I was - for once; pleasantly surprised. Former doctor Andrew Wakefield being struck of by the GMC has attracted rather little media hoo haa. I at least expected a Jeremy Vine segment on the issue, it's the sort of thing he gets foisted on him - on his radio 2 talk show, with a defender there to stick up for him, but no. Not even Wakefields pal Peter Hitches had anything to say on his blog about it. Have they decided to leave him to it (and ignore their own role in the whole fiasco). Well no, Melenie Phillips has stuck by him with this small, vague on the ins and outs of the affair - blog entry. It's worth repeating in full. :
A TRAGEDY AND A TRAVESTY.
"Following the risible kangaroo court set up by the General Medical Council Andrew Wakefield, the doctor at the heart of the MMR controversy, has now been struck off the medical register while his colleagues have yet to learn their own fate. This is a tragedy and a travesty. I believe a monstrous injustice has been done here, which has crucified the one doctor who tried to alleviate and prevent the suffering of a particular group of children and which has also betrayed their parents. The full story of how this sinister travesty was accomplished and the full range of people who were complicit in it -- along with what it means for both medicine and public safety -- has yet to be revealed. Over time, I hope this will eventually be achieved."
A TRAGEDY AND A TRAVESTY.
"Following the risible kangaroo court set up by the General Medical Council Andrew Wakefield, the doctor at the heart of the MMR controversy, has now been struck off the medical register while his colleagues have yet to learn their own fate. This is a tragedy and a travesty. I believe a monstrous injustice has been done here, which has crucified the one doctor who tried to alleviate and prevent the suffering of a particular group of children and which has also betrayed their parents. The full story of how this sinister travesty was accomplished and the full range of people who were complicit in it -- along with what it means for both medicine and public safety -- has yet to be revealed. Over time, I hope this will eventually be achieved."
It has to be vague on the details, because claiming Wakefield was acting on "patient welfare" is like saying Richard Nixon was "safeguarding the democratic process" when Watergate broke out. I mean come on! Safeguarding children by giving them bowel exams they didn't need? [GMC outcome] Betraying Parents, because they wouldn't tell them what they wanted to hear, despite all evidence saying that it was not so? The last sentence about the "sinister travesty" is ironically circular in regards to her point. I (for once) agree with her that the people who were complicit in the whole affair, and the ones who put children at risk because it suited their story in effect got away with it. But where she points at the GMC, I point back at her and all the others who spawned this nonsense without a shred of evidence to back the scare up, and got away with it. So yeah let these people be revealed in the role they had in the whole debacle.
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