By Donna Bowater, The Telegraph
Professor John Walker-Smith, who carried out research into the MMR vaccine with Dr Andrew Wakefield, has won a court battle against being struck off the medical register.
A High Court judge quashed the finding of professional misconduct against Professor Walker-Smith, who had carried out some of the tests for the controversial paper that suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Mr Justice Mitting also called for the reform of the General Medical Council’s disciplinary hearings after the lengthy battle by Professor Walker-Smith to clear his name.
The Wakefield paper prompted a nationwide scare over the safety of the jab after the study of 12 children was published in the medical journal The Lancet.
Both Dr Andrew Wakefield and Professor Walker-Smith were found guilty of professional misconduct over the way the research was conducted and were struck off the medical register in May 2010.
The GMC panel’s verdict followed 217 days of deliberation, making it the longest disciplinary case in the GMC’s 152-year history. In 2004, the Lancet announced a partial retraction, and 10 of the 13 authors disowned it.
Leave a Reply