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Brian Deer
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Brian Deer, an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times, has become best known for his work on investigating issues around the MMR/autism controversy, specifically related to the work of the now-discredited doctor Andrew Wakefield. Deer's investigation into Wakefield[1] was instrumental in getting the UK's General Medical Council in 2007 to launch a formal inquiry into Wakefield, leading to them striking Wakefield from the medical register in 2010.
Deer's investigations revealed in 2004 that Wakefield's research that led to Wakefield's 1998 paper in The Lancet was funded by the Legal Aid Board as part of a civil suit and that a number of the children he studied were litigants in said suit.[2]
A 2004 television documentary led to Wakefield suing Deer for libel in the UK, a case which Wakefield later dropped. Articles Deer wrote for The BMJ in 2011 led to Wakefield suing Deer for libel in Texas in 2012. The judge dismissed this suit for lack of jurisdiction.
Deer has also investigated other medical controversies, including Vioxx
(rofecoxib).
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Popularised in The Doctor Who Fooled the World, Brian Deer (Scribe UK, 2020) ISBN 978-1911617808.
- ↑ Timeline: How the Andrew Wakefield MMR vaccine scare story spread, The Independent