Libel threat delays UK publication of book on campaigns against vaccines

A new book from the United States about antivaccine campaigns will have its UK publication held up after a libel threat from Richard Barr, the solicitor who acted for children in the UK litigation over the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Basic Books, the book’s publisher, has agreed to remove a sentence suggesting that Mr Barr personally paid money to Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who hypothesised that the vaccine might cause autism, to carry out a study for the purpose of the MMR litigation.

In fact Dr Wakefield’s fees of £440 000 (€524 000; $714 000) …