BMJ  2007;335:222 (4 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.39289.666157.BE

Letters

MMR scare stories

Some things are just too attractive to the media

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The Independent on Sunday in its take on the Andrew Wakefield General Medical Council (GMC) hearings fell back on finding a family wrecked by autism.1 2 The headline was a quote from a mother of two autistic children: "I wish the GMC could live a day in my life and see what I have seen." This is presumably a plea that the GMC should exonerate Wakefield.

Although the story made all the right noises about the lack of evidence for a link between MMR and autism, and listed the charges against Wakefield, all the emotion in the story was biased. In the centre of the page was a picture of Wakefield, and under it a quote from the story, "My motivation is the suffering of children I've seen and the determination of parents to find out why part of them has been destroyed." The best of motives do not excuse unethical . . . [Full text of this article]

Neville W Goodman, consultant anaesthetist

Southmead Hospital, Bristol BS10 5NB

Nev.W.Goodman@bris.ac.uk


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