The doctor whose study triggered a collapse in public confidence in the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine told a disciplinary panel last week that he made up details of his son’s birthday party—at which he took blood samples from several children—when giving a speech in California.

Andrew Wakefield was one of the authors of the 1998 Lancet paper on inflammatory bowel disease and autism. He is now facing a General Medical Council fitness to practise panel, accused of serious professional misconduct, alongside two other authors of the study, Simon Murch and John Walker-Smith.

Dr Wakefield’s comments at a press conference announcing the paper, where he linked the MMR vaccine to a risk of …