The doctor who fooled the world Science, deception, and the war on vaccines

Brian Deer

Book - 2020

"Andrew Wakefield, a former British doctor, has been a leading proponent of the discredited view that vaccines cause autism. The discrediting of Wakefield and the anti-vax position he propelled is due largely to the work of Brian Deer, an investigative reporter from the United Kingdom. In this book Deer tells the story of how Wakefield fabricated research results for his Lancet paper, failed to disclose financial conflicts of interest, manipulated researchers and parents, and lied to the public"--Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
Baltimore, Maryland : Johns Hopkins University Press 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Brian Deer (author)
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
viii, 394 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781421438009
  • Prologue: Resurrection
  • Big Ideas
  • 1. The Guinness Moment
  • 2. It Must Be Measles
  • 3. Quests Collide
  • 4. The Pilot Study
  • 5. Child Four
  • 6. A Moral Issue
  • Secret Schemes
  • 7. Everybody Knows
  • 8. First Contact
  • 9. The Deal
  • 10. Trouble in the Labs
  • 11. Spartanburg Science
  • 12. Asked and Answered
  • 13. Turn of the Century
  • 14. On Capitol Hill
  • 15. Letting Go
  • 16. The Bridge
  • 17. Unblinded
  • Exposed
  • 18. Assignment
  • 19. Cracking the Coombe
  • 20. The Spoiler
  • 21. Texas
  • 22. Nothing As It Seems
  • 23. Sesame Street
  • 24. Enterocolitis
  • 25. We Can Reveal
  • 26. Cry Smear
  • 27. An Elaborate Fraud
  • Avenged
  • 28. Rock Bottom
  • 29. Payback Time
  • 30. Vaxxed
  • 31. Wakefield's World
  • 32. Cause and Affect
  • Epilogue: A Wonderful Doctor
  • Timeline
  • Note to Readers
  • Acknowledgments
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This riveting history of Andrew Wakefield's career as an advocate for the discredited link between the measles vaccine and autism serves as a stirring demonstration of the process and power of investigative journalism. Deer, a Sunday Times of London reporter, presents Wakefield as a charismatic but mediocre doctor and research head, "untroubled by conscience," as he conducted extensive, invasive testing of 12 children to create "bespoke evidence" for a lawyer ally's planned civil action against the vaccine's developers, and then misrepresented the data in his now-infamous 1998 paper in the British medical journal Lancet. Deer recounts uncovering Wakefield's deceptions thanks to testimony from disillusioned parents of study participants and guidance from more meticulous scientists. In large part due to Deer's articles, Wakefield lost a university position, saw his article retracted, and was accused by the British Medical Journal of fraud. However, Deer's final tone is less than triumphal, as Wakefield, despite his professional disgrace, found new celebrity with the nascent American antivaccine movement, presenting himself as an intellectual martyr on behalf of unpopular ideas. Readers who love a good debunking will find Deer's narrative logical, exciting, and enraging. Agent: Becky Sweren, Aevitas Creative. (May)

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