Ten years since the recognition of the biggest fraud in the history of medicine

Ten years ago, the well-known scientific journal Lancet retracted a false study by the British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield from 1998, in which it was claimed that the measles vaccine causes autism. Despite the retraction, the study became a proclamation of "anti-vaccineism", so the already eradicated disease began to rampage again and it takes lives.

Experts call Wakefield's study - the most harmful work in the history of medicine. In explaining the withdrawal of the study, the Lancet editorial board announced that some elements of the research were inaccurate and contrary to earlier findings. Many scientists have tried to replicate the results of Wakefield's study, but without success.

The medical magazine British Medical Journal once announced that Wakefield's work received a lot of media attention with such a harmful potential for public health that it is difficult to find any comparison in the history of medical sciences, the SRNA agency reminds.

British investigative journalist Brian Deer once published a series of articles in the Sunday Times showing that Wakefield had benefited financially from his bogus study. He received 435.000 pounds for it from lawyers who, together with the parents of some children, were involved in the research and were preparing large lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers. In other words, the study was supposed to serve for lucrative damages from the pharmaceutical industry.

The paper was rejected, even 11 of the 13 original authors renounced it, and the British General Medical Council found Wakefield guilty of thirty counts, including "dishonesty" and "child abuse". His medical license was revoked in Great Britain, but he never gave up on his theses. He moved to the US and continued to propagate his ideas, which he turned into a lucrative business.