• Question: What do you think about Andrew Wakefield?

    Asked by CandeJT to Ben, Lizzie, Francis, Max, Sian on 7 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 7 Mar 2018:

      It has now been shown that Andrew Wakefield’s research was fraudulent, meaning that he made some of it up. This is absolutely against the ethics of both science and medicine and for that reason he was struck off the medical register. Many young children may not have received the correct vaccinations because of his work. It is always important to be honest when reporting data.

    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 7 Mar 2018:

      Like Ben said, what Andrew Wakefield did is absolutely shameful and goes against everything science should be. His actions have caused a lot of harm, to the children who weren’t or aren’t being vaccinated because of him but also because he damaged the trust that people had in science and scientists.
      It also cost a lot of time and money to finally prove that he had cheated, all of this could have been spent on actual science if he had behaved honestly from the beginning.

    • Photo: Lizzie Wright

      Lizzie Wright answered on 10 Mar 2018:

      Completely agree with the others. One person’s comments have taken an awful lot of research and communicating to change public opinion and improve health, even though his work has been shown to be fraudulent. We all should question what we hear in the media and communicate openly about topics like this.

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