User:Desmonduk/Sandbox
Examples of Bias in Wikipedia: Vaccination
The Wikipedia article Vaxxed [1] purports to be a review of Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe, a 2016 American film alleging a cover-up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. In reality, this Wikipedia article is little more than a diatribe against Dr Andrew Wakefield.
The Wikipedia article describes Dr Wakefield as a "discredited anti-vaccine activist" but this is untrue. First, Dr Wakefield has said that he is not anti-vaccine. He is opposed to the MMR vaccine (a combination vaccine) but he is not opposed to the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines being given in separate doses.[1]
Secondly the label "discredited" is inaccurate. Dr Wakefield and his colleague, Professor John Walker-Smith, were brought up on misconduct charges before Britain's General Medical Council (GMC) because of alleged irregularities in the conduct of their research project. Walker-Smith and Wakefield were found guilty and were struck off the medical register.
Walker-Smith, who was backed by his insurance company, successfully appealed against the ruling. The judge said that the GMC's original ruling was based on "inadequate and superficial reasoning and, in a number of instances, a wrong conclusion". Unfortunately, Wakefield did not have backing from his insurance company so he was not able to appeal. If he had had backing, there is little doubt that he would have been cleared as well.[2]
