And So the Spin Begins

Age of Autism has finally broken it's silence regarding the departure of Andrew Wakefield from Thoughtful House. Since Mark Blaxill and Carol Stott, the latter also quietly removed from Thoughtful House's research staff, couldn't procure the services of PR powerhouse Max Clifford, he had to settle for the bumbling, albeit puppy-dog loyal, Dan Olmstead. Here is Wakefield's 'exclusive' statement to AoA:

“There has been an extraordinary outpouring of support from the autism community in response to the events of the last two weeks”, Wakefield told Age of Autism in an exclusive interview. “The most exciting part of it has been the opening up of an entirely new sort of opportunity that will allow me to continue my work on behalf of autism families.” Wakefield said he would provide more specifics on the nature of that opportunity soon. “In addition, I will now speak publicly to refute the findings that have been made against me. I know my necessary silence on these issues has troubled many parents in both the U.K. and the U.S. But I’m ready now to get back on the front foot and publicly contest the false accusations that have been made against me, my colleagues, and indirectly The Lancet children. It’s been long overdue.”

I can only take that to mean that Wakefield will adopt the nom de plume of 'Dr. Andy' as notable celebretricians and all chiropractors do. And "The most exciting part of it has been the opening up of an entirely new sort of opportunity that will allow me to continue my work on behalf of autism families.” sounds like a segue to the announcement of, 'Dr. Andy is available for children's birthday parties; his specialities are magic tricks, balloon animals and venipuncture.'

Dan, you're a little late to the party as the news of Dr. Wakefield's departure from Thoughtful House was announced 18, February. You also forgot to mention the departure of Arthur Krigsman from Thoughtful House as well. I'm sure the spin which has been fed to you by Wakefield and, in turn passed on, serves as temporary morale boost for your readers. But make no mistake, Thoughtful House is cleaning house and Wakefield, Krigsman and Stott are liabilities. If they can't support them, notably Wakefield in light of the recent UK General Medical Council Ruling, the Lancet retraction of his 1998 paper and the subsequent withdrawn monkey study from Neurotoxicology, it certainly makes me wonder who could.

Wakefield is finished. There has been no conspiracy; his original publication was based upon atrocious ethics and conflicts of interest, highly-flawed science and fudged medical records. It doesn't get much worse than that. This man is no hero; he's nothing more than a predator.

Andrew Wakefield resigns from Thoughtful House!

Rumours had been going around since the early morning that Andrew Wakefield had resigned from his post as Director of Research at Thoughtful House. I have just had confirmation by email that he has indeed resigned. Note that this link www.thoughtfulhouse.org/staff/andrew-wakefield.php now leads to their home page and the statement of support recently posted after the GMC ruling has disappeared from their landing page. They issued the following statement today:

The needs of the children we serve must always come first. All of us at Thoughtful House are grateful to Dr. Wakefield for the valuable work he has done here. We fully support his decision to leave Thoughtful House in order to make sure that the controversy surrounding the recent findings of the General Medical Council does not interfere with the important work that our dedicated team of clinicians and researchers is doing on behalf of children with autism and their families. All of us at Thoughtful House continue to fight every day for the recovery of children with developmental disorders. We will continue to do our very best to accomplish our mission by combining the most up-to-date treatments and important clinical research that will help to shape the understanding of these conditions which are affecting an ever-increasing number of children worldwide.

Call me Cassandra - I had indeed foreseen that this would happen on this blog.

Further commentary on Respectful Insolence here and here, and on LeftBrainRightBrain - this was Strike 4 (after the GMC ruling, the retraction by The Lancet, and the retraction of the NeuroToxicology paper). Can I predict there is more to come (this may cause some fallout for Wakefield for example)?