Andrew Wakefield. Tears Before Bedtime

Stars in Pink and Pearls

Andrew Wakefield and his family have appeared in the Daily Mail. The piece hails Andrew as some kind of MMR hero. The Daily Mail article can be read here. Essentially, what can be read here is a list of traumas suffered by a upper class family. "Suffering" is all relative.

Of course, none of them really know what junior doctors or senior doctors go through when they lose their job, their family and support from their friends. Andrew Wakefield though had all that. He has a cushy job in the US, large amounts of money and star status. While we are provided with this tale of woe, we are all supposed to consider Andrew some kind of leading hero or whistleblower. Some of us who have been harassed by the General Medical Council for decades are not given such a hero's welcome. Doctors without the star status of Andrew have to make it on their own through the quagmire laid down by the General Medical Council. Their suffering is of course overlooked. I doubt they fit into the "happy families" box.

The General Medical Council has spent millions on a hearing when a 3 day trial would have done. The more they have bashed on at Andrew Wakefield, the more of a hero he has become. Lay mothers everywhere want to make him the speaker of the truth. Wakefield should remember that he had such a conviction for the truth that he ran out of his own libel case. Of course, the MPS ran with him like the large hens they are.

This opportunist who presents the public with his tale of woe, is on £200,000 per year. The Times article exposed this some months ago.

"In 2006, only months before the Department of Health announced that he would face GMC charges, he sold his house in Kew, London, for just over £1 million and bought a retreat in an exclusive suburb of Austin for $905,000 (£629,000).

Dr Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, told The Times that he was not practising medicine in the United States, where he does not have a licence, but was working on research as executive director of the clinic. His salary is understood to be almost £200,000 a year"

Of course, for any opportunist, it is advantageous to create a tale of woe so he is catapulted into legendary status by the MMR campaigners. Wakefield becomes an evangelist and as we all know religions don't require evidence to make large amounts of money.

Anyhow, for all those who wish to read some evidence based material, please read Brian Deer's website.

Of course, the other man on trial is Martin Walker. Apparently, if we are to believe the gossip mongering in the medical profession, his girlfriend ran off with Finlay Scott [ Ex Chief Executive of the GMC] so there is a certain conflict of interest there. Apparently she may have married Finlay. We certainly know that Fin's wife is a doctor.

Of the GMC, we should say that this has been a complete and utter waste of time, money, energy, legal fees and publicity. I believe doctors would want their GMC subscription fees to be spent wisely. Although, I suspect these days, they often turn a blind eye to the extensive hemorrhages of money occurring at the GMC.

As for Wakefield, he can return to his £200,000 job as advisor and spin us further tales of his high class woes Of course, we know more doctors who have suffered far more at the hands of the General Medical Council. These doctors stories are silent because the media at large are not interested in the catastrophic constructive erasures conducted upon decent doctors working in the National Health Service.