"Opinion is divided in the medical establishment on the wisdom of pursuing Wakefield – and particularly his colleagues who played a lesser role in the drama – at the GMC.

Wakefield was the lead author of the study and chief proponent of the theory that there was a link between the MMR jab, given to children around the age of 18 months and again at four years, and a form of bowel disease and autism. The paper was a collection of just eight case studies of children.

The Lancet paper conceded that the battery of medical tests to which the children were subjected had not established a link, but even the suggestion that the jab could be responsible for autism caused a furore.

The scientific establishment struggled in vain to produce evidence that would reassure the public.
Studies were commissioned and published showing that there was no major difference in the rate of autism among cohorts of children before and after the combined jab was introduced in the UK, but Wakefield stuck to his guns and claimed that others had replicated his findings.

The story took a new turn with revelations that Wakefield had received legal aid funding to carry out his study, through lawyers acting for children whose parents believed their autism was caused by the MMR jab and wanted to sue the manufacturers.
It was alleged that he had not revealed this to the Lancet, which then retracted part of the paper.

The latest Health Protection Agency figures show that uptake of MMR is 85%, which is still insufficient to ensure immunity in the community. Before the MMR scare, uptake stood at 92%."

- From today's Guardian

The GMC has additionally ruled that his methods, were not in the clinical interest of the participants as they were not going to receive therapeutic benefit from invasive tests which included spinal taps, .

In one instance described, Dr Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son's birthday party, paying them £5 each in the late 1990s and then laughed about it during a US presentation in March 1999.

The GMC panel described his 'callous disregard for the distress and pain' of the children he studied, and said he had abused his trust as a medical practitioner and brought the medical profession into disrepute.

Nevertheless Dr Wakefield is unrepentant about his research and remains convinced that some children are vulnerable to damage by the MMR vaccine. But he has remained almost a lone voice with little in the way of scientific support.

Nevertheless as Les states some parent groups have remained unconditionally supportive, convinced that the vaccine caused autism in their children

Despite the rationale of the official position some of the media presented this as Government intransigence and evidence of a cover up claiming ministers were protecting the pharmaceutical industry rather than the people.