1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:05,439 Speaker 1: Good morning to all of you. My name is George Hastings, 2 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:08,320 Speaker 1: and I'm a Special Master of the United States Court 3 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:12,200 Speaker 1: of Federal claim It's June two thousand seven and Special 4 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:16,680 Speaker 1: Master George Hastings is just kicking off new proceedings. Special 5 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: Masters are sort of like judges. Hastings is overseen a 6 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: case that involves a twelve year old girl with autism 7 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 1: named Michelle Sadillo. He says, there are two reasons why 8 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 1: everyone has gathered here in a nondescript room of the 9 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: National Courts Building in Washington, d c. The purpose first 10 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,400 Speaker 1: purpose of this hearing is to determine whether Michelle's own 11 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 1: autism and your other conditions were vaccine cause. But the 12 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 1: second reason they're here is much bigger than this one 13 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 1: individual case. Nearly five thousand other claims like Michelle's have 14 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,520 Speaker 1: also been filed. Each one alleges a child has developed 15 00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:00,680 Speaker 1: autism or a similar disability after being given their routine measles, 16 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:05,920 Speaker 1: mumps and rebella vaccine, the MMR shot. In this hearing 17 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:09,080 Speaker 1: today and over the next three weeks, we will hear 18 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:13,440 Speaker 1: not only about Michelle's own condition, but also extensive expert 19 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 1: testimony concerning the petitioner's first general causation theory, That is, 20 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: the general theory that MMR vaccines and bimerisol containing vaccines 21 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,319 Speaker 1: can combine to cause autism. These proceedings will not actually 22 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 1: take place in a courtroom, but in front of a 23 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:36,039 Speaker 1: trio of judicial officials called special Masters. Their job is 24 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: to resolve complaints filed with what's known as the National 25 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. This little known program is where 26 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:50,120 Speaker 1: people who believe they were injured by routine shots in 27 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:54,720 Speaker 1: the US go to make their case. It exists as 28 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: an alternative to suing drug makers. Instead, vaccine injury can 29 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: planes are heard by the US Court of Federal Claims. 30 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: In other words, this is vaccine Court. Public anxiety about 31 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: autism and vaccines had been simmering for years. Now the 32 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,520 Speaker 1: court would hear the evidence. It would rule on whether 33 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: there was a possible link between the two. Michelle Sadillo's 34 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:28,079 Speaker 1: complaint was just one of six test cases. It had 35 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 1: taken five years to get to this day. A lot 36 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:37,360 Speaker 1: had been building to this moment. Both sides would present 37 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:44,080 Speaker 1: a parade of expert witnesses, among them psychiatrists, toxicologists, and neurologists. 38 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:49,920 Speaker 1: But one name in particular, kept coming up. As one 39 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,160 Speaker 1: of the attorneys for the US government frames it, the 40 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,919 Speaker 1: root of this controversy could be traced back to just 41 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:01,240 Speaker 1: one man, and that one man's theories. The attorney says, 42 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 1: we're fake. It's a contrivals. It's a contrivance that's been 43 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:11,799 Speaker 1: developed and are articulated and promoted by its chief proponent, 44 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: and that's Andrew Wakefield. Andrew Wakefield was the spark that 45 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:21,679 Speaker 1: turned to modern skepticism about vaccines into a movement, and 46 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:26,919 Speaker 1: now his movement is having its day in court. Wakefield 47 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,520 Speaker 1: had spent roughly a decade trying to sell the public 48 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: on the idea that childhood vaccines were unsafe. If the 49 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 1: government sides with the Sadio's case, it could legitimize that campaign. 50 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: Wakefield was not a party in this hearing, but this 51 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:48,880 Speaker 1: pivotal moment probably would not be possible without him. In 52 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to tell you the story of 53 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:56,400 Speaker 1: Andrew Wakefield. Will trace the path of the former gut 54 00:03:56,440 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: surgeon as he became the world's most well known critic 55 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:06,080 Speaker 1: of vaccines. Will show how it's decades long misinformation campaign 56 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:13,600 Speaker 1: gained recognition from concerned parents, lawmakers, and celebrities and how 57 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: the groundwork Wakefield late decades ago helped seed the mistrust 58 00:04:18,720 --> 00:04:22,920 Speaker 1: we're seeing in the age of the coronavirus. But this 59 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:27,159 Speaker 1: isn't just a story about Andrew Wakefield. It's also a 60 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:30,800 Speaker 1: story about the forces that propelled him into the spotlight 61 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:35,880 Speaker 1: and then kept his myth alive. I'm Bloomberg News health 62 00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 1: reporter Kristin B. Brown from the Prognosis podcast. This is 63 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: doubt the story of Andrew Wakefield's quest to undermine the 64 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 1: safety of vaccines doesn't actually begin with vaccines. Yeah, it 65 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,840 Speaker 1: didn't start from M and R at all, Although that's 66 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: the sort of public perception. That's not where the story starts. 67 00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:15,600 Speaker 1: This is David Salisbury. For a long time he ran 68 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: the UK's National Immunization program. I used to be the 69 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: Director of Immunization at the Department of Health in London, UK, 70 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: where I was responsible for the National Immunization Program. So 71 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:36,200 Speaker 1: that was for bringing it into use new vaccines, managing 72 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,760 Speaker 1: the use of existing vaccines, looking at the impact of 73 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: our vaccines and heading up the national policy. David says 74 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:51,120 Speaker 1: Andrew Wakefield first reached out to him in September. It 75 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: was an odd call. It was a long lines. You 76 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:57,960 Speaker 1: need to take very seriously what I'm telling you, and 77 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:00,599 Speaker 1: if you don't take seriously what I'm telling you, it 78 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: may be to the detriment of the immunization program. And 79 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:07,480 Speaker 1: by the way, I want to talk about funding my research. 80 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: It had an undertone of threat about it that unless 81 00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:20,359 Speaker 1: I we the Department of Health, the government funded his research, 82 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: then there could be threats to the vaccine program. At 83 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 1: the time, Wakefield was a little known researcher at Royal 84 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,880 Speaker 1: Free Hospital School of Medicine in London. He had trained 85 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: as a gut surgeon, but now he was on the 86 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:44,120 Speaker 1: hunt for the root cause of Crohn's disease. The UK 87 00:06:44,279 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: introduced the new MMR vaccine, a shot that combined vaccines 88 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,919 Speaker 1: for three viruses into one. Then in ninety two the 89 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:58,640 Speaker 1: government discontinued use of two brands of the shot. Occasionally 90 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:03,840 Speaker 1: it seemed to cause meningitis instead of prevented. This was 91 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:08,239 Speaker 1: wakefield opening his research. Hadn't even looked at vaccines yet, 92 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: but it seemed that he was already plotting to cash 93 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: in on the concern surrounding them. He was researching that 94 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:26,120 Speaker 1: measles disease, not the vaccine that measles disease was in 95 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:34,480 Speaker 1: some way related causally to inflammatory bowel disease, and his 96 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 1: theory was that measles virus caused a vasculitis and inflammation 97 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: of the blood vessels within the bowel, and that that 98 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: was a trigger for Crohn's disease and alsative colitis, so 99 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: inflammatory bowel disease. Wakefield thought that the measles might actually 100 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: be causing inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn's disease. If at 101 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:06,800 Speaker 1: this point you were confused as to why Wakefield thought 102 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:10,680 Speaker 1: the government should fund research into vaccines because of research 103 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: that had nothing to do with vaccines, you should be 104 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,400 Speaker 1: David didn't think wakefield hypothesis made a whole lot of sense, 105 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: but he heard him out anyway. Remember, there were concerns 106 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:33,679 Speaker 1: about the MMR already brewing in the zeitgeist. Those two 107 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 1: brands of the shot had just been pulled from market 108 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:40,200 Speaker 1: after it appeared they increased the risk of miningitis. And 109 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:44,680 Speaker 1: even with rigorous and extensive safety testing, sometimes vaccines do 110 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:51,679 Speaker 1: have problems. Any medical intervention can. It led to eventually 111 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,040 Speaker 1: the Department of Health agreeing to set up a scientific 112 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:02,880 Speaker 1: meeting for him to present his work along with another 113 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,680 Speaker 1: researcher who had got a different theory, nothing to do 114 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 1: with measles, but who've got a different theory about the 115 00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:14,720 Speaker 1: origins of inflammatory bow disease. And we brought together a 116 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: number of experts only inflammatory bow disease on measles virus 117 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:25,839 Speaker 1: together and the two presented their work, and we gave 118 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 1: them careful consideration. So you know, we didn't ignore his letter. 119 00:09:37,559 --> 00:09:40,200 Speaker 1: But right off the bat in that meeting with Wakefield, 120 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:42,440 Speaker 1: some of the experts there were able to poke some 121 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:45,520 Speaker 1: holes in his theory. He seemed to be using some 122 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:48,160 Speaker 1: of the lab equipment in a way that differed from 123 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:53,960 Speaker 1: the manufacturers instructions. One of the measles experts for whom 124 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: I have always had the highest respect, was clearly a 125 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:08,960 Speaker 1: long away from persuaded when Wakefield explained how many PCR 126 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:16,080 Speaker 1: polymerase chain reaction cycles he was doing to try to 127 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:21,360 Speaker 1: get a positive signal. They were basically running samples to 128 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:27,080 Speaker 1: the machine way more times than recommended. The particular measles 129 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:30,880 Speaker 1: experts said, if measles was there, you would not be 130 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:35,199 Speaker 1: doing thirty five PCR cycles. You would have found it 131 00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:41,320 Speaker 1: very very much earlier. This risk producing a false positive. Yeah, 132 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,079 Speaker 1: I think The analogy was that if you have a 133 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:48,320 Speaker 1: stereo and you've got nothing playing through it, but you 134 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:51,120 Speaker 1: keep on turning the volume up, you'll start to hear 135 00:10:51,200 --> 00:11:05,200 Speaker 1: something what you're not hearing. His bet open. This is 136 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,080 Speaker 1: probably a good place to point out that since then, 137 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:13,520 Speaker 1: nearly three decades ago, Andrew Wakefield's work has been dismissed 138 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:19,680 Speaker 1: over and over again by the scientific establishment. Eventually British 139 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: authorities would ban him from medical practice and his work 140 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:27,840 Speaker 1: would be revealed as fraudulent, but this would take years. 141 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:32,280 Speaker 1: There were a lot of reasons why Wakefield was already 142 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:37,319 Speaker 1: thinking about a potential link between the MMR vaccine and autism. 143 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:40,720 Speaker 1: The first factor was that in the nineties, awareness of 144 00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:45,880 Speaker 1: autism was increasing as researchers expanded the diagnosis to include 145 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:50,520 Speaker 1: a wide spectrum of conditions, and so what the public 146 00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:55,839 Speaker 1: saw was an increase of autism cases without any context. 147 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:00,760 Speaker 1: The second factor was that the meninginist had kicked up 148 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:06,040 Speaker 1: fears about the MMR vaccine. Even before Wakefield hit the scene, 149 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:13,240 Speaker 1: people were starting to mobilize against vaccines. A British mother 150 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:16,880 Speaker 1: named Jackie Fletcher launched an anti vaccine group called JABS. 151 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:22,320 Speaker 1: Fletcher started the organization because she believed the MMR caused 152 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:26,240 Speaker 1: brain damage in her infant son, and a British lawyer 153 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:29,839 Speaker 1: named Richard Barr was working with other attorneys to put 154 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:34,319 Speaker 1: together a class action lawsuit over the MMR. Around this time, 155 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:38,880 Speaker 1: David says Wakefield's theories changed too. He then moved on 156 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:44,080 Speaker 1: and said, ah, it's not wild virus, it's not the 157 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:49,280 Speaker 1: natural measles virus, it's the vaccine. Those initial raised eyebrows 158 00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:53,280 Speaker 1: did not deter Wakefield from his quest. He went on 159 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:57,280 Speaker 1: to publish work that suggested Crohn's disease was more common 160 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: in people who were vaccinated against the measles but he 161 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:05,040 Speaker 1: made his argument by comparing two previous studies that were 162 00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:09,440 Speaker 1: unrelated in the same journal that published the study. Other 163 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:13,400 Speaker 1: scientists pointed out that comparing these two studies didn't make 164 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:17,720 Speaker 1: a whole lot of sense. It didn't matter. Wakefield was 165 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:22,640 Speaker 1: convinced it wasn't the wild measles virus causing the bowel issues, 166 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:28,480 Speaker 1: it was the measles vaccine. Wakefield's research got the attention 167 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:32,880 Speaker 1: of moms who were already concerned that MMR vaccines had 168 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:37,760 Speaker 1: hurt their kids, but that was nothing compared to what 169 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:45,680 Speaker 1: would come next. In February, Andrew Wakefield published a study 170 00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:49,280 Speaker 1: in The Lancet. The Lancet is one of the world's 171 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:54,040 Speaker 1: most prestigious medical journals. It's a big deal if your 172 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:59,800 Speaker 1: work is published there. The study made Wakefield famous. The 173 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:05,080 Speaker 1: study itself falsely linked the MMR vaccine to developmental issues 174 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:10,000 Speaker 1: and stomach problems by looking at just twelve children. Wakefield 175 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:15,079 Speaker 1: was an opportunist. He had seen the conversations bubbling about 176 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:18,760 Speaker 1: the MMR vaccine and autism and found a way to 177 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:23,440 Speaker 1: fit them into his initial theory. Wakefield didn't just quietly 178 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:26,640 Speaker 1: put out his study, though he held a press conference, 179 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:32,920 Speaker 1: a big one. There was credibility from the places in 180 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:39,880 Speaker 1: which his work was being published. There was a sort 181 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:42,800 Speaker 1: of credibility because he was saying it in the public 182 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,280 Speaker 1: domain in a way that doctors didn't often do. It 183 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:52,000 Speaker 1: was very unusual for a doctor to be going so public, 184 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:57,600 Speaker 1: and I think that as a person he is persuaded. 185 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: Wakefield went even further in his claims at the press 186 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:14,240 Speaker 1: conference than he had in the paper. He also suggested 187 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:18,960 Speaker 1: that individual vaccines could be safer than the triple MMR, 188 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:23,120 Speaker 1: measles maps and rebella given together, maybe too much for 189 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:25,640 Speaker 1: the immune system of some children to handle. It was 190 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:29,880 Speaker 1: the launch of an all out war against the MMR vaccine. 191 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:36,400 Speaker 1: That was really the start of a series of publications 192 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:44,880 Speaker 1: and statements that Wakefield made on a public footing that 193 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:50,840 Speaker 1: left us always having to chase to find evidence to 194 00:15:50,920 --> 00:15:56,280 Speaker 1: show that he was wrong, and that put us, being 195 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:03,120 Speaker 1: the scientific community us response for the humanization program, in 196 00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:06,400 Speaker 1: a very very difficult position because each time that he 197 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:10,440 Speaker 1: produced what he said was new evidence, we were having 198 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:15,720 Speaker 1: to chase that to show that it wasn't right. Still, 199 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: Wakefield kept trying to convince the scientific community that this 200 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:26,640 Speaker 1: work was credible. In March, Wakefield presented his work and 201 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 1: a meeting at the Royal College of Surgeons. David was 202 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:37,239 Speaker 1: there again. David says, other scientists poked holes in wakefield 203 00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:41,640 Speaker 1: theories and I don't believe that at the end of 204 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:50,640 Speaker 1: that meeting the audience was persuaded by his presentations. David 205 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:55,680 Speaker 1: says the UK's Independent Advisory Committee on Vaccines had also 206 00:16:55,840 --> 00:17:00,600 Speaker 1: reviewed the research and found it unconvincing. So all of 207 00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:05,800 Speaker 1: the relevant bodies that could look at the data at 208 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:12,120 Speaker 1: the science as the policy implications were not persuaded that 209 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,800 Speaker 1: we needed to be making any changes, and indeed we 210 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:17,960 Speaker 1: were not being asked by way it feel to make 211 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:23,720 Speaker 1: any changes until the press conference on the day of 212 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:33,160 Speaker 1: the release of the Lancet paper. None of that mattered, though. 213 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,439 Speaker 1: The public was much more receptive to the controversial and 214 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:44,840 Speaker 1: shocking idea that vaccines might cause autism. News organizations ran 215 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:48,520 Speaker 1: with the debate, but there has been growing concern among 216 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:51,560 Speaker 1: parents and advocacy groups about the safety of many of 217 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:54,359 Speaker 1: these vaccines. In fact, some groups now believe there's a 218 00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:58,800 Speaker 1: connection between autism and vaccines. The U S Department of Education. 219 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:03,160 Speaker 1: Doubts about this safety of the MMR vaccine had been seated, 220 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:07,040 Speaker 1: and they would just keep growing. By the end of 221 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:10,600 Speaker 1: the nineties, Andrew Wakefield had gone from a little known 222 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:16,200 Speaker 1: researcher to a rock star scientist. But as his profile grew, 223 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:20,439 Speaker 1: his work also invited more scrutiny, and it caught the 224 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:23,000 Speaker 1: attention of one man who would make it his mission 225 00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:40,159 Speaker 1: to expose the truth of Wakefield's fictions. My name is 226 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:42,760 Speaker 1: Brian Dear. I'm the author of the book The Doctor 227 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:46,040 Speaker 1: Who Fooled the World, An investigation into the origins of 228 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:50,440 Speaker 1: modern anti vaccine campaigning. Brian Deer has written about vaccines 229 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:53,919 Speaker 1: for more than two decades, and when he first heard 230 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:57,760 Speaker 1: about the Lancet study, he thought it seemed fishy. There 231 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:01,800 Speaker 1: were some odd coincidences between and a debunked whooping calf 232 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 1: vaccine study. I saw that both of the papers had 233 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: this time link of fourteen days written into them, and 234 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 1: I thought, how could that be when the vaccines were 235 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:18,840 Speaker 1: in fact two very different technologies. One was based on 236 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:24,080 Speaker 1: killing a bacterium with the formally preservative, the other was 237 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:29,199 Speaker 1: based on live viruses. That's They're very different technologies, And 238 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:31,840 Speaker 1: I thought, well, how could they have that time link? 239 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:36,440 Speaker 1: But Brian let it go. I could see no way 240 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:38,959 Speaker 1: of ever being able to get to the bottom of that, 241 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: so I put the thing to one side for five years. 242 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:44,840 Speaker 1: I never got involved in the story for five years 243 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:49,040 Speaker 1: after that paper was published. Then in two thousand three, 244 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:53,080 Speaker 1: Brian was doing a routine assignment on the MMR vaccine. 245 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:58,760 Speaker 1: Very quickly, I think within within the first week of 246 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:02,080 Speaker 1: me actually see reously doing some work on it. I 247 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:05,639 Speaker 1: interviewed one of the mothers who had enrolled a child 248 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:10,199 Speaker 1: in Wakefield research. That is, he interviewed the mother of 249 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: one of the twelve children in the Lancet study. The 250 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:18,000 Speaker 1: names of patients involved in studies are usually anonymised. This 251 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:21,000 Speaker 1: made it tough for anyone to go about fact checking 252 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:25,240 Speaker 1: many aspects of Wakefield's work. And the story she told 253 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 1: me could not be reconciled with the paper. And from 254 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,240 Speaker 1: that I could see that there was at least some 255 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:37,200 Speaker 1: kind of mismatch, some kind of irregularity in this paper, 256 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:48,880 Speaker 1: some kind of peculiarity going on. Brian kept digging. Remember 257 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,720 Speaker 1: Richard Barr, that lawyer who was trying to get a 258 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:56,680 Speaker 1: class action suit together over the MMR vaccine. Wakefield had 259 00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:00,000 Speaker 1: actually been approached by a firm of lawyers two years 260 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:04,040 Speaker 1: before the paper was published, and had taken employment with 261 00:21:04,119 --> 00:21:07,920 Speaker 1: them to make a case for them for this firm 262 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:12,000 Speaker 1: of lawyers against the MMR vaccine in order that they 263 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,959 Speaker 1: could get a class action lawsuit going. Bryan says, Bar 264 00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:20,600 Speaker 1: first guy interested in vaccines, sort of by chance, he 265 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:24,919 Speaker 1: had a client who after he did the conveyancing on 266 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:29,840 Speaker 1: her house, she'd said to him later that her child 267 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:33,560 Speaker 1: had received the MMR vaccine and had developed meningitis. And 268 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:37,720 Speaker 1: as soon as the government withdrew two brands of the 269 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:40,399 Speaker 1: MMR vaccine, he was on the phone to this This 270 00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:43,840 Speaker 1: mother got her into the newspapers, and once he got 271 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,760 Speaker 1: in the newspapers, he was the person to go to 272 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:55,120 Speaker 1: if you wanted to make a complaint about the MMR vaccine. 273 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:59,840 Speaker 1: Bryan discovered that before the lance that study, bar Heard 274 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,920 Speaker 1: hired Wakefield to help prove their claims and send them 275 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:08,439 Speaker 1: patients for the research. Neither wake Builds hospital nor his 276 00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:14,439 Speaker 1: study co authors knew anything about the connection. The children 277 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,760 Speaker 1: who had come to the hospital weren't just children off 278 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:21,040 Speaker 1: the street, if you like, or routine patients. They had 279 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:25,560 Speaker 1: actually been sent to Wakefield by an anti vaccine group. 280 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:31,920 Speaker 1: The kids in the study were sent to the hospital 281 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:37,040 Speaker 1: because their parents already believed that they had been vaccine damaged. Basically, 282 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:41,040 Speaker 1: Wakefield had made a big assumption about what his study 283 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,840 Speaker 1: would find and then cherry picked research subjects in an 284 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:48,840 Speaker 1: effort to prove it. The relationship between Richard Barr and 285 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:53,960 Speaker 1: Andrew Wakefield and that paper which they which they devised together, 286 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,200 Speaker 1: and that is the acorn from which the modern anti 287 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:01,320 Speaker 1: vaccine movement has grown. They all began with Wakefield, and 288 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,520 Speaker 1: that's what the patent was all about. It was designed 289 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:10,199 Speaker 1: to be the battering ram which created the law so 290 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,560 Speaker 1: that they could recruit a lot of class to this lawsuit, 291 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: which they ultimately did not. Long after the paper was published, 292 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,920 Speaker 1: Richard Barr's lawsuit had its first day in court. Richard 293 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: Barr declined to be recorded for this podcast. He said 294 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:29,840 Speaker 1: in an email that at the time of his lawsuit 295 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:34,400 Speaker 1: there were genuine concerns about the MMR vaccine. He said 296 00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,840 Speaker 1: that Wakefield was just one of many experts that he 297 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,960 Speaker 1: relied on to make his case in court. He wrote 298 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:44,000 Speaker 1: to me that quote, vaccine damage is real, and it 299 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,919 Speaker 1: was a question of whether the symptoms described by the 300 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,879 Speaker 1: hundreds of parents who approached us were attributable to the 301 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:56,719 Speaker 1: MMR end of story end quote. He also added that 302 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,760 Speaker 1: he had just gotten his own COVID nineteen vaccine and 303 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:20,119 Speaker 1: hopes that others do the same. Wakefield was not a 304 00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,119 Speaker 1: fan of Brian's reporting on his work. He turned to 305 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:27,640 Speaker 1: the courts to try and shut Brian down. Wakefield, Brian 306 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,320 Speaker 1: and Britain's Channel four wound up locked in a libel battle. 307 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,640 Speaker 1: No one wants to get sued, but it actually turned 308 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,159 Speaker 1: out to be great for Brian. Brian had already figured 309 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:40,320 Speaker 1: out the identities of all of the kids in the 310 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:44,560 Speaker 1: length of study. Then he and his lawyers received medical 311 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:51,560 Speaker 1: records from Wakefield's research, and somehow, presumably accidentally, somebody had 312 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,320 Speaker 1: forgotten to redact some of those records. This gave Brian 313 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,480 Speaker 1: access to pretty detailed medical histories of the kids in 314 00:24:58,520 --> 00:25:05,280 Speaker 1: the study. This led to some incredible fines over Wakefield's claims. 315 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,360 Speaker 1: Brain found that Wakefield had changed some of the initial 316 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:12,920 Speaker 1: diagnoses of the kids in the study to fit his theory. 317 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:20,199 Speaker 1: Brian says that's because Whakefield had other motivations besides scientific discovery. Firstly, 318 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:23,879 Speaker 1: he wanted money. Remember when Wakefield started suggesting that the 319 00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:30,520 Speaker 1: triple MMR shot might not be safe together. Brian says 320 00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 1: there's a reason for that. He also had set up 321 00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:38,360 Speaker 1: a network of companies that was going to sell what 322 00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 1: he claimed to be the first potential safer vaccine to 323 00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:45,919 Speaker 1: the MMR. He'd filed for a patent eight months before 324 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 1: his paper that launched the scare over the MMR vACC 325 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:53,320 Speaker 1: and he patented his own single measles vaccine, so he 326 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 1: had that he was planning on selling diagnostic tests and 327 00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:01,800 Speaker 1: what he called a potential complete cure for autism. But 328 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:06,199 Speaker 1: Brian says it also wasn't just about the money. He 329 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:08,719 Speaker 1: wanted to be a great man. He thought he was 330 00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:13,439 Speaker 1: a remarkable character. He thought that he was he was 331 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:17,080 Speaker 1: a very special person, and he believed he was entitled 332 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,840 Speaker 1: to win the Nobel Prize. Brian's reporting found that Wakefield's 333 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:25,320 Speaker 1: university eventually insisted he do a rigorous study to replicate 334 00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:30,520 Speaker 1: his findings. He refused. By this point, other researchers had 335 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:34,200 Speaker 1: already failed to duplicate his work. A lab in Ireland 336 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:38,440 Speaker 1: claimed it had independently verified the findings, but Brian found 337 00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:43,600 Speaker 1: that the lab pathologist and Wakefield were actually in business together. 338 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:47,920 Speaker 1: It was a convoluted web of lies and conflicts of interest. 339 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,879 Speaker 1: The study that had ignited widespread panic over the MMR 340 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:57,560 Speaker 1: vaccine was pretty much anything but scientific. Bryan says that 341 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:00,399 Speaker 1: the reason Wayfield focused on the measles in the first 342 00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:06,160 Speaker 1: place was even suspect. He got this idea reading an encyclopedia. 343 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:08,800 Speaker 1: He went to the hospital library and took out an 344 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: encyclopedia and went as an encyclopedia of viruses, and went 345 00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:17,119 Speaker 1: through this encyclopedia virus by virus until he came to 346 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,000 Speaker 1: one that he thought he thought, well, oh that looks 347 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:22,959 Speaker 1: that looks promising and it was measles, and he latched 348 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:25,520 Speaker 1: onto this idea. So he was unable to let go 349 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:29,760 Speaker 1: of his idea. But Brian hadn't even begun to look 350 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:33,040 Speaker 1: into Wakefield until five years after the study came out. 351 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:38,399 Speaker 1: By that point, doubt about the vaccine had spread, the 352 00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:42,879 Speaker 1: damage had been done. David Salisbury had started his career 353 00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:47,080 Speaker 1: not long after another crisis in vaccine confidence, this one 354 00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:51,199 Speaker 1: over unfounded concerns about the whooping cough vaccine. There had 355 00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,199 Speaker 1: been major epidemics of the disease in the late seventies 356 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:58,119 Speaker 1: and eighties, but eventually the UK managed to restore trust 357 00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:00,840 Speaker 1: in the shot and get vaccine and rates back up. 358 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:06,920 Speaker 1: But David says the MMR vaccine rumors were stickier. If 359 00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:10,640 Speaker 1: you put the balance and you have autism on one 360 00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:12,960 Speaker 1: side of the scale and you have measles on the other, 361 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:17,240 Speaker 1: it's very easy to say, I'll take the risk of measles, 362 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:19,800 Speaker 1: but I won't take the risk of autism. It was 363 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,800 Speaker 1: hard to convince parents to take on even a teeny 364 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:26,400 Speaker 1: risk of artism to protect against an illness most people 365 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: had never even seen in their lifetime. In the years 366 00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:35,479 Speaker 1: after Wakefield study, the number of cases of measles, mumps, 367 00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:40,000 Speaker 1: and rebella would take up each year to counter that. 368 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:44,160 Speaker 1: It wasn't good enough to say we don't believe it 369 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:50,520 Speaker 1: or we know better when we had nothing to put 370 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:54,920 Speaker 1: that on other than the background knowledge that we had, 371 00:28:55,480 --> 00:29:00,720 Speaker 1: because nobody had been into the Island Lab until much 372 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:05,080 Speaker 1: later to be able to go through their workbooks and 373 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,000 Speaker 1: look at what they were actually doing and try to 374 00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:14,240 Speaker 1: make sense of the positive responses that we later learned 375 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:19,200 Speaker 1: were coming from empty wells in the PCR machines that 376 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:23,880 Speaker 1: themselves had not been serviced according to the manufacturer's specifications. 377 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:29,080 Speaker 1: None of that was known. Study after study had failed 378 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: to reproduce Wakefield's findings. The scientific consensus was still that 379 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:39,680 Speaker 1: the MMR vaccine was safe and had no link to 380 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:45,280 Speaker 1: artism or any other similar condition, but the public was 381 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:53,640 Speaker 1: becoming increasingly hesitant. Saying to people, measles can kill. Actually 382 00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:59,920 Speaker 1: confronts credibility when they've never heard of anyone dying of measles. 383 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,959 Speaker 1: These are not quick to turn around. These are supertankers, 384 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:09,479 Speaker 1: These stories that really are difficult to turn around. By 385 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:16,080 Speaker 1: this point, Wakefield was hardly scientist. He had become something else, 386 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:21,240 Speaker 1: a guru. Wakefield had used his time in the limelight 387 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:24,560 Speaker 1: to push his false message, not just across the UK, 388 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:29,920 Speaker 1: but across the globe. He played the victim, the outsider 389 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,880 Speaker 1: to the medical establishment, speaking the hard truths about government 390 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:38,320 Speaker 1: and big pharma. And by this point Wakefield was done 391 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:42,400 Speaker 1: with the UK anyway. His conspiracies had found a warm 392 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:56,520 Speaker 1: reception across the Atlantic. In the United States, It's April 393 00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:59,440 Speaker 1: two thousand and Andrew Wakefield is about to testify, but 394 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,760 Speaker 1: for cong Us we will now will now welcome our 395 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,960 Speaker 1: second panel to the witness table, Dr Andrew Wakefield, who 396 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:10,240 Speaker 1: came all the way from Merry Old, England. We appreciate 397 00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: him being here. The topic is the potential link between 398 00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,640 Speaker 1: vaccines and autism in kids. The chair of the committee 399 00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:25,560 Speaker 1: is Republican Representative Dan Burton of Indiana. This is his investigation. 400 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,720 Speaker 1: It's personal for him. He believes his own grandson got 401 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:34,720 Speaker 1: autism because of a vaccine. But unfortunately, after receiving nine 402 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,280 Speaker 1: shots in one day, the MMR and the d p 403 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:41,840 Speaker 1: A T shot and the hepatitis B within a very 404 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:46,200 Speaker 1: very short period time, he quit speaking, ran around, banging 405 00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: his head against the wall, screaming and hollering, waving his 406 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:52,760 Speaker 1: hands and became totally a different child. By this time, 407 00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:58,520 Speaker 1: Wakefield had become a full blown media darling. And now 408 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:05,040 Speaker 1: he's speaking directly with American lawmakers. Yes, thank you, Mr German, 409 00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,440 Speaker 1: members of the committee. It's a great privilege to be here. 410 00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:10,600 Speaker 1: The purpose of my destiny is to report the results 411 00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:13,400 Speaker 1: of the clinical and scientific investigation of a series of 412 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,600 Speaker 1: children with autism. Now, nothing in this testimony should be 413 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:22,280 Speaker 1: construed as anti vaccine. Rather, I advocate the safest vaccination 414 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:26,480 Speaker 1: strategies for the protection of children. Wakefield speaks matter of factly, 415 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:30,560 Speaker 1: citing papers and using dense medical language as he rips 416 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:33,800 Speaker 1: through his presentation. What about vaccines? This is a paper 417 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,400 Speaker 1: from the Vaccine Damage Compensation Board in the United States 418 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,000 Speaker 1: Acute en cephalopathy followed by permanent brain injury or death 419 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:45,240 Speaker 1: associated with further attenuated measles vaccine? What was intriguing in 420 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:49,520 Speaker 1: this cohort? During the hearing, others question his research, like 421 00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:52,880 Speaker 1: British scientist Dr Brent Taylor, which, of course is the 422 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:56,080 Speaker 1: problem much of Mr Wakefield's research that it has never 423 00:32:56,120 --> 00:33:00,840 Speaker 1: been independently verified. Most no one anywhere in the world 424 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,680 Speaker 1: hasn't been able to reproduce any of his studies, and 425 00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:08,120 Speaker 1: it seems possible, but Wakefield seems unfazed. He keeps us 426 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,960 Speaker 1: cool even when asked if his research is biased. We 427 00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:15,160 Speaker 1: are funded to test hypothesis and we present the data 428 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:17,480 Speaker 1: whether the hypothesis was correct or not. And we have 429 00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,120 Speaker 1: done that. We've got on records doing it. We've published 430 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,280 Speaker 1: negative studies in association with measles and Crow's disease. That 431 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:25,560 Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's not there. It means that our hypothesis 432 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:27,880 Speaker 1: was wrong in terms that we could not find it 433 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,480 Speaker 1: using the technology. So we have gone on record as 434 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:38,320 Speaker 1: publishing both positive and negative data. Wakefield is affable and charming. 435 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:41,080 Speaker 1: He is a good listener, and he knows how to 436 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:44,520 Speaker 1: target his audience effectively. He knows how to get his 437 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:48,600 Speaker 1: message heard. I reached out many times to Wakefield during 438 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:52,120 Speaker 1: a system. At first he agreed to speak with me 439 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:56,760 Speaker 1: off record under one condition. I had to watch several 440 00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,360 Speaker 1: of the movies he's produced about vaccines, and so I did, 441 00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,480 Speaker 1: and after I told his people I had watched them, 442 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:07,160 Speaker 1: he declined to be interviewed for this podcast. His assistant 443 00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:10,160 Speaker 1: told me he's just tired of being demonized by the 444 00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:14,880 Speaker 1: mainstream press. Wakefield has continued to stand by his research 445 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:26,640 Speaker 1: and deny allegations against him. Parents around the world rallied 446 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:29,480 Speaker 1: around Wakefield in the early two thousands, but in the 447 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:33,720 Speaker 1: US he found an especially big support network. His fans 448 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,440 Speaker 1: claimed the truth was being buried by scientists in the government. 449 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:41,720 Speaker 1: We were in cahoots with the pharmaceutical industry. In the US, 450 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:46,280 Speaker 1: his ideas would merge with another already percolating fear about 451 00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:50,920 Speaker 1: the marisol and vaccines. The marisol is a mercury based 452 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:54,640 Speaker 1: preservative that had been added to vaccines for decades. It 453 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:59,319 Speaker 1: helps prevent bacterial growth in vials with multiple doses. So 454 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:01,759 Speaker 1: bear with me for a minute, because I have to 455 00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:07,760 Speaker 1: talk about mercury in detail. There are two types of mercury. 456 00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: One is very bad. It is the reason why you're 457 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:14,600 Speaker 1: not supposed to be fish when you're pregnant. That is 458 00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:18,720 Speaker 1: methyl mercury, and it's toxic, and in the ninety nineties 459 00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:22,560 Speaker 1: there were all these confusing public health messages warning people 460 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:26,120 Speaker 1: to stay away from it. But there is also another 461 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:31,880 Speaker 1: kind of mercury. Its name ethyl mercury sounds almost exactly 462 00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:34,960 Speaker 1: the same, but the body clears it quickly and so 463 00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:39,160 Speaker 1: it's unlikely to do harm. This is the mercury and vaccines. 464 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:42,480 Speaker 1: And at the same time that there was growing concern 465 00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:45,600 Speaker 1: over the bad mercury, the number of vaccines given to 466 00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:48,680 Speaker 1: infants grew, and some of those shots had the okay 467 00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:52,280 Speaker 1: mercury in them. You see why this might be confusing. 468 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:56,680 Speaker 1: At the same time, like I mentioned earlier, awareness of 469 00:35:56,719 --> 00:36:00,880 Speaker 1: autism had grown as the diagnosis for it expanded. Some 470 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:04,359 Speaker 1: parents were concerned that there was a growing autism epidemic, 471 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:07,680 Speaker 1: and then all this mercury and childhood shots was to blame, 472 00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:13,560 Speaker 1: adding fuel to this theory. Out of an abundance of caution, 473 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,359 Speaker 1: the CDC asked vaccine makers to remove the marisol from 474 00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:22,320 Speaker 1: routine shots. When Wakefield's ideas crossed the pond, they found 475 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,800 Speaker 1: fertile ground. The media had started to throw some shade 476 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,239 Speaker 1: on Wakefield's claims, but he was still grabbing a lot 477 00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:33,439 Speaker 1: of headlines. On those headlines kept the debate alive, when 478 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:37,120 Speaker 1: in reality, there was nothing to debate if you turned 479 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:41,200 Speaker 1: on NPR in two two, four years after Wakefield's paper 480 00:36:41,239 --> 00:36:44,759 Speaker 1: came out, an article in Yesterday's New York Times magazine 481 00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,360 Speaker 1: is getting a lot of attention from parents who worried 482 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:51,520 Speaker 1: that vaccines may be causing autism. These parents long have 483 00:36:51,640 --> 00:36:55,200 Speaker 1: felt that their fears have been dismissed by mainstream scientists, 484 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:59,640 Speaker 1: but this article is or c span in two thousand five, 485 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:04,000 Speaker 1: seven years after the paper came out, Did you come 486 00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:07,160 Speaker 1: to the conclusion that the parents are right? That's an 487 00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,120 Speaker 1: excellent question. I can comfortably say that I'm becoming more 488 00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:12,719 Speaker 1: convinced that there is a connection when you look at 489 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:15,600 Speaker 1: the biological evidence, when you look at the children with 490 00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:18,319 Speaker 1: autism themselves and you notice that they have higher levels 491 00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:24,440 Speaker 1: of mercury in the system. It seems like Wakefield was 492 00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:29,000 Speaker 1: simply able to deflect any criticism of his research. In 493 00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:33,680 Speaker 1: two thousand four, ten of Wakefield's Lancet co authors published 494 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,600 Speaker 1: a statement saying that the paper did not show the 495 00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:41,440 Speaker 1: MMR vaccine caused autism. That didn't seem to make much 496 00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,920 Speaker 1: of a difference. The Lancet also looked into accusations of 497 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:50,560 Speaker 1: ethical misconduct in Wakefield's research. This included claims that he 498 00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:54,440 Speaker 1: had recruited patients that would prove his theory. I found 499 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:57,640 Speaker 1: only that Wakefield should have been clearer in disclosing sources 500 00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,480 Speaker 1: of his funding, said the evidence did not support other 501 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:06,319 Speaker 1: claims They also published a response from Wakefield refuting most 502 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:11,360 Speaker 1: of the allegations. His theory remained untarnished in the eyes 503 00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:28,279 Speaker 1: of much of the public. All of these ideas were 504 00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:31,400 Speaker 1: still circulating when Michelle Saddio's family took their case to 505 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:35,640 Speaker 1: vaccine courts in two thousand seven. Thousands of parents now 506 00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:39,680 Speaker 1: believed their children had become autistic after receiving either vaccines 507 00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:44,239 Speaker 1: with the mirrossole or their MMR shop or a combination 508 00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:48,320 Speaker 1: of both. The two theories had merged into one mega 509 00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:52,080 Speaker 1: conspiracy theory, and now it was up to the Saddio's 510 00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:57,960 Speaker 1: attorneys to prove all of this to the court. The summarise, 511 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,960 Speaker 1: very very briefly is straight for that you have a 512 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:05,360 Speaker 1: case here that is a test case for the theory. 513 00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:09,719 Speaker 1: The general theory that the combination of exposure to fimarosl 514 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:14,560 Speaker 1: containing vaccines with a significant dose of ethyl mercury early 515 00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:20,640 Speaker 1: in a child's life, combined them with MMR can result 516 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:26,200 Speaker 1: in a complex system response that presents symptoms that get 517 00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:30,719 Speaker 1: diagnosed as autism and in particular are suppressive use system 518 00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:34,439 Speaker 1: from the fimarosol in the vaccines. I'm guessing that most 519 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:37,640 Speaker 1: people listening to this have probably never heard of the 520 00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:42,799 Speaker 1: National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program a k A. Vaccine Court. 521 00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:47,000 Speaker 1: The roots of vaccine Court go back to the nineties. 522 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that there were unfounded concerns about the 523 00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:55,120 Speaker 1: whooping cough vaccine. At this time, the whooping cough vaccine 524 00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:58,960 Speaker 1: was part of a combo shot called the DPT. In 525 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:02,640 Speaker 1: the US, parents had begun bringing lawsuits against doctors and 526 00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:08,319 Speaker 1: vaccine manufacturers alleging to the shot harmed kids, and one 527 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:11,920 Speaker 1: of the lawsuits to succeed. For example, the parents of 528 00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:14,440 Speaker 1: a three month old who received the shot said it 529 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:19,040 Speaker 1: had paralyzed him. A jury awarded them more than a 530 00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:23,560 Speaker 1: million dollars. Between the late seventies and mid eighties, cases 531 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:26,360 Speaker 1: like this became more frequent, and the amount of money 532 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:30,680 Speaker 1: parents sought from drug manufacturers grew too. It was becoming 533 00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:34,320 Speaker 1: expensive to be in the business of making these vaccines. 534 00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:39,040 Speaker 1: There was a shortage of DPT vaccines, and manufacturers threatened 535 00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:42,200 Speaker 1: to stop making them all together. By the mid eighties, 536 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:46,480 Speaker 1: only one manufacturer was still making the DPT shot. The 537 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:49,040 Speaker 1: price of the shot went up, doctors were told to 538 00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:52,640 Speaker 1: no longer give out boosters to older kids. It was 539 00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:59,879 Speaker 1: a real crisis. Congress decided to address this crisis by 540 00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:04,960 Speaker 1: creating Vaccine Court. If you are in the minority of 541 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,640 Speaker 1: people who have some kind of bad reaction to a vaccine, 542 00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:12,759 Speaker 1: vaccine Court is where you go. On the surface, it 543 00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:16,839 Speaker 1: really was kind of a perfect solution. We all get 544 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:20,279 Speaker 1: vaccinated as part of an effort to keep terrible diseases 545 00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:24,000 Speaker 1: from circulating in our society. The tiny risk of a 546 00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:28,120 Speaker 1: bad reaction is part of that social compact, and in 547 00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:31,040 Speaker 1: order to compensate the people that do get hurt, we 548 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,600 Speaker 1: all pay a small tax on each childhood vaccine. The 549 00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:38,360 Speaker 1: system protects drugmakers from lawsuits and also was designed to 550 00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:42,879 Speaker 1: make it easier for victims to get compensated. The thing 551 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:46,600 Speaker 1: is drawing a direct line of cause and effect between 552 00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:50,960 Speaker 1: an injury and a vaccine is not always that simple. 553 00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,880 Speaker 1: Improving that link between the MMR shot and autism was 554 00:41:55,920 --> 00:42:00,040 Speaker 1: at the heart of Michelle Citos case. And we're in 555 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:04,360 Speaker 1: a start with the opening statements by counsel for the petitioners. 556 00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: So which of you will be starting? Mr Powers starting, 557 00:42:09,719 --> 00:42:14,239 Speaker 1: and Christiane Happer will give an el test. Okay. Mr 558 00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:16,560 Speaker 1: Powers will make an opening statement on behalf of the 559 00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:21,000 Speaker 1: petitioners Steering committee Mr Powers, please go ahead. Michelle's case 560 00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:25,200 Speaker 1: was the first test case in the Autism proceedings. The 561 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:29,879 Speaker 1: proceedings worked basically like a class action. The Vaccine Court 562 00:42:29,960 --> 00:42:33,879 Speaker 1: had received so many similar claims that asked the petitioners 563 00:42:33,920 --> 00:42:36,320 Speaker 1: to get together and pick a few to represent them all. 564 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:41,760 Speaker 1: They picked six, including Michelle's. If the Special Masters found 565 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:44,799 Speaker 1: these cases to be credible, it would pave the way 566 00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:48,920 Speaker 1: for similar cases. If they didn't, it would make it 567 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:53,560 Speaker 1: a lot harder for other autism cases to get compensated 568 00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:57,200 Speaker 1: in the court. You can hear the gravity of all 569 00:42:57,239 --> 00:43:02,080 Speaker 1: of this and Special Master George Hastings opening remarks, we 570 00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:05,680 Speaker 1: realize what a very important task has been assigned to 571 00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:08,680 Speaker 1: us in deciding these cases, and we will give our 572 00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:13,120 Speaker 1: greatest effort in carrying out that heavy responsibility. Going into 573 00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:15,680 Speaker 1: the proceedings, there was actually a lot of anxiety in 574 00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:19,279 Speaker 1: the public health community over how the Vaccine Court might rule. 575 00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:22,960 Speaker 1: It was known for being somewhat liberal in its awards, 576 00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:26,440 Speaker 1: sometimes doling out compensation where it wasn't clear that a 577 00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:30,480 Speaker 1: vaccine was actually at the root of health issue. We're 578 00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:33,040 Speaker 1: the Court to find in favor of Michelle's CEO. It 579 00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:36,319 Speaker 1: could validate the concerns of her parents and thousands of 580 00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:41,320 Speaker 1: others that falsely believed vaccines could cause autism. By this point, 581 00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:44,359 Speaker 1: the public health community had spent years trying to fight 582 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:50,040 Speaker 1: that idea. Vaccination rates were dropping, cases of the measles 583 00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,439 Speaker 1: were rising, and there were signs that it could get 584 00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:58,320 Speaker 1: even worse. The year before, the UK had its first 585 00:43:58,560 --> 00:44:04,320 Speaker 1: death from the measles in fourteen years. The stakes were high. 586 00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:07,160 Speaker 1: My name is Sylvia chan Kaplan and I of all 587 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,240 Speaker 1: of my hot was Kenn Conway and one Homer represent 588 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:14,280 Speaker 1: the shells to deal. Michelle was born on Aust thirty. 589 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:24,600 Speaker 1: She weighed eight pounds, probably in In other words, she 590 00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:30,960 Speaker 1: was perfectly on day one when she was born, she 591 00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:37,720 Speaker 1: received hippatite fe ignization and it contained one five micrograms 592 00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:42,600 Speaker 1: of her pats didn't know about it. Joe, how profession 593 00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:46,560 Speaker 1: didn't know about it. The studio's attorney claimed that getting 594 00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:49,759 Speaker 1: one immunization at birth with the safe kind of mercury 595 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:53,440 Speaker 1: had primed Michelle's gut for things to go horribly wrong 596 00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:58,040 Speaker 1: when she received her MMR. They claimed that the combination 597 00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:01,799 Speaker 1: of the vaccine with the Marisa all and the MMR 598 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:07,120 Speaker 1: had caused Michelle to develop stomach issues and regress into autism, 599 00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:12,360 Speaker 1: along with the host of other very heartbreaking medical conditions. Worse, 600 00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:16,560 Speaker 1: they insinuated that the government and the drug industry we're 601 00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:21,520 Speaker 1: working together to hide vaccine safety evidence, conspiring to make 602 00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:25,640 Speaker 1: it difficult to mount the Cidio's case. The story was compelling. 603 00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:29,560 Speaker 1: More than seven people dialed in to hear testimony from 604 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:33,640 Speaker 1: the case live on the first day the press covered it. 605 00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:37,160 Speaker 1: On Monday, a federal vaccine court here in Washington started 606 00:45:37,160 --> 00:45:39,560 Speaker 1: to hear testimony in a trial that's expected to last 607 00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:42,200 Speaker 1: for weeks. Of finding for the families could make many 608 00:45:42,239 --> 00:45:45,840 Speaker 1: parents think twice about vaccinating their children, and doctors worried 609 00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:49,840 Speaker 1: that could leave. The Cidio family, including Michelle, were present, 610 00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:53,399 Speaker 1: and Special Master Hastings commended the family for how they 611 00:45:53,400 --> 00:45:58,520 Speaker 1: had dealt with Michelle's illness. Andrew Wakefield looms over these proceedings. 612 00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:02,560 Speaker 1: That's fury that Michelle's autism had been caused by the 613 00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:07,880 Speaker 1: MMR was rooted in his work. Michelle's mom, Teresa Sadio, 614 00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:11,520 Speaker 1: testifies that she came across the lance at paper early 615 00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:14,360 Speaker 1: on when she was looking for answers to what happened 616 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:18,120 Speaker 1: to her daughter, but not only that she had actually 617 00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:22,320 Speaker 1: met Wakefield at a conference, he had even examined Michelle. 618 00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:27,239 Speaker 1: She testifies that they had exchanged more than a hundred emails. 619 00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:33,160 Speaker 1: At the end of the first day of testimony, Teresa 620 00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:36,879 Speaker 1: Sadio takes the stand. Her lawyer starts by asking about 621 00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:43,160 Speaker 1: what Michelle was like as a newborn. Michelle a happy baby. 622 00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:52,520 Speaker 1: I'm very hurty, a very responsive, very very normal, very happy. 623 00:46:53,120 --> 00:46:58,000 Speaker 1: Then Teresa testifies, Michelle got her MMR vaccine at fifteen 624 00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:03,319 Speaker 1: months old. She developed to fever six days later. She 625 00:47:03,600 --> 00:47:09,279 Speaker 1: was different. She she seemed withdrawn um. She I thought 626 00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:13,520 Speaker 1: her hearing had been affected. She was no longer talking um. 627 00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:17,040 Speaker 1: In fact, she was completely quiet. She didn't make any sound, 628 00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:19,759 Speaker 1: which is why we thought it was her hearing. We 629 00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:22,239 Speaker 1: thought maybe she couldn't hear, so that's why she wasn't 630 00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:29,479 Speaker 1: responding or making her own sounds. This story would evoke 631 00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:33,520 Speaker 1: empathy in anyone. How scary would it be to go 632 00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:36,520 Speaker 1: through that as a parent, to have your child seemingly 633 00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:43,279 Speaker 1: become a different person practically overnight. The thing is as 634 00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:47,520 Speaker 1: compelling as that explanation was. There was a big hole 635 00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:51,640 Speaker 1: in the story. A few days into the preceding a 636 00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:56,840 Speaker 1: French psychiatrist from McGill University named Eric Fomband takes the stand. 637 00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:03,120 Speaker 1: Eric studies autism in the nineties. When Wakefield first first 638 00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:07,160 Speaker 1: onto the scene, he had been living in London. Eric 639 00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:10,799 Speaker 1: had always found Wakefield's work to be flawed. The way 640 00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:14,320 Speaker 1: the studies described the onset of autism just didn't gel 641 00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:17,600 Speaker 1: with what he had found in his own work. Eric 642 00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:22,000 Speaker 1: had conducted studies and written papers that refuted the theory. 643 00:48:23,080 --> 00:48:26,400 Speaker 1: As part of the autism proceedings, Eric told the government 644 00:48:26,440 --> 00:48:31,839 Speaker 1: attorneys to subpoena sidio family home videos. Eric told me 645 00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:36,880 Speaker 1: that what he found would determine the case's outcome. I 646 00:48:36,920 --> 00:48:41,040 Speaker 1: had the first birthday video clip of that child, and 647 00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:43,600 Speaker 1: that was all able to see because you could see 648 00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:48,680 Speaker 1: she was very delayed in motor development and social development. 649 00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:52,120 Speaker 1: She could barely walk, and she she barely barely stand, 650 00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:54,880 Speaker 1: and she her parents were calling her and she was 651 00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:57,920 Speaker 1: never like turning her head to look at them. And 652 00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:02,040 Speaker 1: then so that was a very very sort of poignant, 653 00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:07,920 Speaker 1: really uh scene to to see. Eric says that Michelle 654 00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:12,440 Speaker 1: was already showing clear signs of autism by her first birthday. 655 00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:18,120 Speaker 1: This includes specific types of hand gestures. That was several 656 00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:21,880 Speaker 1: months before her MMR shot. This is a very typical 657 00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:26,240 Speaker 1: hand finger mannerisms that you see in kids with autism, 658 00:49:26,239 --> 00:49:32,000 Speaker 1: well somewhat affected, So they were so unambiguous autistic symptoms. 659 00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:35,719 Speaker 1: On the sixth day of the hearing, the defense attorneys 660 00:49:35,719 --> 00:49:40,719 Speaker 1: showed the home videos. Then Eric testifies, good morning dr 661 00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:43,000 Speaker 1: from me and do you please introduceduced yourself to your book. 662 00:49:45,360 --> 00:49:47,640 Speaker 1: Granted with you a video taking a Michelle at nine 663 00:49:47,880 --> 00:50:06,440 Speaker 1: months two thirds she's at Jane Toney five. Yes, just 664 00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:10,640 Speaker 1: looking at the video, you could see that it was abnormal, 665 00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:14,200 Speaker 1: because you don't make that up. And so it was 666 00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:18,960 Speaker 1: very It was very terrible for the City of Family 667 00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:23,520 Speaker 1: and I was I didn't feel it well for for them. 668 00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:26,560 Speaker 1: But but my duty was to the coortom, to the 669 00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:32,880 Speaker 1: to the science and to the tool of the defense. 670 00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:36,800 Speaker 1: Dismantles other parts of the city's case, like how the 671 00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,920 Speaker 1: data is applied by Andrew Wakefield's business partner in the 672 00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:45,480 Speaker 1: Irish lab was contaminated. Which you've been offered is a 673 00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:50,480 Speaker 1: series of fanciful notions that are backed up only by 674 00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:53,440 Speaker 1: the fact that someone who's offered them has a couple 675 00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:56,800 Speaker 1: of letters after their name. M d or pH d. 676 00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:01,200 Speaker 1: That does not make a good science. I'm going to 677 00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:03,680 Speaker 1: be as charitable as I can be about the petitioner's 678 00:51:03,760 --> 00:51:08,920 Speaker 1: case here at the PSC case, it's at best speculation. 679 00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:15,080 Speaker 1: I had a speculation now at worst, at worst, it's 680 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:19,480 Speaker 1: a contrivance. It's a contrivance that's been developed and are 681 00:51:19,560 --> 00:51:23,759 Speaker 1: articulated and promoted by its chief proponent, and that's Andrew Wakefield. 682 00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:30,640 Speaker 1: The Special Masters listened to the evidence, and eventually they 683 00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:35,520 Speaker 1: gave their verdict. Two years later, after other test cases 684 00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:39,600 Speaker 1: were heard and both parties filed lots of post hearing briefs, 685 00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:44,400 Speaker 1: Special Master Hastings issued a ruling. He wrote that the 686 00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:48,680 Speaker 1: city of Family had been quote misled by physicians who 687 00:51:48,719 --> 00:52:04,279 Speaker 1: are guilty in my view of gross medical misjudgment. The 688 00:52:04,320 --> 00:52:09,240 Speaker 1: other test cases were defeated as well. Vaccine Court would 689 00:52:09,239 --> 00:52:13,200 Speaker 1: not be awarding compensation to any parent that claimed their 690 00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:18,360 Speaker 1: child became autistic after vaccination. But the ruling did not 691 00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:24,840 Speaker 1: convince vaccine skeptics. If anything, it fueled their concerns. Now 692 00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:29,319 Speaker 1: they felt even the Vaccine Court wouldn't listen to them. 693 00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:32,520 Speaker 1: It wasn't just the vaccines that were a problem, it 694 00:52:32,640 --> 00:52:36,719 Speaker 1: was the whole system. The year after this ruling, the 695 00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:41,560 Speaker 1: Lancet finally tried to correct the record. In two thousand ten, 696 00:52:42,200 --> 00:52:47,000 Speaker 1: twelve years after the study came out, the Lancet retracted 697 00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:51,120 Speaker 1: Wakefield's paper an issued a statement that said several elements 698 00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:55,440 Speaker 1: of the paper seemed to be incorrect. This was only 699 00:52:55,640 --> 00:53:00,600 Speaker 1: after Britain's General Medical Council ruled that Wakefield had acted unethically. 700 00:53:01,360 --> 00:53:04,680 Speaker 1: A few months later, the council also suspended his license 701 00:53:04,719 --> 00:53:10,480 Speaker 1: to practice. Wakefield supporters did not abandon him, though they 702 00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:13,680 Speaker 1: doubled down. You can hear it in the news reports 703 00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:21,520 Speaker 1: when Wakefield shows up outside the Medical Council. Andrew Wakefield 704 00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:24,240 Speaker 1: arrived at the GMC this afternoon to face the cameras, 705 00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:27,279 Speaker 1: but not the music. He simply wasn't there when the 706 00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:34,279 Speaker 1: disciplinary panel found him guilty on almost every charge. They 707 00:53:34,320 --> 00:53:42,000 Speaker 1: hold signs saying scapegoat and Dr Wakefield cares. Vaccine safety 708 00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:45,880 Speaker 1: scares are nothing new. They've been around for as long 709 00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:51,280 Speaker 1: as vaccines have, but usually they went away. By this point, 710 00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,560 Speaker 1: it was clear that concerns over vaccines and autism we're 711 00:53:55,600 --> 00:54:00,239 Speaker 1: not going anywhere anytime soon. It had been more than 712 00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:06,360 Speaker 1: a decade since wakefielder he had been announced, his paper 713 00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:12,640 Speaker 1: had been retracted countless times, new research had debunked his ideas. 714 00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:20,360 Speaker 1: But instead of quietly and shamefully retreating into the shadows, 715 00:54:21,160 --> 00:54:25,759 Speaker 1: he gained followers, and not just parents of potentially vaccine 716 00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:30,960 Speaker 1: injured kids, celebrities like Robert de Niro would go on 717 00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:35,520 Speaker 1: to join us cause Wakefield would eventually date a supermodel 718 00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:40,160 Speaker 1: and be invited to one of Donald Trump's inaugural balls. 719 00:54:43,280 --> 00:54:45,879 Speaker 1: We're in a different media landscape, but that, I think 720 00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:51,280 Speaker 1: is why the the scare over MMR isn't going away, 721 00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:57,040 Speaker 1: because it's constantly being regenerated and refueled and repackaged by 722 00:54:57,160 --> 00:55:01,160 Speaker 1: anti vaccine campaigners using their own me media, their own 723 00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:13,640 Speaker 1: Facebook channels, on YouTube, and so on. Sufl. What's different 724 00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:20,560 Speaker 1: is the Internet, specifically social media. Andrew Wakefield had said 725 00:55:20,560 --> 00:55:23,800 Speaker 1: things in motion in the nineties, and now the vaccine 726 00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:29,080 Speaker 1: hesitancy movement was seemingly unstoppable. It didn't matter if the press, 727 00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:33,880 Speaker 1: or the scientific establishment or even vaccine court turned against it. 728 00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:39,000 Speaker 1: The vaccine skeptics now had a megaphone allowed them to 729 00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:42,200 Speaker 1: reach like minded people in any corner of the world. 730 00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:46,719 Speaker 1: Social media was their sword, and they would learn to 731 00:55:46,840 --> 00:56:15,840 Speaker 1: wield it deftly. That's next time on Doubt. Doubt is 732 00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:20,279 Speaker 1: written and reported by me Kristin V. Brown Top Foreheads 733 00:56:20,520 --> 00:56:24,640 Speaker 1: is our senior producer, Molly Nugent as our associate producer. 734 00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:29,800 Speaker 1: Our theme was composed and performed by Hannis Brown. Special 735 00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:33,759 Speaker 1: thanks to Bloomberg editors Tim Anette and Rick Shine. If 736 00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:36,680 Speaker 1: you'd like to know more about Andrew Wakefield, check out 737 00:56:36,719 --> 00:56:41,120 Speaker 1: Brian Dear's book, The Doctor Who Fooled the World. Francesco 738 00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:44,440 Speaker 1: Levy is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. Be sure to 739 00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:47,520 Speaker 1: subscribe to Prognosis if you haven't already. And if you 740 00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:50,920 Speaker 1: like our show, please leave us a review. It helps 741 00:56:50,960 --> 00:56:54,439 Speaker 1: others find out about the show. Thanks for listening, See 742 00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:55,000 Speaker 1: you next time.