to explain why the media always try to characterize Wakefield as though he were the sole author of the study.
Another fact that the media also habitually withhold is that the study was a case series of twelve children who presented with both regressive developmental disorder and gut dysfunction. Today, the association between gut dysfunction and autism is well-recognized, but, tellingly, Dr. Wakefield is never credited by the media for his important role in pioneering research into this important area.
You can begin to see why so many in the health freedom movement view Dr. Wakefield not as a villain but a hero. He sacrificed his career in pursuit of the truth, with the term "Wakefielded" now used to refer to scientists whose careers are ruined for daring to commit the crime of heresy against the vaccine religion.
All this and much more will be detailed in my forthcoming e-book The New York Times vs. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: How the Mainstream Media Spread Vaccine Misinformation. I’ll be giving it away free to newsletter subscribers, so stay tuned!
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