His fraudulent anti-vax film got kicked out of the Tribeca film festival, and rightly so. He’s unhappy about that.
To our dismay, we learned today about the Tribeca Film Festival’s decision to reverse the official selection of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,opened a March 26th statement from the film’s Director Andrew Wakefield and Producer Del Bigtree.
Kavin Senapathy succinctly describes him.
Disgraced former gastroenterologist and researcher Andrew Wakefield, known for a fraudulent 1998 paper linking the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism, directs the movie which aims to
reveal an alarming deception that has contributed to the skyrocketing increase of autism and potentially the most catastrophic epidemic of our lifetime.
I have to remember that line. I think Wakefield ought to have his name legally changed to Disgraced Former Gastroenterologist And Researcher Andrew Wakefield, Known For A Fraudulent 1998 Paper Linking The Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) Vaccine With Autism. I know, it’s kind of long, but we could just call him Disgraced for short.
“Killer” is even shorter, more descriptive, and easier to remember.
My spontaneous reaction to the title above was “oh, FFS, Wakefield, again?!”
Why on Earth is anyone paying attention to that miserable excuse for a human being? I want “Last Week Tonight” to do a profile – “Andrew Wakefield – how is he still a thing?”
He’s the persecuted martyr of the anti-vax crowd. This will of course add fuel to the flames of their adoration and indignation, but I’m glad they pulled the screening.
I agree with Kittywhumpus that the anti-vaxxers will only see this as a conspiracy. But rather that than the screening of a movie that promotes a movement that f***ing kills people.
quotethequote — Other than as a death mongering scam artist, I can’t think of single reason for anyone to pay attention to this scumbag.
Kittywhumps — I’m sure you’re right. Sadly. But really…screw ’em. They don’t have any right to endanger the lives of other people because of their ignorance, fear, and gullibility. I understand, and even deeply empathize with their grief. However, it doesn’t take a huge time investment to learn enough about children (and adults) “on the spectrum” to figure out that there are lots of Wakefields preying on parents and children in so many ways.
How about calling him Fakewield? He’s a fake doctor who pretends to wield a license.
I like it, left0ver1under, I like it.
What I wonder is, what motivates ex-MD Fakewield? Is there some profit in this, or he doing this out of the
goodnessevil of his own heart?@7: There’s everything in it for Wakefield. As long as he can continue to convince people that vaccines cause autism and he is a heroic maverick for exposing it, he will continue to get profitable speaking engagements, sell books, have people donate him free stuff, etc. If he admits that he’s wrong, what is he left with? No medical license, no following (they’d turn on him in a heartbeat if he stopped saying what they wanted to hear), no route to fame or fortune, no way to pay the bills or satisfy his ego. It’s no wonder he continues to insist that he’s right.
Quotetheunquote: IIRC the quack tried to link vaccines with Crohn’s initially and when that didn’t fly went to the autism scam. Either way, he’s a scam and a quack.
This is loaded rhetoric:
Suppose we switch up the word order a bit? It means precisely the same thing.
The radio report I heard yesterday had Wakefield complaining that Robert DeNiro was “caving in to industry pressure” in pulling the film. It’s not entirely clear what leverage the pharmaceutical industry had over DeNiro to enforce his compliance with their sinister plans, but I have to assume it involved threatening to melt the world’s gold supply or nuke the San Andreas fault and drop California into the ocean or something.
As sundiver@9 says, ex-MD fakewield’s earlier scam was a never-replicated link between MMR and Crohn’s disease, also published in The Lancet. For the later MMR–autism scam, he was paid by some lawyers whilst writing the infamous fraudulent paper eventually published (albeit later retracted) in The Lancet. He wanted to replace MMR with his own vaccine(s?). Fakewield seems to have always been in it “for the money”, and was found to have extremely poor ethical practices in addition to outright fraud.
The Guardian, as usual, has good coverage of this. Quoth:
By Monday, conspiracy theorist websites were portraying the decision to pull Vaxxed as an act of censorship perpetuated by the “vaccine mafia”. Wakefield and the film’s producer Del Bigtree put out a statement saying: “We have just witnessed yet another example of the power of corporate interests censoring free speech, art, and truth.”
So yeah, unfortunately the True Believers just see this as more evidence of the Vast Braindestroying Conspiracy of Big Pharma and the CDC. They are impervious.
did you mean;
The Guardian, How the scientific community united against Tribeca’s anti-vaccination film
Excellent, this strips out some html, try again without title:
did you mean;
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/29/tribeca-de-niro-anti-vaccination-film-scientists-response
I like “Disgraced Former Gastroenterologist And Researcher Andrew Wakefield, Known For A Fraudulent 1998 Paper Linking The Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) Vaccine With Autism” quite well. I feel no need to shorten it.
Orac has had some nice commentary on this event over the last week or so.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2016/03/29/tribeca-film-festival-wrap-up-andrew-wakefields-brilliance-and-spies-and-nazis-oh-my/