Epi 50 | Dr. Andrew Wakefield - VaxXed, Herd Immunity Myth and More!

Andrew Wakefield MB.BS., is an academic gastroenterologist. He received his medical degree from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London in 1981. He qualified as Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985 and trained as a gastrointestinal surgeon with a particular interest in inflammatory bowel disease. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Traveling Fellowship to study small-intestinal transplantation in Toronto. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in the U.K. in 2001. Wakefield has published over 140 original scientific papers, reviews, and book chapters.

In 1995, as an academic physician working in a London teaching hospital, he was contacted by the parent of an autistic child with stomach issues. He soon learned from several other parents with autistic behaviors, that their children’s regressive behavior immediately followed an MMR vaccine. He started investigating a possible role between gastrointestinal issues, the MMR vaccine, and neurological injury in children. In pursuit of this possible link, Dr. Wakefield participated in a study of twelve children with both stomach and developmental issues. The ensuing report, written with twelve other authors would catapult Wakefield into becoming one of the most controversial figures in the history of Medicine.

Wakefield has defended the paper, his medical and personal ethics and his findings in his national bestselling book, “Callous Disregard,” as well as in several video interviews.

More recently, on appeal, the English High Court overturned the allegations made against the senior authors of the Lancet paper and Wakefield’s colleague Professor John Walker-Smith was reinstated and exonerated.

Wakefield is the only one of the 13 co-authors barred from practicing medicine. He lost his country, his career, and his medical license. He considers these losses a small price to pay for the privilege of working with affected families.

Since moving to Austin, Texas, he co-founded the Autism Media Channel with Polly Tommey with the goal of countering the pharmaceutical marketing and advertising juggernaut and the biased corporate-owned media with their own media. Together they produced the award-winning documentary, “Who Killed Alex Spourdalkis?,” which was Wakefield’s directorial debut.

Wakefield continues to fight back on behalf of affected children, winning numerous awards and has released a second non-fiction book, Waging War on The Autistic Child. This is due to come out in paperback form Skyhorse Publishing with a brand new chapter on the CDC whistleblower story. Wakefield has interviewed with Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes, Matt Lauer at NBC, and on CNN, ABC’s Good Morning America, the BBC, and multiple other networks and radio stations worldwide. He has also published over 140 peer-reviewed scientific publications and spoken internationally on autism and vaccines. His story and his exoneration have been featured in Dr. David Lewis’ book Science for Sale and are the subjects of a feature documentary to be released by Miranda Bailey’s Ambush Entertainment

www.vaxxedthemovie.com