Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Abstract

Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, found thirteen books referring to Andrew Wakefield's paper and the MMR vaccination 'crisis' on the shelves of his local bookshop.1 Now he adds a fourteenth. 2 This is an extraordinary quantity of material to have been generated by a single scientific paper, on just twelve cases, raising the 'possibility' of a link between MMR vaccine and a syndrome of bowel disease and developmental disorder in children.Of course it's not as simple as this.In the paper the authors state that they 'did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described'; however, at the press conference to mark its publication, Wakefield declared that there was a case for splitting the vaccine into its component parts, and so, to use Horton's analogy, 'lit the gunpowder trail that could not be extinguished'.That single fuse led to a series of explosions that had repercussions for politics, science, the medical establishment, the media and, almost incidentally, autism.As an anaesthetist by trade I can claim no expert knowledge but followed the debate from the start, and especially after the arrival of a first child.Horton's book is best in its description of the events surrounding the publication of the paper and the subsequent debate.He gives insight into the tensions affecting Wakefield, Wakefield's coauthors, other doctors at the Royal Free Hospital and Medical School and, of course, the Editor of The Lancet.A particularly intriguing element is the account of a five-hour presentation given earlier this year by the Sunday Times journalist Brian Deer, whose investigation it was that led to a partial retraction ('retraction of an interpretation') of the paper.The mysterious appearance of the Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris at this meeting in the offices of The Lancet indicates the extent to which the issue had become politicized.The sheer bitterness of the argument still surprises me.On the one side there is the pro-MMR camp; for instance, Evan Harris described the events at the Royal Free as 'outrageous', and there was talk of 'rubbing out' Wakefield.On the other side were such as Stephen Glover, a Daily Mail columnist, who denounced as 'assassins' those who questioned Wakefield's paper.Horton finds himself attacked from both directions.While Glover counts him among the assassins, Deer accuses him of indulging in 'readership-building controversy' and of having favoured Wakefield as 'an old Royal Free chum'.There is also the revelation that people had been trying to get hold of Horton's home telephone records, for what reason we (and he) will probably never know.